#NATO asks US for more troops in Baltic states, Poland to counter Russia threat – Video

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#NATO asks US for more troops in Baltic states, Poland to counter Russia threat
The North Atlantic bloc has asked the Pentagon to send more troops to Eastern Europe to counter the perceived threat of Russia. There are currently 750 US soldiers in Poland and the Baltic...

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#NATO asks US for more troops in Baltic states, Poland to counter Russia threat - Video

NATO Asks US for More Troops In Baltic States and Poland to Counter ‘Russia Threat’ – Video

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NATO Asks US for More Troops In Baltic States and Poland to Counter #39;Russia Threat #39;
http://www.undergroundworldnews.com The North Atlantic bloc has asked the Pentagon to send more troops to Eastern Europe to counter the perceived threat of Russia. There are currently 750 US...

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NATO Asks US for More Troops In Baltic States and Poland to Counter 'Russia Threat' - Video

MidPoint | Larry Klayman to discuss the suit he has filed against the NSA – Video

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MidPoint | Larry Klayman to discuss the suit he has filed against the NSA
A former Justice Department attorney and the founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch joins MidPoint to discuss the suit he has filed against the NSA for eavesdropping which will be heard...

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MidPoint | Larry Klayman to discuss the suit he has filed against the NSA - Video

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Federal appeals court struggles over NSA program's legality

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This undated photo provided by the National Security Agency (NSA) shows its headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.  NSA via Getty Images

WASHINGTON - Three U.S. appeals court judges struggled Tuesday over whether the National Security Agency's phone data surveillance program is an intelligence-gathering tool that makes the nation safer or an intrusive threat that endangers privacy.

The judges - all appointed by Republican presidents - expressed uncertainty about where to draw the line between legal surveillance and violations of constitutional rights.

Since 2006, the FBI has obtained orders from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court directing phone companies to produce telephone "metadata" - outgoing phone numbers dialed and numbers from incoming calls - to the government.

The NSA consolidates the records into a searchable database in the hunt for terror suspects.

During the hour-and-a-half hearing, Judge David Sentelle questioned whether it is an invasion of privacy if the NSA simply collects the data, stopping short of using it.

Is it not an invasion "with mere collection?" asked Sentelle.

It is not, replied Justice Department lawyer H. Thomas Byron.

Arguing against the NSA program, activist attorney Larry Klayman disputed Byron, telling Judge Janice Rogers Brown that "collection is enough" to justify pursuing the lawsuit against the government.

Klayman won the first round in December when U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a Republican appointee, ruled that the NSA's surveillance program likely runs afoul of the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches. The government is seeking to have Leon's ruling thrown out.

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Federal appeals court struggles over NSA program's legality

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NSA critic Udall is sent packing as Republicans grab Senate

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Senator Udall visiting a wind power plant in Boulder in 2013.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) was one of just a few US Senators decryingwidespreadsurveillance even before the Snowden leaks. Udall hasbeen a sharp critic of intelligence agencies since then as well, asking for CIA Director John Brennan to resign after allegations emerged that the intelligence agency gained access to Senate files.

He won't be in office much longer.Udall lost his election last night against Republican challenger Rep. Cory Gardner. By 1:00am Eastern time, Gardner was ahead by six percentage points, with 87 percent of precinctsreporting. At that point, several news agencies called the election for Gardner.The Senateseat was one of several that flipped from Democratic to Republican control last night, causing Republicans to take control of theupper house.

Udall's positioning as a toughcritic of the NSA wasn't a big issue on the campaign trail, although in the final days ofthe election he did release an ad saying he wont tolerate overbroad government surveillance. But much of Udall's campaigning came across as out of touch, running an old playbook. Udall hammered his opponent on womens' issues in socially liberal Colorado, noting that Gardner supported a "personhood amendment" tolimit abortion and suggesting he wanted to ban some types of birth control.

That led to criticism that Udall was running a "one-issue campaign," with Colorado voters wanting to hear more about the economy and jobs.It was tough to paint the affableGardner as a radical, and when a Denver reporter jokingly dubbed Udall "Mark Uterus,"it stuck.

Gardner alsogota surprise endorsement from The Denver Post, which supported Udall six years earlier.

