Daily Archives: July 18, 2021

James Bovard

Fox News host Tucker Carlsons charge that the National Security Agencyillegally spied on himand leaked his emails is enraging prominent liberals. Carlson sought to sow distrust [of the NSA], which is so anti-American, declaredMSNBC analyst Andrew Weissman, formerly the chief prosecutor for Special Counsel Robert Mueller. CNN senior correspondent Oliver Darcy ridiculed Carlson for effectivelyclaimingthat Im not a crazy person overstating a case!

When did the NSA become as pure as Snow White? Do pundits presume that there is a 24-hour statute of limitation for recalling any previously-disclosed NSA crimes and abuses?

The Carlson controversycannot be understood outside the context of perennial NSA abuses. The NSA possesses a repository capable of taking in 20 billion record events daily and making them available to NSA analysts within 60 minutes, the New York Timesreported. The NSA is able to snare and stockpile many orders of magnitude times more information than did East Germanys Stasi secret police, one of the most odious agencies of the post-war era.

The FBI, for its part, is permitted to rummage through the seized data under strict restrictions. In 2018, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) courtslammed the FBIfor abusing that database with warrantless searches that violated Americans rights. After the FBI promised to repent, the FISA court to permitted FBI agents to continue rummaging in NSA troves. In April, the FISA court revealed that the FBI surveillance crime wave continues.

The FBI conductedwarrantless searchesof the data trove for domestic terrorism, public corruption and bribery, health care fraud, and other targets including people who notified the FBI of crimes and even repairmen entering FBI offices. If yousought to report a crimeto the FBI, an FBI agent may have illegally surveilled your email. Even if you merely volunteered for the FBI Citizens Academy program, the FBI may have illegally tracked all your online activity.

In 2019, the FBI unjustifiably searched the database for information on 16,000 people even though only seven of them had connections to an investigation, theNew York Times reported. FISA court Chief Judge James Boasberg lamented apparent widespread violations of the legal restrictions for FBI searchesbut shrugged them offand permitted the scouring of Americans personal data to continue.

On June 30, Americans learned that one of NSAs most intrusive surveillance engines is still being widely abused. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed thatthat the XKeyscoreprogram was being used to commandeer the email and Internet data of any American who was caught searching the web for suspicious stuff. XKeyscore enables NSA analysts to wiretap anyone simply by entering the targets email address into the database. Six months after Snowdens disclosures began, federal judge Richard Leon issued a ruling denouncing the NSA surveillance regime asalmost Orwellian: I cannot imagine a more indiscriminate and arbitrary invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval.

Travis LeBlanc, a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, released his declassified dissent to that civil liberties watchdog board recent report on XKeyscore. Hundreds of illegal or prohibited searches were apparently committed using XKeyscore in 2019. LeBlanc complained that the oversight board failed to ask how many U.S. personshave been impactedby XKeyscore, how much data the program collects and analyzes, how widely information analyzed through XKeyscore is shared.

However, the oversight board did not even request specific information about violations of U.S. law by NSA.

Americans have probably not seen even the tip of the iceberg of NSA abuses. NSA apparently never even bothered doing a formal analysis of the legality or constitutionality of XKeyscore until 2016, after the oversight board specifically requested such information. LeBlanctold the Washington Post:What concerns me most is that we have a very powerful surveillance program that eight years or so after exposure, still has no judicial oversight, and what I consider to be inadequate legal analysis and serious compliance infractions.

Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, the most dogged congressional watchdog of federal spying,declaredthat Americans still know far too little about the governments surveillance activities and how it threatens their privacy. Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is muzzled from disclosing the NSAs confidential dirt.

NSA is like an accused murderer who continually proclaims his innocence up until the moment a video surfaces of him pulling the trigger. After Carlson stated that his emails were being intercepted,the NSA issued a statementdeclaring that Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting.

However, 90% of the people whose emails and other data were dragged into NSA surveillance dragnets werenot NSAs actual targets, according to a 2014 Washington Post analysis based on data that Snowden provided. Shortly before Snowdens disclosures began, National Intelligence DirectorJames Clapper lied to Congresswhen he denied that the NSA collects any type of data at all on millions, or hundreds of millions of Americans. He was never charged for that crime, thereby encouraging falsehoods by every subsequent top federal intelligence official.

