National Softball Association – Wikipedia

The National Softball Association (NSA) is a sporting governing body. The NSA gives softball teams the opportunity to play in qualifying tournaments for State, National - Regional and World Series Tournament play. Also in certain NSA qualifying tournaments, teams are able to win a berth into the NSA Super-World Series. The NSA Super-World [1] series features teams from all over the country. Some municipal park district leagues and corporate leagues follow NSA guidelines to some extent, especially in what bats are not allowed in play, however most competitive leagues require bats with ASA 2004 Certification.

Hugh Cantrell is the Founder, CEO and President of the NSA. It all started, in 1982 around his kitchen table in Lexington, Kentucky, he announced his plans for The National Softball Association to his son Eddie Ray, Don Moore, Ernie Browning, eventual board members Jim Miles and Bernie Livers.[1] Cantrell was a former player, coach, sponsor and tournament organizer for over 25 years. He stated that he saw that there was a need for an organization where it would put the teams and players first and do it better than the rest.

In the autumn of 1982, the plans were set in motion for Hugh and his fledgling National Softball Association to get off the ground as incorporation papers were filed in Lexington.[1] The official conference took place in November of the same year and it discussed the framework and groundwork for the construction in the spring of 1983.

In January 1983, Hugh appointed the first six Board of Directors that would serve as the decision making body of the NSA.[1] Hugh was the seventh board member and he handled the everyday business and his six board members acted as the Rules Committee. Six original board members are still with the NSA in some capacity as of November 2002.[1] This means a lot about what kind of people that Hugh selected. In 1983, the NSA sanctioned 638 teams in three states. In 2002, the NSA does or has done business in all 50 states, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, Mexico, The Bahamas, Russia and Holland.[1]

In 1985, The Presidential Award of Excellence was awarded to Hugh Cantrell, which is the NSAs highest honor.[1] In 1992, Hugh Cantrell, fittingly became the first person inducted into the NSA Hall of Fame.[1]

In its most recent activity in the Chattanooga Times Free Press[2], its states that the National Softball Association is bringing its girls fast-pitch Class B World Series for the Eastern half of North America to Chattanooga next summer. It also states that this event will not only feature lots of attendees, but their average stay is five nights, and with girls events you have parents, siblings and grandparents attending in many cases.

The NSA Hall of Fame was established in 1992.[3]

1.About NSA. PlayNSA. PHP-Nuke. 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2009.2.National Softball Association. Just Bats.com PlayNSA. 2009. Web.12 Oct. 2009.3.NSA Hall of Fame. PlayNSA. PHP-Nuke. 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2009.4. Smiddie, Kelley. Eastern World Series Will Run July 2531. Chattanooga Times Free Press. 18 Oct. 2009.Web. 25 Oct. 2009.

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ECHELON – Wikipedia

Signals intelligence collection and analysis network

ECHELON, originally a secret government code name, is a surveillance program (signals intelligence/SIGINT collection and analysis network) operated by the US with the aid of four other signatory nations to the UKUSA Security Agreement:[1] Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, also known as the Five Eyes.[2][3][4]

The ECHELON program was created in the late 1960s to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War, and it was formally established in 1971.[5][6]

By the end of the 20th century, the system referred to as "ECHELON" had evolved beyond its military and diplomatic origins to also become "a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications" (mass surveillance and industrial espionage).[7]

The European Parliament's Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System stated, "It seems likely, in view of the evidence and the consistent pattern of statements from a very wide range of individuals and organisations, including American sources, that its name is in fact ECHELON, although this is a relatively minor detail".[7] The U.S. intelligence community uses many code names (see, for example, CIA cryptonym).

Former NSA employee Margaret Newsham claims that she worked on the configuration and installation of software that makes up the ECHELON system while employed at Lockheed Martin, from 1974 to 1984 in Sunnyvale, California, in the United States, and in Menwith Hill, England, in the UK.[8] At that time, according to Newsham, the code name ECHELON was NSA's term for the computer network itself. Lockheed called it P415. The software programs were called SILKWORTH and SIRE. A satellite named VORTEX intercepted communications. An image available on the internet of a fragment apparently torn from a job description shows Echelon listed along with several other code names.[9][10]

Britain's The Guardian newspaper summarized the capabilities of the ECHELON system as follows:

A global network of electronic spy stations that can eavesdrop on telephones, faxes and computers. It can even track bank accounts. This information is stored in Echelon computers, which can keep millions of records on individuals.

Officially, however, Echelon doesn't exist.[11]

In 1972, former NSA analyst Perry Fellwock under pseudonym Winslow Peck, first blew the whistle on ECHELON to Ramparts in 1972,[12] where he gave commentary revealing a global network of listening posts and his experiences working there. Fellwock also included revelations such as the Israeli attack on USSLiberty was deliberate and known by both sides, the existence of nuclear weapons in Israel in 1972, the widespread involvement of CIA and NSA personnel in drugs and human smuggling, and CIA operatives leading Nationalist Chinese (Taiwan) commandos in burning villages inside PRC borders.[13]

In 1982, James Bamford, investigative journalist and author wrote The Puzzle Palace, an in-depth look inside the workings of the NSA, then a super-secret agency, and the massive eavesdropping operation under the codename "SHAMROCK". The NSA has used many codenames, and SHAMROCK was the code name used for ECHELON prior to 1975.[14][15]

In 1988, Margaret Newsham, a Lockheed employee under NSA contract, disclosed the ECHELON surveillance system to members of congress. Newsham told a member of the U.S. Congress that the telephone calls of Strom Thurmond, a Republican U.S. senator, were being collected by the NSA. Congressional investigators determined that "targeting of U.S. political figures would not occur by accident, but was designed into the system from the start."[16]

Also in 1988, an article titled "Somebody's Listening", written by investigative journalist Duncan Campbell in the New Statesman, described the signals intelligence gathering activities of a program code-named "ECHELON".[16] James Bamford describes the system as the software controlling the collection and distribution of civilian telecommunications traffic conveyed using communication satellites, with the collection being undertaken by ground stations located in the footprint of the downlink leg.[17]

A detailed description of ECHELON was provided by New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager in his 1996 book Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network.[18] Two years later, Hager's book was cited by the European Parliament in a report titled "An Appraisal of the Technology of Political Control" (PE 168.184).[19]

In March 1999, for the first time in history, the Australian government admitted that news reports about the top secret UKUSA Agreement were true.[20] Martin Brady, the director of Australia's Defence Signals Directorate (DSD, now known as Australian Signals Directorate, or ASD) told the Australian broadcasting channel Nine Network that the DSD "does co-operate with counterpart signals intelligence organisations overseas under the UKUSA relationship."[21]

In 2000, James Woolsey, the former Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, confirmed that U.S. intelligence uses interception systems and keyword searches to monitor European businesses.[22]

Lawmakers in the United States feared that the ECHELON system could be used to monitor U.S. citizens.[23] According to The New York Times, the ECHELON system has been "shrouded in such secrecy that its very existence has been difficult to prove."[23] Critics said the ECHELON system emerged from the Cold War as a "Big Brother without a cause".[24]

The program's capabilities and political implications were investigated by a committee of the European Parliament during 2000 and 2001 with a report published in 2001.[7] In July 2000, the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System was established by the European parliament to investigate the surveillance network. It was chaired by the Portuguese politician Carlos Coelho, who was in charge of supervising investigations throughout 2000 and 2001.

