Orwellian

The NSA’s Secret Cops, Known as “Q Group,” are Hunting Down Edward Snowden

"The people tasked with hunting down Edward Snowden work for the Associate Directorate for Security and Counterintelligence, reports The Daily Beast. The directorate is sometimes known as 'the Q Group.' The security and counterintelligence directorate serves as the NSA’s internal police force. It has the authority to interview an NSA contractor or employee’s known associates, and even to activate a digital dragnet capable of finding out where a target travels, what the target has purchased, and the target’s online activity, reports DB. Bottom line: The data collection that Snowden leaked about is now being used to track him." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe NSA’s Secret Cops, Known as “Q Group,” are Hunting Down Edward Snowden

Where Was Mainstream News While the Surveillance State Was Expanding?

"An honest report would explain how what is obviously one of the biggest stories of the modern era has gone unreported by Reuters and by the mainstream media in general. An honest report would address the aggregate courage of the alternative media in covering the rise of the surveillance state while being marginalized by the formal media and disparaged as being agents of 'conspiracy theories.' But instead, we get articles like this one, reporting that is good and serious as far as it goes ... but it surely doesn't go very far. What's needed is investigate reporting. Instead, we are presented with a kind of catalogue." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhere Was Mainstream News While the Surveillance State Was Expanding?

Ron Paul: Should We Be Shocked At Government Spying?

"Some of us were arguing back in 2001 with the introduction of the so-called PATRIOT Act that it would pave the way for massive U.S. government surveillance — not targeting terrorists but rather aimed against American citizens. We were told we must accept this temporary measure to provide government the tools to catch those responsible for 9/11. That was nearly 12 years and at least four wars ago. We should know by now that when it comes to government power-grabs, we never go back to the status quo even when the 'crisis' has passed. That part of our freedom and civil liberties once lost is never regained." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: Should We Be Shocked At Government Spying?

Intelligence officials overheard joking about how Glenn Greenwald should be ‘disappeared’

"A group of intelligence officials were overheard yesterday discussing how the National Security Agency worker who leaked sensitive documents to a reporter last week should be 'disappeared.' Foreign policy analyst and editor at large of The Atlantic, Steve Clemons, tweeted about the 'disturbing' conversation after listening in to four men who were sitting near him as he waited for a flight at Washington's Dulles airport. According to Clemons, the men had been attending an event hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance." Continue reading →

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Snowden, in exchanges with Post reporter, made clear he knew risks

"'We managed to survive greater threats in our history . . . than a few disorganized terrorist groups and rogue states without resorting to these sorts of programs. It is not that I do not value intelligence, but that I oppose . . . omniscient, automatic, mass surveillance. . . . That seems to me a greater threat to the institutions of free society than missed intelligence reports, and unworthy of the costs. Analysts (and government in general) aren’t bad guys, and they don’t want to think of themselves as such,' he replied. But he said they labored under a false premise that 'if a surveillance program produces information of value, it legitimizes it.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSnowden, in exchanges with Post reporter, made clear he knew risks

Rep. Peter King calls for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to be extradited from Hong Kong

"Peter King, the chairman of the House homeland security subcommittee, called for Snowden’s extradition from Hong Kong. Snowden flew there 10 days ago to disclose top-secret documents and to give interviews to the Guardian. 'If Edward Snowden did in fact leak the NSA data as he claims, the United States government must prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law and begin extradition proceedings at the earliest date,' King, a New York Republican, said in a written statement. 'The United States must make it clear that no country should be granting this individual asylum. This is a matter of extraordinary consequence to American intelligence.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRep. Peter King calls for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to be extradited from Hong Kong

Rand Paul: Sue The Surveillance State

"U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is now looking to sue the federal government over its policy of massive data collection on American citizens, including the logging of phone calls and Internet activities. 'I’m going to be seeing if I can challenge this at the Supreme Court level. I’m going to be asking the Internet providers and all of the phone companies: Ask your customers to join me in a class-action lawsuit,' Paul said on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'If we get 10 million Americans saying, ‘We don’t want our phone records looked at’ then maybe someone will wake up and things will change in Washington.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRand Paul: Sue The Surveillance State

Obama says NSA snooping prevents terrorist attacks

"For the past seven years, the NSA has had a secret court order to obtain all phone records of Verizon customers. This all became a reality after Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald exposed the practice, but now President Obama is claiming this is a necessary evil to win the ongoing war on terror. Sahar Aziz, associate professor of law at Texas Wesleyan University, brings us more." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama says NSA snooping prevents terrorist attacks