Homeland Stupidity

NSA Says It Can’t Search Its Own Emails

"The NSA is a 'supercomputing powerhouse' with machines so powerful their speed is measured in thousands of trillions of operations per second. The agency turns its giant machine brains to the task of sifting through unimaginably large troves of data its surveillance programs capture. But ask the NSA, as part of a freedom of information request, to do a seemingly simple search of its own employees' email? 'There's no central method to search an email at this time with the way our records are set up, unfortunately,' NSA Freedom of Information Act officer Cindy Blacker told me last week. The system is 'a little antiquated and archaic,' she added." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA Says It Can’t Search Its Own Emails

Kafka’s America: Secret Courts, Secret Laws, and Total Surveillance

"A mechanism to protect the American people from unwarranted government surveillance became instead a bureaucratic mechanism to rubber stamp government applications for surveillance. The Court is structured such that applications for surveillance are rarely ever denied. If a judge were to reject an application, that judge would have to immediately write a report detailing every reason for the rejection, then transmit the report to a 3-person court of review. If that court finds that the application was properly denied, it must also write a report, which is then subject to a writ of certiorari by the Supreme Court. No reviews are necessary if an application is granted." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKafka’s America: Secret Courts, Secret Laws, and Total Surveillance

US court renews permission to NSA to collect phone metadata

"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has renewed permission to the U.S. government for a controversial program to collect telephone metadata in bulk. The office of the Director of National Intelligence said the government filed an application with the FISC seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and the court renewed that authority, which expired on Friday. The information was being disclosed 'in light of the significant and continuing public interest in the telephony metadata collection program,' and an earlier decision by DNI James R. Clapper to declassify certain information relating to the program, it said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS court renews permission to NSA to collect phone metadata

How will Obama defend secret NSA program in court? Letter offers clue.

"The letter continues, 'the Government is prohibited ... from indiscriminately sifting through the data. The data-base may only be queried for intelligence purposes by NSA analysts where there is a reasonable, articulable suspicion (RAS), based on specific facts.' If the government wants to take a closer look, any data gleaned must be associated with people or phone numbers already identified and approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In 2012, the letter revealed, the court approved fewer than 300 'query terms' that would allow intelligence analysts to pursue a phone call further." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow will Obama defend secret NSA program in court? Letter offers clue.

New ID rules would threaten citizens’ rights

"Any citizen wanting to take a job would face the regulation that his or her digitized high-resolution passport or driver's license photo be collected and stored centrally in a Department of Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration Services database. The pictures in the national database would then need to be matched against the job applicant's government-issued 'enhanced' ID card, using a Homeland Security-mandated facial-recognition 'photo tool.' Only when those systems worked perfectly could the new hire take the job." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNew ID rules would threaten citizens’ rights

How a Pacifist Accidentally Infused the FBI with Cash

"First, never underestimate the incompetence of the bureaucracy. Second, a fugitive bomber can always be 'found' whenever security agencies feel shortchanged by their current budgets. The first might give you a measure of relief in the face of another IRS witch hunt and Edward Snowden’s revelations: The NSA might not be able to do too much with all those emails and text messages you sent. The second puts a damper on that: For one thing, that security we keep being promised — if we’ll just cough up a little more liberty in exchange — never quite seems to materialize. Unfortunately, there are no refunds." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow a Pacifist Accidentally Infused the FBI with Cash

You may already be a winner in NSA’s “three-degrees” surveillance sweepstakes!

"So far, we know that there have been about 20,000 requests for FISA warrants to surveil domestic targets since 2001, but if those warrants covered three hops from the suspects at the center of the requests—depending on how tightly or loosely the NSA defines a relationship—three hops could encompass as much as 50 percent of the Internet-using population of the world. Sure, I’m not calling terrorists, and NSA analysts are not intercepting my calls or rifling through my Gmail account. (Well—probably not.) But the chance that they are is significantly higher than the probability I would have put on that scenario two months ago, and that’s disconcerting." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYou may already be a winner in NSA’s “three-degrees” surveillance sweepstakes!

NSA Spokesman Accidentally Admits that the Government Is Spying On Virtually All Americans

"The NSA has pretended that it only spies on a small number of potential terrorists. But NSA Deputy Director John C. Inglis inadvertently admitted that the NSA could spy on just about all Americans. Inglis told Congress last week that the agency conducts “three-hop” analysis. Given that there are now approximately 875,000 people in the government’s database of suspected terrorists – including many thousands of Americans – every single American living on U.S. soil could easily be caught up in the dragnet. There are tens of thousands of Americans listed as suspected terrorists … including just about anyone who protests anything that the government or big banks do." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA Spokesman Accidentally Admits that the Government Is Spying On Virtually All Americans

TSA Officials Agree to Training Program for Police on Travelers’ First and Fourth Amendment Rights

"In a victory for the U.S. Constitution, officials with the Richmond International Airport (RIC) have required that all RIC law enforcement officers take part in a two-hour training course on the First and Fourth Amendment rights of passengers, guests and/or vendors. The required training, with materials for the course on travelers’ First and Fourth Amendment rights supplied by attorneys for The Rutherford Institute, was part of the settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of college student Aaron Tobey, who was arrested for engaging in a peaceful protest of the TSA's use of whole-body imaging scanners and enhanced pat downs at RIC." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTSA Officials Agree to Training Program for Police on Travelers’ First and Fourth Amendment Rights

Taxpatriate? Tax dodgers welcome to leave, not welcome to return

"An amendment to the Homeland Security Bill has been proposed banning US expatriates who have renounced their US citizenship or long-term residence in order to escape US tax obligations from entering the country. The amendment would mean that former citizens of the United States who officially renounced United States citizenship and who have been determined by Homeland Security to have done this for the purpose of avoiding US tax obligations are inadmissible. Furthermore, covered expatriates unable to present evidence that they renounced US citizenship with the purpose of avoiding US tax obligations would also become inadmissible." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTaxpatriate? Tax dodgers welcome to leave, not welcome to return