In May 2001, as the committee finalised its report on the ECHELON system, a delegation travelled to Washington, D.C. to attend meetings with U.S. officials from the following agencies and departments:

All meetings were cancelled by the U.S. government and the committee was forced to end its trip prematurely.[26] According to a BBC correspondent in May 2001, "The US Government still refuses to admit that Echelon even exists."[5]

In July 2001, the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System released its final report.[27] On 5 September 2001, the European Parliament voted to accept the committee's report.[28]

The European Parliament stated in its report that the term ECHELON is used in a number of contexts, but that the evidence presented indicates that it was the name for a signals intelligence collection system. The report concludes that, on the basis of information presented, ECHELON was capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks (which once carried most Internet traffic), and microwave links.[7]

Two internal NSA newsletters from January 2011 and July 2012, published as part of the Snowden-revelations by the website The Intercept on 3 August 2015, for the first time confirmed that NSA used the code word ECHELON and provided some details about the scope of the program: ECHELON was part of an umbrella program code named FROSTING, which was established by the NSA in 1966 to collect and process data from communications satellites. FROSTING had two sub-programs:[29]

The UKUSA intelligence community was assessed by the European Parliament (EP) in 2000 to include the signals intelligence agencies of each of the member states:

The EP report concluded that it seemed likely that ECHELON is a method of sorting captured signal traffic, rather than a comprehensive analysis tool.[7]

In 2001, the EP report (p.54 ff)[7] listed the following ground stations as likely to have, or to have had, a role in intercepting transmissions from telecommunications satellites:

The following stations are listed in the EP report (p.57 ff) as ones whose roles "cannot be clearly established":

The ability to intercept communications depends on the medium used, be it radio, satellite, microwave, cellular or fiber-optic.[7] During World War II and through the 1950s, high-frequency ("short-wave") radio was widely used for military and diplomatic communication[50] and could be intercepted at great distances.[7] The rise of geostationary communications satellites in the 1960s presented new possibilities for intercepting international communications.

In 1964, plans for the establishment of the ECHELON network took off after dozens of countries agreed to establish the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation (Intelsat), which would own and operate a global constellation of communications satellites.[20]

In 1966, the first Intelsat satellite was launched into orbit. From 1970 to 1971, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) of Britain began to operate a secret signal station at Morwenstow, near Bude in Cornwall, England. The station intercepted satellite communications over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Soon afterwards, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) built a second signal station at Yakima, near Seattle, for the interception of satellite communications over the Pacific Ocean.[20]

In 1981, GCHQ and the NSA started the construction of the first global wide area network (WAN). Soon after Australia, Canada, and New Zealand joined the ECHELON system.[20] The report to the European Parliament of 2001 states: "If UKUSA states operate listening stations in the relevant regions of the earth, in principle they can intercept all telephone, fax, and data traffic transmitted via such satellites."[7]

Most reports on ECHELON focus on satellite interception. Testimony before the European Parliament indicated that separate but similar UKUSA systems are in place to monitor communication through undersea cables, microwave transmissions, and other lines.[51] The report to the European Parliament points out that interception of private communications by foreign intelligence services is not necessarily limited to the U.S. or British foreign intelligence services.[7]

The role of satellites in point-to-point voice and data communications has largely been supplanted by fiber optics. In 2006, 99% of the world's long-distance voice and data traffic was carried over optical-fiber.[52] The proportion of international communications accounted for by satellite links is said to have decreased substantially to an amount between 0.4% and 5% in Central Europe.[7] Even in less-developed parts of the world, communications satellites are used largely for point-to-multipoint applications, such as video.[53] Thus, the majority of communications can no longer be intercepted by earth stations; they can only be collected by tapping cables and intercepting line-of-sight microwave signals, which is possible only to a limited extent.[7]

British journalist Duncan Campbell and New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager asserted in the 1990s that the United States was exploiting ECHELON traffic for industrial espionage, rather than military and diplomatic purposes.[51] Examples alleged by the journalists include the gear-less wind turbine technology designed by the German firm Enercon[7][54] and the speech technology developed by the Belgian firm Lernout & Hauspie.[55]

In 2001, the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System recommended to the European Parliament that citizens of member states routinely use cryptography in their communications to protect their privacy, because economic espionage with ECHELON has been conducted by the U.S. intelligence agencies.[7]

American author James Bamford provides an alternative view, highlighting that legislation prohibits the use of intercepted communications for commercial purposes, although he does not elaborate on how intercepted communications are used as part of an all-source intelligence process.

In its report, the committee of the European Parliament stated categorically that the Echelon network was being used to intercept not only military communications, but also private and business ones. In its epigraph to the report, the parliamentary committee quoted Juvenal, "Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes." ("But who will watch the watchers").[7] James Bamford, in The Guardian in May 2001, warned that if Echelon were to continue unchecked, it could become a "cyber secret police, without courts, juries, or the right to a defence".[56]

Alleged examples of espionage conducted by the members of the "Five Eyes" include:

The first American satellite ground station for the ECHELON collection program was built in 1971 at a military firing and training center near Yakima, Washington. The facility, which was codenamed JACKKNIFE, was an investment of ca. 21.3 million dollars and had around 90 people. Satellite traffic was intercepted by a 30-meter single dish antenna. The station became fully operational on 4 October 1974. It was connected with NSA headquarters at Fort Meade by a 75-baud secure Teletype orderwire channel.[29]

In 1999 the Australian Senate Joint Standing Committee on Treaties was told by Professor Desmond Ball that the Pine Gap facility was used as a ground station for a satellite-based interception network. The satellites were said to be large radio dishes between 20 and 100 meters in diameter in geostationary orbits. The original purpose of the network was to monitor the telemetry from 1970s Soviet weapons, air defence and other radars' capabilities, satellites' ground stations' transmissions and ground-based microwave communications.[68]

In 1999, Enercon, a German company and leading manufacturer of wind energy equipment, developed a breakthrough generator for wind turbines. After applying for a US patent, it had learned that Kenetech, an American rival, had submitted an almost identical patent application shortly before. By the statement of a former NSA employee, it was later discovered that the NSA had secretly intercepted and monitored Enercon's data communications and conference calls and passed information regarding the new generator to Kenetech.[69] As German intelligence services are forbidden from engaging in industrial or economic espionage, German companies are frequently complaining that this leaves them defenceless against industrial espionage from the United States. According to Wolfgang Hoffmann, a former manager at Bayer, German intelligence services are aware which companies are being targeted by US intelligence agencies, but refuse to inform the companies involved.[70]

The television series Alias made recurring references to ECHELON throughout its run.

The antagonist of the anime series Digimon Tamers, D-Reaper, was created by ECHELON.

Echelon Conspiracy, inspired by the surveillance system ECHELON, is a 2009 action thriller film directed by Greg Marcks. It tells the story of Max Peterson (Shane West), an American computer specialist who attempts to uncover a secret plot to turn the world into a global police state. After being chased down by NSA agent Raymond Burke (Martin Sheen), Peterson decides to flee to Moscow.

The video game series Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell also draws inspiration from this. The series features the protagonist, Sam Fisher, a trained operative belonging to a fictional branch of the National Security Agency called Third Echelon (later, in Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the unit is replaced by the Fourth Echelon).

The 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum makes several references to ECHELON. A CIA listening station in London is alerted when ECHELON detects the keyword "Blackbriar" in a cell phone conversation between a journalist and his editor.[71] Later in the film, CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy requests an "ECHELON package" on the main character, Jason Bourne.

In the 2000 computer game Deus Ex, the signals intelligence supercomputers Daedalus and Icarus (later Helios) are referred to as Echelon IV.

The sci-fi crime thriller, Person of Interest, a television show which aired from 2011 to 2016 on the CBS network, had a data-collecting supercomputer as its central narrative.

In Steins;Gate SERN monitors if someone sends a D-mail through ECHELON.

The ABC series "Pine Gap" is based on the communications control network.

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NSA Systematically Moving All Its Data to The Cloud

The National Security Agency has moved most of the mission data it collects, analyzes and stores into a classified cloud computing environment known as the Intelligence Community GovCloud.

The IC GovCloud is a single integrated big data fusion environment that allows analysts to rapidly connect the dots across all NSAs data sources, according to Chief Information Officer Greg Smithberger.

The impetus for the multi-year move is getting the NSAs data, including signals intelligence and other foreign surveillance and intelligence information it ingests from multiple repositories around the globe into a single data lake analysts from the NSA and other IC agencies can run queries against.

The NSA has been systematically moving almost all its mission into this big data fusion environment, Smithberger told Nextgov in an interview. Right now, almost all NSAs mission is being done in [IC GovCloud], and the productivity gains and the speed at which our analysts are able to put together insights and work higher-level problems has been really amazing.

