This NSA history has a familiar ring to it

Posted on by

The Senate report is called National Security Agency Surveillance Affecting Americans, and describes the results of its investigation into NSAs electronic surveillance practices and capabilities, especially involving American citizens, groups, and organizations.

Among its findings are:

Project MINARET, in which the NSA intercepted and disseminated international communications of U.S. citizens and groups whose names were supplied by other agencies and put on a watch list. Those listed were supposed to be linked to concerns about narcotics, domestic violence and antiwar activities.

It was part of an attempt to discover if there was a foreign influence on them, according to the Senate report. NSA personnel were instructed to keep the agencys name off any distributed reports in order to restrict the knowledge that NSA was collecting such information, the report said.

Operation SHAMROCK involved the collection of millions of international telegrams sent to, from or transiting the United States provided to NSA by the three major international telegraph companies. In some years NSA analysts reviewed 150,000 telegrams a month, according to the committee. What began at the end of World War II as an Army Signals Security Agency project to get access to foreign government messaging morphed into collecting calls from a watch list of Americans whose names were supplied by the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

The CIA, the FBI and others joined in. Over one four-year period when the list had 1,200 names the committee said NSA distributed approximately 2,000 reports [the texts or summaries of intercepted messages] to the various requesting agencies as the result of inclusion of American names on the watch lists.

Any of this sound familiar?

This was the 1976 report, one of 14 from the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, chaired by then-Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho). One direct result of the Church committees activities, which began as a probe into domestic CIA activities in the 1960s and 1970s, was the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). President Jimmy Carter signed the bill into law in 1978.

That law, amended several times, has provided a legal foundation for NSAs operations. It also added judicial and congressional oversight of NSA with the establishment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the House and Senate intelligence committees. At the same time, it continued secrecy for operations necessary to carry out electronic surveillance to protect national security. It allowed intercepts abroad of foreign entities and individuals without a warrant when collecting foreign intelligence. When the target became a U.S. citizen or someone known to be in the United States, a warrant was required within 72 hours.

History does at times seem to repeat itself.

Read the original post:

This NSA history has a familiar ring to it

Posted in NSA

Report: The NSA records all cellphone calls in the Bahamas

Posted on by

The U.S. National Security Agency has been recording and archiving virtually every cellphone call in the Bahamas without knowledge and permission from the island nations government, according to a report from The Intercept.

The surveillance is part of an NSA secret system called SOMALGET that tapped into access legally granted to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and opened a backdoor into the countrys cell telephone network, the article states.

The NSA is able to intercept and record cellphone calls made to, from and within the Bahamas, and access the recordings for 30 days, according to the article, whose revelations are based on documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

The article, authored by Ryan Devereaux, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, describes SOMALGET as a cutting edge tool that gives the NSA access to the content of the calls, not just to their metadata.

SOMALGET is part of a broader program called MYSTIC in which the NSA secretly monitors the telecom systems not only of the Bahamas but of several other countries as well, including Mexico, the Philippines and Kenya, according to the report.

All told, the NSA is using MYSTIC to gather personal data on mobile calls placed in countries with a combined population of more than 250 million people. And according to classified documents, the agency is seeking funding to export the sweeping surveillance capability elsewhere, reads the article.

The Bahamas surveillance is focused on locating international narcotics traffickers and special-interest alien smugglers, according to the story.

The Intercept is published by Pierre Omidyars First Look Media and was co-created by Greenwald, whose groundbreaking coverage last year in The Guardian about NSA surveillance programs helped that newspaper win a Pulitzer Prize this year. The Intercept was founded primarily to report on documents provided by Snowden.

Mondays article states that the Bahamas SOMALGET surveillance raises profound questions about the nature and extent of American surveillance abroad because it isnt driven by anti-terrorism motivations and because the Bahamas is considered a stable democracy that presents no terrorism threat to the U.S.

By targeting the Bahamas entire mobile network, the NSA is intentionally collecting and retaining intelligence on millions of people who have not been accused of any crime or terrorist activity, reads the article, noting that almost 5 million Americans visit the Bahamas every year, and that many prominent U.S. citizens have homes there.

Read more from the original source:

Report: The NSA records all cellphone calls in the Bahamas

Posted in NSA

Cisco's Chambers tells Obama that NSA surveillance impacts U.S. technology sales

Posted on by

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers has written to U.S. President Barack Obama, asking for his intervention so that U.S. technology sales are not affected by a loss in trust as a result of reports of surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency.

The letter follows reports that even as the U.S. warned customers that Chinese networking equipment may be used to spy on them, the NSA physically intercepted routers, servers and other network equipment to plant surveillance tools before repackaging the devices with a factory seal and sending the products to international customers.

