Some NSA Employees Spied on Their Love Interests

The Blaze ^ | Aug. 24, 2013 | Oliver Darcy

[xzins]

The National Security Agency (NSA) has admitted some of their officers misused the agency’s massive spying powers to keep tabs on their love interests, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Friday night.

NSA employees reportedly dubbed the practice with its very own spy label: LOVEINT.

U.S. officials said some of the violations included overseas communications, but claimed the practice was “very rare,” according to the WSJ.

Officials reportedly said all employees involved were appropriately disciplined. The incidents were often self-reported, revealed while the officers took polygraph tests during routine security clearance renewals, according to the WSJ.

“NSA has zero tolerance for willful violations of the agency’s authorities,” the NSA said in a statement Friday.

The revelations come in the wake of learning this week that the NSA had violated privacy rules on thousands of occasions. NSA Chief Compliance Officer John DeLong had stressed earlier most violations were unintentional.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told the WSJ that the NSA admitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee policies were violated in a set of “isolated incidents.”

[Circle_Hook]

I think you are being completely naive! And also, since when have you ever known the Govt to NOT waste resources and NOT violate the law?

[OneWingedShark]

>> “NSA has zero tolerance for willful violations of the agency’s authorities,” the NSA said in a statement Friday.
>
> Does that mean they were fired?

No. They were “inappropriately using” the agency’s authority, not *violating* it.

[Albion Wilde]

Seems most GOP in Congress may be under NSA “watch”...by the way they behave...

It's been obvious that they must have something on every member of Congress, and certainly on the Supreme Court chief justice. What's sad is that there are so few patriots willing to stand up and say, "I'm being blackmailed, and that fact is more important than whatever sin they want to ruin me with." In that sense, Snowden was a patriot. But then, he was young, unmarried and with no children.

Many of the Founders were hounded to death, had their wealth confiscated, their estates overrun or their families scattered, as did of course the Apostles. It seemed more possible to hold out before there was GPS tracking wherever you flee and listening through the phone in your pocket and the computer on your lap.

Theoretically, these capabilities mean that few business plans, patented products, weapons systems or anything at all is safe from theft. It would require proprietary encryption with servers held offshore; but the real problem is the belief by "government" that "government" is entitled to hack any and all systems, no matter where. Once the "of the people, by the people, for the people idea of government by honor system is destroyed, you automatically have tyranny.

[Romulus]

Not exactly fired. “Frowned upon” is more like it.

[Cyclone59]

disciplined and isolated....

Riiiight. Just like the IRS thingy that just went away.

[Starstruck]

Words just mean what they say they mean and it is often the opposite of what it sounds like.

You mean like:

The incidents were often self-reported, revealed while the officers took polygraph tests....

[VideoDoctor]

Wonder if they're the source of Petraeus' "love interest" revelation.

And probably the reason Justice Roberts decided that Obamacare was LEGAL.

We have done a lot of research on roberts and HIS WIFE who allegedly adopted two blond IRISH boys without spending a year in IRELAND which is their LAW on Adoption...the two mothers took the babies to Latin America and handed them over to his wife who is a Washington DC attorney...under Irish law the country has the right to demand return of the children...OBAMA and his NSA etc have the power to discover anything about anyone

[InterceptPoint]

I think you are being completely naive! And also, since when have you ever known the Govt to NOT waste resources and NOT violate the law?

Of course they waste resources and violate the law all the time. Is that proof that they have recorded all of your phone calls for the last 10 years?

You simply cannot extrapolate from COULD DO IT AND WOULD LIKE TO DO IT to THEY ARE DOING IT. Even with an obviously corrupt Obama Administration.

And it is never naive to question what look like very foolish statements. People need to prove or least provide some evidence when for their claims.

Here is my problem in a nutshell: There is way, way too much speculation passing for fact here on FR. That is not doing any of us any good. It makes us look foolish and, to use your term, naive.

[COBOL2Java]

Every darn day it’s something else. And ti’s worse than the day before...

