Free Republic

At the Aspen Security Forum two weeks ago, James Comey (and others) explicitly talked about the "going dark" problem, describing the specific scenario they are concerned about. Maybe others have heard the scenario before, but it was a first for me. It centers around ISIL operatives abroad and ISIL-inspired terrorists here in the US. The FBI knows who the Americans are, can get a court order to carry out surveillance on their communications, but cannot eavesdrop on the conversations, because they are encrypted. They can get the metadata, so they know who is talking to who, but they can't find...

"security has to preside...and be pre-eminent" "if anyone wants to listen to my phone calls, it's fine" "I think we have to err on the side of security" "we don't love it, but we have probably not much of a choice" "it doesn't seem to be very popular, what [Rand Paul's] doing" "Most people seem to feel the way I do" "My best trait will be security"

Debating Chris Christie is a formidable task because he's quick-witted, sharp-tongued and slightly intimidating. Those qualities helped him get the best of Rand Paul in the first Republican presidential debate. But Christie's best weapon is one that may catch up with him: He never lets the truth get in his way. Earlier this year, Paul led a successful effort to end the National Security Agency's mass collection of Americans' telephone records. During the debate, Christie was asked whether he stands by his assertion that Paul should be blamed if the United States suffers another terrorist attack. He does, of course:...

The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as “highly collaborative,” while another lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” AT&T’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003...

The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as “highly collaborative,” while another lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” AT&T’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003...

Check out this sign that the NSA Data Center has in front of their massive facility in Utah. See photo at their linked web site. Anybody feeling reassured yet???

Over a year ago former director of both the NSA and CIA, Michael Hayden, flat out admitted, "we kill people based on metadata." He quickly distinguished between the metadata about which the debate was focused, telephone records, and other forms of surveillance metadata upon which covert actions are taken. Not surprised about the actions, I confess I was taken aback when I considered the implications that this disclosure has on Fourth Amendment jurisprudence in cyberspace. Ever since the USA-Patriot Act in 2001, I have been harping on complications of the Fourth Amendment between content and metadata in data networking. For...

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a statement concerning the retention of metadata collected in accordance with section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. “On June 29, 2015, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court George Bush. The Patriot Act originated on his watch George Bush. The Patriot Act originated on his watch approved the Government’s application to resume the Section 215 bulk telephone metadata program pursuant to the USA FREEDOM Act’s 180-day transition provision. As part of our effort to transition to the new authority, we have evaluated whether NSA should maintain access to the historical metadata after the...

A German federal court has ruled that the country’s spy agency is under no obligation to divulge to the media a list of names compiled from search terms provided to it by the U.S. National Security Agency. A newspaper publisher sought an injunction forcing the Germany agency, the BND, to disclose information about what German companies and citizens were on the list after the spy agency refused to answer questions. …

... Cortana is a sexy spy in the machine Turn on Cortana, the virtual assistant, and you’re also turning on a whole host of data sharing: To enable Cortana to provide personalized experiences and relevant suggestions, Microsoft collects and uses various types of data, such as your device location, data from your calendar, the apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts and how often you interact with them on your device. Cortana also learns about you by collecting data about how you use your device and other Microsoft services, such as your...

A key part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fed’s unprecedented collection of sensitive data on Americans by race. The government is prying into our most personal information at the most local levels, all for the purpose of “racial and economic justice.” Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama’s racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document “inequalities” between minorities and whites. This Orwellian-style stockpile of statistics includes a vast and permanent network of discrimination databases, which Obama already...

Donald Trump sat down with Obama's NBC News' Katy Tur and was asked why people should believe his numbers on illegal immigration when he led the birther movement and sent investigators out to Hawaii to investigate whether Obama was not born here. Watch Tur press Trump over the issue pleading that Obama released his birth certificate. Trump fired back: "According to you it's not true. If you believe that, that's fine. ... A lot of people don't agree with you on that..."

The German-American friendship no longer exists. It may still remain between citizens of both countries, but not between their governments. Perhaps it has always been an illusion; perhaps the United States pulled away over the course of time. But what binds these two nations today cannot be considered friendship. Openness and fairness are part of the essence of friendship, which is about mutual respect and trust. A quarter century after the United States helped the German people restore their national unity, little remains of this friendship. As new documents from WikiLeaks and reporting by Spiegel show, the NSA has been...

Is St. Louis at the center of a cyber attack from China? A company that monitors threats on the internet shows a large amount of traffic headed into the area from China. According to Norsecorp’s Twitter profile they offer, “Live threat intelligence & unmatched visibility into the darkest corners of the Internet.” A map on the company’s website shows a lot of activity coming from locations in china to IP addresses located mostly in St. Louis, Kirksville and Seattle. The majority of targets listed in the map are located in the US with origins in China.

One of the technology world’s most notorious providers of surveillance and intrusion software has found itself on the wrong end of an embarrassing hack. A range of sensitive documents belonging to Italy-based Hacking Team, which is known for working with governments worldwide, appeared to leak out over the weekend, including email communications and client lists. The hackers, who remain unidentified at this time, also took over the group’s Twitter account, using it to post screenshots of emails and other details, as CSO first reported. Hacking Team is a mysterious organization which has long been thought to sell tracking and hacking...

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office Thursday asked the US ambassador to discuss new allegations about NSA spying, a German government source said. “We confirm that US ambassador [John] Emerson was invited to the chancellery to talk,” the German government source told AFP, after the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily said Merkel’s chief of staff Peter Altmaier had asked for the meeting. On Wednesday Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that new documents released by WikiLeaks show that the United States did not just tap German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone but also eavesdropped on several ministers. …

Larry Klayman, former federal prosecutor for the Justice Department and the founder of Judicial Watch and now Freedom Watch, announced the filing of a lawsuit against the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”), and certain of its attorneys for violating their fiduciary duty and attorney client relationship, as well as defaming NSA/CIA whistleblower Dennis Montgomery. The complaint was filed in federal court in Miami, Florida (Case No. 15-cv-22452). Montgomery sought legal assistance from the ACLU with regard to his whistleblowing of the unconstitutional and illegal acts by the NSA and CIA, much like the disclosures of Edward Snowden. Montgomery possesses information...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has ruled the National Security Agency may temporarily resume its bulk collection of Americans' domestic phone call records, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The program lapsed on June 1, when Section 215 of the Patriot Act expired. Congress revived that provision the following day with a bill called the Freedom Act, which said the provision could only be used for bulk collection for six months.

MADISON, Wis. – Democrat Milwaukee County prosecutors tapped the email and text communications of conservative activists as part of a five-year probe aimed at bringing down Republican Gov. Scott Walker, affidavits reviewed by Wisconsin Watchdog reveal. One target of the spying operation told Wisconsin Watchdog the methods used to keep tabs on Wisconsin residents were like those of the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program. “It was actually worse because (Milwaukee County prosecutors) were taking the body of emails and looking at actual data,” said the source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from the prosecutors....

French Finance Minister Says Economy in Dire Straits, Predicts Two Atrocious Years Ahead (TS//SI//NF) (TS//SI//NF) The French economic situation is worse than anyone can imagine and drastic measures will have to be taken in the next 2 years, according to Finance, Economy, and Trade Minister Pierre Moscovici. On 19 July, Moscovici, under pressure to reestablish a preretirement unemployment supplement known as the AER, warned that the situation is dire. Upon learning that there are no funds available for the AER, French Senator Martial Bourquin warned Moscovici that without the AER program the ruling Socialist Party will have a rough time...