Utah Looks To Shut Down NSA Spying Center
Source: https://www.youtube.com/user/RTAmerica November 28, 2014 - Utah lawmakers are considering a bill that would severely hinder the National Security Age...
By: PigMine 6
Excerpt from:
Utah Looks To Shut Down NSA Spying Center - Video
It's been over a year since former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden began leaking classified information about the United States government. Among the numerous leaks, Snowden revealed the U.S. government's massive domestic spying program, which included, but wasn't limited to, the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata. While the cat is out of the bag now, it's important to dig deeper into the past to see how the NSA actually began, and how it affects people today.
Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for The New Yorker
It was in March of 2013 when Snowden flew to Hong Kong to meet with investigative journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. Less than a month later, Edward Snowden was a household name in Washington, as his leaks became public. Since this time, Snowden has been seeking asylum in Russia, avoiding arrest if he steps back onto U.S. soil. According to the International Business Times on November 29, the Centre for International Governance Innovation released a new study that showed that 60 percent of the over 20,000 that participated in the survey had heard of Edward Snowden and his government leaks.
Following the attacks on 9/11, many point to the Patriot Act, signed by then President George W. Bush, as the birth of NSA spying. Despite campaigning on reigning in the law, President Obama has not only reneged on his promise, but has expanded the Bush polices in many areas. However, as reported by the Intercept in September, the American Civil Liberties Union obtained legal papers in regards to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that dealt with current NSA operations. The documents point to an executive order issued over 30 years ago as the "primary source" of NSA spying. The Hill details Executive Order 12333 and Reagan's plan moving forward.
"The order, known as Executive Order 12333, allows the NSA to collect Internet communications about foreigners, including their email messages and online chats. The agency is not allowed to target people in the U.S., though Americans communications can be incidentally picked up in the course of a foreign investigation, which critics have said poses grave risks to privacy."
Reagan signed the order in 1981, and was amended by George W. Bush following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Earlier this month, the Senate failed to pass "The Freedom Act," which would have begun reigning in the NSA's mass collection of U.S. phone data. The bill actually had bipartisan support, as it was sponsored by Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy, and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Others voted against the bill, such as Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who thought the bill didn't go far enough, and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who thought it went too far. Riding the political line, the Obama administration supported the bill, which, while baring the government from retaining metadata, would have also required phone companies to keep those records until the government was given the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Reagan's executive order is the origins of the NSA's mass collection of domestic phone data, something that the majority of Americans see as a problem. According to a Pew Research Center survey released in early November, over 70 percent of Americans said they were concerned that the NSA could be obtaining private information of its citizens. The Centre for International Governance Innovation survey also confirms those suspicions, as nearly 40 percent of those who have heard of the Snowden leaks have taken major steps to guard against the NSA.
Both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama deserve varying degrees of blame for the continuing policies of NSA spying and bulk data collection. While blame can be placed at the door step of the current and previous administrations, it was Ronald Reagan who signed the executive order that got the ball rolling for the NSA to lurk into the private lives of the American people.
NSA Spying Under Fire From Congress, Churches and Tech Companies 720p
bass basshunter bassnectar bass test bass boosted bass boosted songs bass songs basshunter dota bass cannon bass down low superwoman superheroes the script s...
By: Huntelli
Read more here:
NSA Spying Under Fire From Congress, Churches and Tech Companies 720p - Video
News About NSA Spying
John Key says Edward Snowden 'may well be right' about NSA spying on NZ And that list includes adversary countries that most New Zealanders will probably expect and want the GCSB to be spying on. But then it also includes countries which I think will be very surprising, including western democracies or neighbouring Read more on The Guardian
Snead: NSA Revelations Have Chilling Effect on Cloud Growth in US Spying and surveillance by state agencies is nothing new, and the U.S. isn't the only country engaged in surveillance and requesting information from service providers. But the U.S. has more at stake because it is the leading player in Internet Read more on Data Center Knowledge
The Power of Conscience in 'Citizenfour' Over the course of eight days, as Poitras filmed the proceedings, journalist Glenn Greenwald and investigative reporter Ewen MacAskill interviewed Snowden about secret documents that detailed the extent of NSA surveillance of the American people Read more on TheTyee.ca
These remarks are adapted from a talk at the Center for European Studies at Harvard on October 23.
I see an increased nervousness in my country about America. Even though both our countries have an eagle on their coat of arms, people currently are focused on a different bird: the chicken. And not just any old chicken, but the "Chlorhuhn" chicken. Perhaps I should translate it for you: The "Chlorhuhn" is a chicken that has been disinfected in a bath of chlorine -- as American food companies do it.
This chicken -- free from bacteria, thanks to the chlorine -- has made it into the top ten of German America clichs. It now makes appearances in our late night comedy shows, which are having a great time mocking TTIP, the transatlantic trade agreement. The "Chlorhuhn" chicken symbolizes the fears triggered by this free trade agreement. Fears that foreign products will push out local goods, and that health standards will drop.
Now there is a problem with these fears. Of course, it is always true what the writer Joseph Heller said, that:
"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you."
Even chronic pessimists can be right to be afraid. But it's pretty obvious that something is wrong here: the same people who are afraid of the chicken are happy to send their kids to the pool, where they can spend the whole day swimming in chlorine.
A bit more reason, a bit more calmness, would benefit the talks on a free trade agreement between the world's two largest trading powers, the U.S. and Europe. If we had a bit more self-confidence, we could decide to use TTIP to set new standards for a good free trade agreement, which cuts red tape for business and respects special national features. We could have a free trade agreement which sets standards for technology and innovation, labor and the environment -- standards which other major trading nations in Asia could take up.
