Latest information on the NSA and related domestic spying issue.

[rhett o rick]

This discussion thread is pinned.

Last edited Thu Oct 31, 2013, 10:01 AM - Edit history (4)

The purpose of this thread is to be a place post links to the latest info on the NSA and related issues. It is not intended to be a place to discuss the issue but to provide links to other threads and/or news stories.

This is a start. Please add to the list via responses. I will thank you here as I discourage thank you replies, leaving the thread for lists and not comments.

Posted by bobthedrummer in Good Reads, this thread contains a lot of good information: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101673653

The Guardian: The NSA Files
http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files
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NSA pushed 9/11 as key 'sound bite' to justify surveillance
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023949846

Defund the NSA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023951027

NSA broke into Yahoo, Google data centers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023952595

How The NSA Deploys Malware: An In-Depth Look at the New Revelations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023818959

Feinstein’s Phony Excuse for NSA Spying
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101675361

Attacking 'Tor': How the NSA Targets Users' Online Anonymity...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014611160#post9

NSA director admits agency trawls Twitter/Facebook but insists they are NOT building personal files-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014609181

NSA stores metadata of millions of web users for up to a year, secret files show
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014606615

N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens (NYT)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023743322

N.S.A. Examines Social Networks of U.S. Citizens (Decision Made In Secret 2010)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014605329

Dianne Feinstein Accidentally Confirms That NSA Tapped The Internet Backbone
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3740768

NSA Employee Spied on Nine Women Without Detection, Internal File Shows...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014604898

Sen. Ron Wyden: NSA "repeatedly deceived the American people"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11781761

[antiquie]

1. International perspective

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1268266

[KoKo]

2. Thanks!

[rhett o rick]

5. "That Pesky NYT Article about LATEST NSA SPYING...that folks don't want to read:"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023968722

Thanks Koko for posting.

[rhett o rick]

6. "Majority Of Americans Want More Checks On NSA Spying"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014638325

[rhett o rick]

7. No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A. - NYT

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10023966855

[BelgianMadCow]

8. Report: NSA spied on Israel, shared intelligence

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014638518

Israel has been the target of spying by the United States’ National Security Agency, the New York Times reported, citing documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

According to the report published Saturday, the U.S. and Israel collaborate on intelligence gathering, with the Israel Signals Intelligence, or Sigint, National Unit, a high level intelligence unit, receiving raw NSA eavesdropping material from the U.S. and providing raw material from its own surveillances in return.

According to the documents, the NSA tracked “high priority Israeli military targets,” including drones and the Black Sparrow missile system...

The NSA, according to the documents, has for decades shared intelligence information from eavesdropping with rest of its “Five Eyes” partners, the Sigint agencies of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. More limited cooperation occurs with many more countries, including formal arrangements called Nine Eyes and 14 Eyes and Nacsi, an alliance of the agencies of 26 NATO countries, according to the New York Times.

[2banon]

10. Eavesdropping on our "Friends"

Since I don't consider Israeli Govt to be a "friend, I actually support NSA eavesdropping on their officials/agencies, afic (especially now with current events).. but for Israel to be in possession of U.S. citizens communications is another matter altogether.

This all begs the question: what the hell are we going to do about it? I don't know the answer to that.

But I appreciate the information, and discovering this forum.. Thanks for posting..

[rhett o rick]

9. Guardian Interactive - NSA Files Decoded - What The Revelations Mean For You.

Posted in GD. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023978621

[BelgianMadCow]

11. US govt intel researchers to ‘radically expand’ facial recognition capabilities

The United States intelligence community’s research arm is set to launch a program that will thoroughly broaden the capabilities of biometric facial recognition software in order to establish an individual’s identity.

The Janus program of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) will begin in April 2014 in an effort to "radically expand the range of conditions under which automated face recognition can establish identity," according to documents released by the agency over the weekend.

Janus "seeks to improve face recognition performance using representations developed from real-world video and images instead of from calibrated and constrained collections. During daily activities, people laugh, smile, frown, yawn and morph their faces into a broad variety of expressions. For each face, these expressions are formed from unique skeletal and musculature features that are similar through one's lifetime. Janus representations will exploit the full morphological dynamics of the face to enable better matching and faster retrieval."

Current facial recognition relies mostly on full-frontal, aligned facial views. But, in the words of Military & Aerospace Electronics, Janus will fuse “the rich spatial, temporal, and contextual information available from the multiple views captured by security cameras, cell phone cameras, news video, and other sources referred to as ‘media in the wild.’”

