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Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy For the FBI To Spy On Journalists (theintercept.com)
schwit1 shares with us a report on a 11-part series led by The Intercept reporter Cora Currier: Secret FBI rules allow agents to obtain journalists' phone records with approval from two internal officials -- far less oversight than under normal judicial procedures. The classified rules dating from 2013, govern the FBI's use of national security letters, which allow the bureau to obtain information about journalists' calls without going to a judge or informing the news organization being targeted. They have previously been released only in heavily redacted form. Media advocates said the documents show that the FBI imposes few constraints on itself when it bypasses the requirement to go to court and obtain subpoenas or search warrants before accessing journalists' information. The rules stipulate that obtaining a journalist's records with a national security letter requires the signoff of the FBI's general counsel and the executive assistant director of the bureau's National Security Branch, in addition to the regular chain of approval. Generally speaking, there are a variety of FBI officials, including the agents in charge of field offices, who can sign off that an NSL is "relevant" to a national security investigation. There is an extra step under the rules if the NSL targets a journalist in order "to identify confidential news media sources." In that case, the general counsel and the executive assistant director must first consult with the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's National Security Division. But if the NSL is trying to identify a leaker by targeting the records of the potential source, and not the journalist, the Justice Department doesn't need to be involved. The guidelines also specify that the extra oversight layers do not apply if the journalist is believed to be a spy or is part of a news organization "associated with a foreign intelligence service" or "otherwise acting on behalf of a foreign power." Unless, again, the purpose is to identify a leak, in which case the general counsel and executive assistant director must approve the request.
Yet they force us to play.
make everything easy.
The rules aren't what makes it easy; the rules are used to justify it. The fact that "call records" are a thing that someone else stores for you, is what makes it easy.
A modernized phone system would lack the capacity for anyone to be able to do this, regardless of any rules.
They're wrong regardless of who's President.
And that's entirely the point, and why you should be against this kind of thing regardless if you're on the left or right. You can't guarantee who comes next isn't someone you won't want to trust with that kind of unchecked and intrusive ability to spy on us all.
If you're not a cop, you have no rights.
So who do we blame?
The voters, of course. They're letting, no, demanding this and more.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Trump used the time machine hidden on Putin's secret moon base to go back in time and convince Obama to empower the FBI with this power. Evil Trump, again!
Because we all know that the Obama administration was The Most Transparent and Most Open and Most All Good Things ever, ever in history, ever. And that Hillary Clinton was a big fan and was going to continue his policies. Except for Trump's secret time travel leverage. Evil Trump!
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
yes.... let the hate flow though you
NSL's have more fuckery involved than just journalists. This isn't new, and many have been speaking up for a long time. Everyone needs to respect the bill of rights and constitution. I know some here enjoy bashing the second as well as being advocates of the 4th, but all need to be respected regardless of which American football team you pull for. NSL's should be illegal. Put your Obama and Trump bashing aside and unite for a common goal.
They are not really journalists. Now if they were objective truth seekers and reported the honest, unbiased facts then I would be really upset!
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
How exactly to they decide what news organizations are considered...well, news organizations, and by extension which people are considered journalists? Because if they set the bar low enough, then this is basically everyone. For example, by commenting on /. (a site that claims to provide news), am I contributing to the reporting of the news and therefore considered a journalist? What about someone with a blog, in which they report news about their own life or a topic of interest? For that matter, if facebook is a news site...
The potential for overreach seems laughably high with this policy, even by US domestic spying standards.
Assuming you're one of the class of "voters", do you recall when you approved of this? I don't think I do. Does the fact that they were classified so the public can't see them mean anything to you? Click on the "heavily redacted form" link in TFA if you haven't already. Does that look like an agency that's interested in coming clean to the public about what they're doing?
You can blame "voters" all you want, but in the interest of being fair about this, consider exactly how much effort has gone into keeping the voters ignorant of what's going on.
They know what's going on. And those who vote democrat or republican want more.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Burner phones. Duh.
It's long past the point where 'they' can ever be trusted. Journalists anywhere near controversy use burners, as they should.
BTW Thanks Ed, I was getting sick of being called paranoid.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Am I oblivious to the US Constitution? How can you have "secret rules", not approved/ratified/signed/passed/whatever in and by a public law.making body such as the upper house, the lower house, an executive order (am I missing something here?)? Aren't all these supposed to publicize new laws to those that vote? So people actually know what the guys they voted for are doing, and, you know, actually know if they are following the "most recent law"?
Because the way I see this, when you have ad hoc "secret rules" applied by justice or intelligence bodies, that is the definition of abuse of power (or spying, which is basically "abuse of power" for non-judicial purposes). One thing is to know there are gag orders put in place to companies - those gags were approved publicly, so the people basically "know companies might or might not be screwing with your privacy rights", but such a thing as "secret rules" would turn that to "every government executive body or law enforcement might or might not be screwing with your _rights_" (as in "all rights", that's how broad it becomes).
The existence of such rules mean, in essence, there can be rules like, for instance "allowing your or your entire family's execution because you ate a pretzel this morning without giving tip and a police officer didn't like it"; or milder, yet stupider things like "ban you from Netflix because you watch too much foreign movies". It gets that stupid.
