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The New York Times reporter whose National Security Agency eavesdropping article last Friday started a national debate about this issue didn’t appear as concerned with such espionage tactics when Bill Clinton was in the White House. As reported by NewsBusters on Monday, an intricate international communications espionage network, codenamed Echelon, has been in existence for many years. Yet, a LexisNexis search of the word “Echelon” and the name “James Risen” produced only one result. The article, entitled “The Nation: Don’t Read This; If You Do, They May Have to Kill You” appeared in the Times on December 5, 1999. By...

I stepped from the warmth of our source's London flat. That February night in 1977, the air was damp and cool; the buzz of traffic muted in this leafy north London suburb, in the shadow of the iconic Alexandra Palace. A fellow journalist and I had just spent three hours inside, drinking Chianti and talking about secret surveillance with our source, and now we stood on the doorstep discussing how to get back to the south coast town where I lived. Events were about to take me on a different journey. Behind me, sharp footfalls broke the stillness. A squad...

WASHINGTON — Leslie James Pickering noticed something odd in his mail last September: A handwritten card, apparently delivered by mistake, with instructions for postal workers to pay special attention to the letters and packages sent to his home. “Show all mail to supv” — supervisor — “for copying prior to going out on the street,” read the card. It included Mr. Pickering’s name, address and the type of mail that needed to be monitored. The word “confidential” was highlighted in green. “It was a bit of a shock to see it,” said Mr. Pickering, who owns a small bookstore in...

After telling you yesterday that all this stuff about NSA phone number farming is OLD news and in fact TWELEVE Years old, and the fact that Mr. Hagel is full of crap when he feigns ignorance and outrage (He can forget the Presidential race in 2008 - he's already anathema to the Right). But a fact of that previous post needs repeating over and over again because it's the only way the truth will get told. Democrats that are complaining about NSA phone number farming have no one to bitch to but themselves. Now some of the media are bringing...

CLEMENTE: “No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It’s not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out. BURNETT: “So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible. CLEMENTE: “No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.” >Snip< “All of that...

The role government plays in surveillance has long been a topic of debate. For years, we’ve heard stories of the U.S. government accessing data from citizens unbeknownst to them or those with whom they’re communicating. And time and again, privacy advocates argue that our rights are being violated. In a recent interview with Russia Times (RT), a former National Security Agency code breaker William Binney threw some more gas on the fire by saying that the U.S. government is currently in possession of all e-mails sent between citizens, and houses them for use at a later time. “The FBI has...

National Security Agency whistleblower William Binney explains how the secretive agency run its pervasive domestic spying apparatus... Binney—one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in NSA history—worked for the Defense Department's foreign signals intelligence agency for 32 years before resigning in late 2001 because he "could not stay after the NSA began purposefully violating the Constitution." In a short video called "The Program," Binney explains how the agency took part of one of the programs he built and started using it to spy on virtually every U.S. citizen without warrants under the code-name Stellar Wind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuET0kpHoyM

Excerpt only: Details about text messages, phone calls, emails and every website visited by members of the public will be kept on record in a bid to combat terrorism. The Government will order broadband providers, landline and mobile phone companies to save the information for up to a year under a new security scheme. What is said in the texts, emails or phone calls will not be kept but information on the senders, recipients and their geographical whereabouts will be saved. Twitter will also be saved and so will information exchanged between players in online video games. The information will...

Communications firms are being asked to record all internet contacts between people as part of a modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics. The home secretary scrapped plans for a database but wants details to be held and organised for security services. The new system would track all e-mails, phone calls and internet use, including visits to social network sites. The Tories said the Home Office had "buckled under Conservative pressure" in deciding against a giant database. Announcing a consultation on a new strategy for communications data and its use in law enforcement, Jacqui Smith said there would be no single...

