By Kate Randall 14 February 2014

Massive spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) poses a direct threat to journalism, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released Wednesday. The CPJ is warning, in particular, that the agencys dragnet of communications data threatens to make it next to impossible for journalists to keep sources confidential.

New York-based CPJ devotes the first two chapters of its annual report, entitled Attacks on the Press, to an assessment of the impact of the NSAs vast data sweep, which has been exposed by Edward Snowden and reported by numerous media outlets. The report notes that by storing massive amounts of data for long periods, the spy agency could develop the capability to recreate a reporters research and retrace a sources movements by listening in on past communications.

The report points to the threat to press freedom in the context of the revelations of illegal government spying and the Obama administrations unprecedented campaign against whistle-blowers. It quotes William Binney, who resigned from the NSA in 2001 in protest over privacy violations the agency committed post-9/11. Binney believes that the government keeps tabs on all journalists and notes that they are a much easier, smaller target set to spy on than the general population.

Alex Abdo, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, one of a team of lawyers who have litigated against the NSA for violating constitutional protections, told the CPJ that all reporters should be worried about the NSAs vast collection and storage of data. Reporters who work for the largest media organizations should be worried probably primarily because their sources will dry up as those sources recognize that there is not a way to cover their trail, he said. He added that independent journalists should be concerned that they themselves will be swept up in the course of their reporting.

The watchdog group chillingly notes that the NSAs storage of metadata creates a deep breeding ground for artificial intelligence systems, which may in the future lead to more efficient, even predictive, spying machines. As capabilities evolve, CPJ warns, such systems could be utilized to identify patterns of journalistic activity, targeting reporters for surveillance, intimidation and potential prosecution long before they actually engage in any suspect reporting.

President Barack Obama has absurdly asserted that despite the exposure of programs to collect data on millions of Americans phone calls, emails and Internet activity, there is no evidence that the US intelligence complex has sought to violate the law.

Meanwhile, top NSA officials have indicated that the token reforms announced by the president last month will do little to curb the agencys spying activities. Theyre not putting us out business, commented NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett on the measures in a recent interview with the Washington Post. He added, Theyre not putting an unbearable burden on us.

Obama has tasked Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper to develop options by March 28 for ending the NSAs storage of data on Americans phone calls. So far, no such plan has been drawn up, and Congress must approve any changes to the agencys operations.

The presidents measures also include a requirement that the NSA obtain pro forma court approval before it can run a suspects phone number against the agencys database. However, even this largely cosmetic restriction is vitiated by a provision allowing the NSA to query the data without prior court approval by invoking an emergency exception.

Continue reading here:
NSA spying poses “direct threat to journalism ...

President Obama and French President Franois Hollande said Tuesday that they had come closer to resolving concerns about the scope of U.S. electronic surveillance overseas, which had outraged citizens in France and the rest of Europe.

Their joint appearance in the East Room of the White House came during a two-day visit aimed at showing solidarity between the United States and France, its historic ally. The two leaders expressed support for each other on a wide range of issues, including Syria, Iran and transatlantic trade.

Video

During a joint news conference Tuesday, President Obama said Americans might have noticed French President Franois Hollande as "a French guy poking around your local McDonald's."

More from PostPolitics

Robert Costa

Being John Boehner.

Six months ago, the Fact Checker exposed a bogus survey. But its still in GOP talking points.

Matt DeLong

Here are the roughest moments faced by Obamas ambassador nominees (so far).

Read the original post:
Obama and French President Hollande discuss NSA spying at ...

Tech companies and privacy advocates have dubbed February 11 a "worldwide day of activism" to speak out against the NSA's surveillance and mass data collection.

Those of you angered over reports of NSA spying are being urged to add your voices to those of a group of 5,300 companies and Web sites staging a worldwide protest.

Dubbing February 11 "The Day We Fight Back," organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Free Press, Mozilla, Reddit, and Tumblr want Internet users to call or e-mail their legislators to pressure them to end the National Security Agency's mass surveillance program. The groups also are asking Web site owners to set up banners on their pages to urge visitors to join the cause.

