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In reply to the discussion: Obama's New FBI Chief Approved Bush's NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Scheme [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)13. National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney on Growing State Surveillance
Democracy Now interviewed Binney last year:
EXCERPT...
WILLIAM BINNEY: Well, and, you see, the World Wide Web routes things all over, so you never really know where U.S. citizens communications are going to be routed. So, youif you were collecting somewhere else on another continent, you could still get U.S. citizens. Thatssee, that was a universal problem. So we devised how to do that and protect U.S. citizens. Soand this was all before 9/11. And we devised how to do that, made that effective and operating. So we were actually prepared to deploy about eight months before 9/11 and actually have a system that would run and manage thewhat I call 20 terabytes a minute of activity.
Sobut after 9/11, all the wraps came off for NSA, and they decided tobetween the White House and NSA and CIA, they decided to eliminate the protections on U.S. citizens and collect on domestically. So they started collecting from a commercialthe one commercial company that I know of that participated provided over 300probably, on the average, about 320 million records of communication of a U.S. citizen to a U.S. citizen inside this country.
AMY GOODMAN: What company?
WILLIAM BINNEY: AT&T. It was long-distance communications. So they were providing billing data. At that point, I knew I could not stay, because it was a direct violation of the constitutional rights of everybody in the country. Plus it violated the pen register law and Stored Communications Act, the Electronic Privacy Act, the intelligence acts of 1947 and 1978. I mean, it was just this whole series ofplus all the laws covering federal communications governing telecoms. I mean, all those laws were being violated, including the Constitution. And that was a decision made that wasnt going to be reversed, so I could not stay there. I had to leave.
CONTINUED w/video, transcript, etc...
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/exclusive_national_security_agency_whistleblower_william
Thanks for the heads-up, leveymg! A thin thread ties us all...
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Obama's New FBI Chief Approved Bush's NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Scheme [View all]
Octafish
May 2013
OP
absolutely horrifying. and we wonder why Bush warcrimes weren't pursued.
nashville_brook
May 2013
#24
Actually Comey signed off on "kinder, gentler", torture. From the same article
Luminous Animal
May 2013
#9
Greenwald is currently still in his "split Progressives from Dems by any means possible" mode,
struggle4progress
Jun 2013
#46
National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney on Growing State Surveillance
Octafish
May 2013
#13
Hail to the new criminal boss...same as the old criminal boss. I've always
MotherPetrie
May 2013
#17
But, but ...he was one of the good guys...he stood up against...oh nevermind.
Safetykitten
May 2013
#14
If they do come back, I wont know. I have the bunch on ignore. I was getting sick of their
rhett o rick
May 2013
#28
Jesus, with nominations like this, it seems we have a kinder, gentler, albeit more
indepat
May 2013
#36