Most Shocking for Last? Greenwald Teases NSA Spying "Finale"

From left: Edward Snowden, David Miranda, Glenn Greenwald, and Laura Poitras. (Image from David Michael Miranda's facebook page)Journalist Glenn Greenwald has repeatedly hinted that the largestand potentially most shockingrevelations about NSA surveillance have yet to come.

And in an interview with The Sunday Times published over the weekend, the award-winning journalist spoke about a coming "finale" that would expose specific individuals who have been targeted by the powerful spy agency.

According to the Times' Toby Harnden, Greenwald explained that the ultimate legacy of his NSA reportingand the decision to leak a trove of secret NSA documents by whistleblower Edward Snowden would be shaped in large part by this finishing piece still to come.

Greenwald said:

One of the big questions when it comes to domestic spying is, Who have been the NSAs specific targets?

Are they political critics and dissidents and activists? Are they genuinely people wed regard as terrorists?

What are the metrics and calculations that go into choosing those targets and what is done with the surveillance that is conducted? Those are the kinds of questions that I want to still answer.

Greenwald told Harnden that the story to answer some of these questions will be published at his new website, The Intercerpt, later this year.

As Greenwald told GQ magazine during an in-depth interview earlier this year: "As with a fireworks show, you want to save your best for last. There's a story that from the beginning I thought would be our biggest, and I'm saving that."

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Most Shocking for Last? Greenwald Teases NSA Spying "Finale"

Letter: Americans should be furious over the extent of NSA …

Americans should be furious over the extent of NSA spying

Over the past two weeks, I watched the two-part PBS Frontline investigation broadcast locally on WNED titled, The United States of Secrets. This was an engrossing yet chilling report on the secret NSA spy program that encompasses the intrusions into the privacy of all U.S. citizens as well as foreign entities. This is the program that began after 9/11 under President George W. Bush and has been expanded upon under President Obama.

I found myself becoming very angry while watching this program, perhaps more for the fact that both presidents continue to mislead and even lie to the American public about the scope of the spying rather than the actual privacy intrusion itself. Yes, many people will say: Oh, it doesnt affect me. I have nothing to hide. But this country was built upon the Constitution and our rights are being trampled under the guise of security from terrorism. Major U.S. Internet and communications providers are cooperating with the NSA in granting access to our emails, phone calls, messages, Skype calls and even our financial transactions.

I think the thing that may disturb me the most is the silence over this issue from the American public. In my opinion, Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower and should be applauded for his disclosures rather than ostracized and condemned as a criminal. Wake up, America, before its too late.

Bill McCarthy

Orchard Park

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Letter: Americans should be furious over the extent of NSA ...

Letter: Americans should be furious over the extent of NSA spying

Americans should be furious over the extent of NSA spying

Over the past two weeks, I watched the two-part PBS Frontline investigation broadcast locally on WNED titled, The United States of Secrets. This was an engrossing yet chilling report on the secret NSA spy program that encompasses the intrusions into the privacy of all U.S. citizens as well as foreign entities. This is the program that began after 9/11 under President George W. Bush and has been expanded upon under President Obama.

I found myself becoming very angry while watching this program, perhaps more for the fact that both presidents continue to mislead and even lie to the American public about the scope of the spying rather than the actual privacy intrusion itself. Yes, many people will say: Oh, it doesnt affect me. I have nothing to hide. But this country was built upon the Constitution and our rights are being trampled under the guise of security from terrorism. Major U.S. Internet and communications providers are cooperating with the NSA in granting access to our emails, phone calls, messages, Skype calls and even our financial transactions.

I think the thing that may disturb me the most is the silence over this issue from the American public. In my opinion, Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower and should be applauded for his disclosures rather than ostracized and condemned as a criminal. Wake up, America, before its too late.

Bill McCarthy

Orchard Park

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Letter: Americans should be furious over the extent of NSA spying

House ready to pass curbs on NSA spying

The bill, scheduled for a House vote on Thursday, instructs the phone companies to hold the records for 18 months and let the NSA search them in terrorism investigations in response to a judicial order. The program was revealed last year by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden.

Read More Edward Snowden: Comic book superhero?

"The bill's significant reforms would provide the public greater confidence in our programs and the checks and balances in the system," the White House said in a statement Wednesday endorsing the legislation.

Privacy and civil liberties activists denounced the measure, saying it had been "gutted" to win agreement from lawmakers, particularly on the Intelligence Committee, who supported the NSA phone records program.

