NSA, DEA, IRS Lie About Fact That Americans Are Routinely Spied On By Our Government

Forbes ^ | Aug 14, 2013 | By Jennifer Stisa Granick and Christopher Jon Sprigman

[Jim Robinson]

Full title:

NSA, DEA, IRS Lie About Fact That Americans Are Routinely Spied On By Our Government: Time For A Special Prosecutor

It seems that every day brings a new revelation about the scope of the NSA’s heretofore secret warrantless mass surveillance programs. And as we learn more, the picture becomes increasingly alarming. Last week we discovered that the NSA shares information with a division of the Drug Enforcement Agency called the Special Operations Division (SOD). The DEA uses the information in drug investigations. But it also gives NSA data out to other agencies – in particular, the Internal Revenue Service, which, as you might imagine, is always looking for information on tax cheats.

The Obama Administration repeatedly has assured us that the NSA does not collect the private information of ordinary Americans. Those statements simply are not true. We now know that the agency regularly intercepts and inspects Americans’ phone calls, emails, and other communications, and it shares this information with other federal agencies that use it to investigate drug trafficking and tax evasion. Worse, DEA and IRS agents are told to lie to judges and defense attorneys about their use of NSA data, and about the very existence of the SOD, and to make up stories about how these investigations started so that no one will know information is coming from the NSA’s top secret surveillance programs.

“Now, wait a minute,” you might be saying. “How does a foreign intelligence agency which supposedly is looking for terrorists and only targets non-U.S. persons get ahold of information useful in IRS investigations of American tax cheats?” To answer that question, let’s review this week’s revelations.

[dennisw]

Snowden is without a doubt a hero. They would still be denying every single thing for years until we all ended up in an electronic prison. 

Agreed!!!! The downside is traitors like Obama forced him to seek asylum in Russia where eventually all Snowden knows will be taken from him. But the NSA and its contractors love this!!! And maybe made sure this happened. Now they can earn more billions repairing this situation. That the Russians will soon know everything about NSA operations

 

[NVDave]

Yup.

Fully agree.

I’m seriously thinking about dusting off my coding skills to help in the effort.

The net:net is that the whole of the US computing industry that knuckled under to the NSA needs to be severely punished with off-shore competition. The message needs to be sent that if they co-operate with the NSA, they lose money. Big money.

[SoFloFreeper]

Obama LIED, Freedom & Privacy DIED!

[devolve]

[I want the USA back]

What? a branch of the government lying? What a surprise.

[Carry_Okie]

Others have come to the same conclusion. Such a huge data center can only have one purpose. To store all electronic communications within America and that are routed through America on their way from foreign location A to foreign location B.

Period.

[dennisw]

I think you are saying is that spying on and storing communications.... The NSA is only interested in Americans for reasons Obama and his minions approve of. People outside America are of no interest to NSA. Which is the opposite of the NSA charter and which they obeyed until a few years ago.

[GOPJ]

I haven’t forgotten that there were people who called me a nutjob conspiracy theorist for saying that drones would one day be used over American soil.

Now those same people tell us that its for our own good.

What's the next horror citizens will be forced rationalize?

[Qbert]

"And yet Republican “leaders” (like Lindsay Graham, Peter King, et al) assure us that there’s nothing to see here - the NSA spying is necessary to catch terrorists"

Yep. And who can forget Mr. Man of Ideas from NJ- a guy who thinks it's "dangerous" for people to be concerned about government spying and intimidation?

[RetiredArmy]

Folks might as well get used to all this. The gov-mint is going to do this regardless of what the people of this Republic say or any court says. But mostly the liberal courts are going to let the dimocrats do whatever they want to do. Nixon got run out of town on rails for what he did, and this criminal thug does worse and is put on a high pedestal and considered a god by the liberal media. This nation has been judged by God for our actions and this is the results. We have been given a president to do just what this nation turned into. America is not getting its punishment. Obama is our punishment. The actions of our government, the types of individuals in our government, our leadership, the media, Hollyweird, etc. These are what America turned into. We have been judged.

[AtlasStalled]

“lie” is such a harsh accusation; how about “least untruthful” statements possible?

[Darksheare]

Have to let the USSA Stasi fire the first shot at people obviously innocent of any wrongdoing other than exercising their rights.
Looks like they want to bring back “Wounded Honor” for King Hussein.
We aren't allowed to criticize him anymore.

[MeganC]

Here’s what I intend to do about it:

22A55T 4H9I WTXTN40 67S829 L5W7I 01A87 TQD56Q

and in addition that I’m going to:

U200 Z9824 F2HHAW 900FG 1LWPGW22 A97224YT

Yeah, that’ll show ‘em!!!

[Old Sarge]

I’ll see your

U200 Z9824 F2HHAW 900FG 1LWPGW22 A97224YT

and for good measure

89FH4IOH YYEEM1 YR89234N 40404040

There, NOW they know we mean business...

[MeganC]

Damn! That’s some major stuff you have planned!!

Say, will you be having a BBQ afterwards? I’ll bring the beer!

[BigEdLB]

BBQ? Has to have baby back ribs and some good beans...

[Old Sarge]

BBQ, nothin’, it’s a pig roast!

Here, this is the to-bring-with list:

HJKHF76 YUER93GHSD UIER78 JIEH78M JHGR76 KLWJR3

and don’t forget the UIOUFD7e!

[MeganC]

10-4

[uncommonsense]

Interesting read on Palantir. It doesn't look like they have any magic technologies, just a good set of integrated tools (from what I read in the articles and their web site - based on many years experience in big-data analytics). Maybe their platform technologies are crazy fast / complex...?

Narus is used by the NSA for real-time content analytics coming from the Tier-1 Internet pipes. From their Solutions page:

Cyber 3.0: Rise of the Machines

To adapt to the future of cyber, we have to rely on machines to make fast, incisive, critical decisions. Narus cyber analytics solutions apply machine-based algorithms at the atomic metadata level. They fuse enormous volumes of data and continuously learn from new data dynamics for deeper, richer knowledge that provides contextualized, definite answers that are useful for human analysts.

[uncommonsense]

Forgot to make a comment on your main point:

"NSA mission creep is contractor driven. "

I would say mission creep is stakeholder driven - broader than just the contractors. Scale and funding = power, so the gov agents gain power with scope.

But more frightening is that Knowledge = power.

J. E. Hoover learned early that everyone has hidden skeletons of one form or another. So this massive effort for "Total Information Awareness" has taken over the goal of lining one's own pockets with the scraps from IT contracts, to having total leverage over any person or group through complete 360 degree knowledge of everyone - their thoughts, actions, and associations (even types of associations and details of transactions).