I've avoided Snowden and the Guardian -
frankly, because I saw and see him as something of a Phillip Agee (complete with an FSB-Putin Kabuki playlet) - but did this actually happen ?:
Quote:
from the "left wing prats" article
A few weeks ago, a British national newspaper was visited by a detachment of national security agents who demanded that its computers and hard drives be destroyed. The security men then stood over its staff while they smashed their equipment to pieces.
without a court order, warrant, etc. Surely, there must be more to the story ?
Regards
Mike
Based on What the "Conservative" UKG did ...
Nixon and Kissenger would have been better off to have sent the "Plumbers" into the New York Times and Washington Post with sledge hammers and blow torches.
So, the logic is that copies of top secret classified documents that the Supreme Court (in NYT v US) said it couldn't order returned to the government, could simply have been destroyed in place by the government. One must admit that logic has the virtue of simplicity; and avoids the costs and pitfalls of litigation. Amazing.
WITM: Thank you for the links.
Regards
Mike
This entire NSA story is a giant gift to the Tech Community....
Talking to some folks today, and this entire NSA story is turning into a giant gift to the Tech Community. Whenever there's a screwup (regardless of fault), the new 'first line of defense' against the 'suits' (upper level management) is "Well, if you think this is bad, then you ought to see how the NSA handles it".
The NSA is fast becoming the new laughingstock of the Tech Community.
There's even people out there who are starting to look at this entire NSA rolling train wreck as being perfect for creating a series of case studies on how not to do technology.
AT&T pay & play their part too
Sometimes as I read stories like this my admiration for the USA increases. A West Coast activist lodging public information requests discovers Hemisphere, a project between AT&T and the DEA, plus local LE, which has not been in the public domain since creation in 2007. Just as 'Big Brother' becomes a public issue. See:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/us...pagewanted=all
Leaving aside 'Hemisphere' I do wonder why AT&T keep, with my emphasis:
Quote:
Hemisphere covers every call that passes through an AT&T switch — not just those made by AT&T customers — and includes calls dating back 26 years, according to Hemisphere training slides bearing the logo of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Some four billion call records are added to the database every day, the slides say; technical specialists say a single call may generate more than one record. Unlike the N.S.A. data, the Hemisphere data includes information on the locations of callers.
Local LE do pay though, quite a lot too:
Quote:
AT&T in the amount of $373,795 sole source for Operation Hemisphere investigative services for the Sheriff’s Department for the period ending June 30, 2013.
Link:http://www.harriscountytx.gov/agenda...3-01-29 ag.pdf
Next Round of EFF FOIA Documents
Lawfare, More NSA Surveillance Documents Declassified (by Wells Bennett, September 10, 2013):
Quote:
Like its predecessor, this latest cache apparently was released in connection with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. And, like its predecessor, this latest cache stands to tell a complicated and important story, which we hope to unpack in the next few days.
Below you’ll find the the documents, which evidently concern activities conducted pursuant to Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We’re told that, in all, the documents amount to about 1,800 pages. Each document is linked separately. ....
These are FISA Court filings and opinions.
Regards
Mike
Lawfare on the latest ducument dump
Lawfare is running a series on the FOIA disclosures made to EFF. Each of Lawfare's posts are by different people - there is no "party line". I'll simply provide the links and the first paragraph of each post.
The Latest NSA Documents I: Introduction (by Benjamin Wittes, September 11, 2013)
Quote:
The latest cache of NSA documents—a group released yesterday related to errors in collection under Section 215—follows the same basic narrative pattern as the agency’s earlier release concerning implementation of Section 702. That is, it tells the story of a significant set of errors by NSA that caused factual misrepresentations to the FISA court. It tells the story of the court’s response both to the errors themselves and to the government’s reporting failures. And it tells the story of the government’s efforts over a protracted period of time to correct the failures and prevent them from happening again. ...
Latest NSA Documents II: The Crap Hits the Fan (by Benjamin Wittes, Lauren Bateman and Matt Danzer, September 11, 2013):
Quote:
The story starts in May 2006, when the FISA Court granted the FBI’s application for telecommunications companies to turn over certain “tangible things” to the NSA under Section 215. The “tangible things,” in this case, consisted of the much-ballyhooed telephony metadata—the time and duration of each telephone call, the originating and terminating telephone numbers, and the type of device on which the call was made. Judge Malcolm Howard found sufficient evidence to believe that the metadata was relevant to investigations. The order is careful to note, though, that although the government is authorized to collect the information, it must follow minimization procedures set forth by the Attorney General. ....
The Latest NSA Documents III: The Government Responds (by Jane Chong, September 11, 2013):
Quote:
On February 12, 2009, the government submitted a 28-page brief and 93 pages of supporting documentation to the FISC in response to the court’s January 28, 2009 order. The government opens its brief with two clear concessions: “The Government acknowledges that NSA’s descriptions to the Court of the alert list process . . . were inaccurate and that the Business Records Order did not provide the Government with authority to employ the alert list in the manner in which it did.” ...
The Latest NSA Documents IV: Things Get Worse (by Wells Bennett and Matt Danzer, September 11, 2013):
Quote:
The next key date in the metadata saga was February 26, 2009—that is, about a month after the government initially had apprised the court of a violation of the its procedures for querying collected metadata, and fourteen days after the government had elaborated on the difficulties, while humbly claiming that new safeguards might nevertheless ensure obedience to court-imposed rules. Such was the context for the February 26 document, styled a “Notice of Compliance Incident” (“February 26 Filing”)—which confirmed additional errors on the government’s part. ...
