Master-at-Arms 3rd Class James Lingerfelter has found a way to combine a love of animals and an interest in law enforcement in a job that takes him around the world.

Lingerfelter is a dog handler with the U.S. Navy, currently stationed in Italy, but from there he can be deployed with his canine to support missions in places across Europe or in Asia or Africa.

A 2015 Kane (Pa.) Area High School graduate, Lingenfelter enlisted in the U.S. Navy in August 2015.

I wanted to use the Navy as a stepping stone to get into the Pennsylvania State Police, a goal which Lingenfelter said is still his ambition. He enlisted to be a master-at-arms military police in the U.S. Navy.

For me, I always liked dogs and animals in general, said Lingenfelter, who is an outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing. He learned to hunt with dogs when he was growing up and finds that the drive hunting dogs have is the same that military dogs have.

Its just one big game for them, he said.

The dog that Lingenfelter is currently working with is a 3-year-old German shepherd named Vicki that has been with the Navy in Italy since February 2016.

This was her first command, he noted.

One big misconception he encounters is that military dogs follow their handlers, but that is not the case, Lingenfelter said. He explained that when he leaves NSA Naples, Vicki will stay there, and he will be paired with a new dog at his next assignment.

The military canines are trained to find various substances, a task which can also be used for deterrence purposes, he said, explaining that when people see one of the dogs at work, it keeps them on their toes.

Lt. Commander Lenaya Rotklein, a public relations officer with the Navy, explained that military working dogs (MWD) receive special training for different tasks that can include drug detection, finding explosives and even finding humans.

Lingenfelter said he is proud to serve the nation and explained that what makes him really proud is being able to do things that most people wouldnt, especially the work he does with the military working dogs.

He is a protector part of a group that is putting ourselves in harms way so other people dont have to. In his role as a dog handler, his team looks for potential dangers before sending others in to the front line.

Being a dog handler is a different specialization than he was in when he first enlisted.

Lingenfelter went to naval boot camp in October 2015, then on to Texas for technical school, where he learned his job of master-at-arms. He graduated from technical school that December and reported to Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain at the beginning of 2016.

He stayed at NSA Bahrain for two years, working in antiterrorism and force protection, then reported to NSA Naples in February 2018. He spent a year doing law enforcement and force protection.

At the beginning of 2019, I started volunteering in my off-duty hours going into the kennels.

During that time, Lingenfelter was getting to know the military dog system better and prove myself to the handlers that were my mentors.

In June, he was sent for a handlers course in Texas. He graduated in August and reported back to Italy.

Im still feeling it out and Im loving every bit of it because its so brand new to me, Lingenfelter said.

Lingenfelter may be traveling the world now, but he still has strong ties to McKean County.

His mother and father, Donna and Philip Lingenfelter, live in Kane, and his wife, Taylor, lives in Bradford.

His mother was originally from Shinglehouse and his father from Emporium.

We moved to Kane when I was about 5 years old, he said.

Being away from rural Pennsylvania for a year at a time makes him more aware of his love for the area when he visits.

Its such a beautiful place that we live in, Lingenfelter said.

Being home also reminds him why his work in the military is so important: We do the things that we do in order so that we can have that at home.

Lingenfelter noted he was big into football when he was in high school, serving as a starter for three years, a defensive MVP in District 9 his senior year and an all-star player in 2013 and 2014. He played in the Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic football game in 2015 and was a defensive MVP for the Big 30 team.

He wrestled and played baseball in Kane as well.

Originally posted here:

McKean County man serves and protects as a dog handler in the U.S. Navy - Olean Times Herald

In the past ten years, we lost hope in American politics, realized we were being watched on the internet, and finally broke the gender binary (kind of). So many of the beliefs we held to be true at the beginning of the decade have since been proved to be falseor at least, much more complicated than they once seemed. The Decade of Disillusion is a series that tracks how the hell we got here.

The last decade has seen no limit of scandals highlighting how personal privacy in the internet era doesnt actually exist. Whether were talking about wireless carriers selling your daily location data to any nitwit with a nickel, or incompetent executives leaving consumer data openly exposed on the Amazon cloud, calling the last decade ugly would be an understatement.

Whats more the government, utterly captured by the industries its supposed to hold accountable, has proven feckless in the face of the threat. The United States still lacks any meaningful law governing behavior in the internet era, and the glaring lack of accountability couldnt have been made any more obvious over the last ten years.

2010: The Rise of the Internet of Very Broken Things

During the late 90s and early aughts, internet of things evangelists routinely heralded a hyper-connected future, where everything from your refrigerator to your tea kettle would be connected to the internet. The end result, they promised, would be unprecedented convenience and a Jetsons-esque future, contributing to a simpler, more efficient existence.

The end result wasnt quite what was advertised.

A lack of any meaningful privacy or security safeguards quickly ruined the party, turning the IoT revolution into the butt of endless jokes. Throughout the decade, evidence emerged that everything from your smart television to your kids WiFi-enabled Barbie doll was easily hackable, showcasing that the smarter choice is often dumber, older tech.

May 2013: Edward Snowden reveals the NSA's surveillance dragnet

Snowden, the most famous whistleblower of a generation, gave thousands of classified NSA documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. The documents showed in great detail how the post 9/11 intelligence apparatus was collecting data in bulk on American citizens and people around the world through programs like PRISM, XKeyscore, LoveINT, and a host of others. The revelations showed that the NSA had backdoors into the databases of many of Silicon Valley's largest companies, that it was surveilling world leaders and American allies, and that the U.S. government's surveillance state had become ever present in American life.

Snowden's revelations were published over the course of yearsthis slow drip of information kept Snowden, NSA surveillance, and privacy in the news, making it an ongoing national conversation over the entire decade.

August 2013: Hackers steal the data of 3 billion Yahoo users

In September 2016, as the company attempted to sell itself to Verizon, Yahoo belatedly revealed it had been the victim of a series of major hacks in 2013 and 2014. After initially claiming that 500 million users were impacted, it would later acknowledge that the hack impacted roughly 3 billion users, the biggest data breach in U.S. history.

Yahoo would ultimately have to pay a $35 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission for pretending the hacks never happened, and another $80 million as part of a class action settlement. But as with most punishment, much of the money went to lawyers, and the penalties paled in comparison to the money made from monetizing user data.

2017: Congress helps big telecom kill FCC privacy rules

Big telecom has always had a flippant relationship when it comes to respecting your private data. For years ISPs quietly monetized your every online click, and have even charged customers significantly more if they wanted their privacy respected. In 2014, Verizon was busted modifying user data packets to covertly track users around the internet without telling them.

In 2016 the FCC under Tom Wheeler tried to do something about it, passing some modest broadband privacy rules that would have forced ISPs to be transparent about what data was collected and sold, and to whom. The rules would have also required that consumers opt in before ISPs and mobile carriers could share and sell more sensitive financial data.

But in 2017 the House and Senate voted to eliminate those rules at the behest of industry, opening the door to years of additional abuse by the sector.

