Showing posts with label National Security Agency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Security Agency. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

"eliminating the NSA's disputed bulk phone-records collection"

June 03, 2015 Erica Werner , National Security Agency 0 Comments
Congress Sends NSA Phone-Records Bill To President 

By Erica Werner, Jun. 3, 2015, Yahoo

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress approved sweeping changes Tuesday to surveillance laws enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, eliminating the National Security Agency's disputed bulk phone-records collection program and replacing it with a more restrictive measure to keep the records in phone companies' hands.

Two days after Congress let the phone-records collection and several other anti-terror programs expire, the Senate's 67-32 vote sent the legislation to President Barack Obama, who signed it Tuesday night.

"This legislation will strengthen civil liberty safeguards and provide greater public confidence in these programs," Obama said in a statement. Officials said it could take at least several days to restart the collection.

Read the full story: www.news.yahoo.com

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Tuesday, June 2, 2015

"Thanks Matt Drudge "

June 02, 2015 Breitbart , Matthew Boyle 0 Comments
Exclusive — Rand Paul Slams Establishment Republicans, Declares Victory Over NSA

By Matthew Boyle, June 1, 2015, Breitbart

Late Sunday the National Security Agency (NSA) shut down its bulk data collection program as the PATRIOT Act expired thanks to Paul’s efforts. He tells Breitbart News exclusively that “we’re excited by the fact that the battle has been won.”

“The president has been told in no uncertain terms—and by the end of the week this will be in writing—that he can no longer illegally collect all of Americans’ phone records and keep them in Utah,” Paul said.

I think this is a big rebuke for the president. The courts told him it was illegal and he just kept doing it anyway. I think most Americans, particularly Republicans, don’t trust this president. This is the same president who went after Tea Party groups and went after religious liberty and religious groups. I don’t understand why some of the big government Republicans up here don’t get it because most Republicans I meet across the country don’t want this president to have access to all their phone records.

Read the full story: www.breitbart.com

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Sunday, May 24, 2015

Pendulum Swinging Back, Until...

May 24, 2015 IBTimes.com , Luke Villapaz 0 Comments
NSA To Wind Down Telephone Spying Program Starting Friday 

By Luke Villapaz, May 20, 2015, IBT

The National Security Agency is drawing down a spying program run under the Patriot Act ahead of the expiration of key provisions, according to a memo issued by the Justice Department on Wednesday. The Patriot Act, which was signed into law in 2001, enabled the intelligence agency to perform bulk collection of telephone metadata in the United States.

The provisions of the law used to justify the NSA program aren’t set to expire until June 1. But the agency is winding down the program starting Friday to ensure it is shut down on time.

“[The] NSA will attempt to ensure that any shutdown of the program occurs as close in time as possible to the expiration of the authority, assuming the program has not been reauthorized in some form prior to the scheduled sunset of Section 215,” the Justice Department wrote in the memo.

Though the law is set to expire at the end of the month, the Obama administration could request an extension through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which authorizes the program every 90 days, according to the National Journal.

Read the full story:  www.ibtimes.com

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Saturday, May 16, 2015

"Intelligence Collection 'Has Surely Suffered,'"

May 16, 2015 Associated Press , Ken Dilanian 0 Comments
Former Nsa Official: Secret Phone Records Grab A Mistake 

By Ken Dilanian, May 15, 2015, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The decision to keep secret the National Security Agency's collection of American calling records was a strategic blunder that set the stage for Edward Snowden's unauthorized disclosures and ultimately harmed U.S. national security, the agency's former inspector general told NSA employees in blunt remarks Friday.

"You now live in a glass house," Joel Brenner, NSA inspector general from 2002 to 2006, said in a speech marking the 40th anniversary of the congressional hearings into the intelligence scandals of the Watergate era. "How could anyone think the bulk collection program would remain secret?"