On July 7, Axios reported that Carlson was talking to U.S.-based Kremlin intermediaries aboutsetting up an interviewwith Vladimir Putin shortly before he accused the NSA of spying on him. U.S. government officials became aware of Carlsons effort to interview Putin. Axios noted the possibility that one of the people Carlson was talking to as an intermediary to help him get the Putin interview was under [NSA] surveillance as a foreign agent. But NSA would still be prohibited from disclosing emails from an American citizen after unmasking his identity. As journalist Glenn Greenwald noted, It is one of thegravest crimesin the U.S. code for the NSA to leak the contents of communications that it intercepts between a foreign official and an American citizen.

In an interview scheduled for release on Monday (previewed by the Daily Mail), Carlson explained that he went public with his NSA charge defensively I dont have subpoena power. I cant arrest anybody. Icant make themanswer questions. An investigative producer for Carlsons show did file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the NSA, seeking any call records, texts, or emailsthe NSA has obtainedfrom journalist Tucker Carlsons cell phone or email, among other information.

Unfortunately, FOIA has long since become a sham. The Obama White Housedrove nails into the FOIA coffinby inventing the doctrine of White House equities, permitting political appointees to delay embarrassing disclosures for years (instead of the 20 business days the law requires). Obamas Justice Departmentformally proposedto permit federal agencies to falsely claim that FOIA-requested documents did not exist. Such travesties did not deter the media from repeating Obamas boast of having themost transparent administration in history.

NSAs power and prerogatives have been buttressed by the vast increase in federal secrecy in recent decades. Since the 1990s, the number of documents classified annually by the feds increased more than tenfold. Federal agencies are nowcreating trillions of pagesof new secrets each year, and each page is backed by a federal fist waiting to crush anyone who makes an unauthorized disclosure. Congress and the media have been complicit in tolerating the Iron Curtain that shrouds far too many federal abuses.

But Carlson has nothing to fear because the NSA is constrained by checks and balances elsewhere in the government, right? Fat chance. Any pretense that Deep State surveillance agencies were on a legal leash should have been destroyed by RussiaGate.

In December 2019, the Justice Department Inspector General reported that theFBImade fundamental errors and persistently deceived the FISA court to authorize surveilling a 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign official, Carter Page. Former FBI assistant general counsel Kevin Clinesmith admitted to falsifying key evidence to secure the FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign.

As a Wall Street Journaleditorial noted, Clinesmith changed an email confirming Page had been a CIA source to one that said the exact opposite, explicitly adding the words not a source before he forwarded it. A federal prosecutor declared that the resulting harm is immeasurable from Clinesmiths action. But at the sentencing hearing, Judge Boasberggushed with sympathy: Mr. Clinesmith has lost his job in government servicewhat has given his life much of its meaning. Scorning the federal prosecutors recommendation for jail time, Boasberg gave Clinesmith a wrist slap400 hours of community service and 12 months of probation.

The FISA court has gone from pretending that federal surveillance violations dont occur topretending that such crimes dont matter. Practically the only remaining task is for the FISA court to cease pretending Americans have any constitutional right to privacy.

Tucker Carlson may or may not be in NSA cross-hairs at the moment, but there are plenty of other Americans who should be sweating. Capitol Police acting Chief Yogananda PittmantoldCongress that the Jan. 6 riots were a terrorist attack by tens of thousands of insurrectionists. Does federal law enforcement believe that any Trump supporter within a mile radius of the U.S. Capitol that day was a terrorist?

President Joe Bidens nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives David Chipman favorsbanning more than tenmillion AR-15 rifles owned by American citizens. The Biden administration is claiming a right to know whether every American hasbeen vaccinated for Covidand will be sending its agents door-to-door to harangue people who are unjabbed. Considering the Biden administrations histrionic rhetoric on domestic terrorism, guns, and COVID-19, it would take only a few tweaks in NSA searches to pull up vast troves of new offenders who could be targeted.

Glenn Greenwald recently observed that the Democratic Party and journalism, in general, hasaligned with the CIA, the NSA and the FBI, and has aligned and merged with the security state. But there was a time when Democrats were eloquent defenders against federal intrusions.