More at RT

[BelgianMadCow]

12. NSA Spying Crushes US Tech Companies in Emerging Markets (“An Industry Phenomenon")

From Testosterone Pit, an economics blog the DU Stock Market Watch threads pointed me to:

“Our top five emerging markets declined 21%,” Chamber said, “with Brazil down 25%, Mexico down 18%, India down 18%, China down 18%, and Russia down 30%.

“I’ve never seen that fast a move in emerging markets,” Chambers said. His industry peers were seeing the same thing. “Most of my CEO counterparts can almost finish my sentences in terms of what’s occurring,” he said. He even mentioned IBM. It’s “an industry phenomenon.”

The NSA’s reckless all-encompassing spying, and its hand-in-glove multi-billion-dollar collusion with US tech companies to accomplish it, is now wreaking havoc on these same tech companies. Revenues are getting crushed overseas. Emerging market governments and companies are looking at other options. Trust that has taken decades to build has evaporated. A study in early August estimated that the spying scandal would cost US tech companies $35 billion. Which might not even be enough for a down-payment: alone that 11% drop in Cisco’s stock today cost shareholders $16 billion.

It’s not a temporary issue. New revelations bubble to the surface all the time to complete the picture of a seamless, borderless, nearly perfect surveillance society. One dimension: the NSA and British GCHQ secretly break into the “clouds” of US companies to syphon off user data on a large scale. Illegal in the US. But the cloud is worldwide. Read….. NSA Secretly Breaks Into The Cloud Of US Tech Companies, Siphons Off Data, Fouls Up Revenues Overseas

I think this has to be filed under the "blowback" category. The relative silence of the tech industry on the issue has been rather astonishing. Germany is considering building its own internet backbone.

Another form of blowback: After the NSA revelations, who will listen to America on human rights? The comments are interesting as well. The author is heavily criticised for implying the US did have standing about human rights before Bush*.

Cross-posted in GD

[rhett o rick]

13. Feinstein promotes bill to strengthen NSA's hand on warrantless searches

Posted in GD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024037726

[BelgianMadCow]

15. 'Royal Concierge': GCHQ Monitors Diplomats' Hotel Bookings

From Der Spiegel international:

identified, it opens the door to a variety of spying options.

When diplomats travel to international summits, consultations and negotiations on behalf of governments, they generally tend to spend the night at high-end hotels. When they check-in, in addition to a comfortable room, they sometimes get a very unique form of room service that they did not order: a thorough monitoring by the British Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ in short.

Intelligence service documents from the archive of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden show that, for more than three years, GCHQ has had a system to automatically monitor hotel bookings of at least 350 upscale hotels around the world in order to target, search and analyze reservations to detect diplomats and government officials.

The top secret program carries the codename "Royal Concierge," and has a logo showing a penguin wearing a crown, a purple cape and holding a wand. The penguin is apparently meant to symbolize the black and white uniform worn by staff at luxury hotels.

The aim of the program is to inform GCHQ, at the time of the booking, of the city and hotel a foreign diplomat intends to visit. This enables the "technical operations community" to make the necessary preparations in a timely manner, the secret documents state. The documents cast doubt on the truthfulness of claims made last week to a committee in parliament by the heads of the three British intelligence agencies: Namely that the exclusive reason and purpose behind their efforts is the battle against terrorism, and to make sure they can monitor the latest postings by al-Qaida and similar entities.

I've taken the liberty of equating GCHQ to NSA - aren't the spying activities of the five eyes to be considered as one?

[rhett o rick]

16. Judge: “NSA exceeded the scope of authorized acquisition continuously”

Posted in GD:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014652166

[BelgianMadCow]

17. Declassified Documents: NSA Wanted To Collect Geolocation Data

In other words, the senator wanted to know if, in addition to telephone and Internet metadata, the US intelligence agency was also tracking the location of everybody who has a mobile phone or Internet connection. FISA is a reference to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits US intelligence agencies to undertake certain types of eavesdropping and data collection within the scope of the law.

The NSA's answer is long and convoluted, and at least 13 lines have been blacked out in the published version. Near the very end, though, the official who provided the answer gets to the point:

"With the exception of test data sampling acquired from one provider, NSA does not currently obtain cellular mobility data (cell site location information) pursuant to this Court-authorized program."