Smithberger said the IC GovCloud environment accelerates the analytic work humans can do by employing machine learning and algorithms. Data ingested by NSA has been meta-tagged with bits of information, including where it came from and who is authorized to see it, which ensures analysts only immerse themselves in intelligence theyre cleared to see.

This environment allows us to run analytic tools and do machine-assisted data fusion and big data analytics, and apply a lot of automation to facilitate and accelerate what humans would like to do, and get the machines to do it for them, Smithberger said. Analysts, he said, can interactively ask questions of the data in the cloud environment, and it spits out data in humanly readable form.

The backbone of the system is the same commercial hardware you might see in data centers owned by Facebook, Amazon or other industry titans. But that hardware is blended with NSA-developed custom software, exotic processing, high performance computing and other unique NSA intellectual property.

Its really a hybrid of the latest and greatest commercial technology, but a lot of custom NSA technology and a lot of unique development weve done to actually create these outcomes, Smithberger said.

While the IC GovCloud is NSAs creationand centrally funded by the NSAits basic services are available to the 16 other agencies that comprise the IC, including the Central Intelligence Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

IC GovCloud is one of two major cloud initiatives across the IC. Four years ago, the CIA awarded a $600 million contract to Amazon Web Services to develop a commercial cloud environment for the IC agencies. Today, the Amazon-developed C2S provides utility computing services to the IC.

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What Does "NSA" Mean on Dating Sites? (The #1 Definition)

Youll often come across some confusing acronyms when youre online dating, and one of the most common ones is NSA, which just means no strings attached. People who are looking for no strings attached want a casual sexual encounter without any sort of commitment. Here are some more details about NSA and sites you can use to find people for it.

A no-strings-attached situation, which can be found on sites like BeNaughty or Zoosk, is when two people want to hook up, either once or on a regular basis, without the strings of commitment tying them down. Think Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman in the aptly named No Strings Attached.

When youre in an NSA relationship, you usually try to limit your interactions with the other person to just sex, depending on what you two agree on at the beginning. Youre also free to date and sleep with other people just make sure everyone practices safe sex and is honest about what they truly want.

BeNaughty and Zoosk are our experts top 2 choices if youre looking for an NSA relationship. Heres a little bit more about each:

The most popular hookup site on the web, BeNaughty puts it all out there so people can be open about their desires without feeling ashamed. BeNaughty alsohas a free account that lets you create a profile and search through millions of singles ASAP.

Zooskis another good dating site if you want something casual. Its modern and has more than 35 million members, most of them being millennials. You can also try Zoosk for free to see if it meets your needs.

Knowing common online dating phrases is helpful in getting what you want faster, whether its an NSA relationship or something more serious. And there are some awesome sites out there, like BeNaughty, that make it easy for you. Good luck!

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What Does "NSA" Mean on Dating Sites? (The #1 Definition)

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How the NSA is tracking people right now

Documents received by The Washington Post indicate the National Security Agency is collecting billions of records a day to track the location of mobile phone users around the world. This bulk collection, performed under the NSAs international surveillance authority, taps into the telephony links of major telecommunications providers including some here in the United States.The NSA collects this location and travel habit data in order to do target development -- to find unknown associates oftargets it already knows about.To accomplish this the NSA compiles a vast database of devices and their locations. Most of those collected, by definition, are suspected of no wrongdoing. Officials say they do not purposely collect U.S. phone locations in bulk, but a large number are swept up incidentally.Using these vast location databases, the NSA applies sophisticated analytics techniques to identify what it calls co-travelers unknown associates who might be traveling with, or meeting up with a known target.HERE IS HOW IT WORKS NSA collects 5 billion records a day on cellphones

SOURCE: The National Security Agency, OpenSignal and MIT Media Lab . GRAPHIC: The Washington Post.

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What does NSA stand for? – Abbreviations.com

NSA

National Security Agency

Academic & Science Electronics -- and more...

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Community News & Media

No Strings Attached

Miscellaneous Funnies -- and more...

No Such Agency

Miscellaneous Funnies

National Speakers Association

Miscellaneous Toastmasters

Naval Support Activity

Governmental Military -- and more...

National Stroke Association

Community Non-Profit Organizations

National Spiritual Assembly

Community Religion

National Safety Associates

Business Companies & Firms

Network Supported Accounts

Miscellaneous Unclassified

Network Security Appliance

Computing Hardware -- and more...

Never Say Anything

Miscellaneous Funnies

Non-Service Affecting

Computing Telecom

National Sheep Association

Medical Veterinary

Nursing Students Association

Academic & Science Universities -- and more...

National Stone Association

Business Professional Organizations

Negative Security Assurance

Miscellaneous Funnies

National Security Agent

Miscellaneous Unclassified

National Skateboard Association

Business Professional Organizations

Napier Students Association

Academic & Science Universities

No Such Animal

Computing Texting -- and more...

National Socialist Alliance

Governmental Politics

Neutron Star Atmosphere

Academic & Science Astronomy

Nichiren Shoshu of America

Business Companies & Firms

National Scholars Academy

Academic & Science Universities

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National Speakers Association – Wikipedia

This article may have been created or edited in return for undisclosed payments, a violation of Wikipedia's terms of use. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies.National Speakers AssociationFormation1973Legal statusActiveHeadquartersTempe, AZ[1]Location

Region served

Membership

President

The National Speakers Association (NSA) is a professional speakers' organization in the United States that supports the pursuit of public speaking as a business. [3]

NSA is the oldest and largest of 13 international associations comprising the Global Speakers Federation.[4][5]

Contents

NSA was founded in 1973 by Cavett Robert who was born 14 November 1907 in Starkville, Mississippi and died in September 1997.[6] The members hold to a code of helping one another known as "The Spirit of Cavett" and [7] in honor of Cavett's birthday, NSA celebrates the "Spirit of NSA" day every 14 November.[6] Even though he suffered from stage fright in his younger years, Cavett Robert joined Toastmasters International and went on to receive his first paid speech at the age of 61.[6] Cavett's idea for NSA began with just 35 attendees of the Phoenix Summer Sales Seminar in 1969.[6] After years of work, the National Speakers Association was incorporated on 12 July 1973. Cavett Robert's hope was to build a bigger pie so everyone could have a bigger slice.[6] In July 1979, Robert was honored with NSAs first Member of the Year Award, later renamed The Cavett Award.[6]

NSA has its national office in Tempe, Arizona, and 37 regional chapters throughout the United States.[8] NSA's first 10 chapters were officially chartered at the 1981 Convention. Even though many of the names have changed, these 10 chapters still exist today.[6] NSA's professional competencies were adopted in June 1985 and continue to drive all facets of NSA today. These competencies are known today as the four E's: Eloquence, Expertise, Enterprise and Ethics.[6] In January 1991, the NSA staff moved into the new headquarters building at 1500 South Priest Drive in Tempe, Arizona, and have been there ever since.[6] In July 2014, they changed their name to Platform,[9] but abandoned the change for multiple reasons. There was public dissent among NSA members as cited in various blog posts and social media discussions.[10] In addition the brand appeared to conflict with the branding in use by author Michael Hyatt.[10]

In order to join the National Speakers Association, professional speakers must document that they are regularly paid to speak professionally.[11] This may be demonstrated in one of three ways:

NSA holds an annual national convention each summer featuring some of the most successful speakers in the industry, such as Steve Forbes, Sally Hogshead, Erik Wahl, Nancy Duarte, Walter Bond, and Penn Jillette.[12] NSA's first Convention was held 1 June 1975 with 62 attendees gathered at the Scottsdale Camelback Inn.[6]

