NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily

[Locutus]

Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama

• Read the Verizon court order in full here


The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.


more


Verizon court order: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily | World news | The Guardian

The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) | Threat Level | Wired.com

 

[Highball]

Welcome to Americky, the land of the constantly observed. 4G or 5G? They have photos of you and your home on file too plus a few recording for future use. Isn't the emerging electronics data industry wonderful?

 

[petros]

This has been going for a decade but was labelled as a "conspiracy theory".

 

[Locutus]

Re: AP uncovers a newer, bigger Obama scandal

NY Times Turns On Obama Over NSA Phone Records Scandal: “The Administration Has Now Lost All Credibility”…



Takes a lot to get the New York Times to criticize Obama.
President Obama’s Dragnet — NY Times

Within hours of the disclosure that the federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every time President Obama has been caught overreaching in the use of his powers: Terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us to deal with them because we have internal mechanisms (that we are not going to tell you about) to make sure we do not violate your rights.

Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability. The administration has now lost all credibility. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.

Based on an article in The Guardian published Wednesday night, we now know the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency used the Patriot Act to obtain a secret warrant to compel Verizon’s business services division to turn over data on every single call that went through its system. We know that this particular order was a routine extension of surveillance that has been going on for years, and it seems very likely that it extends beyond Verizon’s business division. There is every reason to believe the federal government has been collecting every bit of information about every American’s phone calls except the words actually exchanged in those calls.

A senior administration official quoted in The Times offered the lame observation that the information does not include the name of any caller, as though there would be the slightest difficulty in matching numbers to names. He said the information “has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats,” because it allows the government “to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States.”

That is a vital goal, but how is it served by collecting everyone’s call data? The government can easily collect phone records (including the actual content of those calls) on “known or suspected terrorists” without logging every call made. In fact, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was expanded in 2008 for that very purpose. Essentially, the administration is saying that without any individual suspicion of wrongdoing, the government is allowed to know who Americans are calling every time they make a phone call, for how long they talk and from where.

This sort of tracking can reveal a lot of personal and intimate information about an individual. To casually permit this surveillance — with the American public having no idea that the executive branch is now exercising this power — fundamentally shifts power between the individual and the state, and repudiates constitutional principles governing search, seizure and privacy.

Keep reading…


NY Times Turns On Obama Over NSA Phone Records Scandal: “The Administration Has Now Lost All Credibility”… | Weasel Zippers


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-dragnet.html?_r=0

​

 

[Highball]

I think this is really how Congressman Wiener got caught. But what crime is there in the title, "It should a been a girl?" Teeney Weeney is just a nickname. Now many of you are on some form of recording.

 

[L Gilbert]

Doesn't seem to be top secret any more.

I wanna massacre the NSA. Not any of the rest of America, just the NSA. Oh, fer pete sakes, I forgot I'm a Canuck in Canada so the NSA probly aren't paying me any attention. Well, there goes my chances of getting their knickers in a knot. :/

 

[Cliffy]

Doesn't seem to be top secret any more.

I wanna massacre the NSA. Not any of the rest of America, just the NSA. Oh, fer pete sakes, I forgot I'm a Canuck in Canada so the NSA probly aren't paying me any attention. Well, there goes my chances of getting their knickers in a knot. :/

Or not! We are, after all, the source country of terrorist infiltrating the US. They probably have your number too. The Kootenays are a hot bed of radicalism, after all.

 

[Locutus]

Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge



The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.

The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley.


more


U.S. intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program - The Washington Post






PRISM Companies Start Denying Knowledge of the NSA Data Collection



As the NSA surveillance story goes from bad to worse to Philip K. ****, some of the Silicon Valley companies implicated in the so-called "PRISM" program are denying that they've ever heard of it.

PRISM, as you probably heard by now, lets the FBI access the central servers of several major companies — Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, Google, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, and YouTube. From there, they can pretty much look at anything they want, including emails, photos, audio (including voice-chats), and video. Within hours of the astonishing Washington Post scoop, the named companies began releasing statements saying that the PRISM program was news to them, too:

more fun


PRISM Companies Start Denying Knowledge of the NSA Data Collection - Abby Ohlheiser - The Atlantic Wire

 

[B00Mer]

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

"The most fundamental purpose of government is to protect the people; anything the government does in pursuit of this is proper."
--Thomas Jefferson

 

[tay]

And is seems most everyone in Congress is okay with this.