Supporters of Gardner point out that hevoted for a billin the House to block the bulk surveillance program, suggesting that there may not be much daylight between the candidates onthe surveillance. Still, given Udall'sposition as a longtime criticone on the Senate Intelligence Committee, no lesshis departure willbe a loss for those looking to rein in intelligence agencies.

"What Udall has is the institutional memory and the relationships in the civil liberties community, in the Democratic Party, and in the tech industry so that we dont have to start over again with someone new," the head of ACLU's Washington DC office told The Hill.

The otherlongtime NSA critic on the Senate Intelligence Committee is Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who was not up for reelection last night.

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NSA critic Udall is sent packing as Republicans grab Senate

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NSA Head Makes Nice with Silicon Valley Over Privacy

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After the FBI and Britain's top spy agency criticized Silicon Valley for encrypting and protecting user data, Michael Rogers, director of the NSA, came to Palo Alto to make peace. "I am not one who jumps up and down and says either side is fundamentally wrong," Rogers told a crowd of students and professors at Stanford University on Monday. "I understand what drives each side to their viewpoint on this." He said that he understood FBI Director James Comey's desire for "some mechanism on the technical side" where, "using a legal framework," encrypted data could be accessed by the government.

He also claimed that the NSA did not know about or exploit the Heartbleed bug before news of it broke in April. When it comes to cybersecurity threats, Rogers said it was "unrealistic to expect the private sector to withstand the actions of nation-states," but equally unrealistic to "expect the government to deal with this all by itself." Rogers also tried to woo away computer science students from lucrative Silicon Valley jobs. "We are going to give you the opportunity to do some neat things that you can't legally do anywhere else," he said.

First published November 4 2014, 10:55 AM

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NSA Head Makes Nice with Silicon Valley Over Privacy

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NSA snoop case reaches appeal

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- The scope and legality of the government's warrantless electronic surveillance programs was discussed Tuesday as a federal appeals court reviewed a lower U.S. court's injunction that would block collection of data from two plaintiffs who are suing

Activist Larry Klayman, an attorney who heads the group "Freedom Watch," filed suit last year based on published reports of wrongdoing from whistleblower Edward Snowden. The former contractor with the National Security Agency accused authorities of misusing some of the capabilities he observed, and acting without a judicial or statutory basis.

Klayman, using himself as an aggrieved party from the surveillance, used the lawsuit to accuse the government of conducting "a secret and illegal government scheme to intercept and analyze vast quantities of domestic telephonic communications," along with communications "from the internet and electronic service providers."

Tuesday he said he has the standing to bring the suit as a customer of Verizon, one of the companies known to be cooperating with warrantless surveillance. But when the appeals panel asked him for documented proof he had been targeted, Klayman said only that the broad scope of the surveillance made it likely.

The other plaintiff is Charles Strange, whose son Michael was an NSA cryptologist and Navy SEAL in Afghanistan in 2011 when he was killed in the downing of his helicopter by insurgents. The father told reporters he has been the target of secret intelligence gathering because he's been asking questions about the circumstances surrounding his son's death.

Both men late last year won a preliminary injunction that would have barred the government from collecting data on them, and it ordered authorities to destroy any data already gathered.

But the District Court judge immediately stayed his order pending the appeal that was heard Tuesday, because of "significant national security interests" that could be affected.

Justice Department attorney Thomas Byron, defending the government, asked the appeals court judges to reverse the injunction, saying a phone company's business records are not protected by the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches.

Byron said there was no documentation that any records gathered were "intrusively acquired." He said Congress passes laws to protect privacy, such as for hospital records and banking, and that the government's surveillance is constrained by the provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with activities judged by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

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NSA snoop case reaches appeal

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NSA Luring Stanford Students; Claims Rewards Outweigh Any Google-Apple Benefits

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PALO ALTO (KCBS) We come in peace. That was the message delivered by the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) to a Silicon Valley crowd as the nations spy chief is searching for recruits.

The governments top cyber spy made a stop at Stanford University on Monday with a message that they wanted to mend fences with the tech community.

Admiral Michael Rogers, director of the NSA, spoke to about 100 students and professors and said he understood why there is mistrust of the government.

Many tech companies have increased encryption in the wake of the Edward Snowden release of classified documents that detailed the NSAs spying techniques. However, Roger stressed the importance of public and private partnerships in cybersecurity; the same message that he recently delivered to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

You cant start out by distrusting each other with, Hey, you cant trust the government because theyre big brother. Or, you cant trust the private sector because theyre all about money. That is not what is going to work, he said.

