The Obama Administration is spying on you...
By louisehartmann
One of our nation's largest phone carriers, Verizon, is sharing information on millions of customers with the NSA. According to the Guardian newspaper, a secret court order issued in April requires Verizon to hand over all call records on an “ongoing, daily basis.”
The document obtained by the Guardian shows that a secret FISA Court granted the FBI authority to collect three month of Verizon data, including telephone numbers, duration of calls, location data, and the times that calls were made. The court order did not grant the FBI authority to listen to conversations, and it's unclear as to whether text messages were also intercepted.
The court order applies to Verizon, and bars the company from informing customers about the information request. It's unclear whether any other phone carriers are handing over similar data, or whether this three-month request was part of an ongoing process, or a one-time event.
According to the Guardian, the document may explain two years of ominous warnings by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, who have warned about the government spying on Americans. Last year, those two senators sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, writing, “there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows.”
The sweeping request for information is reminiscent of the policies of President George W. Bush. It's also the first top-secret document to confirm that the Obama Administration is continuing to spy on Americans.
Comments
#2
Yes the Corporate fascist who set up the Patriot Act, are now condemning it as an intrusion?
Amazing anyone continues to Vote for any Republican nowadays.
#3
It appears not to be a republican vs. Democratic issue. It is an issue that can be attributed to the corporations (those "persons") who own the government, no matter who is in power. THEY are in power. How do I stop this?
#4
Why Verizon?
#5
The guy who drafted the law said it was ment for and used by Bush for calls going off shore! So your friend Barry and Erric expanded the scope. Your guy is the Fascsit!
#6
Something strange
is happening perhaps penetrating a new political line up. This automatic collection of telephone numbers from point to point illustrates the impressive technology trying to connect Americans to social needs of safety, freedom, and liberty. Secrecy just might be the closet case of the government.
However a gapping barrier exists in the need and the definition according to the Constitution. The Constitution was created without knowledge of modern technology in the electromagnetic spectrum. Good reason to shout out scandal, when in fact America should be questioning this new political tool, and how to use it. Through the calculus of derivatives very powerful information can be derived from those data bases. Moreover, this could be something that could frighten the hell out guilty treasonous political people within our government. Yikes they figured us out type of stuff.
However, this being a quasi-cooperative war in modern profiteering, that just combining corruption with the military industrial complex is the core product of the Congressional Presidential actions that are taken this day that do not correspond to a real definition of war or how it is accomplished by the terms in the Constitution. Here the guidelines of the constitution are breached obviously according to the expression mission accomplished according to rule of the Constitution. The results so far considered an unpredictable phenomenon in a failed war rather than an accomplishment.
Consider War Powers Act, Patriot Act, or just plain Congressional appropriations for that huge amount of ammunition needed for target practice. A very difficult judgment to make whereas all parties involved are wrong if we consider the American government is doing something where there are no Constitutional guidelines. The Republicans see this opportunity to kick the “Scandal Can” down the street at every turn. Wasting time, delaying time, running out the clock, to make sure all assets are liquid, of course to get the pay off.
Mainstream media is making what many call commercial culture money out of this new technology. A very, very taxable way out the deficit.
#7
Section 215 of the Patriot Act: Allowing help from bin Laden on 9/11 gave former President Cheney the justification for this legislation.....as well as the endless war for profit. Cheney and bin Laden both won while most of the rest of us have paid dearly with the resulting economic depression. They've used the out of control war spending to justify austerity, nullify the social contract, and thus make we the people surrender our freedoms.
Cheney: "The Patriot Act is a good law that has done nothing to diminish our liberty. It has helped us defend our liberty."
#8
TxPEON...What does it have to do with Republicans???
The dismantleing of the U.S. Constitution has been going on for decades; Obama, W. Bush, Clinton, H. Bush, Regan, Nixion...Each one of them approved of "security" measures that are arbitrarey in that they go against our U.S. Constitution.
