Category Archives: NSA

Michael Samukai, the son of Defense Minister Brownie Samukai, who is being tried for allegedly shooting Zardee Andrews in the back of his neck, told Criminal Court A yesterday that the gun used during the incident was issued to him by the National Security Agency (NSA).

The agency is expected to appear before the court on Thursday, March 2.

Defendant Samukai, who is on the witness stand, was said to have shot Andrews on September 13, 2016, during a fist fight about the victims extra marital relations with his wife. The incident occurred at the Tropicana Beach on the Robertfiled Highway.

Although, defendant Samukai testified that it was the NSA that issued him the gun, police investigation established that he acquired the weapon illegally. He, however, said the permit for the weapon is still in the possession of the NSA.

Samukai claimed that he is an employee of the NSA with a rank of deputy chief of security assigned at the National Port Authority (NPA). Despite the shooting incident, he still maintains his post.

His explanation came immediately after the prosecution asked him to produce every legitimate document in his possession that authorizes him to carry the arm.

It was due to that information that his lawyer asked the court for the agency to appear before it and to prove whether or not the defendants was authorized by the NSA to carry a firearm.

Further to his testimony, defendant Samukai alleged that he was issued the gun, after he had complained to his bosses that he had been attacked on many occasions, by unidentified persons while performing his duty at the port.

After I was physically attacked on many occasions as deputy chief of security at the port, it was when I thought that I needed protection and it was how the NSA gave me the weapon for protection, the defendant alleged.

He added that the NSA did not give him the permit for the weapon.

Explaining about the shooting incident, Samukai denied any knowledge as to who actually carried out the act.

The gun was in my jacket and while we were fighting, he spotted it and we together took it out of my clothes (jacket) and it went off, so, I do not know how he was shot, Samukai alleged.

He claimed that after the incident he immediately reported the weapon to the headquarters of the LNP, where the Police Inspector General, Gregory Coleman, advised him to leave it there because nothing was going to happen to me.

He is charged with multiple crimes, including aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit murder and illegal possession of firearm.

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Michael Samukai Implicates NSA in 'Gun Ownership' - Liberian Daily Observer

Say you're a senior national security adviser on a campaign and part of your job is to speak to foreign ambassadors. You know the United States government often has such foreign officials under electronic surveillance, but you also know that, as an American citizen, you're still protected by the Fourth Amendment. Unfortunately for you, the FBI can collect your communications emails, texts, chats, or calls with those foreign officials and look at them without a warrant.

How is that possible? Nearly 10 years ago, Congress gave the NSA broad authority to intercept Internet communications, as long as it was for foreign intelligence purposes. That authority, known as Section 702, has played a valuable role in disrupting terrorist plots and gathering foreign intelligence, but it has always had two serious flaws.

First, its drafters did not carefully consider what protections should exist for U.S. persons whose communications would be reviewed by law enforcement. Second, the drafters did not foresee what having a statute that allowed for broad collection against foreigners would mean for U.S. companies operating overseas. But now, Congress has an opportunity to fix these two flaws before this statute expires at the end of the year.

According to government officials, Section 702 has played a crucial role in disrupting terrorist plots. A group commissioned by President Barack Obama to review the statute concluded that information obtained through it had "contributed in some degree" to the success of 53 terrorism investigations. In particular, intelligence agencies have highlighted that Section 702 helped disrupt a plot to bomb the New York subway system and a terrorism financing scheme operating out of Missouri. Successes like these have led intelligence officials to describe it as their "most significant tool" for the "detection, identification, and disruption of terrorist threats."

But while Section 702 is a powerful tool in the fight against terror, it raises serious concerns in the law enforcement context.

Section 702 allows the NSA to collect the communications of foreign persons from U.S. tech companies like Microsoft and Google and from U.S. telecom firms' networks. This collection, though targeted at potentially dangerous foreigners, inevitably sweeps up the communications of innocent Americans and non-Americans. These communications can be accessed by the FBI when investigating not only national security matters, but any crime. Because Section 702 information is not obtained pursuant to a warrant, this allows the FBI to evade the requirements of the Fourth Amendment and unconstitutionally invade the privacy of Americans.