NSA holds several intensive labs throughout the year featuring a deep-dive on speaking business, marketing and eloquence topics to help professional speakers grow their business and perfect their speaking craft. Past labs have included: Leverage Lab: Creating Multiple Streams of Income, Stagecraft Secrets Lab: Presentation Power to Ignite Any Audience, Laugh Lab: How To Funnier (Even If You're Not That Funny Now), and Platform Profits Lab: How to Sell Before, During & After Your Speech, and Media Lab: The Deep-Dive Lab on Broadcast, Print & Social Media.[13] NSA's first lab was held 30 April 1994 at the International Center for Professional Speaking. NSA continues to host a lab every year to offer speakers an intimate learning environment with labs capping at around 200 attendees.[6]

The 35 individual chapters are led by an elected president and a board of directors. Chapters usually hold monthly meetings featuring a speaker and networking time. Nationally, NSA has a Chapter Leadership Council composed of past presidents who serve as resources and volunteer consultants to current chapter leaders.[14][15][16][17][18][19]

In February 1977, the Association established the Council of Peers Award for Excellence (CPAE) Speaker Hall of Fame. This lifetime award was created to honor the organization's top professional speakers for their speaking excellence and professionalism. Inductees are evaluated by their peers, and must excel in five categories: message, presentation/delivery, experience, professionalism, and collateral material.[20] The award is not based on celebrity status, number of speeches, amount of income or volunteer involvement in NSA. To date, 232 men and women have been inducted; there are currently 172 living members. Up to five new inductees are named each year at the National Convention.[20] The association conferred an honorary CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame award on General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.) in 1999, D. John Hammond in 2007, and Joe Larson in 2012.[20]

Conferred by the Association, the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation is the speaking professions international measure of professional platform competence. Only a little more than 12 percent of speakers worldwide currently hold this credential.[21][22] In 2015, NSA recognized 51 professional speakers, the largest class of individuals to receive the designation at the Annual NSA Convention.[23]

In order to be considered for the CSP designation,[21] the candidate must:

The association launched the Academy for Professional Speaking in January 2004 to teach those exploring a career in professional speaking.[6] The Academy consists of eLearning and the one-day Cavett Institute, named after NSA founder Cavett Robert, CSP, CPAE. This meeting is held prior to NSA's annual national Convention and features programming for people who want to turn their passion for speaking into a full-time profession.[24]

Speaker Magazine, is published 10 times annually in print and digital formats and includes the latest marketing strategies, tips, information and innovative ideas from top professionals worldwide. NSA's magazine was rebranded and renamed to Speaker magazine in January 2007. A year later in June 2008, Speaker magazine went digital. In 2013, NSA launched SpeakerMagazine.com and introduced a mobile application [6]

With the help of 34 working NSA members, NSA published its first book, Paid to Speak: Best Practices for Building a Successful Speaking Business.[6] One year after publishing Paid to Speak, NSA published its second book, Speak More! Marketing Strategies to Get More Speaking Business.[6] A commemorative 40th anniversary volume, National Speakers Association: Celebrating 40 Years of Conventional Wisdom, describing the history of the National Speakers Association, highlighting the individuals, events, initiatives and programs involved in the association's growth and influence was published in July 2013.[25]

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The Shadow Factory: The NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping …

A Washington Post Notable Book

Important and disturbing. . . . This revealing and provocative book is necessary reading . . . Bamford goes where the 9/11 Commission did not fully go.Senator Bob Kerrey, The Washington Post Book World

Fascinating. . . . Bamford has distilled a troubling chapter in American history.Bloomberg News

At its core and at its best, Bamfords book is a schematic diagram tracing the obsessions and excesses of the Bush administration after 9/11. . . . There have been glimpses inside the NSA before, but until now no one has published a comprehensive and detailed report on the agency. . . . Bamford has emerged with everything except the combination to the directors safe.The New York Times Book ReviewEngaging. . . . Chilling. . . . Bamford is able to link disparate facts and paint a picture of utter, compounded failurefailure to find the NSAs terrorist targets and failure to protect American citizens communications from becoming tangled in a dragnet.The San Francisco ChronicleThe bad news in Bamfords fascinating new study of the NSA is that Big Brother really is watching. The worse news . . . is that Big Brother often listens in on the wrong people and sometimes fails to recognize critical information. . . . Bamford convincingly argues that the agency . . . broke the law and spied on Americans and nearly got away with it. The Baltimore Sun

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How Leaked NSA Spy Tool ‘EternalBlue’ Became a Hacker …

An elite Russian hacking team, a historic ransomware attack, an espionage group in the Middle East, and countless small time cryptojackers all have one thing in common. Though their methods and objectives vary, they all lean on leaked NSA hacking tool EternalBlue to infiltrate target computers and spread malware across networks.

Leaked to the public not quite a year ago, EternalBlue has joined a long line of reliable hacker favorites. The Conficker Windows worm infected millions of computers in 2008, and the Welchia remote code execution worm wreaked havoc 2003. EternalBlue is certainly continuing that traditionand by all indications it's not going anywhere. If anything, security analysts only see use of the exploit diversifying as attackers develop new, clever applications, or simply discover how easy it is to deploy.

"When you take something thats weaponized and a fully developed concept and make it publicly available youre going to have that level of uptake," says Adam Meyers, vice president of intelligence at the security firm CrowdStrike. "A year later there are still organizations that are getting hit by EternalBluestill organizations that havent patched it."

EternalBlue is the name of both a software vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system and an exploit the National Security Agency developed to weaponize the bug. In April 2017, the exploit leaked to the public, part of the fifth release of alleged NSA tools by the still mysterious group known as the Shadow Brokers. Unsurprisingly, the agency has never confirmed that it created EternalBlue, or anything else in the Shadow Brokers releases, but numerous reports corroborate its originand even Microsoft has publicly attributed its existence to the NSA.

The tool exploits a vulnerability in the Windows Server Message Block, a transport protocol that allows Windows machines to communicate with each other and other devices for things like remote services and file and printer sharing. Attackers manipulate flaws in how SMB handles certain packets to remotely execute any code they want. Once they have that foothold into that initial target device, they can then fan out across a network.

'It's incredible that a tool which was used by intelligence services is now publicly available and so widely used amongst malicious actors.'

Vikram Thakur, Symantec

Microsoft released its EternalBlue patches on March 14 of last year. But security update adoption is spotty, especially on corporate and institutional networks. Within two months, EternalBlue was the centerpiece of the worldwide WannaCry ransomware attacks that were ultimately traced to North Korean government hackers. As WannaCry hit, Microsoft even took the "highly unusual step" of issuing patches for the still popular, but long-unsupported Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

In the aftermath of WannaCry, Microsoft and others criticized the NSA for keeping the EternalBlue vulnerability a secret for years instead of proactively disclosing it for patching. Some reports estimate that the NSA used and continued to refine the EternalBlue exploit for at least five years, and only warned Microsoft when the agency discovered that the exploit had been stolen. EternalBlue can also be used in concert with other NSA exploits released by the Shadow Brokers, like the kernel backdoor known as DarkPulsar, which burrows deep into the trusted core of a computer where it can often lurk undetected.

The versatility of the tool has made it an appealing workhorse for hackers. And though WannaCry raised EternalBlue's profile, many attackers had already realized the exploit's potential by then.

Within days of the Shadow Brokers release, security analysts say that they began to see bad actors using EternalBlue to extract passwords from browsers, and to install malicious cryptocurrency miners on target devices. "WannaCry was a big splash and made all the news because it was ransomware, but before that attackers had actually used the same EternalBlue exploit to infect machines and run miners on them," says Jrme Segura, lead malware intelligence analyst at the security firm Malwarebytes. "There are definitely a lot of machines that are exposed in some capacity."

Even a year after Microsoft issued a patch, attackers can still rely on the EternalBlue exploit to target victims, because so many machines remain defenseless to this day. "EternalBlue will be a go-to tool for attackers for years to come," says Jake Williams, founder of the security firm Rendition Infosec, who formerly worked at the NSA. "Particularly in air-gapped and industrial networks, patching takes a lot of time and machines get missed. There are many XP and Server 2003 machines that were taken off of patching programs before the patch for EternalBlue was backported to these now-unsupported platforms."