Excerpts: As you all know, Skyewriter recently wrote about the dangerous incitement to violence and direct threats at Free Republic. I also posted and directed you to Skywriter’s blog. Skyewriter and I were deluged with gun bloggers and other right wingnuts (and just nuts) who denied that this was a direct threat. ~~snip~~ One week after Skywriter posted and I directed those on my blog to the post, the Daily Kos posted on the same topic. They detailed a thread in which the wingnuts were ranting, no doubt with white froth at the mouth, about our duly elected President who...

Also in the News: White House abandons YouTube Mar 02, 2009 Privacy complaints force a change in plans With complaints by privacy activists stacking up, the White House has quietly dropped YouTube as the supplier of embedded videos on the White House home page, according to CNET news. Instead, the Obama administration will use its own Flash-based solution. The decision came following growing criticism of Google-owned YouTube's use of tracking cookies. The White House counsel recently issued a waiver to the long-held no-cookie presumption of privacy for visitors to the White House Web site, a decision challenged by privacy groups...

WASHINGTON — A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, is expected to issue a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a court order, even when Americans’ private communications may be involved, according to a person with knowledge of the opinion.

Republicans Making Concessions on FISA Surveillance RulesBy Pamela Hess, Associated Press May 23, 2008 Washington (AP) - A months-long logjam over a new government surveillance bill may be coming to an end, with Republicans offering a compromise that would let people who think they were illegally spied on by the government have their day in court -- albeit a secret one. House and Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled their latest proposal aimed at resolving the roughly 40 civil lawsuits filed against telecommunications companies that allegedly cooperated in the so-called warrantless wiretapping program. The Republican proposal makes other concessions. It would:...

A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials. The information would be held for at least 12 months and the police and security services would be able to access it if given permission from the courts. The proposal will raise further alarm about a “Big Brother” society, as it follows plans for vast databases...

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon are scheduled to spend part of today at a San Jose networking company in which the governor has an indirect financial stake. The company, Echelon Corp., manufacturers energy-saving control systems and will host the governor and the U.N. chief for a morning tour and press conference where both leaders are expected to praise California companies and their efforts to address global warming issues. But Schwarzenegger, who has a personal fortune estimated at more than $100 million, also has a holding of at least $1 million in an investment fund that...

Household computers are under threat from a UK government scheme. But the programme, which involves trading in personal computers for low-tech access points and relying on network-based applications for everything from playing video games to doctoring holiday snaps, could help to save the planet in return. The UK government has announced that it will be launching a pilot project for the scheme in Manchester in 2008. Details are still fuzzy, but the basic idea is to replace PCs in tens or hundreds of households with simple access points, perhaps in TV-top boxes, and establish a system of central servers to...

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said Thursday that she was "deeply disturbed" to learn that the National Security Agency was data-mining phone records to track down terrorists. "Like many Americans, I am deeply disturbed" over the NSA program, she said in a statement posted to her Senate web site. "We all deserve to know why the NSA has blocked the Department of Justice from investigating the NSA’s domestic surveillance program and why it has created an enormous database of Americans’ phone records," she complained. Mrs. Clinton suggested that using phone records to track down terrorists was unconstitutional, saying the latest...

SMITH SAYS- The latest bogus debate between our Republican and Democratic leaders is over the supposed Freedom to Phone. This is not a phone debate, it’s a phony one. There is no phone privacy right written into our Constitution or any where else for that matter. And, more to the point, thanks to the wonders of electronics, it could never be. Simply stated, the Founding Fathers lacked access to a cell, satellite or any other derivative of Mr. Bell’s miraculous invention. Hence, they had no reason to incorporate Freedom to Phone in the Bill of Rights, or any other of...

WASHINGTON - President Bush did not confirm or deny a newspaper report Thursday that the National Security Agency was collecting records of tens of millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls. "Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates," Bush said. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans." USA Today, based on anonymous sources it said had direct knowledge of the arrangement, reported that AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., and BellSouth Corp. began turning over records of Americans' phone calls to the NSA shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Bush...