Western Intel

‘Follow the Money’: NSA Spies on International Payments, Banking, Cards

"The National Security Agency (NSA) widely monitors international payments, banking and credit card transactions. The spying is conducted by a branch called 'Follow the Money' (FTM). The collected information then flows into the NSA's own financial databank, called 'Tracfin,' which in 2011 contained 180 million records. Some 84 percent of the data is from credit card transactions. Further NSA documents from 2010 show that the NSA also targets the transactions of customers of large credit card companies like VISA for surveillance. The NSA's Tracfin data bank also contained data from SWIFT, a network used by thousands of banks to send transaction information securely." Continue reading →

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Report: NSA Mimics Google to Monitor “Target” Web Users

"This revelation adds to the growing list of ways that the NSA is believed to snoop on ostensibly private online conversations. In what appears to be a slide taken from an NSA presentation that also contains some GCHQ slides, the agency describes 'how the attack was done' on 'target' Google users. NSA employees log into an internet router—most likely one used by an internet service provider or a backbone network. (It's not clear whether this was done with the permission or knowledge of the router's owner.) Once logged in, the NSA redirects the 'target traffic' to an 'MITM,' a site that acts as a stealthy intermediary, harvesting communications before forwarding them to their intended destination." Continue reading →

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6 Whopping Government Misstatements About NSA Spying

"Whistleblower Edward Snowden’s leaks about NSA spying have set off a fierce global debate about security and privacy in the internet age. The revelations of the United States performing mass surveillance on an international scale have also unleashed an avalanche of government misstatements aimed at defending, or even denying, the NSA’s dragnet surveillance. We’ve gone through them and picked out some of the biggest whoppers." Continue reading →

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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer defends tech company NSA cooperation

"Mayer said she was 'proud to be part of an organisation that from the beginning, in 2007, has been sceptical of – and has been scrutinizing – those requests [from the NSA].' Yahoo has previously unsuccessfully sued the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, which provides the legal framework for NSA surveillance. In 2007 it asked to be allowed to publish details of requests it receives from the spy agency. 'When you lose and you don’t comply, it’s treason,' said Mayer. 'We think it make more sense to work within the system,' she said. The meeting came as Yahoo and Facebook filed suits once more to force the Fisa court to allow them to disclose more information." Continue reading →

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CIA Begins Weapons Delivery To Syrian Rebels

"The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war. The arms shipments, which are limited to light weapons and other munitions that can be tracked, began arriving in Syria at a moment of heightened tensions over threats by President Obama to order missile strikes to punish the regime of Bashar al-Assad." Continue reading →

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(Surveillance) Times have Changed

"It was only a year ago when the UK Home Office repeatedly made statements about how their capability to collect intelligence was degrading, and how new laws such as the Communications Data Bill were necessary to protect citizens. In hindsight, given the revelations about the UK domestic mass surveillance programs, these once desperate cries for more crime- and terrorism-fighting tools now look like nothing more than attempts to illegitimately spy more on all citizens. Quotes from those debates look rather different now." Continue reading →

Continue Reading(Surveillance) Times have Changed

NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans’ data with Israel

"Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens. The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis. The disclosure that the NSA agreed to provide raw intelligence data to a foreign country contrasts with assurances from the Obama administration that there are rigorous safeguards to protect the privacyof US citizens caught in the dragnet. The deal was reached in principle in March 2009, according to the undated memorandum." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA shares raw intelligence including Americans’ data with Israel

NSA routinely spied on phone records unrelated to terrorism cases

"US intelligence officials declassified documents Tuesday revealing the National Security Agency violated privacy rules for three years when it sifted phone records of Americans with no suspected links to terrorists. The government was forced to disclose the documents by a judge’s order after a Freedom of Information lawsuit. The NSA had been permitted by the court to only search phone numbers that had 'reasonable articulable suspicion' of having links to terrorism. But out of more than 17,000 numbers on a NSA list in 2009, the agency only had reasonable suspicion for about 1,800 of the numbers, two senior intelligence officials told reporters on Tuesday." Continue reading →

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NSA evidence may be key to Hammarskjold mystery death

"America's National Security Agency may hold crucial evidence about one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the Cold War — the cause of the 1961 plane crash which killed United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, a commission of prominent jurists says. Widely considered the U.N.'s most effective chief, Hammarskjold died as he was attempting to bring peace to the newly independent Congo. It's long been rumored that his DC-6 plane was shot down, and an independent commission set up to evaluate new evidence surrounding his death on Monday recommended a fresh investigation — citing radio intercepts held by the NSA as the possible key to solving the case." Continue reading →

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Scotland Yard investigates Diana slay plot as book details conspiracy

"The Increment’s operatives — drawn from the SAS and the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service — had someone ride ahead of Fayed’s and Diana’s Mercedes in a white Fiat, and to cause the car to careen into the tunnel’s cement sides and pillars by shining a strobe light into the chauffeur’s eyes, Power said. 'The attack on Diana in the tunnel mirrored almost exactly a plot described by ex-SAS/MI6 agent Richard Tomlinson that Witness A from the inquests had concocted, when they served together as MI6 agents. This plot was hatched to murder Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Serbia,' Power told The Post." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingScotland Yard investigates Diana slay plot as book details conspiracy