Posted on 04/25/2019 11:04:57 AM PDT by xzins
(WASHINGTON DC) The National Security Agency has recommended that the White House abandon a U.S. surveillance program that collects information about Americans’ phone calls and text messages, saying the logistical and legal burdens of keeping it outweigh its intelligence benefits, according to people familiar with the matter.
The recommendation against seeking the renewal of the once-secret spying program amounts to an about-face by the agency, which had long argued in public and to congressional overseers that the program was vital to the task of finding and disrupting terrorism plots against the U.S.
The latest view is rooted in a growing belief among senior intelligence officials that the spying program provides limited value to national security and has become a logistical headache.
Frustrations about legal-compliance issues forced the NSA to halt use of the program earlier this year, the people said. Its legal authority will expire in December unless Congress reauthorizes it. (read more)
…”It is up to the White House, not the NSA, to decide whether to push for legislation to renew the phone-records program. The White House hasn’t yet reached a policy decision about the surveillance program, according to the people familiar with the matter. The White House National Security Council and the NSA declined to comment.”… […] In remarks over the past month, Gen. Paul Nakasone, the director of the NSA and chief of U.S. Cyber Command, has declined to offer specifics about the status of conversations about the metadata program, but he has acknowledged officials are reviewing whether it is necessary.
“It’s a collaborative process, and the administration will make the decision,” Mr. Nakasone said this month at a Marshall Forum event in Washington. “We are taking a look at it, what is the value of it, what are we able to get from it…I think the question becomes, is this a tool that we continue to need to have for our nation’s security?” (link)
May God continue to bless Admiral Mike Rogers…
Do not go about your day without contemplating the scale of this decision; and more importantly the ideological shift on the freedom continuum. 97% of our nation will have no comprehension of the importance of this story.
One of the hurdles in revealing the scale of the story behind the abused FISA process are the current interests of the intelligence community. Those who benefited from the abuse of the system have used “national security interests” as a shield to avoid revealing the history of Obama-era political surveillance and spying.
However, if the intelligence apparatus says they no longer want/need the surveillance system; that is, the specific aspect used for prior abuse; well, the shield is removed;… and, as a consequence, the history of how the NSA database was abused for political spy operation can then be revealed.
I am in favor of dropping it.
There is only mischief in the ability to collect citizen data whenever and wherever. I will be abused again.
Dealing with enemies? We’ll have to go to a deterrance mindset and strike first when we have legit suspicions.
Now that China can receive the information directly, there’s no need to continue American access.
They should still collect data or even monitor all phone calls that cross the borders of the US....................
I’m convinced Hillary’s server was a cute way to release paid for info directly to the Chinese.
For what then would we need an NSA for?
They can access all the phone and text data they want, but can they process it to useable data in a timely manner?
It will drop collecting American data. I assume they will still collect foreign calls entering the US and those entirely overseas.
That’s what the Utah facility was for.
But, the real gold mine in it was the query by name and or number of anybody.
If they had a gripe with me, they could enter a query, and they’d have every digit I ever spoke for them to search through. Anyone has a crime someplace under that kind of scrutiny.
Even if they claim to have ‘stopped it’, I won’t believe them. Once a well financed, faceless bureaucracy learns how to do this, I don’t see them ever stopping in totality.
Such is the world we now live in.
And likely others. “Oh what a shame it would be if the c:/payforplay/sorosproject30592 folder were hacked! Our IT guy is soooo bad at security!”
How about we call their bluff and push for a complete shut down and elimination of the NSA. It’s time to bleachbit the NSA from existence.
Chapter One in the “time to move on” strategy being rushed into effect before the SHTF. Adjuncts to this technique are fellow travelers “mistakes were made” and “everybody does it.” Might as well add in “this is so divisive.”
Now the left has Google and Facebook to do the same and more - and they can be depended upon to exclude conservatives.
If this strategy struggles, look for them to propose a 911-type bipartisan commission to “study” the “matter.” Too bad Sandy Burglar isn’t still around to conduct “research” at NARA.
They won’t drop it. The story is out there just to make us feel better.
The sale of multi-staged missile tech in the 90s was damaging enough. A China-Google merger should probably terrify.
Lol
I know someone who had worked on a network connected to this apparatus. The storage is unbelievable immense, and they fall behind more every day, as the information accumulates faster than it can be processed.
The surveillance will never go away.
They will just change the name of the program, assign it to another branch or agency, and carry on....
In theory, they had the 2 hop rule only from an overseas foreigner to someone and that someone to someone else.
Maybe they go to one hop, but I doubt they’ll stop monitoring foreign calls to the US or all calls within foreign countries that they can.
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