As evidence of this fact, Sen. Paul points to the recent Boston Marathon bombing. “The government sifts through mountains of data yet still didn’t notice, or did not notice enough, that one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was traveling to Chechnya.” … Read More
Top-secret court order reveals NSA’s daily data collection on millions of Americans
Unlike warrants that have been issued to collect the information of suspects targetted by intelligence agencies, the newly disclosed top secret order requires Verizon, one of the largest telecom agencies in the US, to provide both the FBI and the NSA information on all telephone calls made through its systems, both domestically and to foreign countries. According to a copy of the order, Verizon is required to disclose the numbers of both parties during a call, as well as location, call duration, and other unique data on an “ongoing, daily basis.” Meaning that, regardless of whether an individual is suspected of or linked to any crime, the data of all Verizon customers is currently being delivered in bulk to the intelligence agency. As to the authority claimed by the government via this order, that is specifically cited to fall under the “business records” provision of the PATRIOT Act of 2001, which was granted a four-year extension by President Obama in May of 2011. It remains unclear as to whether the order, which spans a three-month period, represents a single instance, or is indicative of recurring cases of Verizon and other telephony providers being ordered to disclose all their clients’ call records. The order itself, signed by Judge Roger Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, prohibits Verizon from alerting its customers of the FBI’s request for their records. According to The Guardian, its reporters approached Verizon, the National Security Agency, the White House and the Department of Justice for comment ahead of its story, though all declined. Though the agencies have yet to respond to the publication of the secret order, justification for the thus far unprecedented, warrantless request made to Verizon in April would fall under the interpretation of such “business records.” The latter applies to a wide-ranging amount of electronic “metadata,” though not the actual content of texts and voice calls. The order seems likely to be associated with the NSA’s longstanding collection program over telephone, Internet and email data, which was secretly authorized by former president Bush in 2001, though not disclosed publicly until a 2006 USA Today report. That particular authorization applied to multiple carriers: AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, and was intended to allow US intelligence services “to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity.” Julian Sanchez, a surveillance expert with the libertarian Cato Institute who spoke to The Guardian believes that the newly disclosed court order undermines the legal definition of reasonable suspicion. “We’ve certainly seen the government increasingly strain the bounds of ‘relevance’ to collect large numbers of records at once — everyone at one or two degrees of separation from a target — but vacuuming all metadata up indiscriminately would be an extraordinary repudiation of any pretense of constraint or particularized suspicion,” said Sanchez. … Read More
TSA ‘cannot justify’ cost, objectivity of screening
The Screening of Passengers by Observation Technique (SPOT) program was instituted in 2004 and has long been criticized for allowing untrained officers to use race as an excuse to scrutinize travelers. The inspector general found there is no sufficient way to gauge the program’s effectiveness, and to boot, the program lacks financial foresight. “As a result, the TSA cannot ensure that passengers at United States airports are screened objectively, show that the program is cost-effective, or reasonably justify the program’s expansion,” the inspector general said in the report released Tuesday. It is illegal in the US to screen passengers based on their race, ethnicity or religion. The “behavioral detection program” was imagined as another method for the TSA to identify potential terrorists before they passed through an airport’s security gate. Agents would try to engage travellers in conversation, attempting to decipher non-verbal cues indicating nervousness or hesitancy to speak with the TSA. They currently do so, often by walking through a security line, but without any training on what behavior indicates that someone is a threat. Thirty TSA officers who worked in Boston’s Logan Airport complained to the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts last year that the program was used to question Hispanics traveling to Florida and African-American men wearing backwards baseball hats. Those officers reported questioning the passengers based on demands from superiors in upper management, who hoped the closer inspection would yield arrests on outstanding warrants or immigration issues, among other charges. Law enforcement, acting on referrals from TSA officers, made 1,083 arrests in the first 4.5 years of the SPOT program. Not one of those arrests, according to Bloomberg News, was for terrorism-related charges. More than 2,800 TSA agents work in the SPOT program, which has so far cost American taxpayers $878 million. … Read More
Kim Dotcom gains access to seized property from 2012 raid
Kim Dotcom wins another battle as the New Zealand High Court on Friday ruled that warrants used during a raid on Dotcom’s home in 2012 were illegal. As such, police are now required to provide copies of all evidence used in the prosecution of Dotcom. What’s more, they must return… … Read More
Rand Paul introduces bill to extend Fourth Amendment protection to electronic communications
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has introduced legislation that seeks to extend Fourth Amendment protection to electronic communications, which if successful would be a major move to protect online privacy. … Read More
Woolwich attack: MI5 ‘offered job to suspect’
In his Newsnight interview, Abu Nusaybah said he thought “a change” had taken place in his friend after his detention by security forces on a trip to Kenya last year. … Read More
Garden Rebels: 10 Ways to Sow Revolution in Your Back Yard
In the face of this attack on the agrarian way of life, the single, most meaningful act of resistance that any individual can perform is to use the old methods and grow his or her own food. … Read More