March 2017: The Equifax hack heard around the world

The last decade saw no shortage of breaches that exposed mountains of personal data, be it the hack of Marriott (500 million customers), Adult Friend Finder (412.2 million users) or EBay (145 million). But none highlighted corporate incompetence or government fecklessness quite like the 2017 hack of Equifax, which exposed the financial data of 145 million Americans.

In part because data would later reveal that Equifax knew about the vulnerability and did nothing about it. But also because the punishment doled out by the FTCwhich included a $125 cash payout that disappeared when consumers went to collect itshowcased a feckless government incapable and unwilling to seriously rein in corporate Americas incompetence and greed.

2018: Facebook lets Cambridge Analytica abuse your private data

While Cambridges abuse of Facebook data was first reported in 2015, it wasnt until 2018 that people realized the full scope of the problem. For years Facebook casually allowed third-party app-makers unfettered access to consumer datasets, allowing outfits like Cambridge to weaponize your personal information in the lead up to the 2016 election.

Privacy experts like Gaurav Laroia tell Motherboard that pound for pound, no event in the last decade had as much of an impact on public perception as Facebooks epic face plant.

The Cambridge Analytical scandal had the right combination of scale, malfeasance, and consequence to sear into everyday Americans how companies like Facebook sell access to our personal information and how dangerous that can be, Laroia said.

That a researcher was able to take the profile information of tens of millions of Americans and sell it to an unscrupulous company with little consequence, in violation of an agreement with Facebook, showed how industry self-regulation has failed and why the government must act to protect our privacy, he added.

2019: Wireless carriers busted selling your cell phone location data

Thanks in no small part to Congress decision to kill FCC broadband privacy rules in 2017, theres been little penalty for telecom giants that abuse your private information. Case in point: Motherboards blockbuster January, 2019 investigation showing that wireless carriers routinely sell your every waking movement to a wide variety of often dubious middlemen.

The investigation resulted in numerous calls for action by politicians like Senator Ron Wyden, though to date nobodybe it the FCC or Congresshas actually lifted a finger to stop the practice or forced the deletion of decades worth of your daily location data.

The decades theme couldnt be more obvious: either via corruption, incompetence, or apathy, giant corporations routinely pay empty lip service to consumer privacy, before engaging in face plant after face plant. Just as often, the governments response to a chorus line of piracy scandals has ranged from underwhelming to nonexistent.

Part of the problem is US regulators enjoy a tiny fraction of the resources given to privacy regulators overseas, and thanks to industry lobbying, the U.S. still lacks any kind of meaningful privacy law for the internet era. While efforts are afoot to change that, a cross-industry coalition of lobbyists is working hard to ensure this dysfunctional status quo never changes.

See the rest here:

The Decade We Learned Theres No Such Thing as Privacy Online - VICE

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National Security Advisor Robert OBrien said Sunday the U.S. was closely monitoring developments in North Korea and was concerned about the situation, but also had a lot of tools in our toolkit and was able to bring more pressure to bear in the event of a provocation.

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NSA O'Brien on North Korea: 'We Have a Lot of Tools in Our Toolkit' - MRCTV

Former National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon on Friday said that the Citizenship Amendment Act and the withdrawal of special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution had led to India being isolated from the international community, even by its traditional allies, the Hindustan Times reported.

There has been no meaningful international support for this series of actions, apart from a few committed members of the diaspora and a ragtag bunch of Euro MPs from the extreme right, Menon said at an event in New Delhi. He said many world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and even King Harald V of Norway have criticised Indias actions.

Merkel had on November 1, during a visit to India, said that the present situation in Kashmir is not sustainable.

We seem to know that we are isolated, Menon said, referring to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankars decision to skip a meeting with the foreign affairs committee in the United States due to the presence of Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who has been critical of Indias actions in Kashmir.

Menon added that Jayapals resolution on Kashmir, urging India to end the communications blockade as quickly as possible, and ensure religious freedom for all, had been now has 29 co-sponsors, including Republican Party members. He said this list includes the only Indian-origin lawmaker who attended the Howdy Modi conference in September, Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Menon said that India was violating Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it had signed, by passing the Citizenship Amendment Act. We seem to be in violation of our international commitments, he said. You must consider the political and other consequences of being perceived as violators of international law.

The former national security advisor said that India, along with Pakistan, now has an image of a religiously driven and intolerant country. We have gifted our adversaries platforms from which to attack us, he added.

The Citizenship Amendment Act, approved by Parliament on December 11, makes citizenship smoother for refugees from six minority religious communities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered the country before December 31, 2014. The Act has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims, leading to protests against it. At least 26 people have died so far in protests against the Act, which have turned violent at times.

Go here to read the rest:

On CAA and Article 370, former NSA Shivshankar Menon warns India of international isolation - Scroll.in

SHEEP FARMERS are 'not feeling at all reassured' about the UK government's long-term plans for agricultural support.

The National Sheep Association 'cautiously' welcomed Westminster's announcement regarding funding for agriculture in coming years, but noted that it indicated a reduction in 2021/22.

We welcome the announcement of allocated agricultural funding in 2020," said NSA chief executive Phil Stocker. "Knowing the money is ring fenced and secure offers reassurance for our industry in the coming year as the Government strives to build strong and reliable free trade agreements with the EU and other countries, which benefit industry and support UK production.

However, this is just the first year of a significant transition, and we are not feeling at all reassured by the indicated reduction of funds allocated for 2021/2022," said Mr Stocker. "We are still facing much uncertainty about whether beneficial trade agreements can be struck in time and, if not, we will again be facing the detrimental prospect of WTO tariffs from the beginning of 2021.

Seeing allocated support dropping during that period of uncertainty is not desirable and we hope Government will recognise this and deliver on its promises of stability throughout 2020 and to recognise the important and valuable work our farmers are doing already to provide public goods and food security for the country.

See the rest here:

NSA 'cautious' response to UK farm funding - The Scottish Farmer

Jewel v. NSA, EFFs landmark case challenging NSAs mass spying moved forward in 2019, setting up a crucial decision for the Ninth Circuit in 2020. Weve pursued this case for over a decade because we believe that mass surveillance, like all general search and seizure schemes, is both illegal and unconstitutional. The case arises from general seizures and searches conducted through three NSA surveillance programs: the NSAs current Upstream tapping of the Internet backbone, its past actions collecting Internet metadata and its discontinued mass telephone records collection, purportedly authorized by section 215 of the Patriot Act. Congress just shamefully kicked debate on reauthorization of section 215 until March, 2020, even though it was stopped in 2018 after concerns of massive overcollection by the secret FISA Court and has never helped catch a terrorist.

In 2019, we had bad news and good news on the litigation front.