Susan Molinari, Google's vice president of public policy, used the occasion to argue in a blog post that the US government should make major changes to how it responds to electronic privacy concerns. She said Congress ought to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to require the government to get a warrant before compelling tech firms to disclose the content of user communications; and pass the USA Freedom Act, a proposed law that would codify proposed surveillance reform principles.

A series of protests also are planned today in the United States and other countries. And the groups involved have suggested setting up local events as another way for people to participate.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also is drawing attention to its 13 Principles, a document that it says outlines how surveillance can be conducted without impinging on human rights. The overall goal behind "The Day We Fight Back" is to raise awareness and put more pressure on Washington to limit the NSA's methods, which have been criticized by Internet users, privacy groups, and several of those serving in Congress.

"Since the first revelations last summer, hundreds of thousands of Internet users have come together online and offline to protest the NSA's unconstitutional surveillance programs," Josh Levy, Internet campaign director at Free Press, said in a statement. "These programs attack our basic rights to connect and communicate in private, and strike at the foundations of democracy itself. Only a broad movement of activists, organizations, and companies can convince Washington to restore these rights."

Update at 10:03 a.m. PT with statement from Google.

Read more:
'The Day We Fight Back' calls for protests against NSA spying

A clearly frustrated U.S. intelligence chief complained today that Americas adversaries are changing the way they communicate electronically in the wake of the leaks by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Were beginning to see changes in the communications behavior of adversaries: particularly terrorists. A disturbing trend, which I anticipate will continue, claimed (.pdf) James Clapper, director of national intelligence, in remarks prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Terrorists and other adversaries of this country are going to school on U.S. intelligence sources, methods, and tradecraft, Clapper said. And the insights theyre gaining are making our job in the intelligence community much, much harder. And this includes putting the lives of members or assets of the intelligence community at risk, as well as those of our armed forces, diplomats, and our citizens.

Clapper is not the most credible source on Snowden and the NSA leaks. Snowdens very first leak last June had the side-effect of revealing that Clapper had mislead the public and Congress about NSA spying.

During a March hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) had asked Clapper whether the NSA collects any type of data at all on millions of Americans?

Clapper responded: No, sir.

Three months later, Snowden revealed that the NSA had been collecting telephone metadata on millions of Americans since at least 2006.

And as WIRED noted today, Clapper has been known to exaggerate national security threats before. He told a federal judge last year that a lawsuit brought by a Stanford University scholar had to be dismissed, or national security would suffer.

The scholar had been detained and handcuffed at San Francisco International Airport after trying to board a flight to Hawaii to give a paper on affordable housing. When she sued to find out if she had been placed on the no-fly list, Clapper was among the officials rallying to kill the lawsuit.

The government lost the case, clearing the way for last weeks revelation that Rahinah Ibrahim had been placed on the no-fly list through a paperwork error.

Continued here:
Top U.S. Spy Claims 'Terrorists Are Going to School' on ...

In glowing profile, New York Times Magazine highlights Wendy Davis biography

By CHARLIE SPIERING | 02/12/14 08:31 AM

"Political narratives are necessarily reductive, invariably gauzy and thus often misleading," writes the New York Times Magazine's Robert Draper in a 7,000-plus word profile of Texas Democratic candidate for governor...

By CHARLIE SPIERING | 02/12/14 08:25 AM

Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and the Justice Department's seizure of Associated Press phone records -- all reasons why the United States has fallen to 46th place in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index released Wednesday...

By CHARLES HOSKINSON | 02/11/14 06:01 PM

Data mining by the National Security Agency has left many American feeling paranoid, in light of reports that the agency shares its findings with the Justice Department if there's evidence of a crime -- or that NSA agents...

By ASHE SCHOW | 02/11/14 05:03 PM

Regulations for new coal plants would increase electricity prices by as much as 80 percent, an Obama administration official told lawmakers on Tuesday. Julio Friedmann, deputy assistant secretary for clean coal at the...