Well, thank you, Donald J. Trump!!! Oh, wait...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
A force that used its powers to target journalists' phones has been told off by the UK regulator on the issue.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk...
The reality is rather more complicated than your feeble attempt at a joke might suggest. Not really blaming you. I wanted to think of some humorous aspect of the entire situation and came up drier than your attempted witticism.
President Obama inherited a mess. The roots of the problem go back way before 2013, 2008, or even 2000. The entire governmental system has become hopelessly distorted by partisan politics. The founders hated political parties and understood the risks of putting party ahead of country. They probably would have outlawed political parties if they could have figured out any way to prevent the leopard from changing its spots, but at least they tried to isolate the sickness and keep it out of the judicial branch. Most prominently, that's why federal judges were appointed for life.
A lot of people would point at Bush v Gore as the breaking point, but I actually think that was just the harvest. The seeds were planted decades before. Maybe Ike deserves the negative credit for trying to defuse two of his political adversaries by putting them on the Court? Or FDR for his attempts to pack the Court, though at least he failed in his bum's rush approach and had to wait for time to do its little ravaging act? Or maybe we should just jump all the way back to Marbury v Madison and President John Adams?
Anyway, at this point I think whatever Obama did badly, #PresidentTweety is about to do worse.
Nobody expects the Email Inquisition.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Keep it up, nominate a full tilt red in 4 years. Guarantee another 1461.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
That's just it. Most people aren't against 'this kind of thing'. Not the ones who vote anyway. Over 98% give their full consent every two years.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I'd say it's unfair to characterize it that way. No voter agrees 100% with a candidate on every single issue or position (except the candidate themselves). We're forced to make tradeoffs, and it's made worse by the use of the winner take all/first past the post system in the USA. Sure, I don't want a lizard in office, but by the time the general election comes around and it's down to a choice between two lizards or protesting and getting no choice in which lizard it is, it's not irrational to vote for the lizard you think is less likely to want to eat your children.
That said, we'd be less likely to see lizards on the final ballot if more people were vocal about agitating for these things, and got active in helping primary opponents who make an issue of this. Career politicians are not completely dumb, and they can be taught, especially if they're scared witless they're next. Take a few scalps and many others will fall in line to avoid losing to a primary opponent. It would be great if there were other routes too, but in the current setup it's just not realistic for a third party to emerge as a real force unless one of the two existing parties has already begun to completely implode. The parties have been significantly changed from within far more times in US history than they have been actively supplanted by a rising third party (once). This is why Sanders was smart to run as he did - even in losing, he pushed the Democratic party closer to the issues he cared about, and now others can continue that work.
Other than a bit of role reversal the parties have not changed at all. And there is no hope as long as they continue to be rewarded with votes. Any and all change will have to come from the voters.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy For the FBI To Spy On Journalists"
If the rules are "secret", there are no rules.
Headline should be: "FBI Now Able To Do Whatever The Fuck They Want In Order To Spy On Journalists"
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
It's his fault because as we know, Trump doesn't exactly like the NSA, CIA and FBI - he's said he plans to cut their budget and their power - they've lent credence The Onion type stories about him, he's called their competence into question.
Because Trump doesn't like them and intends to cut their budget, they'll have less ability to engage in mass surveillance. Therefore - oh sorry, gotta run, but I'm sure you can see where this is going, how it's Trump's fault. Obama wouldn't have allowed his agencies to do that if Trump wasn't going to piss them off later.
Are we not ALL citizens entitled to the same constitutional protections of our inalienable rights? Why the heck is it special for journalists and why are we not all equal under the law?
Re 'Journalists anywhere near controversy"
Voice prints will cover for that. Also tracking of all US gov workers, contractors work and home cell phones and their intention with any US journalists.
Any voice talks, meetings with a US journalist known to publish new material about the intelligence community will be under constant watch.
An older program called First Fruits would track all US reporters and journalists for any new mention of any NSA work.
If a story was been created or researched online using new NSA terms not yet public the NSA would get some ability to find the journalist and their contact. Before or just at publication. Having a cell phone on when meeting a contact is not a good idea. Reading new whistleblower material and searching for terms/projects not yet in the wild is not a good idea.
Talking to US gov/mil contracts as a journalist on any cell phone is not a good idea. Voice prints will track every conversation over any new device.
The other neat part is voice print tech is now down to a city, state police budget. City and state IMSI catchers don't just log number called, location and time. Many now have a voice collection ability. The voice capture is not for listening in, automated voice prints is the new upgrade.
Federally, state and city wide any interesting city, state or national journalists voice print can be tracked. That then finds their city, state, federal gov/mil contacts.
Given the number of active, well funded US journalists publishing on gov/mil matters its not a huge tracking budget to hide.
Keep that phone at home, or give it to a friend when meeting a contact. Mapping two phones next to each other in a park or cafe for 10 mins is great for finding the other party to any meeting. Then make the mic live.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Go back to the 1950's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
".. involved the accumulation of all telegraphic data entering into or exiting from the United States."