The fear we are talking about here -- the fear that is being conjured up -- is the fear of what is different. It understands commerce as a zero-sum game. As a battle over a cake of a certain size. But what we are actually talking about is creating opportunities and options: free trade not as a race to the bottom on health, environment or social security, but free trade with rules for high-value products and with competition for the best ideas. These standards could shape the progress towards fair globalization.
I think that would be a historic project which reflects the major possibilities of a new transatlantic agenda.
THE SNOWDEN IDENTITY
Visit link:
How NSA Spying, Google and Chlorinated Chickens Are ...
Exclusive: To grasp the full story of Citizenfour, the documentary on Edward Snowdens decision to expose NSA spying, you must goback four decades to see how the realityslowly dawned on Americans that their privacy and freedoms were at risk, writes James DiEugenio.
By James DiEugenio
In 1974, at about the time President Richard Nixon was resigning due to the Watergate scandal, director Francis Coppola released his haunting, compelling film about electronic surveillance, The Conversation.Centered within the lives of surveillance technicians and the powerful corporate officers who employed them, Coppola depicted a nightmare world: one fraught with the invisible threat of electronic spying at almost any place, at any time including in public parks and inside private hotel rooms.
The film had a remarkable double twist at the end. The protagonist, played by Gene Hackman, has found out that, unbeknownst to him, the people who hired him used his work to stage a killing. In turn, they find out about his dangerous knowledge. The long last scene depicts Hackman literally dismantling his apartment, trying to find the microphone his murderous employers have placed in his room.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaking in Moscow on Oct. 9, 2013. (From a video posted by WikiLeaks)
Coppola has said he never realized his film would play out against thebackdrop of the Watergate scandal, which also had electronic surveillance at its center, this time politically, with the Republicans spying on the Democratic campaign headquarters for the 1972 presidential race.
In the wake of the Watergate imbroglio, some of the people on the Watergate Committee, such as Sen. Howard Baker,were not satisfied with the congressional investigation led by Sen. Sam Ervin. Baker felt that the role of the CIA in the two-year long ordeal had been glossed over.
This, plus the exposure of CIA counter-intelligence chief James Angletons domestic operations, gave birth to the Church Committee, headed by Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho. It was the first full-scale inquiry into the crimes of the FBI and CIA.
As a result of the publicity given to that committee (back then such events were actually covered in the U.S. news media, not mocked and ignored), some reforms in the monitoring of the intelligence agencies were enacted. After these reforms were put in place, the Senate decided that there should also be some limits and controls placed upon electronic surveillance over alleged threats from domestic enemy operatives inside the United States.
The Birth of FISA
Go here to read the rest:
Filling the Blanks in Snowden’s ‘Citizenfour’
Yikes! Shocking Documents Prove NSA Spying on Your Cell Phone
By:TheAlexJonesChannel Infowars reporter Joe Biggs discovers a document hidden among hundreds of open source licenses on the Samsung Galaxy that admits the N...
By: Discussions and Decision Makers
View original post here:
Yikes! Shocking Documents Prove NSA Spying on Your Cell Phone - Video
caffeineTV One Minute on NSA Spying Bill
caffeineTV takes on the defeat of the NSA spying bill in the Senate yesterday.
By: Caffeinetv
Here is the original post:
caffeineTV One Minute on NSA Spying Bill - Video
Senate kills bill to overhaul NSA spying
A promised end to mass surveillance after whistleblower Edward Snowden rocked the world with his revelations of how much America was spying have fallen apart. But who cares about Snowden ...
By: IN THE NOW
Read the original here:
Senate kills bill to overhaul NSA spying - Video
Erin Kelly, USA TODAY 8:02 p.m. EST November 18, 2014
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in Moscow. Snowden last year the NSA's mass collection of Americans' phone data.(Photo: Uncredited, AP)
WASHINGTON The Senate on Tuesday failed to get the 60 votes needed to advance a bill that would stop the National Security Agency from collecting the phone records of millions of Americans who are not suspected of any crime.
Senators voted 58-42 in favor of a motion to allow the USA Freedom Act to come to an up or down vote in the Senate. The motion required 60 votes to pass.
The bill is effectively dead for this year and is unlikely to be revived when the new Congress convenes in January. However, the controversial NSA program will most likely be debated again next year as Congress decides whether to renew sections of the Patriot Act anti-terrorism law that are set to expire in June.
The Freedom Act would have brought an end to the NSA's mass collection of phone data more than a year after the program was revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Snowden's revelations outraged both liberal and conservative lawmakers, who decried the NSA's "big brother" snooping on innocent Americans. But some analysts said that anger has lessened as terrorist threats against the USA by the Islamic State and other extremist groups have gained attention.
"In the past five or six months, we have witnessed heightened U.S. national security concerns with terrorist threats, geopolitical problems, and cybersecurity challenges from Russia and China," said David Fidler, professor of law at Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research. "Addressing these concerns requires strong American intelligence and surveillance capabilities creating the potential for stronger opposition to the Snowden-inspired reforms today than existed only a few months ago."
The Freedom Act was sponsored by a rare bipartisan coalition of senators ranging from liberal Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz, R-Texas. But it did not go far enough to satisfy some privacy advocates in both parties, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. And it was opposed by hawkish lawmakers who argued that it would hamstring U.S. intelligence agencies at a time when terrorist threats against the United States are rising.
Major U.S. tech companies pushed for its approval, complaining that the NSA controversy has made it hard for them to convince foreign customers that they will not be spied upon by the U.S. government if they use U.S. phone or Internet providers.
Go here to read the rest:
NSA spying bill stalls in Senate vote