By ASHE SCHOW | 02/11/14 04:13 PM

Go here to see the original:
Law professor: NSA spying threatens separation of powers

Hundreds march in Washington against NSA spying

By: TruthandjusticeXXL

Read the original post:
Hundreds march in Washington against NSA spying - Video

NSA spying on your calls

By: TruthandjusticeXXL

Continued here:
NSA spying on your calls - Video

Glenn Harlan Reynolds 2:28 p.m. EST February 10, 2014

The White House.(Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)

Most of the worry about the National Security Agency's bulk interception of telephone calls, e-mail and the like has centered around threats to privacy. And, in fact, the evidence suggests that if you've got a particularly steamy phone- or Skype-sex session going on, it just might wind up being shared by voyeuristic NSA analysts.

But most Americans figure, probably rightly, that the NSA isn't likely to be interested in their stuff. (Anyone who hacks my e-mail is automatically punished, by having to read it.) There is, however, a class of people who can't take that disinterest for granted: members of Congress and the judiciary. What they have to say is likely to be pretty interesting to anyone with a political ax to grind. And the ability of the executive branch to snoop on the phone calls of people in the other branches isn't just a threat to privacy, but a threat to the separation of powers and the Constitution.

As the Framers conceived it, our system of government is divided into three branches -- the executive, legislative and judicial -- each of which is designed to serve as a check on the others. If the president gets out of control, Congress can defund his efforts, or impeach him, and the judiciary can declare his acts unconstitutional. If Congress passes unconstitutional laws, the president can veto them, or refuse to enforce them, and the judiciary, again, can declare them invalid. If the judiciary gets carried away, the president can appoint new judges, and Congress can change the laws, or even impeach.

But if the federal government has broad domestic-spying powers, and if those are controlled by the executive branch without significant oversight, then the president has the power to snoop on political enemies, getting an advantage in countering their plans, and gathering material that can be used to blackmail or destroy them. With such power in the executive, the traditional role of the other branches as checks would be seriously undermined, and our system of government would veer toward what James Madison in The Federalist No. 47 called "the very definition of tyranny," that is, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands."

That such widespread spying power exists, of course, doesn't prove that it has actually been abused. But the temptation to make use of such a power for self-serving political ends is likely to be very great. And, given the secrecy surrounding such programs, outsiders might never know. In fact, given the compartmentalization that goes on in the intelligence world, almost everyone at the NSA might be acting properly, completely unaware that one small section is devoted to gather political intelligence. We can hope, of course, that such abuses would leak out, but they might not.

Rather than counting on leakers to protect us, we need strong structural controls that don't depend on people being heroically honest or unusually immune to political temptation, two characteristics not in oversupply among our political class. That means that the government shouldn't be able to spy on Americans without a warrant a warrant that comes from a different branch of government, and requires probable cause. The government should also have to keep a clear record of who was spied on, and why, and of exactly who had access to the information once it was gathered. We need the kind of extensive audit trails for access to information that, as the Edward Snowden experience clearly illustrates, don't currently exist.

In addition, we need civil damages with, perhaps, a waiver of governmental immunities for abuse of power here. Perhaps we should have bounties for whistleblowers, too, to help encourage wrongdoing to be aired.

Is this strong medicine? Yes. But widespread spying on Americans is a threat to constitutional government. That is a serious disease, one that demands the strongest of medicines.

Go here to see the original:
NSA spying undermines separation of powers: Column

Everything We Know About NSA Spying: "Through a PRISM, Darkly" - Kurt Opsahl at CCC
"Through a PRISM, Darkly: Everything We Know About NSA Spying" EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl Chaos Communication Congress, Dec. 30, 2013 From Stellar...

By: EFForg

Here is the original post:
Everything We Know About NSA Spying: "Through a PRISM, Darkly" - Kurt Opsahl at CCC - Video

Glenn Greenwald Snowden Encouraged by Global Outrage over NSA Spying, Support for His Plight

By: Glenn Greenwald Videos

More:
Glenn Greenwald Snowden Encouraged by Global Outrage over NSA Spying, Support for His Plight - Video