Obummer seemed like he would end the Bush era secret stuff but the Patriot Act to Protect you Patriots, is alive and well.

But they didn't pickup on the Boston Bombers but maybe they didn't talk about it over the phone or via email.

Obummer has spent too much time with Bill Clinton and become a Republican in sheeps clothing.

I guess they have to know your every thought via data mining and move via drones to keep you 'free'..............

“This is nothing particularly new," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). "This has been going on for seven years under the auspices of the FISA authority, and every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this.”

“It’s called protecting America," added Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

<a href="http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/boehner-declines-to-explain-why-nsa-phone-tracking" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boehner Declines To Explain Why NSA Phone Tracking Is Necessary | TPM LiveWire

House Vote 376 - To Extend Provisions of the Patriot Act

<a href="http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/112/house/1/376" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Congressional Bills and Votes - NYTimes.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfX7RI7DGI8

 

[petros]

And you dumb azzes cheer on these f*cking crooks?

 

[EagleSmack]

Obummer has spent too much time with Bill Clinton and become a Republican in sheeps clothing.

Oh no... no no... he is all Democrat... 100%

 

[Kreskin]

All you righties argued hard for Bush to throw privacy out the window, under the guise of homeland security. Now it's a problem?

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

All you righties argued hard for Bush to throw privacy out the window, under the guise of homeland security. Now it's a problem?

I recollect saying that when the Patriot Act was first being debated. My words at the time were "Do you really think President Hillary Clinton will surrender the power Bush is taking for himself?"

I used to be disgusted. Now I'm just amused.

 

[EagleSmack]

Oh we were so hard... so very hard for it. Geez. Is that all the left can come up with these days? "Well Bush did it!"... is that all?

Hope and Change baby... Hope and Change

 

[petros]

You get what you pay for.

 

[damngrumpy]

Get real, this is a product of the Patriot Act and we know who was in charge when that
started. It is continuing under Obama but he didn't start the decent into madness it was
the work of "W" remember him?
America used to be a democracy now its a frightened child on the world stage. They see
terrorists everywhere now even in the eyes of their children. The saying has been used
here before, When you trade liberty for security you end up with neither and this is now
proving to be true.
Blaming Obama, is ridiculous it started before he arrived. Now to call him to task for
continuing it that is a different matter. He is also to blame but some want to blame Obama
for everything. The real escalation of this whole uncertain time results from attacking Iraq
which was unnecessary. Afghanistan was fair game, Iraq was an ego trip of the Administration
at that time. The American Government has been keeping records on people for decades
incidentally and they have them on Canadians too so this is nothing new its just public why are
so many so shocked? People didn't know this? Come on.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Get real, this is a product of the Patriot Act and we know who was in charge when that
started. It is continuing under Obama but he didn't start the decent into madness it was
the work of "W" remember him?
America used to be a democracy now its a frightened child on the world stage. They see
terrorists everywhere now even in the eyes of their children. The saying has been used
here before, When you trade liberty for security you end up with neither and this is now
proving to be true.
Blaming Obama, is ridiculous it started before he arrived. Now to call him to task for
continuing it that is a different matter. He is also to blame but some want to blame Obama
for everything. The real escalation of this whole uncertain time results from attacking Iraq
which was unnecessary. Afghanistan was fair game, Iraq was an ego trip of the Administration
at that time. The American Government has been keeping records on people for decades
incidentally and they have them on Canadians too so this is nothing new its just public why are
so many so shocked? People didn't know this? Come on.

And blaming Bush is equally ridiculous. But in our hyper-politicised times, nothing is wrong if "our" side does it. The tu quoque fallacy has won the day.

 

[petros]

Get real, this is a product of the Patriot Act and we know who was in charge when that
started. It is continuing under Obama but he didn't start the decent into madness it was the work of "W" remember him

Not according to the Spastics.