At this point, EternalBlue has fully transitioned into one of the ubiquitous, name-brand instruments in every hacker's toolboxmuch like the password extraction tool Mimikatz. But EternalBlue's widespread use is tinged with the added irony that a sophisticated, top-secret US cyber espionage tool is now the people's crowbar. It is also frequently used by an array of nation state hackers, including those in Russia's Fancy Bear group, who started deploying EternalBlue last year as part of targeted attacks to gather passwords and other sensitive data on hotel Wi-Fi networks.

'EternalBlue will be a go-to tool for attackers for years to come.'

Jake Williams, Rendition Infosec

New examples of EternalBlue's use in the wild still crop up frequently. In February, more attackers leveraged EternalBlue to install cryptocurrency-mining software on victim computers and servers, refining the techniques to make the attacks more reliable and effective. "EternalBlue is ideal for many attackers because it leaves very few event logs," or digital traces, Rendition Infosec's Williams notes. "Third-party software is required to see the exploitation attempts."

And just last week, security researchers at Symantec published findings on the Iran-based hacking group Chafer, which has used EternalBlue as part of its expanded operations. In the past year, Chafer has attacked targets around the Middle East, focusing on transportation groups like airlines, aircraft services, industry technology firms, and telecoms.

"It's incredible that a tool which was used by intelligence services is now publicly available and so widely used amongst malicious actors," says Vikram Thakur, technical director of Symantec's security response. "To [a hacker] its just a tool to make their lives easier in spreading across a network. Plus they use these tools in trying to evade attribution. It makes it harder for us to determine whether the attacker was sitting in country one or two or three."

It will be years before enough computers are patched against EternalBlue that hackers retire it from their arsenals. At least by now security experts know to watch for itand to appreciate the clever innovations hackers come up with to use the exploit in more and more types of attacks.

Link:

How Leaked NSA Spy Tool 'EternalBlue' Became a Hacker ...

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National Speakers Association (NSA … – Connecticut Chapter

Im delighted to serve as your NSA-CT Chapter President for 2017-18. Our goal for this year is reflected in our theme:Community. Inspiration. Growth.Come join us, get involved, and find all three!Last year, our members (both Professional and Speakers Academy) and guests heard exciting ideas, shared creative tips, and had spirited conversations that lifted each and every one of us. Lets do it again!You can join us as:Professional Member (if you are a member of NSA National) in two categories: Basic (see the benefits here) and All-Access Pass (which includes all our speaker meetings and one free Fireside Chat a savings of $80!)Speakers Academy Member our Academy takes you step-by-step into the world of Professional Speakers, with 10 modules delivered over 4 Saturdays (one each in February, March, April and May at a lovely retreat center in Madison. Tuition includes NSA-CT membership!Guest Attend NSA-CT meetings whenever you like, at the Guest rate ($40 per meeting, includes dinner). Guests range from the just curious to those serious about taking the step to professional speaking. Well help you get there.

This year, were all about Community (speaking can be a solitary business until the audience shows up! come meet your peeps and share questions, answers, successes, and laughter), Inspiration (nothing like seeing how others get to where they are to help you get there too), and Growth personal as well as professional.As soon as our program is cemented, youll see the info on our event page. Some topics under consideration are: So you wanna do a TED/TEDX talk? How to bring your PowerPoint to the millennial age Setting up online courses for more reach and income Building Your Personal Brand Speaking internationally Face-to-Face: Leverage the Power of In-Person

Come join us and get your share! Membership notices will go out July 31st, and you can always contact us at nsaconnecticut@gmail.com.Right now, you can:You can join our facebook group,follow us on twitter @NSAConnecticut,and join our mailing list.Cant wait to see you!Randye

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National Speakers Association (NSA ... - Connecticut Chapter

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NSA Philadelphia

You can have everything in life you want, if youll just help enough other people get what they want. Zig ZiglarNSA-PHL: Building a community of professional speakers helping other speakers

NSA-PHL is your local chapter of the National Speakers Association. Serving the professional speaking community in the Philadelphia and the tri-state region, our goal is to provide professional and emerging speakers with the support and community to develop a successful speaking business. Networking together and building relationships with other speaking professionals will enhance all aspects of your speaking career including growing your speaking opportunities

Members enjoy monthly training events, special member-only meetings, and resources to learn and answer questions or help you with direction as you build your business as a speaker.

Through our Speakers Academy, we offer training to beginning and emerging speakers who desire to take a big step toward full national membership as you build your career as a paid speaking professional.

As a Professional Speaker, a supportive and experienced community can be the building block in the progress of your success no matter what level you are currently at as a Professional Speaker. Becoming a part of our community will be one of the most pivotal things you can do for your business.

Become a MemberClick to Learn More

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NSA Philadelphia

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Nsa in Memphis, TN with Reviews – YP.com

When I went to pay to get my car back, I saw that they had taken my wheel off of my car. They said that it "fell off" however, the lugs were missing, which means that it was purposely taken off. The woman in the office was extremely rude and rushed me. She had major attitude and tried to get me to sign a paper without giving me a chance to read it first. I paid to have it towed to an auto shop, but the woman wouldn't dispatch a tow truck for me. I had to wait 15 minutes and ask again for her to do so, but again she had major attitude. Also, they messed with my passenger hub bearing. Thanks to Bartlett Towing I now have a broken axle, roter, and strut. I also have slight frame damage, which they are denying having anything to do with. Also, I am sure they tried to file for a Lost Title paper on my car. DO NOT use Bartlett Towing, unless you are willing to have your car stripped and deal with extremely low non-existent professionalism.

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Nsa in Memphis, TN with Reviews - YP.com

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NSA Wa

The Tentative schedule is posted on the tournament page. We will be filling in more dates as they are confirmed.

I wanted to give you a heads up on the dates of the tournaments that fill up fast.

TACOMA OPENER - March 17-18

ICE BREAKER - April 6-7-8 ( Tri Cities)

STERLING INVITE - May 26-27-28 ( Wenatchee)

NSA STATE - June 29-30 / 1 ( Tri Cities)

WINNING IS FOR TODAY, SPORTMANSHIP IS FOR A LIFE TIME.

Steve Jensen

NSA FP

State Director

.

NSAWA.com is your Washington State source

for Girl's Fastpitch Softball Tournaments.

Steve Jensen State Director

425-308-1024

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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About NSA | NATIONAL SHERIFFS ASSOCIATION

Chartered in 1940, the National Sheriffs' Association is a professional association dedicated to serving the Office of Sheriff and its affiliates through police education, police training, and general law enforcement information resources. NSA represents thousands of sheriffs, deputies and other law enforcement, public safety professionals, and concerned citizens nationwide.

Through the years, NSA has provided programs for Sheriffs, their deputies, chiefs of police, and others in the field of criminal justice to perform their jobs in the best possible manner and to better serve the people of their cities, counties or jurisdictions.

The National Sheriffs' Association headquarters is located in Alexandria, Virginia and offers police training, police information, court security training, jail information and other law enforcement services to sheriffs, deputies, and others throughout the nation. NSA has worked to forge cooperative relationships with local, state, and federal criminal justice professionals across the nation to network and share information about homeland security programs and projects.

NSA serves as the center of a vast network of law enforcement information, filling requests for information daily and enabling criminal justice professionals, including police officers, sheriffs, and deputies, to locate the information and programs they need. NSA recognizes the need to seek information from the membership, particularly the sheriff and the state sheriffs' associations, in order to meet the needs and concerns of individual NSA members. While working on the national level, NSA has continued to seek grass-roots guidance, ever striving to work with and for its members, clients, and citizens of the nation.

NSA has through the years assisted sheriffs' offices, sheriffs' departments and state sheriffs' associations in locating and preparing applications for state and federal homeland security grant funding. The NSA record and reputation for integrity and dependability in the conduction of such public safety programs among government agencies is well recognized and has led to continuing opportunities to apply for grants on the national, state, and local levels as well as management of service contracts.