The bad news came in April, when the District Court ruled that, despite the enormous amountof direct and circumstantial evidence showing our clients communications likely swept up by the NSA dragnet surveillance to establish legal standing,no public court can rule on whether this surveillance is legal. The Court agreed with the government that our claims were caught in a state secrets privilege Catch-22: no one can sue to stop illegal surveillance unless the court first determines that they were certainly touched by the vast surveillance mechanisms of the NSA. But the court cannot decide whether any particular persons email, web searches, social media or phone calls were touched by the surveillance unless the government admits it which the government will not do. This circular ruling matched an earlier ruling by the District Court under the Fourth Amendment, and, at long last, set both of these rulings up for review by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

We made three key arguments in our opening briefs, filed in September:

We didnt go to the Ninth Circuit alone, though. In early October six amicus briefs were filed in support of our case:

The governments responsive briefs are due in early December, with our final briefs likely due in January. Were hopeful that the Ninth Circuit will recognize the importance of the case and hold a hearing in the Spring.

This article is part of our Year in Review series. Read other articles about the fight for digital rights in 2019.

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Jewel v. NSA: On to the Ninth Circuit: 2019 Year in Review - EFF

A messaging app downloaded by millions of users in the United Arab Emirates and abroad is actually a spying tool used by the Emirati government, which limits the use of Whatsapp and Skype, according to an investigative report published Monday.

According to the New York Times report, ToTok, which has been available for a few months and became the most downloaded social app in the United States last week, was covertly launched by DarkMatter, an Abu Dhabi-based cyber intelligence and hacking company that is thought to have lured former Israeli intelligence officers to work for it by offering enormous salaries.

The Mossad, China's Trojan horse, censorship and state secrets on our podcast. Listen

The FBI is reportedly investigating the firm for cybercrimes.

The paper describes the move as the "latest escalation in a digital arms race among wealthy authoritarian governments," adding that "governments are pursuing more effective and convenient methods to spy on foreign adversaries, criminal and terrorist networks, journalists and critics."

At the end of last week, both Google and Apple made the app unavailable without providing explanations for the move.

Meanwhile, however, ToTok became one of the 50 most popular free apps in Saudi Arabia, the U.K., India, Sweden and other countries.

DarkMatter, a cybersecurity company formed in 2015 in Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, officially limits itself to cyber defense. But according to a Reuters expose published earlier this year, DarkMatter provides hacking services to the UAE intelligence agency against Western targets, journalists and human rights activists.

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The company operates an office in Cyprus, which among other things employs Israeli software developers. A source in the Israeli cyber intelligence sector previously told Haaretzthat the company was"taking these young people to Cyprus, buying them off with huge salaries."

In March, The New York Times reported that in 2017 the Israelicyber intelligence company NSOsuffered a wave of employee departures, all veterans of theIDFs vaunted 8200 unit.A private investigator retained by NSO to discover what was behind the exodus found they had all gone to Cyprus. They worked at a research facility in a building owned by a company affiliated with DarkMatter, the Times said.

DarkMatter was founded and is led by Faisal Al Bannai, who also established Axiom Telecom, one of the Gulfs biggest sellers of mobile phones. His father is a general in the UAE military.Reuters has reported that Al Bannai has visited Israel several times for business and met with Israeli cybersecurity executives.

On at least two occasions, Israeli companies have sold tracking technology to the UAE. As far as is known, both contracts were cleared by Israels Defense Ministry.

In the first, it was revealed in 2016 that the Gulf country had bought technology from NSO that was used to break into the iPhone of the Emirati human rights activist and government opponent Ahmed Mansoor, who was subsequently arrested and tortured.

A year earlier, it was reported that AGT International, a company controlled by Mati Kochavi, an Israeli, had been contracted to develop a smart-city project in Abu Dhabi. The technology would enable the government to monitor citizens.

Read more here:

Popular messaging app is UAE spy tool, developed by firm employing ex-NSA and Israeli intel officers - Haaretz

from the contracts,-man dept

Back in the fall, we noted that, even if we thought it was silly, under existing law, it seemed highly likely that the DOJ would win its lawsuit against the publisher for Ed Snowden's memoir, Permanent Record. As I noted at the time, the government and the intelligence community in particular take the issue of "pre-publication review" incredibly seriously. Basically, if you take a job in the intel community, you sign a lifelong contract that says if you ever publish a book about anything regarding the intelligence community, you have to submit it for pre-publication review. Officially, this is to avoid classified information showing up in a book. Unofficially, it also gives the US government a sneak peek at all these books, and sometimes (it appears) allows them to hide stuff they'd rather not be public.

As I noted when the lawsuit was filed, there is another ongoing lawsuit challenging pre-publication review requirements on 1st Amendment grounds -- but given the state of the law today, it seemed pretty clear that Snowden would lose this case. And, that's exactly what's happened. Judge Liam O'Grady (who seems to end up with all sorts of high profile cases) easily ruled in favor of the government last week. In short, the court says: an unambiguous contract is an unambiguous contract.

The plain meaning of the contracts set forth above require prepublication review of a signatory's public disclosure which refer to, mention, or are based upon, classified information or intelligence activities or materials. The contractual language here is clear, and this Court is therefore legally barred from accepting extrinsic evidence of course of performance, course of dealing, and common trade practices.

That was in response to Snowden's legal team from the ACLU trying to seek discovery to get more evidence to support his case before it went up for dismissal. No go. In the end, a contract is a contract:

The terms of these Secrecy Agreements are clear, and provide that he is in breach of his contracts and the fiduciary duties identified therein if his public disclosures include the type of information and materials the contracts required to be submitted for prepublication review. Specifically, the CIA Secrecy Agreement requires prepublication review of "any writing... which contains any mention of intelligence data or activities, or contains any other information or material that might be based on" certain information, which was "received or obtained in the course of [CIA] employment... that is marked as classified or [known to be classified or known to be in the process of classification determination]."... Similarly, the NSA Secrecy Agreement require prepublication review of "all information or materials... prepared for public disclosure which contain or purport to contain, refer to, or are based upon protected information," which is "[i]nformation obtained as a result of [a] relationship with NSA which is classified or in the process of a classification determination," including but "not limited to, intelligence and intelligence-related information."... Because there is no genuine dispute of material fact that Snowden publicly disclosed the type of information and materials described above in Permanent Record and his speeches, the Government is entitled to summery judgment on both Counts.

As Snowden pointed out when this happened, all this has really done is to draw more public attention to his book, of course. But, I can see from the DOJ's viewpoint that it may have felt that if it didn't go after Snowden and Macmillan for this, then others might question why they had to go through pre-publication review as well.

Filed Under: cia, doj, ed snowden, liam o'grady, nsa, permanent record, prepublication reviewCompanies: macmillan

See the original post:

No Surprise: Judge Says US Government Can Take The Proceeds From Snowden's Book - Techdirt

A December 26, 2019 article in the Turkish daily Yeni Akit, titled "There Is No Place Left That They Have Not Messed Up! The 'Great Satan' Is Occupying The World With Bases" read: "The U.S., which brings disasters to the places it sees with drunken shouts of 'we are bringing humanity!' and is turning the Middle East into a place of fire, has 800 military bases around the world." The article gives a list of the major U.S. military bases in the Middle East and elsewhere.[1]

Turkish media have been discussing the U.S. bases in Turkey following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan's statement in a December 15, 2019 interview that "if it needs to be shut down, we will shut down Incirlik [Airbase]. If it needs to be shut down, we will shut down Krecik [Radar Station]" (see MEMRI TV Clip No. 7661 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan: We Have The Authority To Shut Down U.S.-Run Airbase, Radar Station In Turkey; If Measures Such As Sanctions Are Taken Against Us, We Will Respond As Necessary, December 15, 2019).

