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NSA Spying Wins Another Rubber Stamp
schwit1 sends this report from the National Journal:
A federal court has again renewed an order allowing the National Security Agency to continue its bulk collection of Americans' phone records, a decision that comes more than a year after President Obama pledged to end the controversial program. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved this week a government request to keep the NSA's mass surveillance of U.S. phone metadata operating until June 1, coinciding with when the legal authority for the program is set to expire in Congress. The extension is the fifth of its kind since Obama said he would effectively end the Snowden-exposed program as it currently exists during a major policy speech in January 2014. Obama and senior administration officials have repeatedly insisted that they will not act alone to end the program without Congress.
It's worth remember at this stage, that PRISM, NSA's bulk mass collection program is a list of company NAMES, not software products or databases:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%29#mediaviewer/File:Prism_slide_5.jpg
So it is not a hack of Microsoft or Google, and it is not that 'MSN Messager' was decrypted, it lists COMPANIES, it is Microsoft not a product within Microsoft.
So you need to realize that these companies provide data feeds to the NSA for their customers, not limited to terrorists or suspicion, bulk data feeds to fill up Utah and the other 5 mega data centers they're building.
And it only covers the data feeds up to 2012 when Apple was added. After that there's been a massive increase in the surveillance, courtesy of Android.
All those permissions you have those messaging apps, your financial stuff, your taxi/ride-sharing app that tracks your every move, all that crapware installed on Android that gets all the rights it can and takes all the data it can.
It's far beyond the meta data on the telephone calls. That wouldn't even fill the tiniest corner of one of those data centers.
More than a year's worth of efforts to reform the NSA stalled last year, as the Senate came two votes short of advancing the USA Freedom Act in November. The measure failed to overcome a filibuster by Republicans, many of whom warned any limitation imposed on the NSA could bolster terrorist groups like the Islamic State.
The Islamic State is not a threat is you or me. And never has been.
The peoples of the Middle East are more than capable of handling them (we sold them the weapons!) and in the Post's article
It has become the consensus view in Washington that the militants are poised to bulldoze through America’s Middle East allies, destabilize global oil supplies and attack the U.S. homeland.
is total bullshit. The IS WISHES they were that powerful.
All we the USA are doing is fucking things up more and are the recruiting arm for the IS.
Goddamn! Washington is stupid! And everyone who believes the ignorant TV and radio pundits who are making such a big deal out of this.
Is there are reason that we haven't heard about the Clinton's FBI's Carnivore (or descendants of carnivore) lately?
Don't get me wrong. I'm glad we're hearing about Obama's continuation of Bush's domestic spying. But just wondering why we aren't hearing about Obama continuing Clinton's domestic spying.
But when he's using the NSA to spy on you, he blames Congress.
"using the NSA" ?!?
I doubt anyone is "using" the NSA @ this point. Other than as a source of info - for those who have access.
More like the NSA is an 'entity' that operates on its own. With money flowing in from a variety of sources, some government, some non-government, some legit, some non-legit. Doing whatever it's doing without much oversight, possibly continuing to do some things even if declared illegal by a court of law.
I assume there's some people in that organisation that take orders from the US president directly, other employees may get note of what the US president wants & to some degree try to make that happen. But overall? A big-ass train that keeps on steaming ahead in whatever direction(s) it's going.
Of course the proper response would be to cut funding, bring people doing illegal things to justice, and strengthen oversight until the NSA does answer to those authorities it's supposed to take orders from. Fat chance that's going to happen in a climate where the "War on terrorists! War on drugs! Think of the children!" fire is burning strong. :-(
... it's that there are not a WHOLE lot more Mannings and Snowdens.
Leak that shit both from the US and UK.
Secrets are a bitch when 1.) you get caught with one and 2.) it's no longer a secret.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.