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NSA Collected Americans' Phone Records Despite Law Change, Says Report (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. National Security Agency collected more than 151 million records of Americans' phone calls last year, even after Congress limited its ability to collect bulk phone records, according to an annual report issued on Tuesday by the top U.S. intelligence officer. The report from the office of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was the first measure of the effects of the 2015 USA Freedom Act, which limited the NSA to collecting phone records and contacts of people U.S. and allied intelligence agencies suspect may have ties to terrorism. It found that the NSA collected the 151 million records even though it had warrants from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court to spy on only 42 terrorism suspects in 2016, in addition to a handful identified the previous year. The report came as Congress faced a decision on whether to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which permits the NSA to collect foreign intelligence information on non-U.S. persons outside the United States, and is scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
They want to track us. We want to know about it. And so proceeds ad infinitum.
Despite the mounting evidence that the phone surveillance was in full force even last year, most of the news media will still pretend that those 151 million phone records couldn't possibly include Donald Trump or his associates. Obama allowed and expanded the surveillance despite promisingâ during his campaign to abolish it. It should be clearer than ever that Obama was indeed responsible for monitoring the phones of Trump and his associates.
Terrorists need to be well funded if they make that many phonecalls
If these actions helped just one child it is all worth it in my eyes.
It's not spying if it's done with automated means! It only becomes surveillance and spying if people compile a report of it with meanings attached. -- Your neighborhood friendly three letter agency
He was in charge. No repercussions. That's all you need to know.
If they are still doing this the whole agency should be brought up on charges including every individual working there.
Trump
Batshit crazy
Okay, three. I mean, five. Wait, uh, 10!
42 warrants, 151 million conversations collected. Maybe it's time to downsize NSA? When an agency operates outside of its legal scope it's receiving a much larger budget than necessary, is not operating with the public consent and it is therefore illegal. You can not do anything you want and attempt to hide under the guise of national security, cowards do that. I don't want to think of my government as being run by cowards. Those kind of numbers are not just alarming, they prove we are currently living in a West Germany style country. Mass surveillance is unacceptable in any democratic country that has any semblance of right and wrong. This kind of program is untenable and unacceptable for a democratic country.
the CIA has been breaking laws for quite some time. It will take a GIANT public stink before the CIA stops blatantly breaking laws in the name of well...whatever it wants to justify it's behavior with at the time. (Now it's "national security" back in the 50-60's it was "fighting communism"). When Kennedy tried to get the CIA on more government reins...well we know what happened to him.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
How many billions of Muslims are there in the World who hate America - much of it for our unwavering and unquestioning support of Israel - sending money to organizations that support their Muslim brothers?
Our decades of Real Politik is biting us in our asses. We will never know peace Again - ever. We have doomed this country to insecurity for the rest of its existance. We will slowly decline and under the weight of defense spending - while domestic programs like Social Security and Medicare get starved - and we will have to have taxes return to Eisenhower era levels.
There's no way an honest group of people like the NSA would ever do such a thing!
I tend to rant.
There was an undisclosed meeting in Trump tower in December. This was the one Kushner was questioned about. They were watching a known Russian FSB agent, Sergey Gorkov. This was one of the leaks to the press that upset Trump.
NSA spied on one Sergey Gorkov. He's head of a Russian bank, Vnesheconombank, and it was caught running spy rings in New York in early 2015. As a result spies were arrested, prosecuted the ones with diplomatic immunity were expelled.
This was not blanket surveillance, Russia was under sanctions, Sergey Gorkov is a trained FSB agent, a close ally of Putin's. FBI ran some stings on people he employed to find out what he was up to, they were offering lots of money for casino property deals in exchange for help getting sanction lifted. TRUMP WAS LIKELY ONE OF THESE, since a Casino deal in Russia was a long time wish. This project started in 2012, long before he ran for President BTW.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russian-spies-charges-idUSKBN0KZ29X20150126
"Monday's charges are linked to Buryakov's alleged covert work on behalf of Russia's foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, according to a criminal complaint....Buryakov, 39, masked this work by posing as a banker for Russia's Vnesheconombank..."
"...Prosecutors said the case was built on physical and electronic surveillance of dozens of meetings, including several in which Buryakov met with an FBI agent posing as a wealthy investor who hoped to develop casinos in Russia."
And of course the whiney sack of shit is involved and was likely involved:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russian-spies-charges-idUSKBN0KZ29X20150126
Sergey Gorkov visited Trump towers in December for a meeting. Jared Jushner says it was a meeting about Trump-Putin diplomacy. Sergey Gorkov says it was a business meeting about property loans (!).