Following is the text of the Yeni Akit article:

"There Are About 180,000 Military Personnel At These Bases, With 60,000 To 70,000 In The Middle East"

"In recent years, despite having bases covering regions including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, the U.S. has approximately 800 bases around the world, some of which are small radar stations, others are the size of cities. Maintaining these bases costs 200 billion dollars. According to data from the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. bases cost 749 billion dollars in 2018.

"The U.S. bases include all U.S. military structures connected to the Department of Defense, from enemy observation points to naval supply points, from training bases to radar bases. There are about 180,000 military personnel at these bases, with 60,000 to 70,000 in the Middle East. These numbers become more important when it is understood that they are found primarily in 17 countries that have permanent bases, and approximately 70 countries in total."

"In The List Of Countries With U.S. Bases, Turkey Comes Ninth With Nine Military Structures"

"It appears that the basic reason why the number of U.S. bases is so high is that the U.S. rarely abandons a base that it establishes in a country. The U.S.'s Ramstein base in Germany is an example of this. This base, which the U.S. established in 1949 after the Second World War, still serves the U.S. Air Force and, with 53,000 personnel, it is the U.S.'s largest base outside of its territory.

"Aside from Ramstein, the U.S. has 87 more bases in Germany. Germany is also the country, aside from the U.S., that has the most U.S. bases. After Germany comes Japan with 86, South Korea with 64, Italy with 29, and the U.K. with 16. In the list of countries with U.S. bases, Turkey comes ninth with nine military structures. Incirlik Airbase is the largest and most well-known military structure in Turkey. There are about 2,500 personnel and units belonging to the U.S. Air Force at the base, which was established in the 1950s after Turkey joined NATO."

"The U.S.'s Colossal Bases That Are Spreading Around The World Are Frequently Protested"

"The U.S.'s colossal bases that are spreading around the world are frequently protested, with 70,000 people demonstrating in Okinawa, Japan in 2018 and thousands of people in front of Germany's Ramstein Airbase. According to data from the U.S. Department of Defense, while the capacity of the existing bases is 21 percent more than the need, 30 percent of the infrastructure of these bases is weak or collapsing. The annual cost of only the unused bases is more than $500 million.

"The large, permanent bases around the world are as follows:

"Afghanistan: Bagram Air Base, Camp Dwyer, Camp Leatherneck, FOB Delaram, Kandahar Int. Airport, Shindand Airbase.

"Bahrain: NRCC Bahrain, NSA Bahrain.

"Belgium: USAG Benelux, USAG Brussels.

"Bulgaria: Aitos Logistics Center, Bezmer Air Base, Graf Ignatievo Air Base, Novo Selo Range.

"Cuba: Guantanamo Bay.

"Djibouti: Camp Lemonnier.

"Germany: Campbell Barracks, Landstuhl Medical Center, NATO Base Geilenkirchen, Panzer Kaserne, Patrick Henry Village, Ramstein AB, Spangdahlem Air Base, USAG Ansbach, USAG Bamberg, USAG Baumholder, USAG Darmstadt, USAG Garmisch, USAG Grafenwoehr, USAG Heidelberg, USAG Hessen, USAG Hohenfels, USAG Kaiserslautern, USAG Mannheim, USAG Schweinfurt, USAG Stuttgart, USAG Wiesbaden.

"Greece: NSA Souda Bay.

"Greenland: Thule Air Base, Guam, Andersen AFB, Naval Base Guam, Naval Forces Marianas.

"Iraq: Camp Baharia, Camp Banzai, Camp Bucca, Camp Fallujah, Camp Taji, Camp Victory, COP Shocker, FOB Abu Ghraib, FOB Grizzly, FOB Sykes, Joint Base Balad, Victory Base Complex.

"Italy: Aviano AB, Camp Darby, Caserma Ederle, NAS Sigonella, NSA Gaeta, NSA La Maddalena, NSA Naples.

"Japan: Camp Courtney, Camp Foster, Camp Fuji, Camp Gonsalves, Camp Hansen, Camp Kinser, Camp Lester, Camp McTureous, Camp S.D. Butler, Camp Schwab, Camp Zama, Fleet Activities Okinawa, Fleet Activities Sasebo, Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Fort Buckner, Kadena Air Base, MCAS Futenma, MCAS Iwakuni, Misawa Air Base, Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Torii Station, Yokota Air Base, Yontan Airfield.

"Kosovo: Camp Bondsteel.

"Kuwait: Ali Al Salem Airbase, Camp Arifjan, Camp Buehring, Camp Doha, Camp New York, Camp Patriot, Camp Spearhead, Camp Virginia.

"Kyrgyzstan: Transit Center at Manas.

"The Netherlands: Joint Force Command, USAG Schinnen.

"Peru: Naval Medical Research Unit Six.

"Portugal: Lajes Field, Porto Riko, Fort Buchanan.

"Qatar: Al Udeid Air Base.

"Saudi Arabia: Eskan Village Air Base, King Abdul Aziz Air Base, King Fahd Air Base, King Khalid Air Base, Riyadh Air Base.

"Singapore: COMLOG WESTPAC.

"South Korea: Camp Carroll, Camp Casey, Camp Castle, Camp Eagle, Camp Hovey, Camp Humphreys, Camp Market, Camp Red Cloud, Camp Stanley, Fleet Activities Chinhae, K-16 Air Base, Kunsan Air Base, Osan Air Base, USAG Daegu, USAG Yongsan.

"Spain: Morn Air Base, Naval Station Rota.

"Turkey: Incirlik Air Base, Izmir Air Base.

"United Kingdom: RAF Alconbury, RAF Croughton, RAF Fairford, RAF Lakenheath, RAF Menwith Hill, RAF Mildenhall."

[1] Yeniakit.com.tr/haber/karistirmadiklari-yer-kalmadi-buyuk-seytan-dunyayi-uslerle-isgal-ediyor-979714.html, December 26, 2019.

Go here to see the original:

Turkish Pro-Government Daily Yeni Akit: 'The "Great Satan" [The U.S.] Is Occupying The World With Bases' - Middle East Media Research...

Is this What the Huawei P40 Pro Will Look Like?

The surfacing of renders for the upcoming Huawei P40 series has almost become a daily occurrence and today is no different. Thus lets have a look at the latest ones coming from the TargetYouTube.