"This legislation was designed to prohibit bulk collection, but has been made so weak that it fails to adequately protect against mass, untargeted collection of Americans' private information," Nuala O'Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a statement.

"The bill now offers only mild reform and goes against the overwhelming support for definitively ending bulk collection," she added.

Read MoreNSA spying gives big boost to non-US tech firms

House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who represents a liberal district outside of Los Angeles, said the bill is perhaps the most significant action Congress will take in response to the Snowden leaks. The former NSA contractor handed journalists documents that revealed a host of once-secret NSA surveillance programs, including some that sweep in the personal information of Americans even as they target foreigners.

Outrage over the programs that Snowden publicized brought together conservatives and liberals who favor civil liberties, while the administration and congressional leadership resisted changing what they considered a useful counterterror tool.

"I think there's been remarkable convergence on the issue," Schiff said. "It wasn't long ago that it was a real struggle with the idea of ending bulk collection. I think it's a very good bill."

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House ready to pass curbs on NSA spying

House passes bill to limit NSA spying on Americans

WASHINGTON --

Although the compromise measure was significantly "watered down," in the words of Democrat Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, it passed by a vote of 303 to 120, with 9 members not voting.

"We must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good," Schakowsky, an intelligence committee member, said in summing up the feelings of many Republicans and Democrats who voted for the measure but wanted tougher provisions. Dropped from the bill was a requirement for an independent public advocate on the secret intelligence court that oversees the NSA.

The USA Freedom Act would codify a proposal made in January by President Barack Obama, who said he wanted to end the NSA's practice of collecting the "to and from" records of nearly every American landline telephone call under a program that searched the data for connections to terrorist plots abroad.

The bill doesn't ask the phone companies to hold records for any longer than they already do, which varies by carrier. The bill would give the NSA the authority to request certain records from the companies to search them in terrorism investigations in response to a judicial order. The phone program was revealed last year by Snowden, who used his job as a computer network administrator to remove tens of thousands of secret documents from an NSA facility in Hawaii.

The measure now heads to the Senate. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the intelligence committee, has said she is willing to go along with a similar idea.

NSA officials were pleased with the bill because under the existing program, they did not have access to many mobile phone records. Under the new arrangement, they will, officials say.

"I believe this is a workable compromise that protects the core function of a counter terrorism program we know has saved lives around the world," said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the House Intelligence Committee chairman.

Privacy and civil liberties activists denounced the measure, saying it had been "gutted" to win agreement from lawmakers such as Rogers who supported the NSA phone records program.

"This legislation was designed to prohibit bulk collection, but has been made so weak that it fails to adequately protect against mass, untargeted collection of Americans' private information," Nuala O'Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a statement.

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House passes bill to limit NSA spying on Americans

House passes Freedom Act in effort to curb NSA spying, despite withdrawn industry support

Summary: The bill was designed to curb NSA surveillance. But many groups have withdrawn their support after it was "watered down." Next stop, the Senate.

The U.S. House today voted to pass the Freedom Act, the decade-after follow-up to the Patriot Act, which first authorized massive global and domestic surveillance in the wake the September 11 terrorist attacks.

With more than 152 co-sponsors, the bill passed by a wide majority of 303-121.

However, the real fight is now in the Senate's hands, which according to congressional sources will aim to counter some of the lobbying effort by theObama administration by strengthening previously removed provisions.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the bill's author who also introduced the Patriot Act just weeks after the attacks on New York in 2001 previously said that the new bill was designed to counter the "misuse" of the original powers by the U.S. government, which "overstepped its authority."

It was passed by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month after months of stagnation. After the bill was jump-started, it was quickly seen as the most prominent and likely legislative effort to restrict government surveillance since the 2001 attacks.

However, in prepared remarks on Thursday following the bill's passing, Sensenbrenner admitted that he wishes the bill "closely resembled" the bill he first introduced.

"The legislation passed today is a step forward in our efforts to reform the governments surveillance authorities," he said. "It bans bulk collection, includes important privacy provisions, and sends a clear message to the NSA: We are watching you."

But the wider technology industry and privacy groups took a stronger stance in recent days by pulling their support for the bill.

"What is being considered is not the bill that was marked up by the House Judiciary Committee," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said on the House floor on Wednesday. "Certain key elements of this bill were changed. I think it's ironic that a bill that was intended to increase transparency was secretly changed between the Committee markup and floor consideration," she added.

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House passes Freedom Act in effort to curb NSA spying, despite withdrawn industry support