American tech companies are also affected by Section 702. After particulars of 702 surveillance were leaked to the press, foreign governments, anxious about being surveilled by the NSA, denied contracts to U.S. tech firms like Microsoft and Verizon. More destructive was a 2015 ruling by the European Court of Justice which cited concerns about Section 702 when striking down a framework known as the Safe Harbor, which protected American tech companies from certain European data regulations.

Without Safe Harbor, U.S. companies could have been required to locate Europeans' data on servers in the European Union, with this seriously increasing companies' costs and proving especially prohibitive for start-ups. Although EU and U.S. authorities quickly implemented a replacement for Safe Harbor known as Privacy Shield, that agreement is already being challenged in EU courts. If it is struck down, the commerce-killing requirements that were predicted in the aftermath of Safe Harbor could become a reality, bringing transatlantic data flows and trade to a screeching halt.

Congress should reauthorize Section 702, but it should also amend it to protect Americans' rights and empower U.S. companies to push back against government surveillance that hurts their bottom lines. As lawmakers do this, they can ensure that Americans are safe, their rights are respected, and our companies continue to compete in the global marketplace.

Also from the Washington Examiner

Liberal comedian and actress Rosie O'Donnell said Tuesday that President Trump and his administration are going down for "treason."

.@Rosie accuses @realDonaldTrump of "treason" pic.twitter.com/Q0dX4lIRyU Sean Langille (@SeanLangille) March 1, 2017

"The evidence against Trump and Russia is huge and mounting every day. We see it, he can't lie about it," O'Donnell said outside the White House after leading an anti-Trump rally before the president's first address to a joint session of Congress.

"He is going down and so will all of his administration. The charge is treason," she said.

O'Donnell said she has "faith that there are Republican congressmen who will stand up and do

02/28/17 7:23 PM

Mieke Eoyang (@MiekeEoyang) is the vice president for the National Security Program at Third Way and previously served as a subcommittee staff director on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Gary Ashcroft (@ashcroftgm) is a national security fellow at Third Way.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.

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Congress can reform the NSA to protect our rights without putting us in danger - Washington Examiner

As if not troubled enough by President Trumps attacks, a new debate is heighteningtensions in the intelligence community. The Pentagon has started to assess whether it is time todivide the leadershipof the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.Such a move is dubious: Is change necessary? Can the IC tolerate another shock?

A look overseas to the Israeli case could provide some insight.

According to that plan, the new directorate would absorb responsibilities and resources from both Unit8200(the IDFs signals intelligence or SIGINT unit, equivalent to the NSA), as well as the Computer Service Directorate (equivalent to the Joint Staff J6). A fierce internal debate has emerged, with several (including the head of AMAN, the Intelligence Directorate) arguing that all cyber activities should remain under AMANs responsibility, while others insist that there is an acute need for a dedicated cyber directorate.

In early 2017, Lt. Gen. Eizenkot announced that the establishment of the Cyber Directorate would be postponed until further notice, and declared that AMAN would handle offensive and information collection elements in cyber space, while the Cyber Administration would come under the Computer Service Directorate, focusing mainly on defensive activities.

The reasons that led Lt. Gen. Eizenkot, who is considered a level-headed officer, to reverse his 2015 decision are highly relevant to the American case.

From a strategic standpoint, the implications of the cyber domain on present and future battlefields are still ambiguous and constantly changing; so too are their effects on traditional kinetic challenges. The inter-relations between the physical and virtual domains are still in flux, with grave ramifications on the nature of threats, and the measures needed to cope with them.

