Posted on 06/06/2013 4:56:00 PM PDT by Nachum
The Washington Post has published a remarkable report showing that the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been monitoring the central servers of major Internet companies -- Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple -- and "extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time."
Why did a government source leak information of this program, dubbed "PRISM," to the Post? What follows is perhaps the most chilling paragraph I've read to date about U.S. government surveillance:
Firsthand experience with these systems, and horror at their capabilities, is what drove a career intelligence officer to provide PowerPoint slides about PRISM and supporting materials to The Washington Post in order to expose what he believes to be a gross intrusion on privacy. “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” the officer said.
In the wake of last night's Guardian report about the NSA's collection of Verizon phone user metadata, the New York Times editorial board argued that the Obama administration "has now lost all credibility" in defending its abuses of executive power. That was before the report about PRISM, which unlike the Verizon metadata, includes surveillance of user content.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
The way of creating a totalitarian State that can't be overturned ever... by anyone is being created.
5.56mm
It’s just a way of warning folks to keep quiet if it is an Obama-clan orchestrated leak.
On the other hand, this sort of capability has been talked about for as long as I can remember. There were some sane people in some administrations and in Congress, and they squashed these programs because they all knew that in the wrong hands, these capabilities could kill the freedoms we all hold dear. Then 9/11 happened and some of the sane people became insane in their rush to secure the homeland. Bad bad bad.
America is over. Secession is our last hope.
The saying some use is, “Soap box, ballot box, jury box, cartridge box. In that order.” Way I see it, we’re in the “jury box” phase with these scandals. That’s all I have to say about that.
Obama threw CIA under the bus on Benghazi. They aren’t happy with him right now.
Actually it was Rockwell. Jackson sang the refrain.
I don’t have a problem with this if the data analysis stays strictly within the walls of the NSA where individual identities are automatically isolated and replaced with volatile, anonymous keys throughout the process of analysis. Suspect patterns of non-anonymous data would then require warrants prior to inter-agency exposure. Each cooperating company could provide the keyed anonymity ahead of time if necessary. The goal is threat determination.
It makes sense to analyze the information and determine patterns of aggression directed at the Constitution and its beneficiaries.
I tend to trust the defense agencies, but I believe the privilege of having uncommon access should be accompanied by uncommon consequences for Constitutional abuse and violations — something that wouldn’t be a problem for honorable, Constitutionally minded civil servants.
I speak of the idea of America. Its principles. Its traditions. Its ideals. Its vision.
That is the operative reality, isn't it?
I stand corrected. I knew Michael was involved, and given the degree of paranoia this whole thing reflects, it seemed appropriate.
I bet the Government knows what finger I’m holding up.
YEP!!!!!
I was just about to post this!
Not if the process takes away the fundamental freedoms that are the entire point of the Constitution.
But that said, information can help keep us free. Perhaps the NSA should be required to publish all communications to and from the government and all of its employees, with the same anonymity provisions you believe they have. After all, if the anonymity provisions really do mask the identities of the participants they shouldn't care about the release of the information should they?
But in reality there is no anonymity. The entire point of the surveillance is to build a database of information about citizens, and you can be sure NSA will be able to search by name, phone number, social security number, etc.
I just watched “Enemy of the State” for the upteenth time this past weekend. The plot is similarly eerie as well.
bumping your posts on this thread
just skip the elections and go straight to the next inauguration, it’s more efficient that way
The thought police of 1984 are here.
I think so. The opinion was just too bizarre.
But in real life we don't have a Harold Finch and John Reese.
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