NEW NSA Mass Phone Record Project

[PedroDaGr8]

According to the Guardian, the NSA got a secret FISA court order forcing Verizon to turn over ALL of its phone records over a 2 mo time. Additionally, the order prevents anyone from talking about it. The four-page order, which The Guardian published on its website, requires the communications giant to turn over "originating and terminating" telephone numbers as well as the location, time and duration of the calls.

The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson, compels Verizon to produce to the NSA electronic copies of "all call detail records or 'telephony metadata' created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls".

"It's a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents," Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal director, said.

"It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies."

Oh yeah and the FBI has access to them too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order

[dan_bgblue]

I applaud their activities to track down terrorist activities before they happen, but this information proves that we are currently willing to give up some privacy rights in hopes of being protected from random terrorist activities.

Maybe that is the price we must pay for not bombing the bastards back to the stone age.

[CitizenBBN]

Boy howdy is this blowing up today. Even the NYT Editorial Board has now turned on Obama over this release.

I liked this line from a Fox story:

One supposes that Eric Holder’s plumbers wish they could charge the guys and gals at the Guardian with something today. They’re not likely, though, to find a judge in London so obliging as the one in Washington who let them hack James Rosen’s Gmail.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/06/libertarians-to-obama-can-hear-me-now/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2VTqbyOHJ

[CitizenBBN]

It's not just Verizon, as if any of us were that naive. This article talks about their access to Facebook, Google, Youtube, etc.:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/06/intelligence-officials-reportedly-mining-data-from-us-internet-companies/

[dan_bgblue]

Guess I need to quit messing around talking about blowing stuff up and putting a small rocket propelled explosive package thru the front door of the NCAA on the forums. Geez, I guy can't have a bit of fun anymore.

[Catonahottinroof]

It's amusing that the leaks on these polices is being published in the British press and then the follow ups appear in US newsprint.
It seems leakers dont trust the domestic press to air the details.

[CitizenBBN]

It's amusing that the leaks on these polices is being published in the British press and then the follow ups appear in US newsprint.
It seems leakers dont trust the domestic press to air the details.

The US press is subject to prosecution by the Administration, and you don't have to put on your tinfoil hat to see exactly why the foreign press got this story first. The trial of the wikilinks guy starts today, a Fox News reporter was named a co-conspirator, more government informants have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917 by this Administration than all other Administrations combined, multiple reports of whistleblower and employee intimidation. The White House is intentionally and systematically trying to have a chilling impact on government leaks about what they are doing.

Now do I think they're ready to send their armies into the streets? No, I don't think we're there, but it's beyond obvious this Administration is doing everything possible to shut down any media reporting of anything anti-Administration, and they are using mechanisms considered unacceptable since the expiration of the Alien and Sedition Acts. They are using the Espionage Act, which like the Alien and Sedition Acts was driven by wartime, but they are using it in peace time to prosecute people for what has been heretofore normal releases of information to the press.

I have always been deeply troubled by the view of America that underlies Obama's view and ideology, but I am FAR more troubled by their turn to this level of government invasiveness and repression of the press. I expected free cell phones and massive increases in the government dole, but systematic data mining of the entire US population and using criminal prosecutions to prevent a free press are beyond disconcerting or depressing. They're an outright threat.

[Catonahottinroof]

I'd still expect a domestic reporter to challenge, and even dare the administration to prosecute him.
I suspect if Nixon had electronic surveillance this administration has, Woodward may not have thought twice about airing that dirty laundry.

[CitizenBBN]

I hope so and I suspect these attacks on the media will be Obama's undoing. The national media has been keeping him protected like the Swiss Guard. If they start treating him like they do most any other politician he's in big trouble, and they may do it now that he's turned on them with his tactics.

[CitizenBBN]

Of course Obama's solution: investigate and prosecute those who let the nation know their civil liberties have been gravely compromised.

We Mirandize terrorists but spy on innocent Americans and try to jail those who have the guts to let us know they're doing it.

[bigsky]

So I'm gonna put this to you all very straight. You want big government, that takes care of you? Then you get big government that watches over you too. Nanny state government IS big brother government.

Freedom is protected by keeping government small, and its powers limited.

Food stamps and Verizon tapping are just part of the same disease.

[CitizenBBN]

So I'm gonna put this to you all very straight. You want big government, that takes care of you? Then you get big government that watches over you too. Nanny state government IS big brother government.

Freedom is protected by keeping government small, and its powers limited.

Food stamps and Verizon tapping are just part of the same disease.
So very this. Very well said.

[Catonahottinroof]

Ironic that Edward Snowden is hiding China where Internet surveillance and Internet piracy are off the chain.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/intelligence-leaders-push-back-on-leakers-media/2013/06/09/fff80160-d122-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html

[CitizenBBN]

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore also hopped on the bandwagon, tweeting “the administration has now lost all credibility” while spotlighting a 2007 Obama quote: “that means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more (spying) on citizens... No more tracking citizens..."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/06/11/hollywood-stars-turn-on-obama-over-nsa-phone-tapping-scandal/#ixzz2W0abvTXt

At least he's standing on his beliefs and not doing like Bill Maher and saying it's OK to do all the stuff Bush did that I decried b/c I trust Obama. lol. You know you know almost nothing about the nature of government and the rule of law when you change your view on a governmental activity just b/c of who won the election.

Yet another of Obama's long list of promises he clearly didn't have any intention of living up to. Say anything to win.

[Doc]

I read this the other day and it made me chuckle. To paraphrase

Obama's America: Where one has the right to privacy when getting an abortion but not when making a phone call or sending an E-mail

[CitizenBBN]

Obama's America: Where Taliban fighters must have a fair public civilian trial b/c military tribunals are a violation of their civil rights, but 300 million Americans can have their civil rights determined by a secret court where the members, cases, and decisions are secret and letting Americans even know they were on trial comes with decades in jail.

[bigsky]

Obama's America: Where Taliban fighters must have a fair public civilian trial b/c military tribunals are a violation of their civil rights, but 300 million Americans can have their civil rights determined by a secret court where the members, cases, and decisions are secret and letting Americans even know they were on trial comes with decades in jail.

Or just an executive order with plausible deniability that comes out years later.

[dan_bgblue]

Congress plans to reign in the NSA? (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/17/nsa-phone-program-will-expire-next-year-patriot-ac/)

[UKHistory]

Woodward would have had a tragic accident on the Key Bridege late one night when his brakes just stopped working.

Knowlegde is power. Access to this information and the way in which businesses and government can use that information to develop profiles of people is horrifying.

Forces are afoot in this country on both sides of the political spectrum that chip away at our liberty. Freedom has to be earned, protected and fought for. No government allows its people to be free or exercise its liberty without some level of struggle.


I'd still expect a domestic reporter to challenge, and even dare the administration to prosecute him.
I suspect if Nixon had electronic surveillance this administration has, Woodward may not have thought twice about airing that dirty laundry.