I think it is more accurate to say; "It's amazing that the majority of Americans continue to hit the feeder bar and cast their vote in a two party Corporate run Government that has time and again proven to be corrupt and selfserving to a wealthy few", OR, "Americans are nothing more than a bunch of morons and bafoons that keep buying into the Corporate agenda"!!!
I personally find it funny queer that the "land of the free and home of the brave" has so quickly amounted to nothing...Nothing but a bunch of clueless bratts that love love love to post intimate details of their meaningless lives on social networks, watch hours of mindless television, and intelectualize on silly pointless blogs!
Cheers!!!
#9
LEIGHMF...Why not Verizon???Its huge and clearly a supporter of the Military Industrial Complex.
#10
i would be surprised if they could get any information with all the calls Verison drops.
Scary though.
#11
You, HISTORY WRITTER, cannot stop this alone, nor can I...This is most certainly a "We the People" thing...A union of shared desire for Independence and Freedom, through Boycotts, Sabotage, Checks and Balances... A Revolution!!!
Now more than ever, in this Corporate world of Profit over People by any means necessary, such measures of non violent resistance matters. We MUST affect them where it counts...Their BIG fat pockets!
However, American's biggest challenge is a severe lack of education, and I don't just mean Reading, Writing, and Arithmatic...No, I'm talking about Crittical Thinking, Humanities, Social Studies, Unbias lessons in American and World History, and hands on experience.
Unfortunatly the information age belies itself! Here we are living in a time were communication and information is attainable in seconds but instead of using it in a humane and productive fashion we squander our time with nonsense, sound bites, and half truths. We wait for the so called "experts" to tell us how to think and feel, and if we dare question authority or refuse to particapate, then we are cast as the "problem", when in reality it is corporate greed, commercialism, materialism, that has reduced the American Dream to a dung heep at least a mile high, seperated us from our roots and dumbed us down. All so a few can make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$!
#12
Ain't that the truth!!!
Is this Kend or Kend's better half???
#13
this is kend. Mrs kend and yes she is by far the better half Promised she would get her own handle.
#14
Quote MMmmNACHOS:LEIGHMF...Why not Verizon???Its huge and clearly a supporter of the Military Industrial Complex.
I agree with leighmf. A very good question. Yet I'll go one more. Why the charade? It has already been announced years ago that through the Patriot Act all of our communications have been compromised. Some companies were forced to write into their firmware of their devices the ability to send duplicates of every message sent directly to Government agencies. That's much worse than telephone records. What is so different about this move on Verizon? What's so new about this whole story? You mean they have a database of all of our email and text messages but have no clue as to who sent or received them? Who are they trying to fool? Is it indicative of a very serious threat, the government extending its already unconstitutional breach of privacy, or is it just a huge smoke screen for more serious egregious news they hope we don't notice? With the level of secrecy and deceit in Washington, and in the Corporatocracy it could be any or all of the above.
I smell Monsanto! Something stinks! Let's see, how many stories lately have involved Patsy-like innocent victims picked on by the Government for nonsensical, trumped-up reasons? I can think of three, Verizon, Apple, and the IRS.
Oh! Oh! Oh! Look at what they can do!! Read the Patriot Act my friends. They can do much worse than that. How about Indefinite Detention, suspension of habeas corpus, extraordinary rendition, torture, and drone strikes? Those crimes make this look like parking in a handicapped space. This story simply plays into the minds of those who suffer from true cognitive dissonance. Only the blissfully ignorant would be shocked. This is more like infotainment than the news.
Let me add one last little tidbit. Despite all the bells and whistles this "National Security Agency," likes to blow around, don't forget the memo that sat on President Bush's desk in ample time prior to 911. A memo that could have prevented the tragic terrorists attack that enabled all this illegal destruction of the Constitution. A memo with intelligence that was obtained legally and Constitutionally. A memo that was ignored by a Presidential Administration that was as culpable as the terrorists themselves. "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice..."