These changes are highly relevant to the way the IC reacts and adapts. The vast majority of the NSAs current collection activities are most likely executed through and with the cyber domain. Though traditional methods (such as phone tapping) are not dead, it is safe to assume that cyber is more dominant than ever, and will only continue to grow over more traditional domains and methods. Furthermore, given the specific characteristics of the cyber domain, it is difficult to distinguish between types of cyber activities (e.g., collection vs. attack). Separating those in charge of SIGINT and those in charge of cyber doesnt make sense.

as the last few years have taught us, the Wests adversaries have themselves transitioned to the cyber domain. With Russias (alleged)interventionin the U.S. elections, theSnowden affair, HAMAS and Irans extensive use ofcyber-related techniques, Chinesetheftof F-35 plans, and ISISssophisticated useof the virtual domain, this may not be the right time for radical changes.

Separating the NSA and the Cyber Command would inevitably create a long transition period, during which U.S. cyber capabilities would be negatively affected. Disputes over missions and responsibilities, coordination issues, transition of manpower, and lack of sufficient resources in one or both entities would jeopardize U.S. cyber resilience in the short term at the very least.

Finally, with Trump trying to aggressivelyredefinerelations between the IC and the executive branch, the last thing the community needs at this moment is another shock. A decision to separate the NSA and Cyber Command would create an all-out war within the IC and the Department of Defense, since no sane commander would agree to surrender responsibilities and resources to another organization.

The NSA itself would lose not only prestige but also relevancy, and presumably try to torpedo the move. If any change is needed at all, it would require a different approach: the cyber component should gain supremacy over any other type of SIGINT activity, as this will be the not-too-distant future reality. Until then, NSA-Cyber Command relations should remain untouched.

Shay Hershkovitz, Ph.D., is chief strategy officer at Wikistrat, Inc. and a political science professor at Tel Aviv University specializing in intelligence studies. He is also a former IDF intelligence officer whose book, "Aman Comes To Light," deals with the history of the Israeli intelligence community.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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NSA, Cyber Command structure should remain the same - The Hill (blog)

Reddit is pretty much a repository for anything you could ever dream up, and yes, to no ones surprise, Redditdick pics are a thing.

In case you werent aware, there is a Reddit thread called Dick Pics 4 Freedom (link obviously NSFW) that invites guys to upload cock shotsall toprotest the American governments use of the National Security Administration (NSA) to surveil its citizens.

An act of protest has never been more raunchy, and we love it.

The Reddit thread has been around for nearly two years, racking up literally hundreds of sexy guys and their naughty bits, but with Cheeto Jesus now at the helm of the American executive branch, protesting the U.S. governments misdeeds has never been more important.

Youre doing it wrong.

For those wondering, the thread beganstrangely enoughafter a segment on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in which the host sat down with notorious whistleblowerEdward Snowden. When Oliver jokingly asked Snowden whether guys should stop taking dick pics now that we know about the governments covert surveillance programs, Snowden replied, You shouldnt change your behavior because of a government agency somewhere thats doing the wrong thing. If you sacrifice your values because youre afraid, you dont care about those values very much.

And thus the Reddit thread of all Reddit threads was born.

Sure, the thread is pretty much just a place for horned-up guys to seekvalidationfor their occasionally wonky dicks, but hey, we arent complaining!

We particularly love the hilarious messages that accompanyseveral of the photosthings like My dick for freedom, Throwing it out for freedom, and Am I doing this right? (It was a woman, and no, she wasnt.)

Oh, and what could be the best of all: My house is getting remodeled. I had to move a bunch of stuff around, so heres my dick for freedom.

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Yes, Guys Are Still Uploading Reddit Dick Pics to Protest the NSA - Unicorn Booty (blog)

Adm. Michael S. Rogers, commander, U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) and head of the National Security Agency. US Navy Photo

SAN DIEGO, Calif. The head of the National Security Agency reiterated that Russia engaged in cyber actions to influence the result of the U.S. presidential election and said the Moscow-directed interference is changing the way the NSA thinks about U.S. critical infrastructure.

We have been very public particularly if I put on my NSA hat in categorizing the behaviors we saw, from a cyber perspective, the Russians engaged in terms of our election process. We were very confident that, hey, this happened. What does that mean? said Adm. Rogers, who also heads U.S. Cyber Command, said on Thursday at the West 2017 conference.