But in this case, the addition of the concrete program -- referring to the FISA program of collecting telephone and Internet metadata -- is at the very least odd. The reason is that it opens up the possibility that the NSA may long have been collecting geolocation data based on other legal bases. The answer also includes another potentially explosive sentence right at the end:

"NSA is, however, exploring the possibility of acquiring such mobility data under this program in the near future under the authority currently granted by the Court."

In this instance, the court is a reference to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret court charged with critical oversight of the government's FISA spying programs.

From Der Spiegel

[BelgianMadCow]

18. US, UK Struck Secret Deal to Allow NSA to 'Unmask' Britons' Personal Data

LBN thread by Hissypit, source The Guardian: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014653179

[rhett o rick]

19. NSA slapped malware on 50,000+ networks, says report

Posted in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014655771

[rhett o rick]

20. Losing track of mass surveilance revelations?

Posted in this group:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1269312

[rhett o rick]

21. Top-Secret Document Reveals NSA Spied On Porn Habits As Part Of Plan To Discredit 'Radicalizers'

Posted in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014658585

[rhett o rick]

22. GUARDIAN: "NSA Furor Has Roots in US Internet Imperialism"

Posted in this group: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1269118

[BelgianMadCow]

23. Dutch intelligence agency AIVD hacks internet forums (Snowden doc on AIVD-NSA meeting)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024112916

[rhett o rick]

24. NSA Opponents Want To Cut Off Utah Facility From Water Supply

Posted in LBN by Indi Guy:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014663472

[BelgianMadCow]

25. NSA gathering 5bn cell phone records daily (including location tracking)

posted in GD

[BelgianMadCow]

28. New documents show how the NSA infers relationships based on mobile location data

posted in LBN by Indi Guy

[BelgianMadCow]

33. ACLU: What The Government Could Do With All That Location Data

posted in GD by agent46

[BelgianMadCow]

26. NSA leaks: Sweden spied on Russian leaders for US

From RT.

Swedish signals intelligence agency FRA spied on Russian leaders and shared the data collected with the US, local media report citing Edward Snowden leaks. Sweden’s ‘cable access’ made its position ‘unique’ in the eyes of the NSA.

The NSA eyes the FRA as a ‘leading partner’ among the US agencies foreign partners in the global data collection program, reported Sweden’s Sveriges Television (SVT) citing documents provided by the fugitive whistleblower through US journalist Glenn Greenwald.

"The FRA provided NSA … unique collection on high-priority Russian targets, such as leadership, internal politics," reads one NSA document from dated April 18, 2013.

Ahead of a meeting with officials from FRA, NSA bosses were instructed to praise the Scandinavian partners, another said.

[BelgianMadCow]

27. Revealed: Spy Agencies' Covert Push to Infiltrate Virtual World of Online Games (Snowden/NSA)

another day, another revelation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014667319 in LBN by Hissypit

[BelgianMadCow]

29. NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking

posted in LBN by kpete

[rhett o rick]

30. NSA chief on spying programs: 'There is no other way to connect the dots'

Keith Alexander insists bulk data collection stops terror attacks and says he would be 'failing' America if the practice stopped

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/nsa-chiefs-keith-alexander-senate-surveillance

National Security Agency director Keith Alexander, in an indication of the political crisis roiling his agency, compared the bulk collection on Wednesday to "holding a hornet's nest," but said he did not know how to detect future domestic terrorist attacks without swooping up the phone records of every American.

"There is no other way we know of to connect the dots," Alexander told a nearly empty Senate judiciary committee hearing that was at turns heated, probing and humorous.


Remember when a number of DU posters vehemently espoused that the NSA wasnt spying on Americans. They desparately tried to bully discussions in attempts to shut down discussions. Even today those same posters openly disparage Snowden.

[BelgianMadCow]

31. By cracking cellphone code, NSA has capacity for decoding private conversations

posted in LBN by alp227

[BelgianMadCow]

32. NSA official floats possibility of striking a deal with Edward Snowden

posten in LBN by DonViejo

[BelgianMadCow]

34. European Parliament: Snowden Will Make Video Appearance

Not posted elsewhere
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/edward-snowden-to-make-video-appearance-to-european-parliament-a-938725.html

Parliamentary leaders of the European Parliament voted Thursday to allow the planned video appearance of the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to take place despite an attempt by conservative members of the European People's Party (EPP) to block it.

The American former intelligence contractor will answer questions that had been submitted by members of the parliament in a pre-recorded video message that will be shown at a sitting of the interior and justice committees.