Democrat House Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana explained in 1971 that Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of action for men in public life can be compromised quite as effectively bythe fear of surveillanceas by the fact of surveillance.

Democratic Sen. Sam Ervin of North Carolinaobservedthat same year, When people fear surveillance, whether it exists or not, when they grow afraid to speak their minds and hearts freely to their Government or to anyone else, then we shall cease to be a free society. A few decades earlier, Justice Robert Jackson, who had been Attorney General for FDR and the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crime trials,declared, Search and seizure rights belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart.

Americans cannot acquiesce to illegal government surveillance without forfeiting their right to the tattered remnants of their privacy. The feds need to come clean on any surveillance and leaks that may have targeted Tucker Carlson or otherwise violated his rights. The Carlson case is a wake-up call to Congress and concerned citizens to stop any new war on dissent.

James Bovardis the author of Attention Deficit Democracy, The Bush Betrayal, Terrorism and Tyranny, and other books. Bovard is on theUSA Today Board of Contributors. He is on Twitter at @jimbovard. His website is atwww.jimbovard.com

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Why NSA Vs Tucker Carlson Is An Alarm Bell For All Americans - The Free Press

Jen Easterly

After an eight-month void in official leadership, the U.S. Senate this week confirmed former Obama-era senior National Security Agency official Jen Easterly to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) amid increasingly frequent digital attacks.

Easterly, who formerly served on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and as Senior Director for Counterterrorism, among other roles, takes the reins from Brandon Wales, who has served as acting director of the agency since November. Her approval was unanimous, following delays caused by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who sought to slow the appointment of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials to force President Joe Biden to visit the U.S.-Mexican border.

It is unfortunate that political games delayed her confirmation, but we are pleased the Senate has finally acted to confirm Jen Easterly as CISA Director, House Chairs Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY), of the Committee on Homeland Security and the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection & Innovations, respectively, said of Easterlys appointment. At a time when cyber threats are increasing and evolving, Jen Easterly brings the experience and leadership needed to strengthen our nations cybersecurity. We look forward to working with her to ensure CISA is best positioned to fulfill its mission of protecting Federal networks and critical infrastructure.

CISA is in charge of improving cybersecurity in the government, coordinating cybersecurity efforts with states, and countering private and nation-state hackers. Recent days, however, have stressed the current limits of such capabilities. Formed in 2018 out of DHSs cyber operations, CISA has struggled to protect the nations physical and digital infrastructure against a mounting slew of attacks, even as new legislation heaps new duties on its roughly 2,500 personnel.

Today, CISA finds itself at the forefront of several major cyber incidents impacting both federal networks and the private sector, U.S. Rep. John Katko (R-NY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said. Now more than ever, our nations lead civilian cybersecurity agency needs strong leadership. Jen Easterly has a proven record of success in government and industry alike, and I applaud her confirmation by the Senate. Our nation is at a crossroads when it comes to our cybersecurity posture, and I look forward to working with Ms. Easterly to ensure CISA has the resources, workforce, and authorities it needs to effectively carry out its mission.

This year has seen an increase of high-profile cyberattacks, including the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May by an alleged Russian cybercrime gang, which crippled the energy infrastructure and supplies for nearly half of the East Coasts liquid fuels. Kaseya, an IT solutions developer, was also hit in July in a ransomware attack that exploited authentication controls to hit hundreds of small to medium-sized companies throughout the United States.

Additionally, the national security infrastructure is still reeling from the SolarWinds hack at the end of last year, which has been declared one of the most devastating in history. Global software supply chains were proven to be highly vulnerable, and the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture, and Commerce were all among those compromised. Officials later alleged the hackers involved in that attack were linked to Russia.

Amid an uncertain time for both the public and private sectors security, many seem to be lauding an old and steady hand added for the fight. While thanking the outgoing director for his efforts in an acting capacity, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, in particular, applauded the addition of Easterly as the second-ever Senate-confirmed director to head CISA.

Jen is a brilliant cybersecurity expert and a proven leader with a career spanning military service, civil service, and the private sector, Mayorkas said. I am proud to welcome her to the DHS team and look forward to working together to protect our country from urgent cybersecurity and physical threats.