NSA's roots can be traced back to October 1888, when a group of sheriffs in Minnesota and surrounding states formed an organization, which they named the Inter-State Sheriffs' Association. The purpose of this association was to give opportunity for a wider, mutual acquaintance, to exchange ideas for more efficient service, and to assist one another in the apprehension of criminals.

Over the years the name was changed several times. It is assumed that as laws changed and law enforcement grew and expanded along with the country, the organization felt compelled to change its name to fit its membership and the times. When law enforcement officials in other states and Canada expressed interest in taking part in the Inter-State Sheriffs' Association, the group subsequently changed its name to the International Sheriffs' and Police Association. In 1908 the organization was briefly known as the National Sheriffs' Association before its name was amended as the International Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and then later to the International Sheriffs and Police Association. The organization disbanded in 1938.

The Articles of Incorporation of the new National Sheriffs' Association were filed with the Secretary of State of the state of Ohio on September 26, 1940. Sheriff Walter O'Neil of Akron, Ohio was NSA's first president and held the first annual meeting in 1941 in St. Louis, Missouri. At this meeting a constitution was adopted and the organization's goals, policies, and objectives were agreed upon. NSA began publishing its periodical, The National Sheriff magazine, in February of the same year. NSA's first executive secretary (executive director) was Charles J. Hahn. It is believed that Hahn and the officials of the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association of Ohio set about to form a national association for sheriffs.

The National Sheriffs' Association today is headquarted in Alexandria, VA and is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the level of professionalism among sheriffs, their deputies, and others in the field of criminal justice and public safety so that they may perform their jobs in the best possible manner and better serve the people of their cities, counties or jurisdictions.

For more on the history of NSA, consider ordering a copy of our 75th Anniversary Commemorative book. Click here to order today.

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About NSA | NATIONAL SHERIFFS ASSOCIATION

Posted in NSA

Jewel V. Nsa stories at Techdirt.

With some of the proceedings unsealed in the EFF's long-running Jewel vs. NSA lawsuit, more details can finally be exposed. Not that what's already been exposed hasn't been damning enough. Over the past several months, the DOJ has run interference for the NSA, traveling from courtroom to courtroom, destroying and saving (or at least pretending to...) collected data amongst a flurry of contradictory orders.

Not that it ultimately mattered. The NSA just kept destroying relevant evidence, claiming the system was too complex to do anything with but allow to run its course. Evidence would be destroyed at the 5-year limit, no matter what preservation orders were issued. The NSA, of course, has a vested interest in destroying evidence that its 215 and 702 programs collect the data and communications of Americans. Thanks to Snowden's leaks, it can no longer pretend it doesn't. But despite this, the DOJ still claims Section 702 targets only foreigners and American suspects located outside of the US.

The mock concern about compliance with court orders was a hustle. The DOJ wants as much evidence that might be useful to plaintiffs gone as swiftly as possible. Thanks to the unsealing of Jewel court documents, the EFF can now relate that the DOJ's efforts went much further than simply letting aged-off collections expire. It also actively tried to change the historical record of the Jewel case, as Mike covered here recently.

Citing classification concerns, the DOJ sought to editorialize its statements to the court, removing them (not redacting them) from the public record and it didn't want anyone to find out. Take a moment to soak in the audacity of this request, made by the US government in a federal court.

If the judge had sided with the DOJ, there's a good chance some of the transcript embedded below would have gone missing forever. Even after the documents were eventually unsealed, whatever the government had managed to convince the court was "classified" would no longer exist -- despite the fact that one week earlier these statements were made in an open court room.

It's likely that the judge's decision to notify the plaintiffs changed the DOJ's mind about retconning its own statements. It's a good thing nothing's missing. What's in there is terrible. The DOJ basically mounts the argument that no plaintiff should ever have standing to challenge either the Section 215/501 or 702 programs, unless they are Verizon Business customers and even then they should only be able to challenge the former. (Apologies for the all caps, but that's the way the court transcribed it.)

SO WE HAVE NOT CONCEDED THAT STANDING COULD BE FOUND BASED ON THE MERE EXISTENCE OF THE BULK TELEPHONY META DATA PROGRAM, IF THAT IS YOUR QUESTION.

And while acknowledging that it has withheld info on the telephony metadata program, the DOJ's lawyers simultaneously claim the plaintiffs should have been prevented from amending their case to include the recent Section 702 revelations, because that program has supposedly been out in the open and fully transparent since 2008.

NOT ONLY DID IT EXIST BEFORE THIS COMPLAINT WAS FILED, THE JEWEL PLAINTIFFS KNEW ABOUT IT, BECAUSE IT'S PRECISELY WHY THEY FILED SUIT. THAT LEGISLATION CREATED IMMUNITY FOR THE TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES.

THE ACLU OVER IN NEW YORK, KNEW QUITE WELL IT EXISTED. THEY FILED A COMPLAINT, I THINK, THE DAY IT WAS ENACTED INTO LAW. AND THAT MADE A LOT OF HEADLINES, AND IT WAS LITIGATED. AND IT WAS ALL, ALL PUBLIC. NO SECRET PROGRAM. AND IT WAS OUT THERE. SO THAT STATEMENT IS JUST NOT TRUE.

THE SECOND THING THAT'S NOT TRUE IS HER PROGRAM DESCRIPTION. 702 IS A PUBLIC STATUTORY PROGRAM. IF YOU LOOK AT THE AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL DECISION, IT DETAILS HOW THAT PROGRAM OPERATES. AND SO THAT IS THE SOURCE OF WHAT SHOULD BE THE COURT'S UNDERSTANDING FOR THIS PROGRAM AND HOW IT OPERATES.

This is only a small part of a document the DOJ wanted to selectively edit and present later as an untouched factual record of a federal hearing. The government claims no one has standing because everything related to the NSA's programs is "rank speculation" -- basically pretending the "terrible disclosures" never happened. In the same breath, it claims the programs have always been transparent and completely above board, therefore no one should be able to amend their complaints when additional info is exposed by leakers.

The government not only wants it both ways, but it has the breathtaking gall to ask to touch up its talking points after delivering them. After a dozen attempts to wrap up this post with something that pithily highlights the anger the government's editing attempt (and the horrible arguments contained in the transcript) has generated in me, I'm left with little more than this: FUCK THE DOJ -- it and every agency it oversees.

It witholds information about the companies involved in its dragnet surveillance programs, covers up everything else and pretends unauthorized disclosures "don't count," at least not when it comes to citizens being granted standing. It could easily clear up this "rank speculation," but it would rather shelter telcos from irate customers and give itself an easy way to get lawsuits dismissed. Then it spins everything around and claims the plaintiffs are misrepresenting the programs to the court -- something the DOJ has actually done itself -- and should not be allowed to amend complaints to reflect additional evidence gleaned from leaked documents.

Hey, I'm sorry the leaks have made it harder for these agencies to do whatever the hell they want, but they are all part of a government that's supposed to be accountable to the citizens picking up the check. But when faced with unhappy citizens and their diminished rights, all the DOJ's lawyers can say is that the public doesn't know shit and has no right to question the government's activities.

The government has somehow managed to come to a conclusion others reached weeks ago -- there's more than one leaker out there. GOOD. Burn it down. In the DOJ's hands, the government isn't by or for the people. It's despite the people. The DOJ can't be trusted to protect the balance between privacy and security. As it sees it, what the public doesn't know will likely hurt it, and it's damned if it's going to allow citizens to seek redress for their grievances.

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Jewel V. Nsa stories at Techdirt.

Posted in NSA

NSA DELETES HONESTY AND OPENNESS FROM CORE VALUES

THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCYmaintains a page on its website that outlines its mission statement. But earlier this month the agency made a discreet change: It removed honesty as its top priority.

Since at least May 2016, the surveillance agency had featured honesty as the first of four core values listed on NSA.gov, alongside respect for the law, integrity, and transparency. The agency vowed on the site to be truthful with each other.

On January 12, however, the NSA removed the mission statement page which canstill be viewedthrough the Internet Archive and replaced it witha new version. Now, the parts about honesty and the pledge to be truthful have been deleted. The agencys new top value is commitment to service, which it says means excellence in the pursuit of our critical mission.