It's not that there no longer can be national security secrets, said Brenner, a lawyer who retired in 2009 after serving as the top U.S. counterintelligence official. But "the idea that the broad rules governing your activities -not specific operations, but the broad rules-can be kept secret is a delusion. And they should not be kept secret."

Snowden, a former NSA systems administrator, has said he decided to leak thousands of top secret documents to journalists because of what he viewed as deception by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, when he denied to Congress in 2013 that the U.S. was collecting records on millions of Americans. But Snowden went on to reveal programs that had nothing to do with domestic surveillance, but rather involved NSA's foreign intelligence gathering operations.

Read the full story:  www.hosted.ap.org

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Friday, September 26, 2014

So no state should EVER have secrets?

September 26, 2014 ABC News , Edward Snowden 0 Comments
Snowden Honored With 'Alternative Nobel'

By Karl Ritter, Sept. 24, 2014, Abcnews.com

Edward Snowden was among the winners Wednesday of a Swedish human rights award, sometimes referred to as the "alternative Nobel," for his disclosures of top secret surveillance programs.

The decision to honor the former National Security Agency contractor with the Right Livelihood Award appeared to cause a diplomatic headache for Sweden's Foreign Ministry, which withdrew the prize jury's permission to use its media room for the announcement.

Snowden split the honorary portion of the award with Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, which has published a series of articles on government surveillance based on documents leaked by Snowden.

The 1.5 million kronor ($210,000) cash portion of the award was shared by Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir, Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission and U.S. environmentalist Bill McKibben.

Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honors efforts that founder Jacob von Uexkull felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.

Foundation director Ole von Uexkull — the award creator's nephew — said all winners have been invited to the Dec. 1 award ceremony in Stockholm, though he added it's unclear whether Snowden can attend.

"We will start discussions with the Swedish government and his lawyers in due course to discuss the potential arrangements for his participation," von Uexkull told The Associated Press.

Snowden, who has reportedly also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, remains exiled in Russia since leaking top secret NSA documents to journalists last year. He has been charged under the U.S. Espionage Act and could face up to 30 years in prison.

Read the full story:  www.abcnews.go.com

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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Hayden: Obama Pulled Out of Iraq Too Soon --After Obama declared Iraq safe, secure, democratic

Hayden: Obama Pulled Out of Iraq Too Soon --After Obama declared Iraq safe, secure, democratic

June 25, 2014 al Qaeda , General Michael Hayden 0 Comments

By Melissa Clyne, Jun. 23, 2014, Newsmax.com

The White House's decision to complete the final withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq in 2011 set the stage for the current unrest, according to Gen. Michael Hayden, the former director of both the National Security Agency and the CIA.

"We took the training wheels off the new Iraqi government far too early," Hayden said on Newsmax TV's "America's Forum" program.

"President Bush used to huddle with [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki] about every two weeks in a video conference, doing a lot of coaching and mentoring," Hayden said. "That stopped when President Obama came in. He didn't want to do that."

In 2008, President George W. Bush and and Iraqi government signed the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, setting a start and end date for the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Without ground troops, the United States' ability to gather intelligence became severely handicapped, Hayden said.

"When you don't have a footprint throughout the country, remember, it's not just the military that left, we dramatically cut back our diplomatic presence as well, deciding because of security reasons that we would not have consulates in a variety of Iraqi cities," Hayden said. "So we just have fewer platforms from which to observe what's going on in Iraq."

Hayden said funding for the Sunni militant organization ISIS — the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — is coming from other Gulf states, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. That backing is in addition to the purported $500 million ISIS netted in a bank robbery along with all of the U.S. munitions, Humvees, and other equipment it has stolen.

Read the full story:  www.newsmax.com

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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Washington Post: "NSA surveillance program reaches ‘into the past’ to retrieve, replay phone calls"

Washington Post: "NSA surveillance program reaches ‘into the past’ to retrieve, replay phone calls"

March 19, 2014 MYSTIC , National Security Agency 0 Comments

Read the full story:  www.washingtonpost.com 
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