Excerpt from:
Former NSA official Jen Easterly confirmed as director of CISA - Homeland Preparedness News

A group of House Republicans sent a Tuesday letter to the National Security Agency (NSA) demanding information about allegations the agency illegally spied on Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson.

The Daily Caller first obtained the letter, which was spearheaded by Republican Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Republican Florida Rep. Bill Posey. In the letter, the lawmakers call on the NSA to provide them with information about allegations that the agency was spying on Carlson in regards to communication with U.S.-based Kremlin intermediaries pertaining to a potential interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Axios reported. The Axios report referenced two sources familiar with Carlsons communications.

In late June, Carlson said that the NSA was spying on him, and reading confidential texts and emails in order to try and take his show off the air. (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Says He Has Confirmed The NSA Is Spying On Him)

Its illegal for the NSA to spy on American citizens, its a crime, Carlson said. Its not a third-world country. Things like that should not happen in America.

The NSA denied the allegations from Carlson.

The letter was signed by 15 other House Republicans who all called for the following information:

READ THE LETTER HERE:

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) by Henry Rodgers

After the disturbing treatment of Donald Trump by the Deep State, it should come as no surprise that intelligence agencies are continuing their illegal surveillance of Americans who dare to challenge power-hungry elites in Washington, D.C., Gohmert said in a statement to the Daily Caller. Reports about the NSA spying on Tucker Carlson are reminiscent of something one would expect to see in a tyrannical dictatorship, not the United States of America where citizens supposedly still have Constitutional rights. The Agencys attempt to explain itself thus far has only raised more questions that Mr. Carlson and every citizen of this country deserve to have answered. (RELATED: It Increasingly Looks Like Tucker Carlsons Private Emails Were Leaked To The Media By The Government)

Spying, unmasking, and leaking the private communications of American citizens weaponizes our intelligence agencies, and this abuse of power must stop. Protecting national security is not only about deterring enemy threats, but it also involves safeguarding our liberties, Posey told the Daily Caller. (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Says NSA Is Leaking The Contents Of His Emails To Journalists)

The Daily Caller contacted the NSA about the letter to which they did not immediately respond.

Link:
EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Demand Information From NSA About Allegations The Agency Illegally Spied On Tucker Carlson - Daily Caller

According to a popular saying, justice delayed is justice denied. But what if a person is convicted for a crime that he never did and was just a mere suspect. This is the outright injustice and absolutist nature of the state. A commoner gets up in the morning, goes to work, gives his everything there, comes back home exhausted and sleeps peacefully at night. He can do so without any stress because he knows that the state machinery is patrolling the streets at night. He can do so because he knows that if any mishap is to happen, he can go to the police, who will help him.

In case of any conflict, he can knock on the doors of the judiciary who will protect his interests. If the fundamental rights are harmed, they can directly approach the Supreme Court of India. But what if a persons trust in the state machinery and its policies fly right through the window. He is left with nothing but fear, panic and insecurity. Given the present circumstances, peoples trust in state machinery is waning away. Pandemic has rendered many people jobless; those who have jobs are demoted, businesses are shutting down, and people move towards poverty.

The cherry on top was that the gross revenue collection of the central government was near than pre-pandemic levels. This is absurd and unrealistic because if the income of people of a nation reduces, the tax collection must reduce. This mighty figure owes itself to increased excise duty on petrol and diesel. The government shifted the burden of filling its treasury from corporate tax profit to the shoulders of a commoner who is already grappling with death, despair and low income. The recent survey by RBI in Consumer Confidence Index CCI shows that the consumers have bleak economic expectations for the coming year.

Despite all these hardships, a person can still sleep peacefully at night knowing that the state will protect him if a conflict arises, but draconian acts like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA and National Security Act NSA do not foster such feelings. The Indian judiciary is notorious for corruption, delays and opaque working. There are several circumstances where a wrongfully convicted person under the UAPA and NSA spent years in jail and was finally acquitted. Pakistan is notorious for harbouring terrorist organisations and funding terrorism activities in India.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said that one could choose his friends but not neighbours. Given Indias present situation and its conflict with neighbouring countries like Pakistan and China, stringent laws that reduce terrorism are necessary. But caution must be used while slapping terrorism charges because these charges, whether proven or not, can destroy a persons life. A person who is convicted under terrorism charges, later acquitted, is not accepted in society. He cant avail visa, get employment in his home country and live a life of dignity and respect.