According to the website, the Huawei P40 Pro will look a lot like the latest Samsung Galaxy Note 10 at the front. This means we find a punch-hole camera in the upper part of the display. Now, while the Chinese phone maker has been using larger notches in their latest flagships, the punch-hole camera is definitely where the mobile industry is going in 2020; thus its plausible the P40 Pro will adopt it as well.

Additionally, the smartphone also appears to feature a curved display to achieve that full-screen look without bezels. As always, some will love this design, while other will prefer a flat display.

Moving onto the back of the phone. We find the camera module design weve seen in so many renders in these past weeks. This consists in a rectangular camera bump with at least five image sensors; accompanied by a large dual LED flash.

Specs wise, the P40 Pro by Huawei is expected to pack the latest Kirin 990 5G SoC. A chipset that uses the industrys most advanced 7nm + EUV manufacturing process and integrates 5G modem into the chip for the first time. As that werent enough, its also the worlds first mobile chip with more than 10.3 billion transistors.

The smartphone will also support SA and NSA dual-mode 5G, a technology that increases the coverage area over NSA-only phones.

Finally, according to Chinese media, the Huawei P40 Pro is expected to launch in March of next year.

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Is this What the Huawei P40 Pro Will Look Like? - Gizchina.com

Retired Adm. Michael Rogers,former director of the National Security Agency, has been cooperating with the Justice Departments probe into the origins of the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump presidential campaigns alleged ties to Russia, according to four people familiar with Rogerss participation.

Rogers has met the prosecutor leading the probe, Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, on multiple occasions, according to two people familiar with Rogerss cooperation. While the substance of those meetings is not clear, Rogers has cooperated voluntarily, several people with knowledge of the matter said.

Rogers, who retired in May 2018, did not respond to requests for comment.

The inquiry has been a pillar of Attorney General William Barrs tenure. He appointed Durham to lead the inquiry last spring, directing him to determine whether the FBI was justified in opening a counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and alleged links between Russia and the Trump campaign, among other matters. What began as a broad review has turned into a criminal investigation, according to the New York Times. Barr has described the use of undercover FBI agents to investigate members of the campaign as spying.

Last week, a separate, nonpartisan review of the investigation by the Justice Department inspector general concluded that while the FBI and Justice Department committed serious errors in their applications to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, the investigation was opened properly and without political bias. Barr and Durham took the unusual step of publicly disagreeing with some of the inspector generals conclusions, with Barr describing the FBIs justification for the inquiry as very flimsy.

Rogerss voluntary participation, which has not been previously reported, makes him the first former intelligence director known to have been interviewed for the probe.

Hes been very cooperative, one former intelligence officer who has knowledge of Rogerss meetings with the Justice Department said.

Politico and NBC News have previously reported that Durham intends to interview both former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. It is unclear if that has happened. Brennan and the Justice Department declined to comment. Clapper could not be reached for comment.

The Times reported on Thursday that Durham is examining Brennans congressional testimony and communications with a focus on whatthe former CIA directormay have told other officials about his views on the so-called Steele dossier, a set of unverified allegations about links between Russia, Trump, and his campaign compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.

Rogers is no stranger to the controversy surrounding the 2016 election. Shortly after Trump won the presidency, Rogers traveled to Trump Tower in New York, where he provided an unsolicited briefing to the then president-elect. Rogers informed Trump that the NSA knew that the Russians interfered in the election, according to three people familiar with the briefing. Despite delivering what Rogers told a confidant was bad news, Trump would keep Rogers on as NSA director while dismissing Brennan and Clapper.

In January 2017 just before Trump took office, the intelligence community released an unclassified assessment concluding that Russia interfered in the election. The assessment was based on a combination of intelligence collected and reviewed by the NSA, CIA, and FBI.

Russias initial purpose, the assessment found, was to undermine confidence in American democracy, but the effort ultimately focused on damaging Hillary Clintons campaign in an effort to help elect Trump. While all three intelligence agencies agreed on that aspect of the assessment, the CIA and FBI expressedhigh confidence that the Russian government sought to help Trump win by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him, while Rogerss NSA had only moderate confidence in that finding.

Trump entered his presidency deeply suspicious of the U.S. intelligence community and skeptical of the assessment. He has spent much of his administration claiming that he is the victim of a deep-state coup, beginning with the counterintelligence investigation into his presidential campaign. He has downplayed the intelligence communitys conclusions about Russias responsibility for hacking the Democratic National Committee computer system and providing internal emails to WikiLeaks, which published them beginning in July 2016, instead affirming conspiracy theories that blame Ukraine for stealing the emails.

A year into the Trump administration, in February 2018, Rogers testified at a Senate hearing that the White House had given the NSA no orders or instructions for countering further Russian election meddling.

President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that theres little price to pay and that therefore I can continue this activity, Rogers said. Clearly, what we have done is not enough.

Four months later in Helsinki, Trump said that he confronted the Russian president about meddling in the election. But Vladimir Putin denied that his government was involved, and Trump said he believed him, directly contradicting Rogers and the other U.S. intelligence directors.

Rogers was concerned that his testimony before Congress drew the presidents ire, according to a former Trump White House official who spoke with Rogers earlier this year.

He asked if the president was mad at him, the former official said. I told him, No way, the president has always liked you.

The White House declined to comment.

Durhams inquiry into the origins of the Russia probe has perpetuated the bitter partisan conflict fueled earlier by special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. Among Muellers key findings was that Russias military intelligence unit, the GRU, stole Clinton campaign manager John Podestas emails, along with emails from the DNC, and delivered them to WikiLeaks. The Mueller investigation led to federal indictments or guilty pleas from 34 people and three companies, but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone in the Trump campaign with coordinating with the Russian government.

Yet the Mueller probe, the recent inspector generals report, and now the Durham investigation have done little to bridge the yawning political divide between Trump and his supporters, who continue to see him as the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt, and career intelligence and national security officials, who view the Durham investigation as an effort to punish those who led U.S. efforts to investigate Russias election meddling. In May, Trump gave Barr the unprecedented authority to review and declassify intelligence related to the Russia investigation, further inflaming national security veterans.

Durhams investigation has also sought information from foreign governments. This summer, Barr and Durham traveled to Italy to request information from Italian intelligence officials about Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor who first told a Trump campaign adviser that the Russians had dirt on Clinton in the form of stolen emails. That claim played a central role in the FBIs decision to open an investigation into the Trump campaign. But in the conservative press and the right-wing social media ecosystem, Mifsud was portrayed as part of an Obama administration plot to entrap and frame Trump. The inspector generals report concluded that there is no evidence that Mifsud had any affiliation with the FBI.

Barrs visit to Italy coincided with Trumps offer to trade congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine for that countrys help in pursuing the unsupported allegations that Ukraine hacked the DNC and framed Russia. Trumps efforts to solicit a favor from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Zelensky publicly announce an investigation into purported Ukrainian-backed hacking and look into alleged corruption by Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joseph Biden on behalf of Bidens son Hunter led to Trumps impeachment in the House of Representatives this week.