"We now have a clear mandate to send written questions to Snowden, and I hope that he can answer this with a video message by mid-January," said Jan Philipp Albrecht, who, as a representative of the German Green Party in the European Parliament, is coordinating the body's NSA investigation. Snowden's video message was originally planned for Dec. 18, but the dispute over his questioning necessitated a postponement.

Snowden is expected to answer the questions on pre-recorded video because he would risk arrest by US authorities if he were to leave Russia, where he is living under temporary asylum. A live video feed could also enable the Americans to pinpoint his whereabouts.

[rhett o rick]

35. NSA Staffer: Snowden Didn't Dupe Coworkers Out of Passwords

posted by Hissyspit in GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024183858

[BelgianMadCow]

36. Secret information: The currency of power - Lars Schall interviews Thomas Drake (NSA whistleblower)

Just one snippet fo a 5-page interview:

I consider him a fellow NSA whistleblower. He had well learnt the realities of my ordeal as well as others; you know, standing on my shoulders and recognize that he was bringing out critical information in the public interest regarding just how far the surveillance state had penetrated the very fabric of our society on an extraordinary, truly extraordinary scale. A scale that's never been seen in human history and makes even other regimes in terms of 20th century history look almost mild by comparison in terms of just the sheer breadth and scale and the global reach of the surveillance state.

Far, far beyond its mandated purpose under even the US Constitution to provide the common defense. It's important to note 9/11 truly was a trigger event, but the foundation for the nation security state actually began, for the United States, shortly after World War II with the National Security Act. It was the first time in US history that we ended up having essentially, you know, standing arms of standing intelligence agencies that were made permanent.

Apparently that National Security Act is still secret. WTF?

[rhett o rick]

37. BREAKING: NSA paid US-company RSA to bug encryption software

Posted in GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024206162

[rhett o rick]

38. NSA leaks: UK and US spying targets revealed

Posted in LBN: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014678616

[BelgianMadCow]

39. NSA spied on EU's anti-trust chief

what would that have been for?

GD, by Ichingcarpenter.

[BelgianMadCow]

40. Report Suggests NSA Engaged In Financial Manipulation, Changing Money In Bank Accounts:

posted in GD by Poll_Blind

Note that this report is conjecture at this point in time, but reasonable I think.

[rhett o rick]

41. Your USB cable, the spy: Inside the NSA’s catalog of surveillance magic

Posted in GD by n2doc:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024255843

[BelgianMadCow]

42. NSA building a ‘quantum computer’ capable of breaking all forms of encryption

http://rt.com/usa/quantum-computer-nsa-encryption-100/

The National Security Agency is reportedly building a ‘quantum computer’ capable of breaking encryption used to protect the most vital records around the world.

The US spy agency is seeking an advanced-speed, “cryptologically useful quantum computer” that can bypass encryption that currently shields global banking, business, medical and government records.

The quantum computer is part of a $79.7 million research project called “Penetrating Hard Targets,” according to documents supplied by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and reported by The Washington Post. Much of the program is hosted in a College Park, Maryland laboratory under classified contracts.

Past Snowden-fueled revelations have shown the NSA has worked to deliberately weaken common encryption standards.

[BelgianMadCow]

43. The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

posted in GD by kpete

[BelgianMadCow]

44. The NSA Has A Way To Intercept Computers Mid-Shipment And Install Spyware On Them

Posted in LBN by Judy Lynn

The NSA Has A Way To Intercept Computers Mid-Shipment And Install Spyware On Them
Steve Kovach
    
Spiegel Online has a lengthy new report out today detailing the exploits of an elite and secretive NSA hacking unit called Tailored Access Operations, or TAO. The group is tasked with gaining access to electronic devices by any means necessary.

According to the report, TAO dabbles in a lot of spying activities, but there are a few that stand out as especially invasive.

First, the TAO program can intercept hardware like laptops before they're shipped to a user and install malware on the devices that let spies track the owner. The process is called "interdiction" and allows the NSA to divert shipments of consumer devices to secret workshops where agents carefully open the packing so it looks like nothing was tampered with before installing the malware.

TAO agents can also use bugs in Microsoft's Windows operating system to look for potential holes in a suspect 's machine. For example, whenever a Windows user gets a pop-up window with an error message, TAO can get a look at what data the user is sending over the Internet. That data can help TAO exploit holes in Windows and potentially install malware on machines.

[BelgianMadCow]

45. Thomas Drake, NSA whistleblower speaks on his own ordeal & Snowden.

posted in video & multimedia by mother earth herself.

