Ex-NSA Chief: 'We Kill People Based on Metadata'

Posted on by

May 12, 2014 12:59pm

The U.S. government kill[s] people based on metadata, but it doesnt do that with the trove of information collected on American communications, according to former head of the National Security Agency Gen. Michael Hayden.

Hayden made the remark after saying he agreed with the idea that metadata the information collected by the NSA about phone calls and other communications that does not include content can tell the government everything about anyone its targeting for surveillance, often making the actual content of the communication unnecessary.

[That] description is absolutely correct. We kill people based on metadata. But thats not what we do with this metadata, said Hayden, apparently referring to domestic metadata collection. Its really important to understand the program in its entirety. Not the potentiality of the program, but how the program is actually conducted.

So NSA gets phone records, gets them from the telephone company, been getting them since October of 2001 from one authority or another, puts them in a lockbox and under very strict limitations can access the lockbox, Hayden said and then described a hypothetical situation in which a number connected to a terrorist could be run against the metadata already collected to help investigators find additional leads in the name of national security.

What it cannot do are all those things that allows someone to create your social network, your social interactions, your patterns of behavior. One could make the argument that could be useful, [or] that could be illegal, but its not done, he said. In this debate, its important to distinguish what might be done with what is being done.

Hayden, who served as NSA head from 1999 to 2005 followed by a stint running the CIA from 2006 to 2009, made the remarks early last month while discussing the NSAs mass domestic and foreign surveillance programs at Johns Hopkins Universitys Foreign Affairs Symposium.

David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center who was Haydens foil in the discussion, this weekend wrote in the New York Review of Books that Haydens remarks were evidence that arguments from government officials that there is little threat to privacy from metadata collection is misleading. In the April discussion, Cole noted President Barack Obamas remarks to reporters last June, as media reports based on leaks by from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were just beginning, in which he said, Nobody is listening to your telephone calls.

They are not looking at peoples names, theyre not looking at content, Obama said then. But by sifting through this so-called metadata, they may identify potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism.

Six months later, an expert review panel set up by the White House recommended the government cease the mass collection of metadata on Americans.

See the article here:

Ex-NSA Chief: 'We Kill People Based on Metadata'

Posted in NSA

'Frontline' Doc Explores How Sept. 11 Created Today's NSA

Posted on by

hide captionPresident George Bush examines the devastation at the Pentagon with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Sept. 12, 2001, a day after a hijacked airliner slammed into the building.

President George Bush examines the devastation at the Pentagon with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Sept. 12, 2001, a day after a hijacked airliner slammed into the building.

When stories began to emerge about the U.S. government's massive surveillance of Americans' phone and Internet communications, it was no surprise to a group of analysts who had left the National Security Agency soon after the Sept. 11 attacks. Those analysts, who'd worked on systems to detect terrorist threats, left in part because they saw the NSA embarking on a surveillance program they regarded as unconstitutional and unnecessary.

Two of those analysts, Bill Binney and Kirk Wiebe, are interviewed in a Frontline documentary called United States of Secrets, which airs Tuesday night.

Binney was a cryptomathematician who worked as technical director of the NSA's World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group.

Wiebe was a senior analyst who was awarded the NSA's Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the agency's second-highest honor.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, Binney led a team that created a program called "Thin Thread," which could gather and analyze enormous amounts of Internet and telephone traffic and encrypt the identities of people in the U.S. so their privacy was protected.

Both Binney and Wiebe left the agency in 2001 after working there for decades and have publicly criticized the course the NSA has taken. Both were also eventually targeted in a leak investigation by the FBI that led to their homes being raided. After they left the NSA, they joined others in filing a complaint with the inspector general of the Defense Department about the agency's use of private contractors to develop a surveillance system the analysts regarded as expensive, ineffective and abusive of citizens' constitutional rights.

Binney, Wiebe and the documentary's director, Michael Kirk, spoke with Fresh Air's Dave Davies.

On the legality of the Bush White House approving new NSA measures after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

Link:

'Frontline' Doc Explores How Sept. 11 Created Today's NSA

Posted in NSA

GOP-led House votes to hold former IRS official in contempt

Posted on by

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Acting on a conservative battle cry and potentially triggering a court battle with the Obama administration, the Republican-led House voted Wednesday to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about her agency's targeting of conservative and other groups.

The 231-187 vote fell almost entirely along party lines, a decision that cut across three sharp divides: balance of power issues between the branches of government, political questions over the IRS scandal, and a Constitutional debate over Lerner's individual Fifth Amendment rights.

Lerner is in the middle of that trio. Until she retired last year, she ran the IRS division in charge of tax exempt status. An inspector general's report concluded her staff had inappropriately targeted Tea Party and other groups for extra scrutiny.

