Network Archives

‘Asset forfeiture’ laws designed to strip criminals of assets target innocent homeowners

"Over the last two decades, forfeitures have evolved into a booming business for police agencies across the country, from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to small-town sheriff’s offices. In 2000, officials racked up $500 million in forfeitures. By 2012, that amount rose to $4.2 billion, an eightfold increase. Often the victims are minorities like Bing without the financial resources or legal know-how to protect their assets. And prosecutors typically prevail. Of nearly 2,000 cases filed against Philadelphia houses from 2008 through 2012, records show that only 30 ended with a judge rejecting the attempt to seize the property." Continue reading →

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How the U.S. DEA program differs from recent NSA revelations

"Reuters has uncovered previously unreported details about a separate program, run by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, that extends well beyond intelligence gathering. Its use, legal experts say, raises fundamental questions about whether the government is concealing information used to investigate and help build criminal cases against American citizens. The DEA program is run by a secretive unit called the Special Operations Division, or SOD. Here is how NSA efforts exposed by Snowden differ from the activities of the SOD." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow the U.S. DEA program differs from recent NSA revelations

The NSA is giving your phone records to the DEA. And the DEA is covering it up.

"DEA officials in a highly secret office called the Special Operations Division are assigned to handle these incoming tips. Tips from the NSA are added to a DEA database that includes 'intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records.' Because the SOD’s work is classified, DEA cases that began as NSA leads can’t be seen to have originated from a NSA source. So what does the DEA do? It makes up the story of how the agency really came to the case in a process known as 'parallel construction.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe NSA is giving your phone records to the DEA. And the DEA is covering it up.

Secretive DEA unit told to cover-up massive spy program used to investigate Americans

"A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin – not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSecretive DEA unit told to cover-up massive spy program used to investigate Americans

Other Agencies Clamor for Data N.S.A. Compiles

"The NSA's dominant role as the nation’s spy warehouse has spurred frequent tensions and turf fights with other federal intelligence agencies that want to use its surveillance tools for their own investigations, officials say. Agencies working to curb drug trafficking, cyberattacks, money laundering, counterfeiting and even copyright infringement complain that their attempts to exploit the security agency’s vast resources have often been turned down. Smaller intelligence units within the DEA, the Secret Service, the Pentagon and DHS have sometimes been given access to the security agency’s surveillance tools for particular cases." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOther Agencies Clamor for Data N.S.A. Compiles

Federal Court Upholds Random ‘Papers Please’ License Roadblocks

"Motorists suspected of no wrongdoing can be pulled over and their license searched in a database regardless of whether they are suspected of having done anything wrong, a federal court ruled on Thursday. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found no problem with the way the New York City Police Department (NYPD) handled a roadblock that impeded traffic for two hours in the Bronx on October 5, 2010 just before midnight. Each person traveling on the road was stopped and ordered to produce his license which an officer ran through the NYPD 'Finest' program that checks with NYSpin (New York Statewide Police Information Network)." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFederal Court Upholds Random ‘Papers Please’ License Roadblocks

Ron Paul: Why Won’t They Tell Us the Truth About NSA Spying?

"The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday heard dramatic testimony from NSA deputy director John C. Inglis. According to the Guardian, the NSA has previously claimed that 54 terrorist plots had been disrupted ‘over the lifetime’ of the bulk phone records collection and the separate program collecting the internet habits and communications of people believed to be non-Americans. On Wednesday, Inglis said that at most one plot might have been disrupted by the bulk phone records collection alone. We do not have to accept being lied to – or spied on -- by our government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: Why Won’t They Tell Us the Truth About NSA Spying?

NSA defenders: embassy closures followed ‘pre-9/11 levels’ of ‘chatter’

"Saxby Chambliss, who was briefed by the vice president, Joe Biden, last week, said he believed the intelligence had been gathered by the NSA using foreign surveillance powers granted under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. 'This is a good indication of why they [the surveillance powers] are so important,' he said. His defence of the NSA was echoed by another Republican, Lindsey Graham. Asked by CNN host Candy Crowley whether Americans were right to be frightened, senator Graham said: 'It is scary … the NSA programme is proving its worth yet again.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA defenders: embassy closures followed ‘pre-9/11 levels’ of ‘chatter’

Bruce Schneier: The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership

"The primary business model of the Internet is built on mass surveillance, and our government’s intelligence-gathering agencies have become addicted to that data. The NSA is also in the business of spying on everyone, and it has realized it’s far easier to collect all the data from these corporations rather than from us directly. In some cases, the NSA asks for this data nicely. In other cases, it makes use of subtle threats or overt pressure. If that doesn’t work, it uses tools like national security letters. The result is a corporate-government surveillance partnership, one that allows both the government and corporations to get away with things they couldn’t otherwise." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBruce Schneier: The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership

Bloomberg Article Describes the Death of Digital Privacy: Snowden’s Revenge

"If anyone has any doubts that Edward Snowden personally blew a hole in the dam of the U.S. government’s surveillance state, consider this article on Bloomberg. This is a conventional media site. It is mainstream to the core. Yet here is what it has reported. There is no way that anything like this would have been published by Bloomberg three months ago. Snowden provided the evidence. This blew the hole in the dam. The dam is beginning to crack. The American public is now aware of what has taken place. The government’s attempt to paint Snowden as a traitor is not working." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBloomberg Article Describes the Death of Digital Privacy: Snowden’s Revenge