You know, when you have a known spy and he's trying to do property deals for lifting sanctions, and he's smuggled into Trump towers and there's a company Chicago Unit Acquisition LLC, and it lends money tens/hundreds of millions $$$ to Trump, yet it claims no assets (not even the loan to Trump), and no income (not even interest payments), and no details of its loans can be found....Then you have a money laundering conduit that needs investigating.
It's not blanket surveillance to go look at that, its basic prudance.
When a trojan has taken over your system, the operating system is just a subsidiary. And hey, thanks to the last elections (the "anti system candidate", a billionaire, my ass), you just drove the nail a bit deeper. Sad.
"But Trump is lying when he says Obama was spying on him!"
- Said someone who hasn't heard of Edward Snowden
Things like this seriously undermine the credibility of anyone who claims that the US is still a 'nation under the rule of law'.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
If there are no repercussions for agencies that break laws then they will just continue breaking them. If you allow agencies to continue breaking laws then your government loses credibility. Governments without credibility are prone to upheaval and a loss of the rule of law.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Around a8e in need
And people will be going to prison for this in 3, 2, 1....
Shit. Let's try again. Like any other person violating the CFAA they will be held accountable in 3, 2, 1....
Shit, still nothing. How about violations of the 4th amendment? 3, 2, 1...
Nope.
Well, I guess that's that. they are truly above the law.
Nothing to worry about. They only skim ordinary peoples's emails, it's the Muslims they are concentrating on.
The whole point of the massive NSA datacenter in Utah is that they collect _everything_. The argument from the NSA and Federal Government was that they would only look at data where they had a warrant. Our argument back was that there is no way to ensure data is only viewed by warrant, especially when they were looking at ways of cataloguing data they could see, and trying to crack encryption on what they could not.
We were right, they were dishonest. Nothing new in terms of Government abusing power, and nobody should be surprised that the more we give them the more they abuse.
Since the hardware is already in place to copy all traffic to the NSA, law changes which impact collection of data would have to tackle that particular issue. Good luck with that. ISPs and Telecom providers get paid massive tax dollars to provide the service, so you know that they won't complain.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
This is what allows Susan Rice to "unmask" US citizens: using the power of the state against its citizenry.
The meeting, the one between the Russian spy and Trump and Kushner in Trump towers in December (see my comment below).
1. Kushner says it was Putin related diplomacy and Trump wasn't present.
2. Sergey Gorkov's spokemansky says it was related to funding for a property deal.
3. Trump says 'whaa whaa whaa, Obama tapped my phones in Trump Tower, whaa whaa whaa, it's like Nazi Germany whaa whaa whaa, I am such a victim whaa whaa whaa'.
Go back and re-examine his comment based on what has since been revealed about the meeting.
You can see from Trump's reaction to the surveillance, that he was there at that meeting, most likely a phone-in participant. He was frightened that the FBI listened in on that call.
What he got from his twitter attack:
1. He go reassurance that no warrant existed to spy on his phones in Trump tower, so no record likely exists of that call.
2. He labelled any information they leak as political, i.e. a pre-emptive attack should embarrasing details be revealed.
Anonymous Coward's complete lack of surprise.
How much jail time for the guys responsible? That's all I want to know. 1 yr per incident? That would be fine.
Assume 100 yrs per life and start at the top, arresting, trying and jailing everyone in the organization.
The NSA is clearly going to do whatever they feel like doing, laws be damned.
Congress needs to take a break from legislation and focus on enforcement for awhile. Then once the NSA is back to actually following the laws they pass, then get back to legislating. Until then, you're just wasting your time passing new laws. Don't renew their inch, they're just going to laugh at you and take another foot. If you're not going to hold them accountable, at least show them the "power of the purse" - cut their funding so they simply can't afford to keep breaking the law.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
If there was a law change. Then that means that mass surveilling people is a violation of the computer fraud and abuse act.
Go and arrest these guys, prosecute them, then put them in prison for 5 to 10 years.
Who the fuck said anything about illegal? Not Trump's tweet, not anyone else. The only illegal thing I've seen is Comey lying under oath to Congress.
So you have to literally MAKE UP what Trump claims and then prove what you said he claims is false?
You are an outright liar and not to be trusted. Your comments are defamation of character with intention to smear reputation. This is why people support Trump. He is so evil and horrible the ONLY things people can say about bad about him are easily proven lies.
Your mistress Hillary lost, get over it.
Records -- not content.
