PRISM

[OGBDeacon07]

He's in Hong Kong too!

Smart move to be out of country. Will China extradite? That is the question...

 

[BobStackFan4Life]

He says his dream would be amnesty in Iceland but he realizes that's unlikely.

 

[Wrangor]

He says his dream would be amnesty in Iceland but he realizes that's unlikely.

That is chilling.

 

[WFdeacon04]

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD

 

[WFdeacon04]

I wanna know how this does not constitute a lie from National Intelligence Director James Clapper to Congress?

 

[Lectro]

Yeah, I'm sure they would put everything out there in public about their budget....no black budget here for a secret program.

They shouldn't get getting this data AT ALL! Just a continuation of this gov't pissing on the constitution when it suits them.

C'mon man, stop with the common sense!

 

[OGBDeacon07]

It's about fucking time that someone went on the record.

 

[Sgt Hulka]

They allocate $20mm a year to this. No way are the closely monitoring all of the data available from these companies. That would take Google levels of infrastructure.

You mean like this facility?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center

"The planned structure is 1 million or 1.5 million square feet[3][6][7] and it is projected to cost from $1.5 billion[8][9][4] to $2 billion when finished in September 2013.[2][3] One report suggested that it will cost another $2 billion for hardware, software, and maintenance.[3] The completed facility is expected to require 65 megawatts, costing about $40 million per year.[2][3]"

 

[Lectro]

The AP put this story out a little over an hour ago -- already it has 400 responses and they are people who are citizens and they are fed up. James Clapper's comments are drawing ire as are both wings of our political party. As a sample poll I'd say it is 99% strongly opposed.

http://news.yahoo.com/whats-problem...hestRated&isNext=true&offset=65&pageNumber=13

 

[marquee moon]

The AP put this story out a little over an hour ago -- already it has 400 responses and they are people who are citizens and they are fed up. James Clapper's comments are drawing ire as are both wings of our political party. As a sample poll I'd say it is 99% strongly opposed.

http://news.yahoo.com/whats-problem...hestRated&isNext=true&offset=65&pageNumber=13

The federal government knows every dwarf's porn preference down to a science.

 

[BobStackFan4Life]

If Clapper is willing to lie to a Senator I'm guessing he has no problem lying to average Americans.

 

[BobStackFan4Life]

During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Wyden asked Clapper whether the National Security Agency collects “any type of data at all on millions of Americans.” Clapper responded, “No, sir” — a response that seems to run contrary to the revelations of the past week concerning the NSA’s broad phone record collection efforts.

Wyden said in a statement Tuesday that he gave intelligence officials the courtesy they needed to give a “straight answer,” but said they declined to give one.

“So that he would be prepared to answer, I sent the question to Director Clapper’s office a day in advance. After the hearing was over, my staff and I gave his office a chance to amend his answer,” Wyden said. “Now public hearings are needed to address the recent disclosures, and the American people have the right to expect straight answers from the intelligence leadership to the questions asked by their representatives.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/06/11/sen-wyden-clapper-didnt-give-straight-answer-on-nsa-programs/

 

[Wrangor]

This stuff is like Bourne Identity + Enemy of the State combined into one. Anyone who isn't at least a little concerned about all of this needs to have their head checked. I realize there is a true cost to freedom, and I am by no means a Libertarian (yet), but the scale has tipped over it seems in the past two presidencies. It is like our government had all of these new toys to acquire power, and no one had the means (or desire) to put a check on it.

 

[OGBDeacon07]

 

[BobStackFan4Life]

AP provides details in new article.

The government doesn't automatically delete the data, officials said, because an email or phone conversation that seems innocuous today might be significant a year from now...Two decades from now, the government could have a trove of American emails and phone records it can tap to investigative whatever Congress declares a threat to national security.

The Bush administration shut down its warrantless wiretapping program in 2007 but endorsed a new law, the Protect America Act, which allowed the wiretapping to continue with changes: The NSA generally would have to explain its techniques and targets to a secret court in Washington, but individual warrants would not be required.

Congress approved it, with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the midst of a campaign for president, voting against it.

"This administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide," Obama said in a speech two days before that vote. "I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom."

For years, the companies had been handling requests from the FBI. Now Congress had given the NSA the authority to take information without warrants. Though the companies didn't know it, the passage of the Protect America Act gave birth to a top-secret NSA program, officially called US-98XN.

It was known as Prism. Though many details are still unknown, it worked like this:

Every year, the attorney general and the director of national intelligence spell out in a classified document how the government plans to gather intelligence on foreigners overseas.

By law, the certification can be broad. The government isn't required to identify specific targets or places.

A federal judge, in a secret order, approves the plan.

With Prism, the government gets a user's entire email inbox. Every email, including contacts with American citizens, becomes government property.

Once the NSA has an inbox, it can search its huge archives for information about everyone with whom the target communicated. All those people can be investigated, too.

That's one example of how emails belonging to Americans can become swept up in the hunt.

In that way, Prism helps justify specific, potentially personal searches. But it's the broader operation on the Internet fiber optics cables that actually captures the data, experts agree.

"I'm much more frightened and concerned about real-time monitoring on the Internet backbone," said Wolf Ruzicka, CEO of EastBanc Technologies, a Washington software company. "I cannot think of anything, outside of a face-to-face conversation, that they could not have access to."
One unanswered question, according to a former technology executive at one of the companies involved, is whether the government can use the data from Prism to work backward.

For example, not every company archives instant message conversations, chat room exchanges or videoconferences. But if Prism provided general details, known as metadata, about when a user began chatting, could the government "rewind" its copy of the global Internet stream, find the conversation and replay it in full?

Schneier, the author and security expert, said it doesn't really matter how Prism works, technically. Just assume the government collects everything, he said.

He said it doesn't matter what the government and the companies say, either. It's spycraft, after all.

"Everyone is playing word games," he said. "No one is telling the truth."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/secret-prism-success-even-bigger-data-seizure