Posted on 07/25/2012 10:40:37 AM PDT by JOAT
The TSA, DHS and countless other security agencies have been established to keep America safe from terrorist attacks in post-9/11 America. How far beyond that does the feds' reach really go, though?
The attacks of September 11, 2001 were instrumental in getting the US government to establish counterterrorism agencies to curb future tragedies. Some officials say that they haven't stopped there, though, and are spying on everyone in America.
Testimonies delivered in recent weeks by former employees of the National Security Agency suggest that the government is going beyond what most of America thinks they do in order to keep the country terrorist-free. Former NSA staffers even say that theirs old agency has actually been spying on the entire country — all in the name of national security.
On an interview carried on Current TV's Viewpoint program on Monday, former NSA Technical Director William Binney commented on the state of blanketing surveillance along with colleagues Thomas Drake and Kirk Wiebe, the agency's former senior official and senior analyst, respectively. The broadcast comes on the heels of a series of speeches given by Binney, who has quickly become more known for his whistle-blowing than his work with the NSA. In their latest appearance this week, though, all three former staffers corroborated on earlier accounts by suggesting that America's spy program is really more dangerous that others deem it to be.
Speaking to Viewpoint host Eliot Spitzer, Drake said there was a "key decision made shortly after 9/11, which began to rapidly turn the United States of America into the equivalent of a foreign nation for dragnet blanket electronic surveillance."
Although this accusation has been supported by claims that it is for national security, says that it doesn't stop there. In fact, warns the former NSA official, the government is giving themselves the power to put intel on every American aside for potential future crimes.
"When you open up the Pandora's Box of just getting access to incredible amounts of data, for people that have no reason to be put under suspicion, no reason to have done anything wrong, and just collect all that for potential future use or even current use, it opens up a real danger — and to what else what they could use that data for, particularly when it's all being hidden behind the mantle of national security," Drake said.
Although Drake's accusations seem astounding, they corroborate allegations launched by Binney only a week earlier. Speaking at the Hackers On Planet Earth conference in New York City earlier in the month, Binney addressed a room of thousands by speaking about the NSA's domestic spying. But in a candid interview with journalist Geoff Shively during HOPE, the ex-agency official admitted that things really are rather scary.
"Domestically, they're pulling together all the data about virtually every U.S. citizen in the country and assembling that information, building communities that you have relationships with, and knowledge about you; what your activities are; what you're doing. So the government is accumulating that kind of information about every individual person and it's a very dangerous process," Binney claims.
Both statements from the former NSA official come on the heels of a revelation that law enforcement officers collected the cell phone records of 1.3 million Americans in 2011 alone. By carrying out this and similar requests under provisions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and using National Security Letters, though, news articles are emerging everyday suggesting that the surveillance of Americans — off the radar and under wraps — is becoming occurring more and more exponentially by the minute.
But such surveillance goes way beyond what is on the Internet. It includes your shopping histories, where you have traveled and for how long, most likely your phone calls, the content of your text messages and so much more.
Beyond that, I do expect that much of the info I put online (banking, legal, content of emails) remain private. If the Covernment wants to see that they can go through legal channels to get it - a warrant or subpoena. And not some flimsy National Security Letter or trumped up subpoena.
It can be compiled by whoever has the time/money to do such things.
Of course, the federal government is the only entity with the time, resources and (so they think) legal authority to do so.
I'm also in the Army. Then when I go to facebook, guess what types of ads appear in the margins of my facebook feed. The exact type of products I searched on the other sites. Also, Army stuff. When you think about it, it's scary. Sure make life easy, though.
Amen. And just another thing occurs to me. For all i know, you could be one of the government people posting such things to lure people into saying things that cause them to self identify.
Or maybe you are just a freeper.
But the very fact that we even have to consider such possibilities means we live in a softer edged, far more sophisticated version of the USSR, with a veneer of Americana. We live in an officially and agressively athiestic state, which has a pathological hatred for the family, for the individual, for private property, for traditional morality, or the founders notions of Liberty.
But there is something they have not factored for. There is a sizeable number of people who do not hold to this new version and will not submit. It is non-negotiable. I hate my children might have to endure the chaos and upheaval that is coming. But this decade old move into a full police state must be strangled in the crib, and soon.
The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
The former NSA official held his thumb and forefinger close together:
“We are that far from a turnkey totalitarian state.”
For his part, Inglis simply engaged in a bit of double-talk, emphasizing the least threatening aspect of the center: “It’s a state-of-the-art facility designed to support the intelligence community in its mission to, in turn, enable and protect the nation’s cybersecurity.” While cybersecurity will certainly be among the areas focused on in Bluffdale, what is collected, how it’s collected, and what is done with the material are far more important issues. Battling hackers makes for a nice cover—it’s easy to explain, and who could be against it? Then the reporters turned to Hatch, who proudly described the center as “a great tribute to Utah,” then added, “I can’t tell you a lot about what they’re going to be doing, because it’s highly classified.”