It highlights to us that we need to rethink what critical infrastructure means in the digital age. We tended to view historically critical infrastructure as something associated with an output. Hey, air traffic. Hey, pipelines. The financial world. Power distribution. Generally, we thought a very industrial set of processes that generated some sort of output.

What the Russians did to influence the U.S. election adds a new dimension to what the U.S. should work to protect from influence from a cyber action or attack, he said.

What about information, data and fundamental processes like the ability to ensure high confidence that in a Western democracy the electoral outcome is actually reflective of the majority of our citizens, which is at the heart of the democratic system? he said. We have to think of it in a different way, and data increasingly has a value all of its own.

Rogers cited the attacks on the Office of Personnel Management in which the personal data of more than 21. 5 million people who had undergone the U.S. security clearance process was breached and the Russias hack of Democratic National Committee emails and subsequent distribution on Wikileaks as new types of threats.

You saw that in OPM, you saw that with the Russians the way they penetrated systems, moved data and then provided that in very public, unaltered format, he said. So we have to work through that. We need to work with a broader set of nations to clearly signal that this is unacceptable, and we need to drive the calculus in a different way.

Separately during the conference event, Rogers said the Trump administration has made cyber security a priority and predicted administration-level action soon.

The discussions moderator, retired Adm. James Stavridis, former NATO supreme commander and U.S. Naval Institute chairman, said that a Trump executive order on cyber was in the works and asked Rogers on the status.

Theres an ongoing dialogue that the administration I dont want to speak for them but if you take their statements, theyve been very upfront about the desire to make this a priority and a focus area in the early stages of the administration, Rogers said. I expect it to play out sometime in the immediate near term. The process always takes longer than you would like, but I think this would play out. The biggest input Ive tried to provide and Im just one voice take this opportunity to step back and look at this with a new set of eyes and say, if you were creating this from the ground up, how would you do this?

Originally posted here:
NSA Head: Russian Interference in US Election, 'Hey, This Happened' - USNI News

The headquarters of the NSA in Fort Meade, Maryland.Courtesy of the NSA

Ideas

Ledgett is the deputy director of the National Security Agency

In 1977 I was finishing my sophomore year of college, working two jobs to put myself through school, and thought, There has to be a better way. So I enlisted in the U.S. Army as a Signals Intelligence/Electronic Warfare Morse Intercept Operator, which didnt tell me much but would let me earn money toward college through the GI Bill . My plan was to do my 3 years, get out, and finish college. That plan didnt work out; I ended up staying in the Army almost eleven years and then transitioned to the National Security Agency as a civilian for 29 more, and am retiring this April after 40 years in the business. I did end up finishing my degree after hours, and went on to get a masters degree, just not in the way Id planned. What happened along the way was that I discovered the fulfillment that comes from serving the nation and its allies, working with some of the most amazing people on the planet, on the most challenging problems we face.

For someone like me who is motivated by understanding how things work, the signals intelligence business is fascinating. Theres the challenge of understanding the communications technology that the target (in my early days, principally the Soviet Union ) uses, and how to intercept those communications. Then theres the need to understand the internal plumbing of how the intercepted data flows through our complicated architecture, and the multiple transformations that happen along the way. After that, analysts need to figure out what the data actually means the so what? of the intercept. Thats not as easy as it sounds, as the targets will work to hide their activities through cover names, and make references to shared information and experience that we dont have. And they rarely communicate in English, which requires a very high degree of expertise in the relevant foreign languages, to include slang and argot specific to functions and sub-cultures. This one is especially important to get right the difference between launch at noon and lunch at noon is consequential.