Smith v Maryland (1979) holds that phone call records, as "business records" provided to a third party, do not have an expectation of privacy and are not protected by the Fourth Amendment. In order for this to change, Congress needs to act, or SCOTUS will need to speak again on the matter -- the nature of which admittedly has changed in the ensuing 38 years.
Targeted collection of communications *content* of US Persons anywhere in the world requires an individualized warrant.
Additionally, there are over 1 trillion cell phone calls made in the US annually, which means this record collection represents 0.015% of total domestic wireless calls.
This issue and its handling is a lot more complex and nuanced than the contemporaneous articles would lead an observer to believe...
I have no doubt that some highly moral people join the NSA with the idea that they can be a good guy. Just like most cops join the force to protect and server their community, and most military people join to serve their country and protect our Constitution.
The immorality at the higher levels breaks the delusion,and people either conform to a morality they disagree with to maintain a job or they leave.
All absolutely normal human behavior, well documented, and full of historical references.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
He said "Obama had my wires tapped". That means Obama specifically ordered his communications to be monitored
No, it doesn't. It means Obama's administration ordered and carried it out. Wiretapping and chasing down warrants are not the job of POTUS -- but they are absolutely the jobs of people who directly work for POTUS. I am sure you know there are 100,000's of people working in the executive branch of government and every single one of them ultimately reports to POTUS.
I am honestly surprised that any reasonable person would think that Obama personally ordered the wiretap and personally installed it himself.....that....isn't...what Presidents do
Carter Page had a FISA warrant on him, from the FBI, which reports to Obama
Susan Rice, who's office was down the hall from Obama, admitted to spying on Trump transition
Michael Flynn's conversations were leaked to the press, OBVIOUSLY he was spied on.
Why do you keep lying? There is overwhelming evidence Obama's administration spied on Trump, even the woman in the office next door to him. The only question at this point was it outright illegal and who specifically ordered it. Seeing as Comey LIED under oath when questioned about it, I going to have to assume Obama ordered it himself and Comey was covering for him. Until I see evidence differently, and since they are REFUSING to comply with Congressional investigations, that is not likely to happen.
All you are accomplishing is convincing more people the left outright lie, like you are doing, and there is actually a cover up because of all the lying involved.
Can you find a section of the CFAA waiving sovereign immunity for agencies of the federal government engaged in activities covered under it in the course of their official duties? I sure can't.
There's an argument to be made that Clapper would be liable for civil damages individually under a Bivens action, or that at some point he could end up in jail for perjury or Contempt of Congress, but it ain't the CFAA that will put him there.
I saw a news article that the metadata included the trunk identifier for the call.
If so, why would that be useful except for gathering the call audio?
This totally wouldn't be happening if Hillary had been elected.
Sarcasm aside, I hope more and more people are starting to get that we're being screwed by both sides of the aisle.
Bleh.
It's much bigger than that.
This is only for the specified intel programs.
They didn't include the mil side intel.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
So let me get this straight. We know he was tapped and that people looked at it.
But you're saying that unless Obama signed an order to illegally wiretap him, it doesn't really count?
Sure, you were wiretapped, but it doesn't count! It was only metadata.
is prosecutions for breaking the law. You can't prosecute somebody if they didn't break the law. If you don't like it call your congress critter. While you're at it tell them to end the war in Iraq & Afghanistan. Finally, tell you you vote, vote in primaries, and if you don't hear that they've done what you told them you'll be voting against them in the primary. Congress folks don't care about the General, they've gerrymandered their districts so they'll always win. They're terrified of losing their primaries.
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Once again, nothing is going to change and it is going to be business as usually until these criminals start going to prison.
Unfortunately the "we promise not to peek" dishonesty passed these laws. It would take the Supreme Court ruling them unconstitutional, not new politicians. Indirectly a Presidential appointment does have impact, which is frankly why many people voted for Trump. A liberal justice who believes in a "living constitution" instead of what we are supposed to have tends to vote in favor of Government.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
They aren't afraid of any consequences?
There have been, and are, no consequences for their illegal betrayal of the entire country. They are only technically not committing treason group of them because they *are* the terrorists and not simply aiding and abetting an external group - to our knowledge at least.
But nothing happens.
None of them are in jail. None of them have seen their families executed for their heinous acts. None of them have been tried for myriad crimes they have knowingly and willingly committed in an abuse of power of a scale never before seen in history.
They've barely even had mentioned to them that what they did is bad and maybe if they're willing they could possibly-feel-bad-but-they-don't-have-to.
We can't stop them by simply letting them continue unpunished. We've already tried that. It only made things worse. Then we tried it again. It didn't work. And again. And again.
Punishment. It needs to fit the crime.
I'm not.