We simply cannot operate this way, our customers trust us to be able to deliver to their doorsteps products that meet the highest standards of integrity and security, Chambers wrote in the letter to Obama, dated May 15, which was published by news website Re/code. We understand the real and significant threats that exist in this world, but we must also respect the industrys relationship of trust with our customers.

A Cisco spokesman confirmed Sunday that the letter had been sent to Obama.

Referring to the reports, including a photograph of what appeared to be a Cisco package being tampered with, Chambers said if the allegations are true, the actions will weaken confidence in the ability of technology companies to deliver products worldwide.

Chambers asked the Obama administration to take a leadership role and ensure that guidelines and reforms are put into place that can be honored across the globe.

Referring to the reports that IT products including from Cisco were being compromised on their way to customers, Ciscos General Counsel Mark Chandler wrote in a blog post last week that the company complies with U.S. laws, like those of many other countries, which limit exports to certain customers and destinations.

We ought to be able to count on the government to then not interfere with the lawful delivery of our products in the form in which we have manufactured them, he added.

In December, eight top technology companies including Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo called for the reform around the world of government surveillance laws and practices, and asked the U.S. to take the lead. Some Internet companies were charged in disclosures last year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of providing to the NSA real-time access to contents on their servers, which the companies denied. There were also reports that the agency was tapping into communications links between the data centers of Yahoo and Google.

Following the controversy surrounding Snowdens various disclosures about NSA surveillance, Obama announced in January some changes in the surveillance by the NSA, including in the controversial collection by the agency of phone metadata of U.S. citizens. He also called for new transparency and oversight into U.S. surveillance programs, privacy protections for foreigners, and promised to stop surveillance of leaders of allied countries except if there was a significant national security justification.

Read the original here:

Cisco's Chambers tells Obama that NSA surveillance impacts U.S. technology sales

Posted in NSA

NSA's Future Rests on Admiral Rogers' Shoulders

Posted on by

WASHINGTON As U.S. National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers seeks to repair the damage to the agency caused by leaks about its electronic spying programs, the abuses of government revealed in the wake of the Watergate scandal are very much on his mind. As a teenager growing up in Chicago in the 1970s, Rogers recalls watching news broadcasts with his family and being horrified by how the CIA, FBI and NSA had illegally spied on hundreds of thousands of Americans. I can remember being very impassioned with my father, and telling him: 'Dad, what kind of nation would we ever want to be that would allow something like this to happen?' Rogers recalled. Four decades later, and six weeks into his new job as director of the NSA, the agency is facing similar accusations: that it has used its vast and intrusive surveillance powers to trample on privacy. Unlike 1975's congressional investigation into intelligence gathering by the CIA, FBI and NSA, today's allegations of rampant U.S. surveillance have unfolded on a global scale, damaging American relations from Brazil to Germany and Indonesia. While Rogers dismissed direct comparisons - noting that the NSA programs exposed by former contractor Edward Snowden last year had all been deemed lawful - he said he understood the concerns that have been raised about balancing individual privacy rights against security needs. We have been down that road in our history, and it has not always turned out well. I have no desire to be part of that, Rogers, 54, told the Reuters Cybersecurity Summit in Washington. Still, Rogers' declaration that he wants to continue the NSA's controversial search of phone records, known as metadata, has prompted critics to question if the new director really favors change at all. In his first interview since taking office, Rogers, a four-star Navy admiral, stressed the need for transparency and accountability. To repair the agency's ties with internet and telecom firms, as well as U.S. allies, the NSA has to shed some of its secretive culture and be more candid about what it is doing, he said. Some say Rogers' position falls short of what is needed. I don't think it's a public relations problem. What they have is a trust problem, said cryptography author Bruce Schneier, who worked with the Guardian newspaper to analyze some of Snowden's documents. Schneier said that transparency would have to be imposed from above - either by the White House or Congress - for it to be credible. A "crippy" rises Highly thought of in Navy and intelligence circles, Rogers is a career cryptologist - a specialist in the breaking and making of codes - with little experience in the public spotlight. During the 70-minute Reuters interview, he seemed confident but guarded, speaking in sharply punctuated sentences and batting away questions about events that took place before he took over the Fort Meade, Maryland-based NSA. I'm not focused on wasting my time on what was or has been, said Rogers, who is also commander of the U.S. military's Cyber Command. Arizona Republican Senator John McCain welcomed Roger's call for greater transparency and accountability, but said he remained skeptical that any administration official would be held responsible for any NSA programs that exceeded congressional authority. I expect Admiral Rogers to be much more transparent, McCain told reporters on Wednesday. Do I believe that people will be punished? Nobody's ever been punished for the torture of prisoners by the CIA. With short-cropped hair that as yet shows no signs of gray, Rogers can be alternately deadly serious - talking about mission sets and second-order effects - and self-deprecating. Returning two years ago to New Trier High School in Chicago's suburbs, where he graduated in 1977, Rogers told a class: I was terrible at math, according to an account in the Chicago Sun-Times. Failing to gain admission to the U.S. Naval Academy, but determined to be a Navy officer, Rogers enrolled in Auburn University and went through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. His career was unusual in other respects. After six years as a surface warfare officer, considered the Navy's premier career path, he became a cryptologist or crippy. Rogers has now risen higher in the Navy than any cryptologist before him. A former senior U.S. intelligence official who knows Rogers said talent spotters in the Navy channeled him into intelligence duties broader than cryptology. In 2007, he became intelligence chief for U.S. Pacific Command and two years later, intelligence director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Before becoming NSA chief, he led Fleet Cyber Command, the Navy's cyber warfare and electronic spying unit. Underscoring the sensitivities surrounding the NSA post, President Barack Obama personally interviewed Rogers before nominating him for the job. Rogers sailed through his Senate confirmation hearing, although only after having to explain how hackers believed to be from Iran were able to penetrate a Navy computer network. "A powerful message" Rogers faces big challenges. Morale among the NSA's tens of thousands of employees has taken a hit, and Rogers said many people in the agency found it both uncomfortable and perplexing to be under public scrutiny. Retired Air Force General Michael Hayden, a former director of both the NSA and CIA, said it was instructive that Obama chose Rogers, and veteran NSA civilian Richard Ledgett to be his deputy, at a time when the president was under enormous pressure to conduct a house cleaning of the agency. It was, Hayden said, a vote of confidence in the NSA and its staff, and a sign that, despite some reforms, Obama plans no sharp cutback in the agency's aggressive global surveillance. They were the obvious choices before Snowden, and they were the choices after Snowden. This is a powerful message to send to the workforce, Hayden said. A second former senior U.S. intelligence official who knows Rogers predicted he would be a much more inclusive leader than his predecessor, the sometimes-combative Army General Keith Alexander, who led the agency for more than eight years. When Rogers is not wearing his NSA hat, he runs Cyber Command, a rapidly growing organization tasked with defending U.S. military computer networks, penetrating and mapping adversary networks, and conducting offensive cyber warfare. Rogers, who has been married to his wife, Dana, for 29 years and has a son in the Navy and one in college, may have days where he wishes he had neither job. In a video message to NSA employees after he took command, Rogers is said to have remarked that he had promised his wife he would be retired by now.