NSA is a colonial-era act that traces its history to the Rowlatt Act of 1919. National Security Act was passed in 1980 by a parliamentary act. This act aims to provide preventive detention powers to the government in some instances and matters connected. This act is applicable throughout the country. A person can be detained by the central government or state government if the government has reasonable reasons to believe that the individual is a threat to the security of India, its relations of India with foreign countries, public order, supply of essential services.

The act also allows the detention of foreigners for regulation and expulsion from the country. NSA is invoked if a police officer on duty is assaulted. According to the act, a person can be detained for 12 months maximum, but the detention can be extended if the government finds evidence.Article 22 of the Constitution, which protects against arrest and detention in some instances, states two types of detention preventive and punitive.

Punitive detention is granted as a punishment for a crime committed by an individual. A person is put under punitive detention after an offence or attempt of offence takes place.Preventive detention, on the other hand, is granted if the state has reasonable doubts and suspicion that a person will commit a crime. Preventive detention is offered to prevent a person from committing or attempting to commit a crime. Under NSA, the arrestee has no basic rights, including information about the reason for the arrest; the arrestee is not entitled to legal aid in matters connected to the proceedings.

If a person is detained under NSA, the detention is not recorded in the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB. NCRB collects data related to crime in the country. There is no FIR registered against NSA because of which there are no statistics.Experts argue that the government uses NSA as extrajudicial power. The NSA has come under scrutiny for misuse by the authorities. NSA is many times equated with anarchism. The proceedings and the final report of the advisory board are kept under wraps.

NSA was used unjustly against people like Chandrashekhar of Bhim Army, Dr Kafeel of Uttar Pradesh for protesting against CAA; it was imposed against three men in a village of Uttar Pradesh for conflict over a cricket match, it was imposed against three men accused of cow slaughter, it was imposed against journalist KishoreChandra for criticising BJP etc. The act has drawn criticisms from people inside and outside the country, stating it as a violation of human rights. Amnesty International and the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre have expressed concerns for the same.

The unlawful activities prevention act was passed in 1967 by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It was passed to upgrade TADA and POTA acts which are both anti-terrorism acts. The act allows the government to declare an individual, group of individuals as a terrorist if he promotes, prepares and aids terrorist activities. The investigation under UAPA allows NIA officials to freeze and seize the financial assets of the accused. The act allows officers to prosecute foreign nationals as well as citizens of India. The act was upgraded to bring India at par with international practices against terrorism, speed up the investigation process against terrorist organisations.

The amendment in the act allows an individual to be deemed a terrorist, which wasnt the case before. The act has come under scrutiny because of its low conviction rate. The Ministry of home affairs in Rajya Sabha produced data that shows that the actress conviction rate of 2.2%. The act harms the fundamental rights of individuals for free speech as it gives absolute powers to the government for prosecution. There have been instances where people who were wrongfully convicted under UAPA spent years in jail and were later acquitted.

Bashir Ahmad Baba of Kashmir spent 11 years in Vadodara jail who was held under UAPA charges, Mohammed Habib spent four years in prison under UAPA charges, Illyas Mohammed Akbar and Mohammed Irfan Gaus spent nine years in jail under UAPA charges, Father Stan Swamy spent almost a year in jail under UAPA charges and later died, Asif Iqbal Tanha Debangana Kalita Natasha Narwal spent time under detention. All these people, after spending more than legal time in jail, were later acquitted. The courts and government fail to understand is failure of government machinery if a person is detained for a decade for a crime he did not commit.

Unlawful and wrongful detention has serious consequences on a person life ranging from mental health, physical health, social life, life with dignity, future economic prospects is. The list is endless. The Supreme Court of India, citing international examples like New Zealand and Ireland, started granting compensation for loss of liberty due to malicious imprisonment. The Supreme Court held it in cases like Khatri, Beena Sethi, Rudra Shah, Bhim Singh, Raghuvansh DiwanChand Bhasin, Babloo Chauhan and Bilkhis Yakub Rasool.

But always remember that monetary compensation can never return the life lost under wrongful detention.

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Unjust provisions of UAPA and NSA have no place in 21st century - Inventiva