Those are not the only striking alterations. In its old core values, the NSA explained that it would strive to be deserving of the great trust placed in it by national leaders and American citizens. It said that it would honor the publics need for openness. But those phrases are now gone; all references to trust, honor, and openness have disappeared.

The agency previously stated on its website that it embraced transparency and claimed that all of its activities were aimed at ensuring the safety, security, and liberty of our fellow citizens. That is another sentence that has been discarded. The agency still says it is committed to transparency on the updated website, but the transparency is now described as being for the benefit of those who authorize and oversee NSAs work on behalf of the American people. The definition of integrity has been edited, too. The agency formerly said its commitment to integrity meant it would behave honorably and apply good judgment. The phrase behave honorably has now been dropped in favor of communicating honestly and directly, acting ethically and fairly and carrying out our mission efficiently and effectively.

The new list of values includes the additions respect for people and accountability. But the section on respecting people is a reference to diversity within the NSA workforce, not a general commitment made to members of the public. Accountability is defined as taking responsibility for our decisions. The one core value that remains essentially unchanged is respect for the law, which the agency says means it is grounded in our adherence to the U.S. Constitution and compliance with the U.S. laws, regulations and policies that govern our activities.

In response to questions from The Intercept on Tuesday, the NSA played down the alterations. Thomas Groves, a spokesperson for the agency, said: Its nothing more than a website update, thats all it is.

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NSA DELETES HONESTY AND OPENNESS FROM CORE VALUES

Posted in NSA

The NSA Is a Blackmail Agency

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

The main function of the National Security Administration is to collect the dirt on members of the house and senate, the staffs, principal contributors, and federal judges.

The dirt is used to enforce silence about the crimes of the security agencies.

The blackmail mechanism was put into gear the minute the news reported that the House Intelligence Committee had assembled proof that the FBI, DOJ, and DNC created Russiagate as a conspiracy to unseat President Trump. Members of Congress with nothing to hide demanded the evidence be released to the public.

Of course, it was to be expected that release of the facts would be denounced by Democrats, but Republicans, such as Rep. Mike Conaway (R, Texas), himself a member of the committee, joined in the effort to protect the Democrats and the corrupt FBI and DOJ from exposure. Hiding behind national security concerns, Conaway opposes revealing the classified information. Thatd be real dangerous, he said.

As informed people know, 95% of the information that is classified is for purposes that have nothing to do with national security.

The House Intelligence Committee memo has no information in it related to any security except that of Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Hillary, Obama, Mueller, Rosenstein, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, the DNC, and the presstitute media.

The logical assumption is that every member of Congress opposed to informing the American public of the Russiagate conspiracy to unseat the President of the United States is being blackmailed by the security agencies who planned, organized, and implemented the conspiracy against the President of the United States and American democracy.

American insouciance is a great enabler of the ability of the security agencies and their media whores to control the explanations.

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The NSA Is a Blackmail Agency

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Jewel v. NSA | United States Courts

Case Summary: 08-cv-04373

This case involves claims by numerous citizens that their constitutional rights were violated by the United States government through unauthorized surveillance of their telephone and internet activity by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other government actors under the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" or TSP. They allege that this was done in concert with major telecommunications companies and outside of the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and without authorization by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).

According to Plaintiffs, Defendants have a nationwide network of sophisticated communications surveillance devices attached to the key facilities of telecommunications companies that carry Americans' internet and telephone communications. Using this network, Defendants continue to acquire the content of a significant portion of phone calls, emails, instant messages, text messages, web communications and other communications, both international and domestic, of practically every American who uses the phone system or the internet. Plaintiffs also allege that Defendants have unlawfully solicited and obtained from telecommunications companies the private telephone and internet transactional records of those companies customers, indicating who the customers communicated with, when and for how long, among other sensitive information.

Defendants are claiming that the information necessary to litigate plaintiff's claims is subject to and excluded from use by the "states secrets privilege" and other related privileges and that their cases should be dismissed. Plaintiffs counter that Congress displaced the "states secret privilege" in electronic surveillance actions when it enacted FISA. Plaintiffs filed a motion for partial summary judgment to have the trial court rule on that issue. This video is of the hearing on that motion.

Case highlights for this case are not yet available.

Case-related documents, including those referenced above, are available via the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service. For more information, visit Pacer.gov.

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Jewel v. NSA | United States Courts

Posted in NSA

NSA Tournaments – NSA Florida Fastpitch

N S A SUMMER SLAM 2017 FISH HAWK LITHIA 2017-08-26 2017-08-27 8U - 18U NSA BATTLE OF THE BATS LEGENDS WAY BALLFIELDS NTC CLERMONT 2017-08-26 2017-08-27 8U-18U NSA IRON WOMAN CLASSIC MINIMUM OF 5 GAMES SEMINOLE COUNTY SOFTBALL COMPLEX ALTAMONTE SPRINGS 2017-09-02 2017-09-03 8U-18U N S A LABOR DAY IRONWOMAN - 3 SEED INTO DBL. ELIM. 2017 EDDIE C MOORE CLEARWATER 2017-09-02 2017-09-03 8U - 18U LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE HANCOCK PARK CLERMONT 2017-09-09 2017-09-10 8U-18U N S A QUEEN OF THE DIAMONDS 2017 NEW TAMPA COMM. TAMPA 2017-09-09 2017-09-10 8U - 18U NSA SEPTEMBER SLAM COMMUNITY PARK WEST PALM BEACH 2017-09-09 2017-09-10 8U-18U N S A KING OF THE HILL- 2 SEED INTO DLB ELIM EDDIE C MOORE CLEARWATER 2017-09-16 2017-09-17 8U - 18U NSA DOUBLE DOUBLE LEGENDS WAY BALLFIELDS NTC CLERMONT 2017-09-16 2017-09-17 8U-18U NSA DOUBLE DOUBLE AT THE BEACH CITY CENTER PARK PORT ORANGE 2017-09-16 2017-09-17 8U-18U N S A POLK IRON WOMAN- 3 SEED INTO DLBD ELIM CHRISTINA PARK LAKELAND 2017-09-23 2017-09-24 8U - 18U NSA GRIP IT AND RIP IT CHAIN OF LAKES TITUSVILLE 2017-09-23 2017-09-24 8U-18U NSA LOUISVILLE SLUGGER FALL CHAMPIONSHIPS LEGENDS WAY BALLFIELDS NTC CLERMONT 2017-09-30 2017-10-01 8U-18U N S A BATTLE OF THE BUCK #1 WIN $1000 ! ! ! ! 2017 NEW TAMPA COMM. TAMPA 2017-10-07 2017-10-08 8U - 18U NSA FALL FRENZY COMMUNITY PARK WEST PALM BEACH 2017-10-07 2017-10-08 8U-18U NSA STRIKE OUT CANCER AWARENESS TOURNAMENT ORMOND BEACH SPORTS COMPLEX ORMOND BEACH 2017-10-07 2017-10-08 8U-18U NSA BEAT CANCER WITH A BAT AWARENESS TOURNAMENT HANCOCK PARK CLERMONT 2017-10-14 2017-10-15 8U-18U ST LEO REVERSE EXPOSURE INVITATIONAL 2017 Eddie C. Moore Clearwater 2017-10-14 2017-10-15 8U - 18U ST LEO/N S A REP THE ROAR TOURNAMENT EDDIE C MOORE MADIERA BEACH CLEARWATERMADIERA 2017-10-14 2017-10-15 8U - 18U MICHELE SMITH COLLEGE SHOWCASE 2017 EDDIE C MOORE MADIERA BEACH CLEARWATERMADIERA 2017-10-21 2017-10-22 8U - 18U MICHELE SMITH SOFTBALL FOR HEARTS 2017 EDDIE C MOORE MADIERA BEACH CLEARWATERMADIERA 2017-10-21 2017-10-22 8U - 18U NSA MIZUNO FALL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2 GAME SEED INTO DOUBLE ELIM LEGENDS WAY BALLFIELDS CLERMONT 2017-10-21 2017-10-22 8U-18U N S A BOMBERWEEN - COSTUME CONTEST 2017 EDDIE C MOORE CLEARWATER 2017-10-28 2017-10-29 8U - 18U NSA SPOOKTACULAR LEGENDS WAY BALLFIELDS NTC CLERMONT 2017-10-28 2017-10-29 8U-18U NSA SPOOKTACULAR AT THE BEACH CITY CENTER PARK PORT ORANGE 2017-10-28 2017-10-29 8U-18U 8th ANNUAL PITCH FOR THE CURE 2017 CLEARWATER AND MADIERA CLEARWATERMADIERA 2017-11-04 2017-11-05 8U - 18U NSA SOUTH FLORIDA FALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS COMMUNTIY PARK WEST PALM BEACH 2017-11-04 2017-11-05 8U-18U NSA STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER ORMOND BEACH SPORTS COMPLEX ORMOND BEACH 2017-11-04 2017-11-05 8U-18U N S A FALL BRAWL 2017 Multiple Venues Polk County 2017-11-11 2017-11-12 8U - 18U NSA VETERANS DAY CLASSIC HANCOCK PARK CLERMONT 2017-11-11 2017-11-12 8U-18U BATTERBALL TURKEYFEST DOUBLE - DOUBLE 2017 EDDIE C MOORE CLEARWATER 2017-11-18 2017-11-19 8U - 18U NSA BATTLE AT THE BEACH IN BEAUTIFUL PORT ORANGE CITY CENTER PARK PORT ORANGE 2017-11-18 2017-11-19 8U-18U NSA KNOCK HUNGER OUT OF THE PARK LEGENDS WAY BALLFIELDS NTC CLERMONT 2017-11-18 2017-11-19 8U-18U N S A THANKSGIVING PICKEM-- PLAY 1 OR 2 DAYS 2017 NEW TAMPA COMM. NEW TAMPA 2017-11-25 2017-11-26 8U - 18U N S A TOYS FOR THE TOTS #1 Fishhawk LITHIA 2017-12-02 2017-12-03 8U - 18U NSA TOYS FOR TOTS LEGENDS WAY BALLFIELDS NTC CLERMONT 2017-12-02 2017-12-03 8U-18U N S A FALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 Multiple Venues Polk County 2017-12-09 2017-12-10 8U - 18U NSA TOYS FOR VETERANS COMMUNITY PARK WEST PALM BEACH 2017-12-09 2017-12-10 8U-18U N S A TOYS FOR THE TOTS #2 2017 NEW TAMPA COMM. TAMPA 2017-12-16 2017-12-17 8U - 18U NSA TOYS FOR TOTS AT THE BEACH CITY CENTER PARK PORT ORANGE 2017-12-16 2017-12-17 8U-18U