Read more:

NSA's Future Rests on Admiral Rogers' Shoulders

Posted in NSA

NSA's future rests on Admiral Rogers

Posted on by

Reuters

NOT A CROOK: NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers answers a question at a Reuters CyberSecurity Summit in Washington.

As US National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers seeks to repair the damage to the agency caused by leaks about its electronic spying programs, the abuses of government revealed in the wake of the Watergate scandal are very much on his mind.

As a teenager growing up in Chicago in the 1970s, Rogers recalls watching news broadcasts with his family and being horrified by how the CIA, FBI and NSA had illegally spied on hundreds of thousands of Americans.

"I can remember being very impassioned with my father, and telling him: 'Dad, what kind of nation would we ever want to be that would allow something like this to happen?'" Rogers recalled.

Four decades later, and six weeks into his new job as director of the NSA, the agency is facing similar accusations: that it has used its vast and intrusive surveillance powers to trample on privacy.

Unlike 1975's congressional investigation into intelligence gathering by the CIA, FBI and NSA, today's allegations of rampant US surveillance have unfolded on a global scale, damaging American relations from Brazil to Germany and Indonesia.

While Rogers dismissed direct comparisons - noting that the NSA programs exposed by former contractor Edward Snowden last year had all been deemed lawful - he said he understood the concerns that have been raised about balancing individual privacy rights against security needs.

"We have been down that road in our history, and it has not always turned out well. I have no desire to be part of that," Rogers, 54, told the Reuters Cybersecurity Summit in Washington.

Still, Rogers' declaration that he wants to continue the NSA's controversial search of phone records, known as metadata, has prompted critics to question if the new director really favours change at all.

Link:

NSA's future rests on Admiral Rogers

Posted in NSA

Letter: 2nd amendment purposes

Posted on by

Here's the Second Amendment, put into today's language, in accordance with my understanding of both history and the Constitution:

Because it is absolutely critical that we prevent the militia from being used to oppress the people, or to overthrow the duly appointed government to the detriment of the people, the people shall have the right to own and use any weapon they choose in the defense of their life, liberty and/or property from foreign invasion, criminal action and/or oppression in violation of predetermined constitutional limits. No law written, passed or imposed by any of the constitutional branches of this nation, any of the states or any treaty entered into with any foreign power, which attempts to limit, abridge, alter or remove this right, shall be of any validity.