Its a complicated puzzle that requires multiple domains of expertise, all applied in the right way at the right time, to achieve success. But success in what we do isnt enough success has to translate into a good outcome for the users of our material, whether thats a policy maker planning a diplomatic negotiation with a foreign country, or a military commander assessing the threat to our forces. That means we need to understand their plans, and the way they work, well enough to know the best place for us to inject our information yet another level of complexity. But a successful outcome whether thats providing key information at the right point in a negotiation, or warning a military unit of an ambush so they can avoid it is hugely motivating, because we can see how the application of our hard-earned technical and operational knowledge resulted in a good outcome for the nation, and in those cases where we actually save lives, the individuals. There is a satisfaction that comes from knowing the story behind the headlines, and the fact that we had a part in how that played out even if we cant tell anyone about it.

The cyber domain is relatively new, adding some layers of complexity, but having the same foundational characteristics. In fact, the principal reason NSA is so skilled in the cyber domain is that weve been operating in it since its inception. The global telecommunications environment, where NSA works its signals intelligence mission to produce foreign intelligence, is also cyberspace, and we are expert denizens. Our complementary mission of information assurance, where we protect national security-related networks and information, requires us to have detailed insights into U.S. government networks. In both domains, our people need to have extraordinarily deep technical knowledge of networks, devices, and software, which quite often exceeds that of the people who built or programmed those products. When applied to the cybersecurity mission, it gives the nation a strategic advantage. And from a motivational point of view, what could be more satisfying than using ones expertise to defeat a foreign hacker threat to the country?

The personal and professional rewards of working in the intelligence business have been remarkable. Ive had the opportunity to travel to 39 different countries, and made lifelong friends in some of them. Ive seen what went on behind the headlines of everything from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan , to the North Korean destructive attack on Sony , to the Russian cyber exploitation of the Democratic National Committee. More importantly, Ive seen the unsung heroes of the intelligence community, and especially at NSA, who work incredibly hard applying their formidable intellects and energy to protect us. They work countless hours at great personal cost, from missing milestones in their childrens lives to turning down lucrative jobs outside government because of their deep love for the mission. They deploy with our forces forward in war zones to ensure our military is protected, sacrificing time with their loved ones. Unfortunately, some of them have made an even greater sacrifice. The NSA/CSS Cryptologic Memorial Wall names the 176 individuals who have given their lives performing signals intelligence and information assurance missions around the globe.

Thats what kept me in this business for 40 years the combination of the intellectual challenge, the chance to develop and apply technical and operational expertise to things that matter, the joy of working with incredibly intelligent and motivated people, and the feeling that Im part of something bigger than myself. Im a little envious of the people coming into the workforce right now, as they have limitless opportunities to contribute, to serve, and to get the same kind of satisfaction from working in this completely digital, connected world. In 25 years or so, one of them will be sitting in the seat that I am now, and I hope she gets as much enjoyment from the journey as I have.

Ledgett is the Deputy Director of the National Security Agency. He will retire in April.

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NSA Deputy Director: Why I Spent the Last 40 Years In National Security - TIME

Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster / AP

BY: Adam Kredo February 24, 2017 1:25 pm

Incoming White House National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster sought to reassure senior Trump administration officials during his first "all hands" staff meeting Thursday, according to those who attended the get together and told the Washington Free Beacon that McMaster informed staffers he does not intend to pursue a major shakeup of President Donald Trump's national security team.

McMaster, who replaced Michael Flynn following his resignation last week, plans to navigate a vast departure from the Obama administration's foreign policy vision, according to senior White House officials who described the meeting as "reassuring." McMaster emphasized that he will not dismantle the team that Flynn had built.

As part of his discussion with White House national security staff, McMaster recommended a comprehensive reading list that included President Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal," and several other tomes by leading historians about how to get the upper hand on America's enemies. White House staff are said to have been mostly "thrilled" when hearing about the book list.

Sources who spoke to the Free Beacon about McMaster's vision, as laid out in the Thursday meeting, expressed optimism about his appointment and pushed back on what they described as false media narratives centered around White House disarray following Flynn's departure.

"It's no secret we've had a few more all-hands meetings than we intended in our first monthbut General McMaster used this event to both reassure the NSC staff and to give us the tools to continue the mission," said one senior White House National Security Council official who requested anonymity while discussing internal White House meetings.

