Three Exchanges You Should Listen To About NSA Surveillance 12JUN13

THE fascist conspirators in the "intelligence" community, with Army Gen keith alexander as their primary propagandist at the Senate hearings, are doing their best to justify the government's violations of our civil liberties by manipulating people's fears of terrorism. The first  example below contains a reference to 11SEP01 and a big what if. What I want to know is if this is such a valuable tool how did the Boston Marathon bombing happen? We also need to know what part of the patriot act (itself an abomination of "law" and a clear violation of our civil liberties) allows the nsa to ignore the minimal requirements of the act and not be required to obtain a warrant from a fisa court. Gen alexander would not admit there is no legal justification for the nsa violating that law, bypassing even these minimal "protections" and got a pass to work out his spin on this issue. But thank God Sen Collins R ME put to rest one of our fears, getting alexander to state he knows of no way the nsa could wiretap the president. That assurance from the mouth of the person who doesn't feel these violations of law and civil liberties are wrong. Yeah, I believe him. This from NPR.....

by EYDER PERALTA

June 12, 2013 5:26 PM

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/12/191081329/three-exchanges-you-should-listen-to-about-nsa-surveillance

U.S. Army Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, director of the National Security Agency (NSA), testifies during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, on Wednesday.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, received a public grilling by members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.

We listened to the long hearing and pulled out three sections of audio that, while dry and sometimes boring, are important to understanding the story of the NSA obtaining vast amounts of data about the electronic activity of Americans. As we've reported, at the center of the controversy is a leaked secret court document authorizing the collection of all the calls made by Verizon customers during a three month period.

With that, here are the three pieces of audio you should listen to: (You need to click the link above to go to the NPR story to hear the questions and answers)

— An Explanation: Responding to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Alexander explained why the collection of phone meta-data is important. Alexander framed it in the case of Sept. 11 hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar. (Here's background from the Sept. 11 Commission report.) What if the NSA had had the ability to track all of his phone connections, even in the past? Perhaps the government could have tracked his conspirators. 

Alexander Responds To Durbin

— The Original Request: One of more substantive exchanges came between Alexander and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who zeroed in on the original request of data on all phone calls made by Verizon customers. Alexander said the government doesn't look at that data without further permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court. Merkley said that doesn't matter. He wanted to know what in the USA Patriot Act justified the original data dump:

Alexander Responds To Merkley

— Broad Wiretapping: The one question that got an easy answer was one from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who asked if what NSA leaker Edward Snowden said about being able to wiretap anyone, even the president, was true. Alexander said he knew no way to do that.

Alexander Responds To Collins

THIS WEEK IN CIVIL LIBERTIES 10MAI13

HERE it is, This Week in Civil Liberties from the ACLU! 

By Rekha Arulanantham, ACLU at 5:02pm

The Supreme Court of which state granted a stay of execution to Willie Manning, who may be innocent of the crime for which he was convicted?

True or false? Eye-tracking technology could pose a risk to privacy if inappropriately used to discover drug and alcohol use, mental and psychological illnesses, sexuality and other traits and behaviors.

Documents released this week suggest that which federal agencies read private emails without obtaining a warrant first?

Which federal agency has continued to increase its surveillance of Americans in the past year, according to the Department of Justice’s annual report?

A report by which organization shows the racial gap in U.S. wealth creation grew substantially during the Great Recession?

Willie Manning Is Scheduled To Die. Shouldn't Mississippi Find Out If He's Innocent First?

Willie Manning was granted this Tuesday a stay of execution by the State Supreme Court. Mississippi was steamrolling toward execution despite compelling evidence that Willie Manning may be an innocent man.

Manning's case has many of the hallmarks of those of other innocent death row exonerees: false snitch testimony, junk science, and racial bias. The prosecutors in Manning's case, like in all too many cases, stacked the deck by systematically removing African-American jurors from Manning's trial. Manning, an African-American man, was convicted of the murders of two white college students.

The Privacy-Invading Potential of Eye Tracking Technology

Eye-tracking technology received new attention recently due to its inclusion in the Samsung Galaxy IV phone, where it can (with mixed results, according to reviewers) let users scroll the screen with their eyes or dim the screen when they look away. Clearly this is a technology that has the potential for a lot of clever applications. But what are the privacy implications?

FBI Documents Suggest Feds Read Emails Without a Warrant

New documents from the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ offices paint a troubling picture of the government’s email surveillance practices. Not only does the FBI claim it can read emails and other electronic communications without a warrant—even after a federal appeals court ruled that doing so violates the Fourth Amendment—but the documents strongly suggest that different U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country are applying conflicting standards to access communications content.

They’re Watching: FBI Business Records Requests Jump 900 Percent Compared to 2009

Last week served as yet another reminder of the threats posed to Americans' privacy by the post-Patriot Act surveillance state. According to the Department of Justice's annual report, FISA applications to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in 2012 revealed a continued increase in the FBI's surveillance of Americans. The report covers the Bureau's requests for electronic and physical surveillance, secret court orders under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, and National Security Letters (NSLs).

The Racial Wealth Accumulation Gap and Why ACLU is Suing Morgan Stanley for Racial Discrimination

This month, the Urban Institute joined an emerging consensus of researchers and social scientists with a new report revealing, in the starkest terms, our nation's vast and widening racial gap in wealth creation. With this report, Less than Equal: Racial Disparities in Wealth Accumulation, the Urban Institute joins a growing body of research showing that in America today, wealth is not colorblind and that during the recession this gap has widened.

Learn more about your civil liberties: Sign up for breaking news alerts, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

http://www.aclu.org/blog/organization-news-and-highlights/week-civil-liberties-05102013

05/10/2013

• Print
• Email
• RSS
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Share

This Week in Civil Liberties

G-Men: If you want to read my email, come back with a warrant. 20NOV12

THE fight to protect our right to privacy continues, but we have momentum on our side. The Senate Judiciary Committee will be voting next week on amendments requiring a warrant to read our e mails. Government doesn't have the right to violate our personal privacy, and if they feel they have to spy on us and read our e mails they should have to justify it by obtaining a warrant. Click the link to send your Senators a message to vote for the warrant requirement.

There's a key vote next week:
If you don't want the government to be able to read your emails without a warrant, please click here to email the Senate.
And then please forward this email or use these links to get your friends involved -- before they zonk out for the holiday:

	If you're already on Facebook, click here to share with your friends.
	If you're already on Twitter, click here to tweet about the campaign: Tweet

The current dynamic is all over the place -- sometimes the government can read your emails without warrants, sometimes it can't.
Next week the Senate Judiciary Committee will be taking up amendments that could vastly improve the situation.
But some members of the committee are doing law enforcement's bidding and might try to give the spooks even easier access to our emails.
Please click here to tell your Senators that the government should need a warrant to read your emails.
It's a good moment for this push for warrant requirements, as General Petraeus email scandal has revealed the astonishing degree of access the government has to our emails and personal information.
Plainly put: The FBI gained warrantless access to a series of email accounts, and took down one of the figures most respected by the political establishment and the mainstream media.
They can absolutely do the same thing to any last one of us.
Join us as we urge the Senate to protect us from undue government access to our emails: Tell them to come back with a warrant.
Just click here to email the Senate right away -- the vote is next week.
Thanks.
-Demand Progress

Paid for by Demand Progress (DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

One last thing -- Demand Progress's small, dedicated, under-paid staff relies on the generosity of members like you to support our work. Will you click here to chip in $5 or $10? Or you can become a Demand Progress monthly sustainer by clicking here. Thank you!