Rogers also encouraged Stanford Students to consider a career with the NSA, saying that they offer rewards that no benefits package from Google or Apple could match; with opportunities to do some neat stuff you cant do anywhere else.

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NSA Luring Stanford Students; Claims Rewards Outweigh Any Google-Apple Benefits

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The Switchboard: NSA reformers lose one of their biggest allies in Senate

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Published every weekday, the Switchboard is your morning helping of hand-picked stories from the Switch team.

With Udalls defeat, NSA reformers lose an ally on the inside. "With Colorado Sen. Mark Udall's defeat Tuesday night, the Senate will lose one of its most vocal, most active and most powerfully positioned advocates for dialing back the intelligence community's surveillance powers," the Switch's Nancy Scola writes.

14 years after Bush v. Gore, we still cant get voting tech right."A handful of jurisdictions nationwide reported various computer-related problems that hampered some voters as Americans went to the polls on Tuesday," writes Cyrus Farivar at Ars Technica. Electronic voting issues occurred in Virginia, Indiana, North Carolina, Michigan, Connecticut and elsewhere.

Net neutrality was the biggest tech issue of the year. But nobody campaigned on it."Across the country, tech hasn't really emerged as a central campaign issue," reports the Switch's Brian Fung. "One of the few candidates to make it a part of his platform was Tim Wu, the Columbia law professor who coined the term "net neutrality" and he lost his bid for New York lieutenant governor in a nationally publicized primary."

Government requests for Facebook user data are up 24% in six months.Facebook says it has seen a sharp uptick in government requests for user data. "Between January and June, governments across the globe made 34,946 requests for data, according to the Menlo Park, Calif., companys latest transparency report," reports Sarah Parvini at the Los Angeles Times. "The United States was responsible for 15,433 of those requests, spanning 23,667 accounts."

Uber and its partners are pushing drivers into subprime loans."Two 'partners' in Uber's vehicle financing program are under federal investigation, but Uber hasn't slowed its aggressive marketing campaign to get drivers with bad credit to sign up for loans," reports Nitasha Tiku at Valleywag.

Andrea Peterson covers technology policy for The Washington Post, with an emphasis on cybersecurity, consumer privacy, transparency, surveillance and open government.

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The Switchboard: NSA reformers lose one of their biggest allies in Senate

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Ga. voters back amendment capping income tax rate

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ATLANTA (AP) Voters have adopted an amendment freezing Georgia's top marginal income tax rate.

A constitutional amendment prohibiting the Legislature from raising income taxes above the current top rate of 6 percent was approved in voting Tuesday. It was among three ballot questions Georgia voters were asked to settle in the midterm elections.

A second amendment authorizing state lawmakers to impose additional fines for reckless driving that would fund medical treatment and rehabilitation for people with brain and spinal injuries also passed.

Finally, voters approved a referendum to allow Georgia's public universities to extend their exemption from property taxes to private companies hired to operate campus dorms.

2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Understanding the First Amendment is essential

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Over the past ten years, there have been numerous world events that have made headlines across multiple media outlets. There have been new presidents elected, votes concerning gay marriage and Ebola outbreaks, just to name a few. But there is something happening that has seized to catch the attention of the world: murderers are walking free.

According to a report issued by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 90 percent of murderers who have taken the life of journalists have faced no punishment. As many as 370 journalists have been murdered over the last ten years. Statistically, this means that, 9 out of 10 times, there is no conviction in journalist murders. This lack of justice brings light to governments failing to step up. Nov. 2 was deemed International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists as a way to call for justice.

According to The Guardian, UN and regional intergovernmental bodies are urged to take concrete steps to hold member states accountable to their commitments to combat impunity. And journalists are called on to monitor and report on whether these pledges are implemented.

But these attacks are not just simply attacks on human life, but attacks to what these journalists live to protect: press freedom. The Prairie recently held a Town Hall Meeting regarding First Amendment issues because most are confused as to what the First Amendment truly protects. It protects everyone.

The press is just an outlet to educate and inform citizens. Journalists hold this unacknowledged pact with society to serve them, to inform them, to provide them the truth. But its society as a whole that has these rights. Just because a person walks around with a press pass or owns the title of journalist does not mean they have extra rights, or extra protection under the First Amendment.

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Understanding the First Amendment is essential