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Former NSA Director Cooperating With Probe of Trump-Russia Investigation - The Intercept

The National Security Agency can gather the data of US citizens without a warrant - as long as it gathers this data by mistake, a court has ruled. However, this suits the agency just fine, whistleblower William Binney told RT.

The NSA is permitted to gather data on US citizens abroad, or foreign connected Americans at home. The dragnet surveillance operation necessary to gather this information also sucks up data on millions of Americans with no foreign contacts, a process critics say is unconstitutional.

On Wednesday, the 2nd Court of Appeals in New York declared this incidental collection of information permissible. The NSA has maintained that it is incapable of separating properly and improperly gathered data, but former NSA Technical Director William Binney told RT that this is simply untrue.

Theyve been lying to the courts all along, Binney said. Theyve had the capability to sort that stuff out. Its just that they dont want to.

This gives them power over everyone, the ability to look into political opponents like they did with President Trump, he continued.

While the court ruling gives the NSA free rein to suck up data on Americans phone and internet communications, it did not authorize the US other intelligence and law enforcement agencies to dig through this data. However, according to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court ruling issued last year, the FBI accessed this data trove some 3.1 million times in 2017.

Its agents did so without proper warrants, and on persons unrelated to ongoing criminal cases, as explicitly forbidden by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In at least one case, the FBI illegally accessed the data of a suspect before seeking a warrant to spy on them legally.

Wednesdays court ruling concerned Agron Hasbajrami, a US permanent resident who was arrested en route to Turkey in 2011. The government claimed that Hasbajrami was travelling to Pakistan to join a terrorist organization. Hasbajrami claims that the government illegally accessed NSA data to build its case against him.

The court did not issue a ruling on this data access, instead punting the decision back down to a lower court to examine the Fourth Amendment implications.

Hasbajramis case is rare, in that he was informed that the evidence against him was collected by the NSA. Defendants are usually kept in the dark when clandestine agencies do the investigating.

The CIA, the FBI, the DEA and other law enforcement people have access to that data to search for common crime within the United States, Binney said. And they use it against US citizens in criminal courts without telling anyone in the court, or anyone else in the court, lawyers included.

So theyre fundamentally violating the rights of thousands of US citizens every year...without any oversight whatsoever.

The existence of the NSAs mass surveillance program was revealed in 2013 by former agency contractor Edward Snowden. Though the agency has reportedly ended its phone spying program, the espionage charges against Snowden remain in place, and Snowden himself remains in Moscow, where he has been granted asylum.

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NSA has been lying to the courts all along, says whistleblower, as judges give warrantless surveillance the thumbs-up - RT

Edward Snowden won't see any of the proceeds from his new memoir instead, the US government is entitled to seize the profits, a federal judge ruled Dec. 17, 2019.

Snowden's memoir, "Permanent Record," describes his work as a contractor for the National Security Administration and his 2013 decision to leak government secrets, including the fact that the NSA was secretly collecting citizens' phone records. Snowden has lived in Moscow since 2013, where he has been granted asylum.

The US sued Snowden on the day his memoir was published in September, alleging that he violated contracts with the NSA by writing about his work there without pre-clearance.

Judge Liam O'Grady made a summary judgement in favor of the US government on Dec. 17, 2019, rejecting requests from Snowden's lawyers to move the case forward into the discovery stage. O'Grady ruled that Snowden violated his contracts, both with the publication of the memoir and through other public speaking engagements in which he discussed his work for the NSA.

"Snowden admits that the speeches themselves purport to discuss intelligence-related activities," O'Grady wrote in his decision, adding that Snowden "breached the CIA and NSA Secrecy agreements."

In recent years, Snowden has maintained his criticisms of US surveillance while also turning his attention to big tech companies. In November, he decried the practice of aggregating personal data, arguing that Facebook, Google, and Amazon "are engaged in abuse."

This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Follow @BusinessInsider on Twitter.

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Government can seize all profits from Edward Snowden's book - We Are The Mighty

Analysts forecast that National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA) will post earnings of $0.39 per share for the current quarter, according to Zacks. Three analysts have made estimates for National Storage Affiliates Trusts earnings, with estimates ranging from $0.38 to $0.40. National Storage Affiliates Trust posted earnings per share of $0.37 during the same quarter last year, which would indicate a positive year over year growth rate of 5.4%. The company is expected to report its next quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 24th.

According to Zacks, analysts expect that National Storage Affiliates Trust will report full year earnings of $1.53 per share for the current fiscal year, with EPS estimates ranging from $1.52 to $1.54. For the next fiscal year, analysts expect that the firm will post earnings of $1.62 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $1.61 to $1.64. Zacks earnings per share averages are an average based on a survey of sell-side research analysts that cover National Storage Affiliates Trust.

National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.39 by ($0.59). National Storage Affiliates Trust had a negative return on equity of 1.45% and a negative net margin of 4.87%. The firm had revenue of $101.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $100.49 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 18.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NSA. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on National Storage Affiliates Trust from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets restated a hold rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. ValuEngine downgraded shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Co reiterated a buy rating on shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. The stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $33.83.

Shares of NYSE NSA traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $32.76. 4,971 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 534,123. National Storage Affiliates Trust has a 12 month low of $25.11 and a 12 month high of $35.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.64. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is $32.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.19. The firm has a market cap of $1.93 billion, a PE ratio of 23.71, a PEG ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.29.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 12th. This is a boost from National Storage Affiliates Trusts previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.03%. National Storage Affiliates Trusts dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.65%.

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust by 3.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,624,526 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $191,714,000 after purchasing an additional 213,375 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,143,735 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $104,906,000 after purchasing an additional 93,419 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust by 228.9% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,041,493 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $59,081,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,851 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust in the second quarter valued at about $45,783,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of National Storage Affiliates Trust by 5.4% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,527,814 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $44,215,000 after buying an additional 78,100 shares during the period. 92.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About National Storage Affiliates Trust

National Storage Affiliates Trust is a Maryland real estate investment trust focused on the ownership, operation and acquisition of self storage properties located within the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas throughout the United States. The Company currently holds ownership interests in and operates 709 self storage properties located in 35 states and Puerto Rico with approximately 44.9 million rentable square feet.

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$0.39 EPS Expected for National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:NSA) This Quarter - Riverton Roll

There is an official Department of Justice criminal investigation underway being conducted by US Attorney John Durham. Durham is looking into a number of events leading up to the Mueller Special Counsel Investigation that impaired the ability of the Trump Administration to function at an expected level for much of its first three years. A major function touching on all pieces of the controversial topic of Russian interference in Americas 2016 election is intelligence work and its products.

All manner of government organizations are involved in or affected directly by intelligence activities. The NSA, CIA, and FBI are major producers and custodians of intelligence information and related analyses. The POTUS receives daily briefings of what is called intelligence assessments as a result of this intelligence work. The Senate and the House have standing committees that get quarterly briefings of sensitive intelligence developments and those committees initiate legislation that governs how this work is done.