The term "progressive" was also flagged but the inspector general report indicated that conservative terms drew more attention from the IRS.

The Fifth Amendment question

For nearly a year, Lerner has refused House requests to testify on the matter, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Republicans insist that doesn't apply here, that she waived the right by first asserting her innocence when she appeared before the House Oversight Committee last May.

"Mrs. Lerner made 17 separate factual assertions before invoking her right to remain silent," proclaimed Rep. Richard Nugent, Republican of Florida, as he opened up Wednesday's debate. "You can't make selective assertions and still invoke your Fifth Amendment right."

Lerner's attorney, William Taylor, has dismissed that argument repeatedly and sent a statement rejecting it again Wednesday.

Link:

GOP-led House votes to hold former IRS official in contempt

The Clash Between the First Amendment and National Security in Times of War Symposium – Video

Posted on by


The Clash Between the First Amendment and National Security in Times of War Symposium
Commemorating the 100th Birthday of alumnus and former Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell participants spoke at a symposium titled "The Clash Between the First Amendment and National Security...

By: Reuben Halper

Follow this link:

The Clash Between the First Amendment and National Security in Times of War Symposium - Video

Their opinion: Disagreeing on the First Amendment

Posted on by

The Providence (R.I.) Journal, May 8, 2014

Reasonable people can disagree vehemently on the meaning of the First Amendment, as demonstrated by the 5-to-4 margin of Monday's Supreme Court ruling on prayer. The court ruled that the First Amendment permits even a Christian prayer at the start of a government board meeting, as long as there is no attempt to proselytize or pressure citizens to go along.

That seems a reasonable interpretation of what the First Amendment actually says. The amendment does not permit the federal government to prohibit the free exercise of religion by Americans, nor does it permit the government to establish a religion.

Does a voluntary prayer before a meeting -- something with a long tradition in America -- establish a state religion and force others to practice that religion? Only by the most extreme interpretation. In the real world, people are perfectly free to ignore the prayer, leave the room or petition their elected representatives to alter or drop the prayer. They may safely join any religious group they wish, or decline to believe altogether.

The First Amendment, in short, is a bulwark of liberty, protecting the right of people to express religious ideas even in public settings. But this guarantee of freedom does not preclude citizens from showing respect for diverse beliefs. Those who seek God's blessings at the start of government meetings may do so in a non-sectarian manner, striving not to exclude or offend any believers. Or they may eschew any prayer at all. Those approaches would be our strong preference to a sectarian prayer, which can hurt people's feelings and sow divisions.

In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan cited George Washington's famous 1790 letter to Newport's Touro Synagogue, in which he embraced America's support for religious liberty. Quoting the Bible's Old Testament, Washington wrote: "every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid." He added: "For happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

It seems clear, though, that neither Washington nor the other Founders regarded public prayers as giving sanction to bigotry and assistance to persecution. Indeed, in his role as president, Washington issued a proclamation calling for a national day of prayer and fasting in service to "that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be." He stated: "it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor." He did not believe that eradicating any public mention of God was the American way.

While America is markedly more diverse and secular than it was in Washington's day, we should strive to emulate his support for religious liberty, and to give no sanction to bigotry. Surely, as free people of good will, we can do that without eradicating the freedom to express religious ideas and without banishing prayer from public life.

Read the rest here:

Their opinion: Disagreeing on the First Amendment

working referral link to agora hidden market place -new url ( onion site ) – Video

Posted on by


working referral link to agora hidden market place -new url ( onion site )
hi folks . copy paste this to your TOR browser and make your own account http://agorahooawayyfoe.onion/register/uAcuJtUDGw here you are working referral link to agora hidden market place on...

By: golo pozo

Go here to read the rest:

working referral link to agora hidden market place -new url ( onion site ) - Video

SEEBURG VL200 PLAYING ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK BY BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS – Video

Posted on by


SEEBURG VL200 PLAYING ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK BY BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS
Original 1956 SEEBURG VL200. Playing is Bill Haley and the Comets "Rock around the clock" on an original 45. Both the selection receiver and amplifier have been rebuilt.

By: 19wurlitzer41

Read more from the original source:

SEEBURG VL200 PLAYING ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK BY BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS - Video

Sydney Comets v Bankstown Bruins – Under 18 Mens Div 1 – Round 1 2014 ( Part 2 of 2 ) – Video

Posted on by


Sydney Comets v Bankstown Bruins - Under 18 Mens Div 1 - Round 1 2014 ( Part 2 of 2 )
Game played at Alexandria Basketball Stadium on Sunday 04/05/14 at 11.30am. Sydney City Comets ( 73 ) v Bankstown Bruins ( 77 )

By: SydneyComets

Read more from the original source:

Sydney Comets v Bankstown Bruins - Under 18 Mens Div 1 - Round 1 2014 ( Part 2 of 2 ) - Video

Rampant Rebels dump Workington Comets out of Knock-Out Cup

Posted on by

Last updated at 07:31, Monday, 12 May 2014

Somerset Rebels 60 Workington Comets 30 (Agg 98-82): Workington Comets were dumped out of the Knock-Out Cup after throwing away a 14-point lead to lose at Somerset.

