Posted on 06/06/2013 5:30:26 AM PDT by blam
Domestic Spying Revelation Could Be Devastating For The Obama White House
Peter Foster, The Telegraph
June. 6, 2013, 6:46 AM
The Obama administration will be bracing itself for a torrent of hostile questions this morning following the apparent revelation that the National Security Agency has been data-mining the phone records of tens of millions of ordinary Americans.
Not to be confused with eaves-dropping, or bugging the phones of those suspected of conspiring to commit a terrorist or criminal offence, the top secret court order published by The Guardian appears to show that the NSA has been trawling the anonymous 'metadata' of potentially billions of phone-calls.
On the one hand, American might take comfort that the 'internals' of their phone conversations – ie the voices themselves - are not being routinely recorded, but on the other, it seems from this leak that potentially everyone with a phone is under some form of surveillance in the USA.
Studies have shown that while anonymous, the 'metadata' – records of location data, call duration, unique identifiers – can provide a surprising amount of information, surprisingly quickly when zeroed in on by investigators.
For Mr Obama– a president who prided himself on his liberal credentials – this leak is a potentially devastating revelation since it exposes him to attack on two fronts - from both the libertarian Right and the liberal Left.
Already the administration has been hammered over its aggressive prosecution of leakers, including what appeared to be an attempt to criminalise a Fox News journalist, James Rosen, for working a source to obtain a leak from the State Department about North Korea.
That story caused the New York Times – usually a reliable friend of the Obama administration - to write a seething editorial
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Yes, Echelon. The Freepers could use a little education on this subject. Here are a couple of links:
Now, we know why a former IRS director/chief thug visited the Outhouse for more than 150 times.
After each trip, he probably walked away with a few high density data storage devices in his brief case, which helped the IRS to target Obozo’s political enemies daring to donate money to conservatives and Republicans.
Obozo’s National Security bozo probably handed the storage devices to the IRS chief thug when Obozo wasn’t there.
Yes, but when the damn [sic] breaks...
It’s not that bad (yet). I’m not plotting a coup.
You can add TracFone to your list.
For over a decade, my wife and I probably caused severe head injuries with the NSA staff from going to sleep listening to our messages like, we got there ok. Do you need anything from the store? I will be late due to a wreck.
We had a TracFone for over ten years and never came close to using our paid minutes. With messages like the above.
This year, we have two Tracfones as per requests from family members to start texting. Our texts are even more boring and possibly more dangerous to any NSA listener.
Worse than anything we heard of under Bush, where calls were limited to those to or from terrorist hotspots (e.g., Waziristan, Pakistan).
< I always wondered how law enforcement knew the geographic location of the Tsarnaev brothers years after the phone calls were made. >
Do cell phone companies store the digital/geo metadata for all their customers for years and years like that as a matter of routine? Seems like it would get very expensive, and for what purpose?
Or did the NSA just “happen” to have the Tsarnaevs’ metadata stored because this widespread, cumulative tracking has been going on for years and they only pull it out to use as “evidence” when the FBI really, really needs it? Something to ponder.
Verizon is much more than cellular. Land lines make up a huge portion of this information.
The percentage of true invesigative reporting on this administration that is done by foreign (especially British) press is stunning.
I don't know who to credit, but it's so appropriate.
I wouldn't say they honed in on any particular company but that it just happened Verizon's name was leaked first. I'd bet that ALL companies are being mined. Just like the 2 rogue IRS employees have grown to over 500, so will this.
Ha! Not likely. This is something that has been done since at least Clinton was in office with the full blessing of almost all Republicans & Democrats in Congress.
I assume that the NSA pulled it out of their archives, since they have been mining this data for years.
Obama just found out about this on the news.
WHOA,WHOA, whoa ...... Bush (W) no only overseas intercepts, Clinton?, not likely, Reagan? NO WAY!
I have been a supporter of the patriot act...UNTIL NOW!
The moral depravity our country has fallen into means that laws like the Patriot Act can no longer be allowed. The camel's nose has become a rhino's horn. Camels, while they can be cantankerous, don't have anything close to the disposition of a rhino (”The animal's nearsightedness seems to urge the rhino to charge first and investigate later.”)
Not to minimize the severity of this revelation, but it's analogous. I'm fine with the sick and the elderly getting a good parking spot. BUT, we can't do the right thing anymore because there is no moral restraint anymore and EVERYONE wants a HC parking permit, and are getting them. “I have a hangnail and need, no DESERVE a HC parking permit.” I expected to see an elderly or handicapped (YES I MEANT HANDICAPPED!, see jungle, bum, etc.) person exit their vehicle, typically with help, and get into a wheelchair. Now, we see people exit their SUV (or monster truck) and RUN into the store.
I thought our government (because of our constitutional restraints) could be trusted with the Patriot Act to investigate only national security threats. I was WRONG! I should say stupidly naïve.
AGAIN, another example of the vision and providence of our founding fathers to include Article II, Section1, Clause 5 of the Constitution that only Natural Born Citizens can be president. They wanted the president to be “AMERICAN”. They were afraid of foreign influences by close family or cultural ties.
A man born in Kenya, living his formative years in a Muslim foreign country, whose parents and step father were Communists and radical anti-colonialists. Even when living in the United States as a youth, he lived in a state that had only been a state for a few years, hardly Iowa or New York.
“Love of country” for Obama that means “Love of Muslim countries” not America.
Every company. This has been ongoing for 20 years at least.
ping
it leaves me more $ for fishing and hunting equip
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