Obama Admin. could build databases of credit card transactions, hotel records and Internet searches

[East Coast Pirate]

NSA spying under fire: 'You've got a problem'

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a heated confrontation over domestic spying, members of Congress said Wednesday they never intended to allow the National Security Agency to build a database of every phone call in America. And they threatened to curtail the government's surveillance authority.

Top Obama administration officials countered that the once-secret program was legal and necessary to keep America safe. And they left open the possibility that they could build similar databases of people's credit card transactions, hotel records and Internet searches.

The clash on Capitol Hill undercut President Barack Obama's assurances that Congress had fully understood the dramatic expansion of government power it authorized repeatedly over the past decade.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing also represented perhaps the most public, substantive congressional debate on surveillance powers since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Previous debates have been largely theoretical and legalistic, with officials in the Bush and Obama administrations keeping the details hidden behind the cloak of classified information.

More: http://news.yahoo.com/nsa-spying-under-fire-youve-got-problem-164530431.html

[leftstreet]

1. OMG No private corporations would ever do that!

[daleanime]

3. .....

[East Coast Pirate]

6. Yes those exist.

But the government having easy access to that and your phone calls, emails, text messages, etc... You don't find that spooky?

[leftstreet]

8. Why is government spookier than a corporation?

[East Coast Pirate]

12. Because a corporation can't put you in prison.

Then again...

[roguevalley]

35. all of it sucks. ALL OF IT. Between kissing GHW Bush's ass and this, I am way the

hell off the President. I didn't vote for this guy. I want my vote back.

[Skittles]

2. LOL like they don't already exist

I mean, please

[Rex]

4. Congress actually did something?

I thought all they were good fer is getting a paycheck.

[KittyWampus]

17. They also do fundraisers!

which are not technically paychecks.

[Laelth]

5. Finally. Some debate on this. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Pisces]

7. This debate is over. They are already doing it. THey track you every way you turn around. For

most people that means nothing. Going off the grid is next to impossible. Use cash, don't carry a cell phone, don't drive a car
with GPS, don't drive thru toll roads or any roads with cameras ( good luck) don't go into any federal buildings or building with camera's. Move to the mountains, don't use computers.

Good luck

[PADemD]

31. Ted Kaczynski hid for quite a while.

[Pisces]

34. He sure did, living in the woods.

[pnwmom]

9. The Rethugs are lying. They were fully on board in the Bush years.

But now that they see an opportunity to attack Obama on this, they're changing their positions.

[allin99]

13. They're sickening. So let's take their tools away from them before they get into office...

they're unscrupiously pigs. Almost all of them (in higher levels).

They won't get to turn it on obama if he turns it on them first.

in 10 years it'll all be forgotten who did what, the most important thing is limiting their reach. In 20 years Obama will have the legacy of the ACA, and no one will remember that the republicans got to turn the tables on this. If anything it will be Obama who makes the argument to congress when for example, the patriot act is up for renewal and he pushes to have it modified. or whatever he he can do to roll back the serveillance state. In the end, he gets the legacy of that too.

[pnwmom]

14. I think we should roll a lot of this back.

But we're going to be fighting this forever, as long as we have the technology.

[allin99]

19. Exactly, roll it back, and keep doing it. Now's a perfect time ...

NSA is testifying, the public is finally grumbling about it, even a bunch of hypocritical republicans. It' PERFECT. Then you have for whatever the reason is, more votes to get what you want. Patriot act is about to be re-examined before it gets renewed in 3 years, WITH a dem in office, we could have enough votes or opportunities to roll a lot of it back. It's perfect timing.That's the beauty of it, they're so stupid they'll vote the way all the liberal people in congress will. (although of course, as soon as liberals want to vote for it, they won't, but still, at that point there will be momentum and they'll have to stick with their recent position switch)

Agree, we'll be fighting it forever. Every time there's a fuckface dicktwat like Bush who passed soooo many nasty dirty little follow-up "anti-terrorist" bills, take the shot while we have dems in office. Otherwise the pile of shit gets so big you roll back a little and you still have a huge pile of shit.

[KoKo]

18. You leave out that many of our Dems we Voted for are Liars TOO!

We can no longer blame this on the Repugs...WE OWN IT.

[Catherina]

10. "You're trying to confuse us by talking use." - Jerrold Nadler

...

"The statute says 'collection'," congressman Jerrold Nadler told Cole. "You're trying to confuse us by talking use."

Congressman Ted Poe, a judge, said: "I hope as we move forward as a Congress we rein in the idea that it's OK to bruise the spirit of the constitution in the name of national security."

...

Congressman Spencer Bachus said he "was not aware at all" of the extent of the surveillance, since the NSA programs were primarily briefed to the intelligence committees of the House and Senate.

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren revealed that an annual report provided to Congress by the government about the phone-records collection, something cited by intelligence officials as an example of their disclosures to Congress, is "less than a single page and not more than eight sentences".

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/17/nsa-surveillance-house-hearing

[leveymg]

11. Guess what - you, and I, and everyone else here has already been profiled. You have a TIQ.

Do you REALLY want to know what the government thinks are the chances you'll commit a crime against the state in the near-future?