Josh Grajczonek

The home side were Rebels with a cause as they quickly overturned the first-leg deficit to win through 98-82 overall.

Workington team manager Tony Jackson admitted he was bitterly disappointed, but remained pragmatic about his sides failure.

Branding the disappointing defeat one of those night he blamed mechanical issues, and the failure to secure strong starts for the loss.

Only No1 Josh Grajczonek came out of the second leg with any credit.

The Aussie scored a creditable 15 points, but couldnt lead Workington to glory.

Kyle Howarth scored nine points, but the rest of Workingtons depleted squad could only manage six between them.

Chris Mills failed to register a single point with guest Lewis Rose only scoring one.

Read more:

Rampant Rebels dump Workington Comets out of Knock-Out Cup

Rebels with a cause before turnaround Comets ride out storm

Posted on by

Topics: coffs harbour comets, country rugby league, group 2, mckittrick park, rugby league, south grafton rebels

YOU COULD sense something was on the cards.

Two quick tries and South Grafton Rebels were suddenly within reach. Trailing 18-16 in a game that, on paper, they should never win, the red and whites were sticking it to defending premiers Coffs Comets.

And why shouldn't they? A strong, supportive crowd was on hand to witness a spectacle at McKittrick Park on Saturday; an upset of the season would be the perfect way to warm up for the club's centenary celebrations that evening.

Comets were simply being out-enthused. They failed to clean up a dangerous grubber and Josh Rigg picked up the crumbs to reach over and score. Jay Melrose's conversion was successful and with 20 minutes on the clock, Rebels led the competition leaders 22-18.

Then they imploded, with the help of referee James Maggio.

Rebels self-destructed and went into meltdown as frustrations boiled over in the last 20 minutes and Comets prevailed 34-22.

Captain Rhys Walters was ordered to spend 10 minutes off the field after questioning the referee. On the back of three more penalties, Comets five-eighth Peter Irwin was awarded a try from dummy half. Protestations for obstruction, double movement and failing to ground were rife but to no avail as Maggio, without batting an eyelid, pointed Dwayne Duke to the sheds. Nathan Curry converted from the sideline to give Comets the lead and with 11 men on the field, the future did not look good for the Rebels.

Rebels' second rower Austin Cooper made a barnstorming break only to land awkwardly on his shoulder, spelling an end to his afternoon and worsening the side's predicament.

But Rebels intercepted immediately after the stoppage and centre Aaron Martin almost came down with a Ron Gordon bomb. Shortly after, Donald Johnson had daylight in front if his fingertip intercept attempt had stuck.

Continue reading here:

Rebels with a cause before turnaround Comets ride out storm

Newman bats support starter in nonconference rout

Posted on by

STERLING The Comets used a pair of big innings to capture an 11-1, five-inning victory over Dakota in the first game of a nonconference doubleheader Saturday morning in Sterling.

The second game was played as more of a glorified scrimmage.

Dakota started the opener almost picture perfect, as its first two hitters reached base with singles to grab momentum. The Indians kept up the pressure, as Newman (14-8) couldnt turn a double play on a grounder to shortstop, settling for one out and runners on the corners.

Trouble was avoided thanks to the Comets steadfast pitcher, Quincy Coomes, who proceeded to strike out the next two Dakota batters to get out of the jam.

I always struggle pitching at home, going out there first, said Coomes. I like being able to watch my guys bat and get some runs in before I go out there. I struggled a little bit, but came back from it.

The bottom half of the first was one of the big innings for the Comets, as they sent 11 batters to the plate and scored five runs on five hits and a couple of errors.

Nate Olson drove in a pair of runs in the inning, and seniors Michael Ely and A.J. Sharp also had one each.

We worked our way out of a pretty tough spot in the first, Newman coach Tom Wilson said. We scored five runs, and then we were complacent, and we didnt hit the ball well. We have a solid lineup, and have been helping each other out all year. One game, some guys hit the ball well, the next game they dont.

But everyone picks each other up, so its nice having hitting 1 through 9.

Coomes settled down in in the second, and set the Indians down in order. In the third, Dakotas Drew Wenger led off with a single, and scored two batters later by Drew Zellmer to score the Indians lone run.

Read more from the original source:

Newman bats support starter in nonconference rout