New Spying Revelations

The Washington Post published a new slide leaked by Edward Snowden showing that the NSA taps into the main undersea data cables along which telephone and internet communications pass through the U.S.

This confirms what high-level NSA whistleblowers William Binney, Russell Tice and others have said for years: The government is spying on all of our digital communications.

Remember that massive surveillance of the American people started before 9/11 .

For example – as regards undersea cables – Zdnet reported 3 months before 9/11:

Much of the information the agency once gleaned from the airwaves now travels in the form of light beams through fiber-optic cables crisscrossing continents and ocean floors. That shift has forced the NSA to seek new ways to gather intelligence–including tapping undersea cables, a technologically daunting, physically dangerous and potentially illegal task.

In the mid-1990s, the NSA installed one such tap, say former intelligence officials familiar with the covert project. Using a special spy submarine, they say, agency personnel descended hundreds of feet into one of the oceans and sliced into a fiber-optic cable.

***

Undersea taps would pose tricky legal issues for the agency, too. For example, U.S. law forbids the NSA to intentionally intercept and process the phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without court approval. Such communications make up a sizable slice of undersea cable traffic.

Some outside analysts and U.S. intelligence officials think the NSA should abandon such efforts in favor of more narrowly targeted intelligence-gathering efforts. One intelligence official estimates that tapping all the world’s undersea cables, assuming it could be done, would cost more than $2 billion a year. And no one knows whether the NSA will ever have enough computing power to analyze the resulting gusher of digital data.

Even so, the agency has been pushing ahead. At General Dynamics’ Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn., the Navy is deep into a five-year, $1 billion retrofit of the USS Jimmy Carter, a nuclear-powered vessel that intelligence experts say will be the premier U.S. spy sub when it hits the seas in 2004. Among its many planned features, says one former official familiar with the project: state-of-the-art technology for undersea fiber-optic taps.

***

The NSA recognized from the start that fiber optics could be a problem. In early 1989, the agency assembled a team of researchers in a small warren of labs at its headquarters in Fort Meade, Md. Other researchers fanned out to corporate research centers to bone up on the new technology. Their mission, according to one former NSA researcher who worked on it, was to find a way to get inside fiber-optic cables and secretly siphon off the data moving through them.

***

One retired NSA optical specialist insists that the NSA devised a way to splice a fiber without being detected. “Getting into fiber is delicate work, but by no means impossible,” the former specialist says. Neither he nor the NSA will discuss the matter further.

***

Yet the NSA’s [chief] Lt. Gen. Hayden says … computing power will allow it to process greater masses of data, which he says he hopes will eventually “allow a single analyst to extract wisdom from vast volumes of raw information.”

How could this massive spying program possibly have started before 9/11 ushered in the “war on terror”?  Because mass surveillance of the American people isn’t really aimed so much at preventing terrorism … but rather increasing power and control.

Government’s “Secret Interpretation” of Patriot Act: “EVERYTHING” Is Relevant … So Spy on EVERYONE

Senators Wyden and Udall – both on the Senate Intelligence Committee, with full access to information on the spying program – have said that for at least 2 years that the government was using a “secret interpretation” of the Patriot Act which would shock Americans, because it provides a breathtakingly wide program of spying. And see this.

Wyden and Udall said that they couldn’t reveal to the public – or even other members of Congress who lack top security clearance – what the secret interpretation is … and that most Congress members were totally ignorant about it.

The author of the Patriot Act and chairman on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations – Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner – says that the government has gone far beyond what the Patriot Act intended, and that the Act “was originally drafted to prevent data mining” on the scale that’s occurred.

A top NSA whistleblower told us that the secret interpretation is that the government spies on everyone.

The Wall Street Journal has just disclosed the specifics of the “secret interpretation”:

In classified orders starting in the mid-2000s, the court accepted that “relevant” could be broadened to permit an entire database of records on millions of people, in contrast to a more conservative interpretation widely applied in criminal cases, in which only some of those records would likely be allowed, according to people familiar with the ruling.

“Relevant” has long been a broad standard, but the way the court is interpreting it, to mean, in effect, “everything,” is new, says Mark Eckenwiler, a senior counsel at Perkins Coie LLP who, until December, was the Justice Department’s primary authority on federal criminal surveillance law.

***

Two senators on the Intelligence Committee, Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Mark Udall (D., Colo.), have argued repeatedly that there was a “secret interpretation” of the Patriot Act. The senators’ offices tell the Journal that this new interpretation of the word “relevant” is what they meant.