McMaster explicitly told White House officials that he does not aim to dismantle Trump's foreign policy team or push out those perceived as still loyal to Flynn. These comments run counter to a recent New York Times report claiming that McMaster is pursuing a massive reorganization of the president's national security team.

"He made it clear he wasn't there to grind a political axe or engage in a witch hunt," the senior White House official said. "He was there to provide leadership, including direction on how to think about the task in front of us."

To help with this effort, McMaster recommended several books meant to help current White House officials understand his own foreign policy vision.

One senior White House official who spoke to the Free Beacon described the reading list as pleasantly surprising and a vast departure from the former Obama administration's own national security vision.

In addition to Trump's "Art of the Deal," McMaster recommended reading his own book, "Dereliction of Duty," which catalogues the mistakes that led the United States into a quagmire in Vietnam.

He also suggestedthat White House staffers read Peter Rodman's "Presidential Command," which McMaster reportedly referred to as the "gold standard" in foreign policy history. Rodman was a top official in the Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and both Bush administrations.

Senior White House staff are said to have found the mention of the book "very reassuring."

"It's certainly encouraging to see General McMaster highlighting his legacy," one source said.

McMaster went on to further recommend two books by Zachary Shore, a historian and international conflict expert who teaches at the Naval Postgraduate School.

One Shore book, "Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions," was described as "a cautionary tale for the staff" at the White House. The other, "A Sense of the Enemy," examines methods to overtake rival forces.

Lastly, McMaster recommended staff read an essay by Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan titled, "The Rhyme of History," which tackles lessons from World War I.

Senior White House officials who took part in the meeting described the reading list as encouraging and part of an effort to restore conservative principals focused primarily on defending the U.S.'s best interests.

The mention of MacMillan's essay in particular "suggests General McMaster does not consider the 21st century a sort of post-historical bubble, but rather that there is a great deal to be learned from history as we chart our path forward," said one official who described McMaster as advocating a wholesale reversal from the Obama administration's vision.

Several historians currently serve on the White House's national security team, including Col. Derek Harvey, a former advisor to Gen. David Petraeus; Michael Anton, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, and Victoria Coates, a former top aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and art historian.

Link:
Newly Installed NSA McMaster Reassures National Security Staff: No Witch Hunts Coming - Washington Free Beacon

The Pentagon is beginning to assess whether its time to split up the leadership of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.

Right now, the two organizations share a leader Adm. Mike Rogers, who is director of the NSA and also the commander of the cyber unit.

But lawmakers have debated ending that dual-hat arrangement as the United States moves into a new era of expanded cyber warfare.

Separating the leadership of the NSA and Cyber Command would create a new vacancy for President Trump to fill.

Were looking at the issue, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told The Hillon Wednesday, pointing to a newmemoissued by Defense Secretary James Mattis asking for an initial plan to better support information management and cyber operations.

Congress in December passed a bill that elevated Cyber Command to a unified combatant command. That change made Cyber Command its own war fighting unit, spinning it out from under Strategic Command.

But that legislation also pumped the breaks on splitting the NSA from Cyber Command, requiring the Pentagon to conduct a full assessment first.

Experts and former security officials regard it as inevitable that the NSA and Cyber Command will someday be separated but fear that split could be damaging if done too quickly.

Thats because Cyber Command wasnt established at NSA headquarters until 2009 and remains dependent on the agency to function.

If you split them off and give them separate bosses, you run the risk of potential personality conflicts between those two that might then cause a lessoning of the sharing and cooperation as it is occurring now, said Steve Bucci, a former Army Special Forces officer and Pentagon official who is now a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Thats probably the biggest danger that I see.

Tensions already exist between NSA and Cybercom over professional overlap, and if duties and boundaries arent very clearly delineated in any split, these matters will worsen as they both fight for mission and resources, said John Schindler, a former NSA analyst and counterintelligence officer.