#15
The New England Sentinel Rising Times
(Impotent News For An Impotent Nation)
Living Up To The Lowest Standards
Latest Breaking News Flash -- Scientist Discovers Termites Love To Eat Wood
In an independent study today conducted by renowned scientists from all over the scientific world community it was noticed that in several blind laboratory studies that Termites love to eat wood. "We weren't actually conducting experiments." Lead director Dr. Samuel Peacock accounts. "We were actually having lunch when a construction crew was working on the bathroom in the lab. After peeling off the sheetrock, someone exclaimed, 'Ai, Dios mio!!' We all dropped our sandwiches and ran to see what was up. Behind the wall was severely deteriorated wood. Senior Perez, head of the construction crew said, 'You got termites, mang!' Since we had nothing better to do we decided to publish a paper on the newly discovered phenomenon."
Dr. Peacock's disturbing laboratory conclusions are to properly weatherstrip bathroom walls with a moisture barrier. This comes following a close study of the work performed by Senior Perez and his crew. The joint study concluded that the lack of a moisture barrier is the main contributing factor for a termite infestation, Dr. Peacock and his team concluded that if you value the wellbeing of any wood you might still have, be on the guard for such threats and keep it dry and covered at all times.
The article is published by Dr Peacock and associates in this months New England Sentinel Rising Times Journal of Scientific Discoveries. Dr. Peacock is well known in the scientific community for his commitment to deep and penetrating laboratory research.
Senior Perez was unavailable for comment.
#16
True as stated byMmmm nachos & DAnneMarc- AT&T and others have been snooped for the last decade. It makes me think there must be something unique in the Verizon network.
#17
From Reuters, "Obama Staunchly Defends Government Surveilance Programs"Quote Matt Spetallic and Steve Holland:The Washington Post reported late on Thursday that federal authorities have been tapping into the central servers of companies including Google, Apple and Facebook to gain access to emails, photos and other files allowing analysts to track a person's movements and contacts.That added to privacy concerns sparked by a report in Britain's Guardian newspaper that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been mining phone records from millions of customers of a subsidiary of Verizon Communications.
Obama said he came into office with a "healthy skepticism" about the surveillance programs, but came to believe the "modest encroachments on privacy" are warranted.
From Associated Press, "Obama Defends Phone Data Collection Program"
Quote Josh Lederman and Darlene Superville:The disclosures come at a particularly inopportune time for Obama. His administration already faces questions over the Internal Revenue Service's improper targeting of conservative groups, the seizure of journalists' phone records in an investigation into who leaked information to the media, and the handling of the terrorist attack in Libya that left four Americans dead.At a minimum, it's all a distraction as the president tries to tackle big issues like immigration reform and taxes. And it could serve to erode trust in Obama as he tries to advance his second-term agenda and cement his presidential legacy.
The Associated Press, quoting Thursday The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper
Quote Lederman and Superville:"I believe it is important for the American people to understand the limits of this targeted counterterrorism program and the principles that govern its use," he said.Among the previously classified information about the phone records collection that Clapper revealed:
—The program is conducted under authority granted by Congress and is authorized by the Foreign intelligence Surveillance Court which determines the legality of the program.
—The government is prohibited from "indiscriminately sifting" through the data acquired. It can only be reviewed "when there is a reasonable suspicion, based on specific facts, that the particular basis for the query is associated with a foreign terrorist organization." He also said only counterterrorism personnel trained in the program may access the records.
—The information acquired is overseen by the Justice Department and the FISA court. Only a very small fraction of the records are ever reviewed, he said.
—The program is reviewed every 90 days.
The Obama administration's defense of the two programs came as members of Congress were vowing to change a program they voted to authorize and exasperated civil liberties advocates were crying foul, questioning how Obama, a former constitutional scholar who sought privacy protections as a U.S. senator, could embrace policies aligned with President George W. Bush, whose approach to national security he had vowed to leave behind.
Sign the petition to damand a full disclosure of spying activities at credoaction.com:
#18
The government collecting information about our communications goes back further than even George W. Look into the Carnivore program, cited in EPIC alerts as early as 2000. It looks at content, not just who, where and when.
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Fascism continues to grow...in America!?!