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NSA Tournaments - NSA Florida Fastpitch

Posted in NSA

What the Announced NSA / Cyber Command Split Means

The move to elevate Cyber Command to a full Unified Combatant Command and split it off from the National Security Agencyshows that cyber intelligence collection and information war are rapidly diverging fields. The future leadership of both entities is now in question, but the Pentagon has set out a conditions-based approach to the breakup. That represents a partial victory for the man who directs both Cyber Command and the NSA.

The move would mean that the head of Cyber Command would answer directly to the Defense Secretary and the National Security Agency would get its own head. Its a move that many have said is long overdue, and its exact timing remains unknown. So what does the split mean for the Pentagon, for Cyber Command, and for the future of U.S. cyber security?

The split will give the commander of Cyber Command central authority over resource allocation, training, operational planning and mission execution. The commander will answer to the Defense secretary directly, not the head of Strategic Command. The decision means that Cyber Command will play an even more strategic role in synchronizing cyber forces and training, conducting and coordinating military cyberforce operations and advocating for and prioritizing cyber investments within the department, said Kenneth Rapuano, assistant defense secretary for Homeland Defense and Global Security.

The Start of a Process

The move announced on Friday fulfills a mandate in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017. Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter hinted at the split back in May 2016. But it wont happen immediately.

Instead, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford will nominate a flag officer to take over the new Cyber Command as well as the NSA. That person could be Adm. Michael Rogers, who currently heads both, or someone else. Trump has reportedly asked Mattis to give him the name of a nominee.Speculation has focused on Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville as the nominee to head Cyber Command.

Once that new person is nominated and confirmed and once Mattis and Dunford are satisfied that splitting the two entities will not hamper the ability of either Cyber Command or the NSA to conduct their missions independently, only then will Cyber Command and the NSA actually split.

What Does it Mean for Leadership?

Read one way, the announcement means Rogers will lose power. Even were he to become the nominee to the new elevated Cyber Command, he would still wind up losing the NSA eventually. If he were to stay on as head of NSA after the confirmation of a new Cyber Command head, as expected, he would briefly serve under Mayville until the formal split.

Read another way, the lack of a concrete timetable for the split, despite such a requirement in the authorization bill, represents a partial win for Rogers.

Rogers took over the NSA and Cyber Command in the spring of 2014. He has been resistant to the idea of a split, telling lawmakers in September that U.S. national security benefitted from the dual-hat arrangement. This view was not shared by then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper nor then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Rogers resistance was one of many issues that rubbed them the wrong way.

It got so bad that in November, unnamed sources told The Washington Post that Clapper and Carter were urging President Barack Obama to fire Rogers.

The truth is a bit more nuanced. Clappers goal was to split the NSA from CyberCom. He was not a strong advocate of removal, but was willing to defer to [the Secretary of Defense] if Carter felt strongly about selecting new leadership at Cyber Command, a source inside the intelligence community said. There were other concerns unrelated to the potential split.

Rogers outlasted both Clapper, who had long planned to retire at the end of the Obama administration; and Carter, a political appointee. Rogers attitude toward an NSA-Cyber Command split evolved. In May, he testified that he would support a split was done in a way that did not hamper either the NSA or Cyber Command.

The manner in which the split was announced is in keeping with what Rogers has said he wanted.

The move toward a conditions-based split also met with the approval of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, a longtime Rogers ally. I appreciate the administrations commitment today to ensuring that a future separation of the so-called dual hat relationship between Cyber Command and the National Security Agency will be based on conditions, rather than arbitrary political timelines, McCain said in a statement. While Cyber Command and the National Security Agency should eventually be able to operate independent of one another, the administration must work closely with the Congress to take the necessary steps that will make this separation of responsibilities successful, and to ensure that each agency will emerge more effective and more capable as a result.

What It Means for Cyber Command, the NSA, and Cyber Operations

The elevation of Cyber Command represents a big step forward for the militarys cyber ability, but it has yet to be catch up to the NSA in terms of collecting signals intelligence or creating network accesses, according to Bill Leigher, who as a rear admiral helped stand up Navy Fleet Cyber Command. Leigher, who now directs government cyber solutions for Raytheon, applauds the split because the NSA, which collects foreign intelligence, and Cyber Command, a warfighting outfit, have fundamentally different missions.This caused tension between the two organizations under one roof. Information collected for intelligence gathering may be useful in a way thats fundamentally different from intelligence for military purposes, he says. If you collecting intelligence, its foreign espionage. You dont want to get caught. The measure of success is: collect intelligence and dont get caught. If youre going to war, I would argue that the measure of performance is what we do has to have the characteristics of a legal weapon in the context of war and the commander has to know what he or she uses it.

This puts the agencies in disagreement about how to use intel and tools that they share. From an NSA perspective, cyber really is about gaining access to networks. From aCyber Command point of view, I would argue, its about every piece of software on the battlefield and having the means to prevent that software from working the way it was intended to work [for the adversary], he said.

The split will allow the agencies to pursue the very different tools, operations, and rules each of their missions requires, he said. Expect NSA to intensify its focus on developing access for intelligence, and Cyber Command to prepare to rapidly deploy massive cyber effects at scale during military operations and shut down the enemy. Both of this will likely leverage next-generation artificial intelligence but in very different ways said Leigher.

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