Alexandra Sander, a research associate at the Center for a New American Security, feared that the split could produce stove piping of intelligence information a term used to describe information that gets bottled up in agencies rather than shared in the government.

Elevating Cyber Command to its own unified command, and then if you had a split with the NSA on top of that, especially in a domain like cyber which should be integrated across the board with other functional and geographic commands and military operations if you had increased stove piping, I think that would have a negative effect on our capabilities, Sander said.

Under the law passed by Congress last year, Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford have to conduct a joint assessment into what would happen if the NSA and Cyber Command were separated.

They must ensure that the termination of the dual-hat arrangement will not pose risks to the military effectiveness of the United States Cyber Command that are unacceptable to the national security interests of the United States, the law states.

The military leaders are required to evaluate the dependence of Cyber Command on the NSA and how well the organizations could carry out their duties independently.

The legislation also prevents the split from happening until Cyber Command has achieved full operational capability, which isntexpectedto happen until the end of fiscal 2018.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office is also studying the dual-hat leadership of the two organizations; the office expects to complete that review in June, according to a spokesman.

Sen. John McCainJohn McCainHannity apologizes for sharing 'inaccurate' story about McCain McCain spokeswoman: Hannity should 'correct the record' after 'fake news' tweet CNN to host town hall featuring John McCain, Lindsey Graham MORE (R-Ariz.), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, has staunchly opposed a premature separation of the two organizations. Other lawmakers have been less vocal, adopting a wait-and-see approach pending assessments by the Pentagon and GAO.

We want to make the right decision. Im undecided, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who chairs the newly formed Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity.

When you separate that out, you have to make sure that you have really good lines of communication, coordination and so forth. There are positives to either way, and we know right know that we have something we think is working; the question is at what point does it become so big that it needs to be changed? Rounds said.

President Obamaspokein favor of ending the dual-hat nature of the role late last year after he was reportedlypressedto do so by his Defense secretary and director of national intelligence.

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Pentagon mulling split of NSA, Cyber Command - The Hill

The National Security Agency has denied it indiscriminately spied on spectators, athletes and others who attended the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002.

The denial came in a document filed last week in a U.S. District Court in Utah, where a group of Salt Lake City residents filed a complaint in 2015 alleging the U.S. government engaged in widespread, indiscriminate communications surveillance, interception, and analysis, without warrants and without probable cause during the Games that took place just months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

At issue, specifically, is how the Presidents Surveillance Program, or PSP, was implemented during the Games. PSP made headlines after 2013 when the government admitted to collecting a type of information known as metadata in bulk following the publication of classified materials leaked by Edward Snowden.

[New study: Snowdens disclosures about NSA spying had a scary effect on free speech]

In the court document, the NSA and other intelligence authorities admit that the activities actually carried out under the PSP were conducted without warrant or court order or judicial findings of probablecause, but rather, under Presidential and statutory authority, NSA attorney James Gilligan wrote in the filing on Friday.

He added, however, To the extent the allegations of this paragraph exceed the scope of or are inconsistent with the foregoing admissions, they are denied, including, specifically, the allegation that the PSP involved indiscriminate surveillance, interception, or analysis of communications.

Gilligan wrote neither the PSP nor any other NSA intelligence activity involved or evolved into blanket, indiscriminate surveillance of the contents of every email and text message and the metadata of every telephone call sent or received in Salt Lake City, or the vicinity of Olympic venues, during the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games.

Gilligan concluded the filing by asking the court to dismiss the complaint.

The NSAs latest request for dismissal comes just a month after U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby refused to dismiss the complaint that was filed by former Salt Lake City Mayor Ross Rocky Anderson on behalf a bipartisan group of individuals. The individuals are not seeking monetary damages.