The Latest NSA Documents V: the NSA Investigates Its Metadata Compliance Problems, Takes Remedial Steps, and Reports Back to the FISC (by Raffaela Wakeman and Wells Bennett, September 12, 2013):
Quote:
The latest installment in the NSA declassification story comprises five documents. The first is an internal NSA compliance review; the second is a court filing regarding that review. The latter also refers to three sworn statements, two from the NSA director and one from the FBI director. All concern the NSA’s compliance with FISC orders regarding the collection, querying, and dissemination of telephony metadata. ...
Regards
Mike
Lawfare Documents - VI of Series
Lawfare, Latest NSA Documents VI: Non-Compliance Redux, With More DOJ (by Wells Bennett, September 13, 2013):
Quote:
Next came a period of relative calm, and somewhat less wrist-slappy FISC-NSA dynamics. The respite nevertheless was short-lived, judging by the final three documents in this week’s trove of declassified NSA metadata stuff. That said, NSA’s late 2009 discovery of further compliance problems, and its voluntary disclosure of them to the FISC, did not bring about as stern a judicial rebuke as before—though the court certainly expressed irritation at the flubs, and great concern over NSA’s reporting about historical queries of telephony metadata.
The FISC Restores Unilateral Query Authority to NSA—While Adding Some More Restrictions
...
Two Further Compliance Problems, and a “Deeply Troubled” FISC
...
More on Sharing and Reporting Requirements
...
More FOIA disclosures seem probable - as in this case, partially for and partially against the USG. Lawfare, New FISC Opinion: ACLU Has Standing to Seek 215 Opinions in FISC, Must Pursue Some 215 Opinions in FOIA Litigation; USG to Report on Declassification of Other 215 Opinions (by Wells Bennett, September 13, 2013):
Quote:
That is the gist of this unclassified FISC opinion, penned by U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, today. It resolves a motion, which was brought by the ACLU’s national and Washington, D.C. branches and the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic (“MFIAC”), and sought release of certain FISC opinions construing Section 215.
...
Regards
Mike
NSA Analysis of the Metadata
N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens (by JAMES RISEN and LAURA POITRAS, September 28, 2013):
Quote:
WASHINGTON — Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans’ social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials.
...
The policy shift was intended to help the agency “discover and track” connections between intelligence targets overseas and people in the United States, according to an N.S.A. memorandum from January 2011. The agency was authorized to conduct “large-scale graph analysis on very large sets of communications metadata without having to check foreignness” of every e-mail address, phone number or other identifier, the document said. Because of concerns about infringing on the privacy of American citizens, the computer analysis of such data had previously been permitted only for foreigners.
The agency can augment the communications data with material from public, commercial and other sources, including bank codes, insurance information, Facebook profiles, passenger manifests, voter registration rolls and GPS location information, as well as property records and unspecified tax data, according to the documents. They do not indicate any restrictions on the use of such “enrichment” data, and several former senior Obama administration officials said the agency drew on it for both Americans and foreigners.
...
The legal underpinning of the policy change, she said, was a 1979 Supreme Court ruling that Americans could have no expectation of privacy about what numbers they had called. Based on that ruling, the Justice Department and the Pentagon decided that it was permissible to create contact chains using Americans’ “metadata,” which includes the timing, location and other details of calls and e-mails, but not their content. The agency is not required to seek warrants for the analyses from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The 1979 case is Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979); and it's certainly "good law" on its specific facts:
Quote:
"A pen register is a mechanical device that records the numbers dialed on a telephone by monitoring the electrical impulses caused when the dial on the telephone is released. It does not overhear oral communications and does not indicate whether calls are actually completed."
Somehow, to me, multiplying the pen registry by a billion (or is it a trillion ?), and then subjecting that data to sophisticated computer anaysis (together with other content data from God knows where) presents a qualitatively factual difference.
Regards
Mike
Congress on Privacy and Surveillance
A day event in Lausanne, Switzerland; with a long report in The Guardian, featuring Caspar Bowden, Bill Binney, Richard Hill, Bruce Schneier and Jacob Appelbaum: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...in-switzerland
Needless to say the challenges posed by David Omand (above) do not appear.
Smoke, mirrors, SIGINT and politics
Much has happened publicly in the last month. More revelations of NSA spying, particularly on allies like Germany and friends such as Brazil. With not a few commentators in the USA alleging Greenwald & Snowden are "useful idiots" being played by Russia.
The controversies have finally got political attention, especially that millions of calls metadata were collected and Chancellor Merkel's private phone too. Politicians appeared to respond with outrage, then today it appears several European nations donated the metadata to NSA!
In the UK The Guardian, which remains the principal media outlet, has been accused of "aiding the enemy". To my amusement one Conservative MP who came to the fore had posted a clear picture of NSA staff @ Menwith Hill, in his constituency, on his website. Then Lord Carlile, a Lib-Dem peer wrote an article only to be accused of being coached and primed by GCHQ.
I have enjoyed following Professor John Schindler, ex-NSA, now at the Naval War College, on Twitter and his blog:http://20committee.com/
Tomorrow the UK House of Commons is due to hold a debate; the last one a few days ago attracted less than ten MPs. On the link is a briefing note by Big Brother Watch:http://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/files/...fing_31Oct.pdf