Police State

US lawmakers call for review of Patriot Act after NSA surveillance revelations

"In unbroadcast elements of a transcript issued by NBC, the director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said he had responded in the 'least untruthful manner' possible when denying that the NSA collected data on millions of Americans during congressional hearings. Clapper also confirmed that senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the intelligence committee, had asked for a review to 'refine these NSA processes and limit the exposure to Americans' private communications' and report back 'in about a month'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS lawmakers call for review of Patriot Act after NSA surveillance revelations

Bill O’Reilly suddenly opposed to NSA surveillance he supported under Bush

"The conservative host described the NSA’s surveillance programs as a 'massive intrusion.' O’Reilly warned that 'corrupt government officials' could leak sensitive data to hurt their political opponents. He said that keeping actual content of private conversations on file was 'flat out unconstitutional.' O’Reilly’s tune was far different under the Bush administration. At the time, he voiced strong support for the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program, which collected the telephone records of millions of Americans. In 2006, after a judge ruled the program was unconstitutional, O’Reilly speculated that she didn’t care if Americans were killed by terrorists." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill O’Reilly suddenly opposed to NSA surveillance he supported under Bush

Julian Assange praises Edward Snowden for exposing ‘mass surveillance state’

"Edward Snowden is a 'hero' who has exposed 'one of the most serious events of the decade – the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state', Julian Assange said on Monday. The WikiLeaks founder said the question of surveillance abuses by states and tech companies was 'something that I and many other journalists and civil libertarians have been campaigning about for a long time. It is very pleasing to see such clear and concrete proof presented to the public.' Assange told Sky News that Snowden was 'in a very, very serious position, because we can see the kind of rhetoric that occurred against me and Bradley Manning back in 2010, 2011, applied to Snowden'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJulian Assange praises Edward Snowden for exposing ‘mass surveillance state’

Annals of the Security State: More Airplane Stories

"Over the weekend I related the story of Gabriel Silverstein, a businessman and pilot who for no apparent reason was subjected to a two-hour detention and invasive search by Homeland Security officials as he traveled across the country in his small plane. The picture above is not from that episode; it's an official DHS photo of its emergency-response agents being trained. Below and after the jump are two additional stories of the same sort. The first is a long account from Larry Gaines, a small-plane pilot from California who had a similar episode last year. The story is long and detailed, and will be riveting for those in the aviation world." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnnals of the Security State: More Airplane Stories

Intelligence chief defends Internet spying program

"Eager to quell a domestic furor over U.S. spying, the nation's top intelligence official stressed Saturday that a previously undisclosed program for tapping into Internet usage is authorized by Congress, falls under strict supervision of a secret court and cannot intentionally target a U.S. citizen. He decried the revelation of that and another intelligence-gathering program as reckless. For the second time in three days, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper took the rare step of declassifying some details of an intelligence program to respond to media reports about counterterrorism techniques employed by the government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIntelligence chief defends Internet spying program

854,000 U.S. Government Snoopers

"What is being done about this? Nothing. It keeps growing. How much does this cost? At least $80 billion a year. That is a lot of money. What is being done inside the federal government to control this? Nothing. Do they monitor our phone calls? Yes. Did they deny this for years? Of course. Then Edward Snowden blew the whistle. A British newspaper published it. Will this change anything? Yes. He will go to jail. Anything else? He will get a great deal of publicity. Anything else? No. The Obama Administration is far more concerned with Snowden’s leaks than with the snoopers. The Obama Administration is the Bush Administration, digitally speaking." Continue reading →

Continue Reading854,000 U.S. Government Snoopers

NSA spying allegations mean U.S. could provide ‘virtually unlimited’ info on citizens to allies

"Britain’s foreign secretary took to television on Sunday to reassure Britons that London’s own spies had not circumvented laws restricting their own activity by obtaining information collected by Washington. In Germany, sensitive to decades of snooping by East German Stasi secret police, the opposition said Chancellor Angela Merkel should do more to protect Germans from U.S. spying and demand answers when President Barack Obama visits this month. In Australia, a government source said the U.S. revelations could make it more difficult to pass a law allowing the government to access Internet data at home." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA spying allegations mean U.S. could provide ‘virtually unlimited’ info on citizens to allies

Michael Scheuer: Bin Laden predicted Obama’s war on the 4th Amendment

"More than a decade ago, Osama bin Laden appeared in a brief video to speak about several issues. One of them was to advise the Islamic world that they should expect the U.S. military to be defeated. The other was to suggest that Muslims should be prepared to watch the U.S. government strangle the civil liberties of Americans in the name of prosecuting its war against the Islamist mujahedin. We have learned that the bin Laden’s second prediction has come to pass in the Obama administration’s expansion of a Bush-era program to collect electronic information on U.S. citizens who are entirely unrelated to the war against the Islamists." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMichael Scheuer: Bin Laden predicted Obama’s war on the 4th Amendment

Edward Snowden, NSA whistleblower: ‘I do not expect to see home again’

"The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards. I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEdward Snowden, NSA whistleblower: ‘I do not expect to see home again’