Because the allegations in the [complaint] are not legal conclusions, bare assertions of the elements of standing, or sufficiently fantastic on their face as to defy reality, the law requires the court to accept them as true when evaluating the NSAs Motion to Dismiss, Shelby wrote in a court filing last month. Though these allegations will undoubtedly be tested as this case proceeds, the court concludes at this early stage that the Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged injury and redressability as required (H/t: Fox 13)

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NSA denies 'blanket' spying on spectators and athletes at the 2002 ... - Washington Post

Not what this might look like. Public Domain image adapted by Eric Grundhauser

A versionof this storyoriginally appearedonMuckrock.com.

A classified government document opens with an odd sequence of events relating to parapsychology has occurred within the last month and concluded with an alarming question about psychics nuking cities so that they became lost in time and space. If this sounds like a plot out of science fiction, it is - but its also a NSA memo from 1977.

The first event raised by the NSA note is a CIA report which mentioned KGB research into parapsychology. According to this, the KGB used hobbyists and non-governmental researchers to talk to western scientists. This allowed the KGB to collect useful information without putting themselves into a position to accidentally leak confidential information to westerners. According to the NSA note, this tactic yielded high grade western scientific data.

The next event described by the NSA note was what appeared to be a Russian provocation, though exactly what sort was a matter of some debate. In June 1977, an American journalist was detained in Russia for receiving a Soviet paper on parapsychology. The paper allegedly documented PSI (i.e. psychic) particles within the living cell, allegedly providing a physical basis for parapsychology.

This struck American intelligence as being a form of entrapment, though the goal was uncertain. Some thought it was an effort to provoke radio chatter which the Soviets could trace to get a better idea of the U.S.s interest and activities. Another theory was that it was simply a warning to the West to stay away from sensitive Soviet research. A third theory was that it was a double-think ploy to pretend interest in a clumsy manner to make us think that this was really just a deception to trick the West into believing there was interest when there really was none. While this last theory might sound paranoid, this is how denial and deception operate - and its something that Russian counterintelligence has long excelled at.

The section concluded with a note that there had supposedly been a successful demonstration of telekinetic power in a Soviet military sponsored research lab, and the alleged discovery of a new type of energy perhaps even more important than that of Atomic energy.

The third event was the apparent postulation by some physicists along with the famous evolutionist, Teilhard de Chardin that the universe was more of a great thought than a great machine. According to this view, the unified field on ground of reality is awareness. The note cited telekinetic experiments and postulated that awareness focusing could produce a new form of energy that moves or perhaps alters matter.

The report cited British scientists experiencing poltergeist phenomena after testing Uri Geller. Objects allegedly left the room, some of which apparently reappeared later. Supposedly, this didnt surprise unnamed scientists who found it no harder to believe that objects could disappear and reappear than it was to believe in the detected particles emerging from energy and dissolving or disappearing back into energy.

From these premises, two types of telekinetic weapons were hypothesized: a telekinetic time bomb and the equivalent of a psychic nuke that could dislodge a city in time and space.

The first involved a member of the command and control staff being kidnapped and subjected to trauma that would allow him to be suggestively programmed to develop telekinetic effects under stress at work. The theory was that when an emergency situation arose and the officer was subjected to stress, objects would begin to move and disappear independently and communications would become impossible.

The second hypothetical weapon was even more elaborate and potentially terrifying. Citing a prediction of a massive change which will alter the direction, time, space and energy-matter relationship of our world, the note wondered what would happen if a group of psychics were brought together. If ten people who were evidencing disruptive telekinetic phenomena were brought into one area, would it cause a chain reaction, causing much matter to reverse direction and sink back into a sea of energy or be displaced in time and space? The memo concluded by wondering if such an event reach a critical mass and affect an entire city.

By an interesting coincidence, the Philadelphia Experiment hoax bears some superficial resemblance to the theorized weapon in the NSA note. According various versions of the hoax, the USS Eldridge was temporarily rendered invisible or transported through time and space. The incident is even listed on NSAs webpage of paranormal topics that they dont have records on. However, there were other papers prepared on the perceived potential of weaponizing psychic abilities, some of which will be explored later. For now, you can read the NSA note here.

See the rest here:
When the NSA Feared Psychics Could Make Cities Lost in Time and Space - Atlas Obscura