If this is how you dress your cat, the chances may be pretty high.

[bunnies]

15. omg.

Meowhamed!

[PADemD]

32. Duzy!

[babylonsister]

16. Whatever a TIQ

is, I think yours just went up!

[leveymg]

25. "Are You a Potential Terrorist?" Associated Press, 05.20.04

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2004/05/63535

Are You a Potential Terrorist?
Associated Press 05.20.04

Before helping to launch the criminal information project known as Matrix, a database contractor gave U.S. and Florida authorities the names of 120,000 people who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists — sparking some investigations and arrests.

The "high terrorism factor" scoring system also became a key selling point for the involvement of the database company, Seisint Inc., in the Matrix project.

Public records obtained by The Associated Press from several states show that Justice Department officials cited the scoring technology in appointing Seisint sole contractor on the federally funded, $12 million project.

Seisint and the law enforcement officials who oversee Matrix insist that the terrorism scoring system ultimately was kept out of the project, largely because of privacy concerns.

However, new details about Seisint's development of the "terrorism quotient," including the revelation that authorities apparently acted on the list of 120,000, are renewing privacy activists' suspicions about Matrix's potential power.

"Assuming they have in fact abandoned the terrorist quotient, there's nothing that stops them from bringing it back," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, which learned about the list of 120,000 through its own records request in Utah.

Matrix — short for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange — combines state records and data culled by Seisint to give investigators quick access to information on crime and terrorism suspects. It was launched in 2002.

Because the system includes information on people with no criminal record as well as known criminals, Matrix has drawn objections from both liberal and conservative privacy groups. Utah and at least eight other states have pulled out, leaving Florida, Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The AP has received thousands of pages of Matrix documents in records requests this year, including meeting minutes and presentation materials that discuss the project in detail.

Not one indicates that Matrix planners decided against using the statistical method of determining an individual's propensity for

terrorism.

[1-Old-Man]

21. Smiling cattle being lead down the chute to the little air hammer

Of course the NSA sucks up every available jot of information - its not just your phone, its not your phone and web browsing habits, its not those and your medical records, and your financial records, it is everything that is ever collected and stored electronically about you.

I am just amazed that anyone thinks there is any limit to what the NSA will collect. If its out there the will have it and anyone who thinks they do less is delusional. It is what they do, it is what they are, and they have all the resources they need to do their work.

[elehhhhna]

22. ooh good post

welcome to du, 1-o'

[elehhhhna]

23. plus the ssa and state employment databases

they know everything.


how often can they plant evidence electronically in order to make problem people shut up/go away? no reason to drone anybody stateside if you can hack all their shit and plant whatever you like.

[Apophis]

24. I'm going to start paying in cash just to piss off the NSA.

[KoKo]

26. Any DU'ers trying to find a Job posting on "Linkedin Website" You are Target

also...if you ever appeared in a Demonstrantion against Bush..or Contributed to Anti-War or Lefty Sites like ACLU or EFF.

YOU ARE MARKED and ALL of your LINKEDIN Business Contacts. There will be cars with Scanners and Surveillance Marking YOU the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

Good luck with that NEW JOB when you are marked as AGITATOR OR TERRORIST when yu do your Job Application!

We ARE NOT SAFE ...ANYWHERE!

Particularly if we are marked as being in a Protest in DC or Hometown (Iris Scan, Photo's from the BLACK SUV's, Surveillance of our Car on the way Back from the Protest, and Mail)

USPS is surveilling if we get MAIL or Magazines from what could be seen as "Left Publications"..or Friends we knew from College who are doing what Govt considers SUBVERSIVE...and our Tax Filings and Banking Online ...all Surveiled and our Department Store Accts...Need Underwear...Wife/Hubby/Partner goes Shopping...WELL what about that STORE DISCOUNT CARD they HAWK for you to SIGN UP.

Need to VISIT A DOCTOR...SIGN THE FORMS...Put in ALL YOUR INFO and COMPLY WITH HIPPA...and INTO THE DATA BASE IT GOES. What if your OPERATION IS SCHEDULED...and you are on a "NO FLY LIST" because a Relative the NSA FOUND in DATA BASE did some Organizing in a TERRORIST COUNTRY...but You haven't seen that Guy/Gal since you were FIVE YEARSL OLD...but they Connected him with YOU because he saw your Name on FACEBOOK and Pinged you to FRIEND YOU! Now YOU are connected to Him/Her.

It goes on and on and on how we are WATCHED and DATA BASED.

THIS should NOT CONTINUE in a FREE DEMOCRACY SOCIETY!

[ohheckyeah]

27. "Could" as in

already have.

[99th_Monkey]

29. Yes. Whatever they admit to, times that by 100

on the conservative side, and you'll be in the ballpark of what's really going on
behind the curtain, that has made every recent President in recent memory so
eager to destroy the US Constitution, that's already in the ER suffering from
1000 cuts.

[ohheckyeah]

30. Time 100 at the least. n/t

[99th_Monkey]

28. K & R ~nt

[Cryptoad]

33. If a toad could fly,,,,,

he wouldn't bump his ass when he jumped!