And then there was this anomaly: Although this was supposedly the official ground-breaking for the nation’s largest and most expensive cybersecurity project, no one from the Department of Homeland Security, the agency responsible for protecting civilian networks from cyberattack, spoke from the lectern. In fact, the official who’d originally introduced the data center, at a press conference in Salt Lake City in October 2009, had nothing to do with cybersecurity. It was Glenn A. Gaffney, deputy director of national intelligence for collection, a man who had spent almost his entire career at the CIA. As head of collection for the intelligence community, he managed the country’s human and electronic spies.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/3/
“Those who forsake essential liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
=Benjamin Franklin
I'm not sure how much "easier" my life is & will be when the government is intercepting my emails, texts & phone calls.
The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
Oh... you mean like FACEBOOK ? Don't need a warrant to get that kind of info. It's free, and public.
Go there and search 'french toast' or 'gluten free french toast' or, quite honestly, anything else on the planet. You'll be amazed. Food is just one category.
“The former NSA official held his thumb and forefinger close together:
“We are that far from a turnkey totalitarian state.””
And hard cover copies of Unintended Consquences are running about 200 bucks these days.
You know, street crimes are just so random. It’s be a real shame if anything happened to some of these people busily forging our chains. Just a real shame.
The government has the ability to watch you through your computer and cell phone cameras. My computer was hacked into and a guy taunted me over the net saying things I had said to my kids minutes earlier. I had just got a new computer and had not closed down all the ports yet.
Except for the privacy settings on Facebook that allow you to keep anything you want private among individuals or a group you choose.
Until the FBI, NSA, CIA, DHS, local police, etc come knocking with an NSL, subpoena or warrant.
Sounds like Brad Thor’s latest book.
In my case, I certainly hope so. I'd hate to think all those disparaging remarks about that CLUELESS FAT BITCH, Big Sis and her Fascist, Neo-Commie Boss, Dear Leader are for the entertainment of Freepers only.
I have no doubt that FR is one of many sites the Fed Jack Booted-Thugs regualarly monitor.
I also hope they can read sign language cuz this is how much I CAIR:
Thanks... will do. ;>)
Clapper, you suck donkey d@cks.
I should follow this post for Eschelon with...
Semtex, RDX, C4, etc...
5.56mm
Amen.
I've considered the same thing while I read comments here on various threads.
It seems like there is always an instigator trying to urge people to 'blurt' crap out, either by egging it on or being so impossibly stupid that folks react.
So I keep quiet about anything I might actually do and try to quote the Constitution or patriots.
I don't have any illusions that anything I do is private, except for the things I never tell anyone, including wifey about.
Even then, (I know from my profession) that anything I do could be/is being observed/monitored.
When I post, I do so expecting that it is all being analyzed by a computer program and being fed to an analyst if I post anything they currently are interested in.
The sizeable number you refer to is something I hope is true, although it is never a very large percentage historically speaking. Most men are craven.
I also have no illusions about whether or not I would get culled in a totalitarian roll out, so I will die on my feet, God willing.
Sorry Hedgecock, normally I’d agree but this is BS.
The NSA can’t even stop terrorist from entering the US and I’m supposed to believe they “monitor” MY FReeper posts?
Come on, paranoia isn’t a way to live life.
Agreed. I have a Kroger Plus savings card. They “track” my purchases and sometimes do such evil things like sending me coupouns in the mail on products I use.
I actually know people that think the sky is falling that won’t shop at stores that use these cards. That’s how paranoid they are.
I go to a local pizza place regularly. They know me so well they have “tracked” my beer preference and pour me one when I arrive without asking! OH NO, I’m being profiled!!!
The NSA likely had all the chatter about/coming from any 'terrorist' long before the event.
Whether or not it got passed along or not is the point.
Do a Google search of 'Echelon' for a description of a very old predecessor to what is currently being used, if you doubt the ability of a government to monitor EVERY electronic communication, yes even your FReeper posts.
Consider one more item as you read; what you perceive as 'new' technology has been thoroughly vetted in labs 10-30 years before you were allowed to experience it.
Zillions of disappeared dollars did not, in fact, go to $200 hammers or $1000 toilet seats.
That is a nice way to cover research.
Consider a simple thing like computer memory. Ten years ago the government was procuring memory chips measured in TERRABYTES. (That was when having 512 MB was considered a big deal.)
Hint: that wasn't for opening a spreadsheet.
That is a nice way to cover research.
Actually, these figures were because of a law passed by the Dem controlled Congress that forced the military to "price" items based on the entire cost of building and operating a unit like a carrier group.
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