Devin Nunes, when he chaired the House Intelligence Committee, investigated and surfaced a number of actions undertaken by the Obama Administration that were revealed as possible misuse of intelligence functions and information. Nunes was hampered in his investigation by lack of cooperation from the executive agencies. A senior staff official of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, chaired by Richard Burr, was charged with leaking classified intelligence to a newspaper reporter, but got a plea deal that avoided any public disclosure of case facts. There are several other questions related to actions of members and staff of this committee.

In the fall of 2016 just prior to the election, NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers became aware of suspicious NSA database inquiries that he judged to be out of order and demanded they be stopped. Rogers also visited President-Elect Trump after the election. Here is an excerpt from a New York Times article published in the Fall of 2016:

Administration officials had planned to relieve Admiral Rogers of his duties after the election and announce a plan to create separate chains of command for the N.S.A. and Cyber Command. But the plan, supported by Mr. Carter and Mr. Clapper, stalled in part because of opposition from Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who heads the Armed Services Committee.

Under the plan, Cyber Command would remain under the Armed Services Committees jurisdiction, but oversight of the N.S.A. would shift to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Mr. Trumps victory complicated the planning.

I guess the fact that Clinton was not elected was what really complicated the planning.

I wonder where we would be now in terms of the intelligence function if Trump was not President and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was the oversight body for the National Security Agency.

It is being reported now that retired Admiral Mike Rogers has met several times with Durham Investigation officials.

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Is Admiral Mike Rogers the Hero of this Story? - Ricochet.com

from the stay-in-your-own-lane,-g-men dept

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has suggested -- not exactly ruled -- that backdoor searches of Section 702 collections targeting Americans (citizens and permanent residents) is a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The case involves Agron Hasbajrami, a lawful permanent resident who was arrested in 2011 as he attempted to board a flight to Turkey. The government claimed Agron -- an Albanian immigrant -- was ultimately headed to Pakistan to join a terrorist organization.

Agron is somewhat of a unicorn. He's one of the few defendants that's actually been informed the evidence used against him was derived from NSA collections under Section 702. The DOJ is supposed to be proactive about this, but instead has chosen to emphasize parallel construction over transparency.

The evidence appears to have come from a backdoor search by the FBI. The FBI is allowed to access Section 702 collections, but domestic data and communications are supposed to be "minimized" to protect US persons swept up by the NSA. If the FBI performs backdoor searches to access Americans' communications that have been incidentally collected by the NSA foreign-facing surveillance programs, it should have to obtain a warrant. But that's not actually the case for a couple of reasons. First, very few defendants are ever informed of the true source of the evidence against them. Second, the secrecy shrouding the NSA's collections and the Intelligence Community's access prevents a lot of judicial examination in the few cases where evidence can actually be challenged.

The Second Circuit's ruling [PDF] kicks Hasbajrami's case back down to the lower court so it can reexamine the Fourth Amendment implications of warrantless backdoor searches. The Appeals Court has no problem with the NSA's collections, which putatively target foreigners. The court says these are lawful. Accessing collected communications from Americans via the NSA's collections, not so much.

The issue here isn't the collection itself or any inadvertent collection of US persons' communications. The problem is the querying of stored communications without a warrant when the target of the queries is a US person. The court doesn't say the FBI can't look at its own stored collections without a warrant to locate intelligence or evidence. Stuff it has already acquired is fair game, more or less. The court makes a physical analogy:

It is true the FBI does not need an additional warrant to go down to its evidence locker and look through a box of evidence it collected from a crime scene.

But that's where the analogy ends.

But lawful collection alone is not always enough to justify a future search.

Pointing to the Riley decision, the court notes that the lawful seizure of an arrestee's phone does not give law enforcement the right to perform a warrantless search of its contents.

Searching the FBI's own data stores tipped to it by the NSA isn't nearly as problematic as what the FBI appears to have done here: browsing the NSA's much larger collection without a warrant to find more communications originating from a US person. Say goodbye to any flattering "evidence locker" analogies.

If such a vast body of information [250 million emails as of 2011] is simply stored in a database, available for review by request from domestic law enforcement agencies solely on the speculative possibility that evidence of interest to agents investigating a particular individual might be found there, the program begins to look more like a dragnet, and less like an individual officer going to the evidence locker to check out a previously-acquired piece of evidence against some newfound insight.

And there's where the Fourth Amendment fits in:

To permit that information to be accessed indiscriminately, for domestic law enforcement purposes, without any reason to believe that the individual is involved in any criminal activity and or even that any information about that person is likely to be in the database, just to see if there is anything incriminating in any conversations that might happen to be there, would be at odds with the bedrock Fourth Amendment concept that law enforcement agents may not invade the privacy of individuals without some objective reason to believe that evidence of a crime will be found by a search.

The case returns to the lower court so it can consider the Fourth Amendment implications it chose to ignore when considering the defendant's motion to suppress evidence that is starting to look like it was acquired unconstitutionally.

If this results in suppression, this case is going to travel right back up the judicial ladder. There's no way the government is going to let its backdoor searches be subject to a warrant requirement. Warrants create paper trails, and the last thing the IC wants is more paperwork linking domestic surveillance to foreign-facing NSA collections. This isn't a win yet, but if the district court aligns itself with the Appeals Court's suggestions, it could be a game changer.

Filed Under: 2nd circuit, 4th amendment, agron hasbajrami, backdoor searches, evidence, fbi, nsa, parallel construction, section 702

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Second Circuit Says Warrantless Backdoor Searches Of NSA Collections Might Violate The Fourth Amendment - Techdirt

NSA Ajit Doval

Roughly twelve hours before people started gathering outside Red Fort, the capitals North Block witnessed a meeting called by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, with Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, Special CPs (law and order), JCPs of two ranges and DCPs of six districts in attendance, it is learnt.

On the agenda was a strategy to maintain law and order the following day. Intelligence agencies had received inputs that some people from Haryanas Mewat would be coming to Delhi in large numbers and could create trouble on the law and order front, a senior officer from Delhi Polices intelligence wing told The Indian Express. And so, barricades were put up on Gurgaon-Delhi border, and cars started being checked.

Speaking about last nights meeting, a police source said: He (Doval) discussed the situation with senior officers and asked for their viewpoints. The police chief suggested that a protest march could be allowed, but the NSA referred to a tweet by one of the DCPs which had earlier mentioned that no permission had been granted for the march. So it was decided that only a designated place like Jantar Mantar can be chosen for the protest.

He is also learnt to have taken a stern view of the failure of local intelligence during the first three days of the protest at Jamia, and for allowing local politicians and anti-social elements to hijack the students protest.

An officer who attended the meeting, which lasted 90 minutes, said it was decided to call all personnel from specialised units, Crime Branch and EOW, and deploy them at sensitive spots with anti-riot gear. Paramilitary force personnel were also called in with advanced gear. It was also decided to coordinate with police counterparts in neighbouring states, following which border with Haryana was sealed, the officer said. Following the meeting, DCP (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah wrote a letter dated December 18 to nodal officers of four telecom service providers, asking them to stop mobile internet, voice and SMS services in certain areas.