".. Intercepted messages were disseminated to the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), and the Department of Defense"
Operation CHAOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Thank you, Mr. President, for restoring civil liberties, privacy, and the rule of law, like you promised! It's why we voted for you!
And we will remain as faithful to your party as you have been to us, the people!
Obama firmly promised to stand up to this, and obviously he lied. Hillary must have been in on it as well.
And the voters did the right thing and kicked these jerks out of office.
Home of secret law, land of safe cowards.
How much voice printing do you think they can do with phone quality sound?
They would have to install a local app to print the local higher quality sound samples and get you to repeat test phrases. Even then false positives would be huge problem for them. To say nothing of the increased odds of being caught out, having so many apps on so many phones.
Which is a good argument for using feature phones as burners and changing them more often than underwear.
Fundamentally, secrets are better kept offline though. I'd agree that not carrying the phone to IRL meetings is smart.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Think back to "Superspy in the sky could soon be patrolling over British cities to search for hidden terror cells"(April 2010)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
"The aircraft are able to identify suspects using 'voice-prints' "
e.g. telephone traffic today can be matched to any voice on a TV interview many years ago.
Quality is never an issue, just that the voice was captured and is in use again.
The raw collection cost is low given well understood cell phone encryption.
Speech Recognition is NSA’s Best-Kept Open Secret (May 11 2015)
https://theintercept.com/2015/...
The spoken words get transcribed, any interesting terms found. A voice print is kept to find the same person again on any voice network globally and all their connected friends of friends (3 hops).
The only change is the new low cost contractor/private sector support. A city or state (with federal funding) can now add that voice print collection to their cell tower collection systems.
The real key is getting the voice print of the person the journalist talked to. Live mic from the journalist own phone or their contact had a phone on them they used later.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The press in general pretty much abdicated it's job for the past 8 years.
8 years? Where were they when Bush and his flunkies were going around uttering the words Iraq and terrorism in the same sentence?
The point really is the press is part of the problem BECAUSE they've picked sides.
If the problem was really they have picked sides it would still leave a halfway useful result.
My personal view the time machine thing in Tomorrowland is a fitting analogy of the press. Not only are they stupid, lazy and bias they persistently deliberately seek to amplify negative energy, stoke controversy and fear for no reason other than self-enrichment. They have essentially devolved into a band of professional trolls.
What I especially love are polls routinely reported on showing what everyone thinks about "terrorism" and shit... gee golly gosh with 24x7x365 coverage of terror this and terror that where on earth would anyone get such ideas? They seem to be actively trying to close their own feedback loops.
You know those clips where folk like Mr. O says what he is "really" thinking...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
When I notice CNN folk use phrase "so we can see how we are doing" when referring to polls... I want to believe it's not intentional... I really do.
AC my guess that was mostly done back in the day to prevent UK telco workers from finding new software to hardware on their networks and asking questions again.
The UK was not going to have a Room 641A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... or Greek wiretapping case 2004–05 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...–05
Any telco worker could have gone to the press about strange hardware. Vetted UK telco staff with deep links back to their own nations, embassies, faiths, cults, press/police contacts would have also noted the upgrades and could have passed on details. So it was better to keep network collection well away from everyone and just collect 24/7.
The other good part about controlling the collection is less possibility for a SISMI-Telecom scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... event with the networks been used for other missions by "other" random security/agency teams and then getting discovered.
Also the kit would have been provided per aircraft and not too many would ask questions about normal flights. So the UK had a few reasons to use or keep using that method until the legal system and telcos had to accept collection.
With new UK law changes, expect all the same methods to be part of every UK/Irish telco network.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
There was a very funny case near me not long ago of a drug dealer caught using a "burner" phone.
It turns out that it's a bad idea to set up a drug deal by phone have your main phone, with an account in your own name, turned on and in your pocket at the same time as you are standing alone in the middle of a large otherwise deserted park using that "burner" phone.
The location records from the phone in his name matched the "burner" with no other people around to provide any doubt.
Sorry to reply to you again, but phone quality sound is now extremely high quality compared with the stuff that was being analysed a couple of decades back when the field was relatively new.
encrypted drop boxes for setting up contacts with sources...
really weird when you have to use spycraft to protect your sources from your own government agencies...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
war in Lybia
war in Syria
war in Ukrain
Well done, had she become president, she would have blown up the whole world, with the American people lured into the war by CNN.
A nice couple indeed...
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
There is a certain level of incompetence or willful malice in the use of NSL and secret rules. Even if you are in the FBI and you don't have a moral objection to spying on everyone without a warrant you must know that this behaviour is going to drive people to use end-to-end encryption and anonymizing networks. Many journalists are already doing this, soon most email will be end-to-end encrypted. Thank you NSA and FBI for ruining future law enforcement's ability to collect evidence.
Who cares about ISIS...
'The Trump' is trying to bring the inflow of all kinds of uncontrollable people back under control in order to prevent ISIS-members to even enter the country.
If his rule had been in place previously, 9/11 likely even wouldn't have happened.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Technically, all the intel agencies, including the mil ones, can access and hack any email you have older than 180 days and any social media posts on any platform.
Welcome to East Germany.
Grats, dudes!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Z^1
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.