[rhett o rick]

46. Government Lawyers Appeal Ruling That Threatens NSA Phone Surveillance Program

Posted in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014687827

[BelgianMadCow]

47. The NSA refuses to deny spying on members of Congress

posted in LBN by cal04

[rhett o rick]

48. Experts withdraw from Internet security conference

Posted in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014692563

[BelgianMadCow]

49. Former NSA whistleblowers plead for chance to brief Obama on agency abuses

posted in LBN by Indi Guy

A group of former National Security Agency insiders who went on to become whistleblowers have written a letter to President Barack Obama, requesting a meeting with him to offer “a fuller picture” of the spy agency’s systemic problems.

The group of four intelligence specialists - William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Loomis and Kirk Wiebe - who worked at the NSA for “a total of 144 years, most of them at senior levels” stressed in the letter the need for Obama to address what they’ve seen as abuses that violated Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights and that have made proper, effective intelligence gathering more difficult.

“What we tell you in this Memorandum is merely the tip of the iceberg,” the group, calling themselves the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), wrote. “We are ready – if you are – for an honest conversation. That NSA’s bulk collection is more hindrance than help in preventing terrorist attacks should be clear by now despite the false claims and dissembling.”

[BelgianMadCow]

51. More detail: "NSA Insiders Reveal What Went Wrong in letter to Obama"

a snippet: MIA on 9/11: the NSA, though not lacking any authority:

The poster boy for this PR ploy is Khalid al-Mihdhar one of the hijackers of AA-77, who had been communicating from San Diego with people in a known al-Qaeda terrorist safe house in Yemen. Al-Mihdhar had been on the radar of U.S. intelligence at least since 1999, when NSA picked up communications from a “terrorist facility” implicating him. In early 2000 he lived in San Diego, California, with fellow hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi.

NSA knew the telephone number of the safe house in Yemen at least by1996 and was, of course, keeping track of calls to it from the U.S. Would Mueller, Morell and Cheney have us believe NSA doesn’t know about caller ID? As William Binney has explained, automated systems take over when such calls are made and as long as you have one valid number you can obtain the other. Was it a case of gross ineptitude on NSA’s part; or was NSA deliberately withholding information linking al-Mihdhar to the known al-Qaeda base in Yemen?

Richard Clarke, who was White House counterterrorism czar from 1998 through 2001, has told ProPublica that NSA had both the ability and the legal authority to trace calls from Mihdhar to Yemen. Clarke is correct. The targeting had been done; the numbers were known. The necessary authorities already existed.

Posted in GD by liberalArkie

[BelgianMadCow]

50. DOJ files motion to block release of NSA info

posted in LBN by jakeXT

The Justice Department filed a motion Wednesday that would prevent plaintiffs in one of the recent federal cases involving the National Security Agency from learning more about its surveillance activities.

“Plaintiffs have made clear their intentions to seek discovery of this kind of still-classified information, concerning targets and subjects, participating providers, and other operational details of the challenged NSA intelligence programs,” the motion stated.

It continues to say disclosure of those programs “could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security.”

Conservative activist Larry Klayman is the plaintiff in two lawsuits brought against the Obama administration. He charges that the NSA’s program violates the First, Fourth and Fifth amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

italics mine. providers interests = national security interests? Begining to sound more like it.

[sabrina 1]

53. Klayman is right regarding the violation of rights. Why does it have to be

people like him who try to get some accountability for these crimes? This is Congress' job.THEY took the oath to defend and protect the Constitution.

[BelgianMadCow]

52. N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers

posted in LBN by kpete

[BelgianMadCow]

54. NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep

Source: The Guardian

The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details, according to top-secret documents.

The untargeted collection and storage of SMS messages – including their contacts – is revealed in a joint investigation between the Guardian and the UK’s Channel 4 News based on material provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The documents also reveal the UK spy agency GCHQ has made use of the NSA database to search the metadata of “untargeted and unwarranted” communications belonging to people in the UK.

... The agency was also able to extract geolocation data from more than 76,000 text messages a day, including from “requests by people for route info” and “setting up meetings”. Other travel information was obtained from itinerary texts sent by travel companies, even including cancellations and delays to travel plans.

Posted in LBN by Newsjock

[rhett o rick]

55. Timeline of NSA domestic spying

https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/timeline

Thanks to hootinholler:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4571462

[rhett o rick]

56. Exclusive: NSA infiltrated RSA security more deeply than thought - study

Posted in LBN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014769177

[Leopolds Ghost]

57. List Of Americans Who Have Been Spied On will be ‘biggest’ disclosure yet

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025024250