Sources said after the meeting with the NSA, senior officers held a meeting among themselves at the New Delhi DCPs office at Parliament Street. This meeting, addressed by Patnaik, ended around 1.15 am. It was decided that they will allow protesters to gather at Jantar Mantar, but those assembling elsewhere will be detained under CrPC Section 144. It was also decided to approach DMRC to shut some Metro stations, an officer said.

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Delhi CAA protests: How late-night meeting with NSA and top cops set the strategy for Thursday - Yahoo India News

The NSA's Upstream surveillance program was exposed by Edward Snowden back in 2013. In 2015, Wikimedia, the parent company of Wikipedia and other non-profit knowledge projects, challenged this program in a lawsuit against the NSA, the DoJ, the ODNI and the heads of those agencies.

While the Upstream surveillance program is similar to PRISM in that it allows the NSA to monitor and collect emails, search terms and other online activity of Americans, it is different in that, instead of relying on the cooperation of ISPs, Upstream bypasses them and instead relies on the cooperation of telecommunications infrastructure. Wikimedia argued that this program violates the first and fourth amendment rights of American citizens, and far exceeds the scope intended by Congress.

According to Data Center Dynamics, the case was dismissed later that year for a lack of evidence supporting the claim that the NSA was using it for bulk collection, rather than the targeted collection of a specific individual's data which meant that the NSA was acting legally.

In 2017, the case was appealed and the decision reversed, based on the understanding that Wikimedia generates so much traffic that it's impossible to be used for monitoring a specific individual meaning that the collection is indeed done in bulk, which is indeed in violation of the first and fourth amendment rights of American citizens.

Two days ago, the case was dismissed again after reaching the conclusion that without specific understanding of the upstream program, Wikimedias case has no leg to stand on. Of course, this is impossible due to the classified nature of the program.

Judge Ellis said:

For Wikimedia to litigate the standing issue further, and for defendants to defend adequately in any further litigation, would require the disclosure of protected state secrets, namely details about the Upstream surveillance program's operations.

For the reasons that follow, therefore, the standing issue cannot be tried, or otherwise further litigated, without risking or requiring harmful disclosures of privileged state secrets, an outcome prohibited under binding Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit precedent. Thus, the case must be dismissed, and judgment must be entered in favor of defendants.

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Judge dismisses Wikimedia case against the NSA - Reclaim The Net

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How a Government Censored an NSA Whistleblower - Common Dreams

Federal judge rules US government is entitled to seize proceeds from Edward Snowdens book sales and speaking fees By Kevin Reed 20 December 2019

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the US government can legally seize proceeds from whistleblower Edward Snowdens memoir Permanent Record and his paid public speeches because he is in breach of his obligations for not submitting these materials to the CIA and NSA for prepublication review.

In a 14-page decision, Judge Liam OGrady of the US Eastern District of Virginia ruled against the defendants Edward Snowden and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC and granted the US governments motion for summary judgement. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by the US Justice Department against Snowden and his publisher on the same day that the former NSA contractors book was released last September.

In Permanent Record, Snowden tells the story of his life, how he became an intelligence officer and contractor and how it is that he came to realize that the CIA and NSA were engaged in a global electronic surveillance operation that was in violation of the constitutionally protected democratic rights of the public.

Snowden also explains in his book how he smuggled a massive trove of top-secret intelligence documents out of a secure facility in Hawaii and then handed them over to journalists from theGuardian in Hong Kong in May 2013. The whistleblower also recounts how he ended up gaining asylum in Moscowwhere he remains to this dayafter he was charged with violation of the Espionage Act and his passport was terminated by the US government.

The DOJ lawsuit and court ruling are predicated upon a series of six Secrecy Agreements that Edward Snowden signed between November 2005 and March 2013 while he was an employee or contractor with the CIA and NSA. According the to the ruling, these documents required Snowden to obtain prepublication review of any preparation, in any form, containing any mention of intelligence data or activities, or any other information or material which is or might be based on information that is marked classified, known to be classified, or known to be in a classification determination process.

The court ruling states, The terms of the CIA Secrecy Agreements further provide that Snowden forfeits any proceeds from disclosures that breach the Agreements. These terms continue to apply to Snowden. Although the ruling grants the government claim to Snowdens publishing earnings and speaking fees, it does not specify how or when the collection will be carried out.

As Snowden explained very clearly in Permanent Record, he acknowledges having signed the intelligence Secrecy Agreements. However, he also notes that he signed another agreement called an appointment affidavitsimilar to the Oath of Office for public officialsin which he swore to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and this oath supersedes any obligations contained in the intelligence agreements.

Along with the publication of his book, the ruling makes specific reference to several public speeches Snowden madeincluding at a Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and an Internet security trade fairwhere he displayed and discussed, among other things, at least one slide which was marked classified at the Top Secret level, and other intelligence-related activities of the CIA and NSA.

Judge OGradys decision in favor of the governments lawsuit rejected all three arguments put forward by Snowdens lawyers: (1) that the government had itself breached its own agreement by stating ahead of time that it would refuse to review the book or speeches in good faith or within a reasonable time; (2) that the DOJ lawsuit was based on animus toward Snowden and his views and that the government selectively enforced its Secrecy Agreements; and (3) there is no basis within the Secrecy Agreements for the governments claim to seize proceeds from his book and speeches.

Brett Max Kaufman, an attorney for Snowden from the ACLUs Center for Democracy, said that the legal team disagrees with the courts decision and will review our options. Kaufman also said, Its farfetched to believe that the government would have reviewed Mr. Snowdens book or anything else he submitted in good faith. For that reason, Mr. Snowden preferred to risk his future royalties than to subject his experiences to improper government censorship.

Snowdens revelations in 2013 contributed enormously to the awareness of the public both within the US and internationally that the surveillance operations of the CIA and NSAwith the cooperation of the telecommunications corporationsare collecting data on every phone call, e-mail and text message of everyone in the world. Sparking the so-called Snowden Effect, the revelations have encouraged the widespread use of end-to-end encryption that hampers or prevents government surveillance of electronic communications.

Although the US government claims to have officially ended its secret surveillance programs with the passage of the USA Freedom Act of 2015 under the Obama administration, numerous media reports, leaks and data beaches have since have revealed that similar if not the exact same programs are ongoing.

The vendetta against Snowden by the US government and its military-intelligence establishment for revealing these truths to the public will never be forgotten or forgiven. Although the state has been unableup to this pointto rendition Snowden back to the US, the recent lawsuit and federal court ruling show that every effort is being made to silence and intimidate him and set an example for anyone else who might be thinking about exposing the criminal activities of the government.

2019 has been a year of mass social upheaval. We need you to help the WSWS and ICFI make 2020 the year of international socialist revival. We must expand our work and our influence in the international working class. If you agree, donate today. Thank you.

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Federal judge rules US government is entitled to seize proceeds from Edward Snowden's book sales and speaking fees - World Socialist Web Site