Gets worse day by day. And the water in the pot gets warmer and warmer, as the frog gets used to it.

[GraceG]

Give people in power powerful tools and they will use them, errr I mean abuse them.....

[xzins]

Pettabytes are produced and the capacity for yottabytes are planned for the Utah facility. (See below for size difference between petabytes and yottabytes.)

So, the capacity to store everything exists/will exist soon, and the track record says what corrupt powers can do, they do do. Subtract from that what they cannot have access to.

• How much information is there in the world? This paper makes various estimates and compares the answers with the estimates of disk and tape sales, and size of all human memory. There may be a few thousand petabytes [*] of information all told; and the production of tape and disk will reach that level by the year 2000. So in only a few years, (a) we will be able save everything \- no information will have to be thrown out, and (b) the typical piece of information will never be looked at by a human being. ...This paper was suggested by a query from Glenn Sincerbox of the University of Arizona. http://www.lesk.com/mlesk/ksg97/ksg.html

• http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2376245/posts

  NSA to store yottabytes of surveillance data in Utah megarepository Crunchgear ^ | November 1. 2009 | by Devin Coldewey

  Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 10:06:31 PM by Jet Jaguar

  There’s an interesting article in the current New York Review of books (predictably, a book review) detailing the history of the National Security Agency, that shadowy power-behind-the-power to which we surrender much of our privacy. That in itself is interesting, but I found the introduction a bit shocking: the NSA is constructing a datacenter in the Utah desert that they project will be storing yottabytes of surveillance data. And what is a yottabyte? I’m glad you asked.

  There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte, a thousand terabytes in a petabyte, a thousand petabytes in an exabyte, a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte, and a thousand zettabytes in a yottabyte. In other words, a yottabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000GB. Are you paranoid yet?

[mylife]

The next thing you know people will be shocked to find that a machinist could build his own gun.

[mylife]

LOVEINT LOL

Shocking LOL Never in the history of man, has any one ever been suspicious of their lover, hardly never LOL

[LaRueLaDue]

“And that raises a related question: Was the IRS ever tasked to “review” his financial interests.”

You had to even ask the question?

[mylife]

“Big Data” analytical tools available today are enormously powerful. Their capabilities are beyond the comprehension of most Americans who don’t keep up with advancements in the information technology field.

People are all sitting around with Iphones in their pockets and Excel Spreadsheets on their confusers but are shocked at the power of the technology.

I am stunned that after half a century of security measures now every jackass around wanders about secure facilities with Ipones in their pockets.
The perfect James bond device.
Take photos, down load data, and transmit to the other side of the planet with a finger tap.

[InterceptPoint]

Pettabytes are produced and the capacity for yottabytes are planned for the Utah facility.

This is very interesting. I'm aware of the fact that this site is under construction. And speculation that it could store EVERYTHING is certainly well placed. The COULD YOU part of the equation is indeed at least under construction.

But don't forget: The world is a big place. Collecting and storing the rest of worlds phone calls, e-mails, twitter postings, Facebook posts and the rest is a daunting task even if you assume that the law would be honored and U.S. citizens would be exempt for the most part from that collection.

I'm not disagreeing with those who have legitimate privacy concerns. I have them too. To the extent that we can these guys definitely need watching. A little info on just what this Utah facility will and will not be doing is appropriate. As long as we don't let the Muslim Brotherhood and the rest learn too much.

In the meantime I'm waiting to buy one of those Yottabyte hard drives so I can store all the FR posts.;)

[mylife]

With today’s data storage capabilities I do not think it is impossible to collect everything.
Sifting through the massive amounts of data is another matter.
No one is listening to what you say unless you sent up several red flags.
There simply is not enough manpower to do so.
It is the tyranny of numbers.

[mylife]

Gladys Kravits was an NSA agent.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Officer John DeLong

---

Real name? Pornstar name? Inquiring minds want to know.

[mylife]

Misuse of Gov assets is a very serious crime.