Did I miss anything?

Some have argued that the Second Amendment is about ensuring we have an armed populous that can form itself into a militia. To do so would not constitute a militia, but an armed mob. Our Second Amendment effectively creates a fourth branch of government, the people, with check and balance authority over the other three branches.

Bruce Bradshaw

West Valley City

Excerpt from:

Letter: 2nd amendment purposes

Stem cell therapy helps slow hair lossWhe

Posted on by

HOW DOCTORS ARE USING THESE POWERFUL CELLS TO STEM HAIR LOSS. FROM THIS FREEZER COME AS SMALL BOX, WITH A BIG PROMISE. GETTING TO THE ROOT OF HAIR LOSS. MAKES SO UPSET. THAT I DON'T LIKE THAT. IT'S SOMETHING THAT I HAVE TOO LEARN HOW TO DEAL WITH THAT. FEMALE PATTERN LIVES IN THE GENES. IT BECAME WORSE AFTER THE BIRTH OF HER FIRST CHILD. TWO PHOTOS. SHE HAS COME TO CARE LOSS SPECIALIST FOR A UNIQUE TREATMENT AND INJECTION COME POE OF HER OWN PLATE LET RICH PLASMA WORKED WITH FREEZE-DRIED STEM CELLS. IT IS HUMAN TISSUE, SO THERE'S NO RISK OR SIDE EFFECTS. APPROVE THE FUNCTIONS OF THE HAIR FOLLICLES THAT CREATE THIN HIS PICTURE HAIR. THE KEY IS TO ACT BEFORE THE FOLLICLES HAVE DIED. A LOT LESS EXPENSIVE THAN A HAIR TRANSPLANT, AND IT CAN WORK AS A STOP. IN SOME AREAS THAT MAY BENEFIT FROM NONINVASIVE TREATMENT BEFORE NEEDING THE HAIR TRANSPLANT. TYPICALLY PATIENTS SEE CHANGES IN THEIR HAIR QUALITY WITHIN FOUR TO EIGHT WEEKS AND MAY HAVE CONTINUES IMPROVE FOR UP TO 18 MONTHS. . IT IS GOING TO MAKE ME HAPPY. THAT'S WHAT I HOPE, THEY FEEL HAPPY WHEN I LOOK IN THE MIRROR. THE PROCEDURE COSTS $2,500. SIMILAR TO OTHER NONINVASIVE COSMETIC TREATMENTS. THE PROCESS WILL TAKE YOU ABOUT AN HOUR, AND IT CAN BE REPEATED IF HAIR GROWTH AND QUALITY BEGIN TO SOMEHOW DROP OFF. WITH YOUR HEALTH NEWS, LOCAL 10 NEWS. KRISTY, TELLS US IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THE TREATMENT

Continued here:

Stem cell therapy helps slow hair lossWhe

Amir Aczel on how God and science can co-exist

Posted on by

Listen Where science and religion meet 38min 1sec -Book cover courtesy of publisher Amir Aczel: Mathematician, writer and research fellow at Boston University

In his latest book, Amir Aczel counters conventional wisdom often associated with the New Atheist movement and the existence of God.

In "Why Science Does Not Disprove God," Aczel says science and religion do not need to be at odds. His book takes a critical look at scientists like Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss who use science to disprove the existence of God.

"Science and spirituality are both integral parts of the human search for truth and meaning; they provide us possible paths of comprehending and appreciating the vast cosmos and our place in it," he writes.

In a Washington Post review of the book, MIT professor and physicist Alan Lightman said he used to find books like Aczel's "a terrible waste of calories," but he has changed his mind.

"I now believe that the discussions of science and religion, even the attempts of one side to disprove the other, are part of the continuing and restorative conversation of humanity with itself," he writes.

More from the review:

Aczel joins The Daily Circuit to discuss his book.

Visit link:

Amir Aczel on how God and science can co-exist

Slowdive – Souvlaki Space Station (Live @ Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, London, 18/05/14) – Video

Posted on by


Slowdive - Souvlaki Space Station (Live @ Hoxton Square Bar Kitchen, London, 18/05/14)
Slowdive performing "Souvlaki Space Station" live for the Sonic Cathedral 10th Anniversary show at Hoxton Square Bar Kitchen, London on May 18th, 2014. All rights reserved to the artist....

By: Andunemir

Read this article:

Slowdive - Souvlaki Space Station (Live @ Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, London, 18/05/14) - Video