Interpreting “relevant” as meaning “everything” throws more than 200 years of American law on its head … plus a couple hundred additional years of British common law on which early American law was based.   The most basic principle of evidence law is that only information actually relevant to the case can be admitted.

Moreover, top national security experts say that pretending that “everything” is “relevant” means that intelligence agencies will be swamped with useless information … which will make them less able to prevent terrorist attacks.

And the courts are providing no checks and balances on the spying program.

Update: The Washington Post has a good write-up on this issue.

 

Snowden Is a Traitor to the Political Elite … But a Hero to the American People

Bloomberg reports:

A majority of U.S. registered voters consider Edward Snowden a whistle-blower, not a traitor, and a plurality says government anti-terrorism efforts have gone too far in restricting civil liberties, a poll released today shows.

***

The view of Snowden as a whistle-blower rather than traitor predominated among almost every group of respondents broken down by party, gender, income, education and age.

***

“The verdict that Snowden is not a traitor goes against almost the unified view of the nation’s political establishment,” Brown said.

***

“The fact that there is little difference now along party lines about the overall anti-terrorism effort and civil liberties and about Snowden is in itself unusual in a country sharply divided along political lines about almost everything,” Brown said.

Indeed, Snowden has a higher approval rating than Congress.

That sounds impressive … until you remember that Congress is less popular than cockroaches, lice, root canals, colonoscopies, traffic jams, used car salesmen, Genghis Khan, Communism, BP during the Gulf oil spill, Nixon during Watergate or King George during the American Revolution.

Postscript:  People are sick and tired of corruption.  And most understand that mass surveillance on innocent people is for political purposes … not to keep us safe.

Comments

[failsafe]

you know what? I miss the good old days when I was not paranoid until AFTER I got the Doritos (and the cookies, the raisinettes, the potato chips ....) and no one got rebates for getting the munchies.  BTW rebates and Doritos both have tracking devices and I am pretty sure that orange crap on cheetos is a radioactive tracking device. I miss the good old days when people bought those t-shirts for their babies that said "question authority at all times" instead of "I heart Google."

[1100-TACTICAL-12]

hedgeless are u out there.. just knod if u can hear me...

[cherry picker]

I think I'll ask God to take out the NSA, the Utah Data Center and the CIA.

An earthquake, volcano, flood, tornado, solar flare or combination of any of the aforementioned should do the trick.

If my request is granted it will mean two things, God exists and there is nothing .gov can do to God to get revenge and that will really piss them off.

[Duc888]

Reptil, it is important to understand our government is not speaking with one voice at this time. Be forewarned.

[Reptil]

related: FBI refuses to testify on Boston Bombings (even in a closed session)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FourJbS4J9E

now what?

[Duc888]

Old Republic, thank you, you beat me by 9 seconds.

OLD FUKKEN NEWS

HE IS NOT A TRAITOR

[Duc888]

I'm actually stunned that people think Microsoft or Apple for that matter never built a back door into their software. Again, like a broken record here I am, read two books, "The Puzzle Palace" and "Privacy For Sale" both written over 15 years ago. This is old news to anyone with a clue.

Non news. WTF did everyone think TIA was ferchrissakes.

I was reading about US mini subs putting hoops, or rings around fiber optic cable in the north sea, camping out in Russian harbors and spying over 10 years ago, from a regular gdamned book. Fact.

[Trampy]

Non news. WTF did everyone think TIA was ferchrissakes.

Thank You!  TIA, Echelon, Carnivore ... it's been common knowledge among computer and security pros for almost 15 years.

It just goes to show that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

If anyone wants to have private communications and private electronic files, all they need to do is start using PGP encryption, which was much more commonly used 15 years ago than now.  Back then, any security-conscious IT person was well aware of PGP and they'd post their public keys on websites, etc.  Not any more.  PGP usage seems to have been suppressed somehow.

I've posted a public key here in my bio section. 

Others should do the same, because there is absolutely no privacy in using the ZChat plugin here. 

[One of these is...]

To be fair, the possibilities for a single technologically sophisticated and twisted individual to cause utter mayhem are growing daily.

I am personally interested in the frontiers of technology, and my understanding is that some emergent technology not yet generally known about has the potential to either solve all of the worlds econimic and logistical problems at a stroke, but also when one lies back and sparks up a fat one, and really THINKS about the new physics (after completing a multi thousand hour self-directed (it's only a hobby after all) course, involving some actual study of the papers with the greek letters and numbers all mixed up, it becomes apparent that if we misuse it we could theoretically BREAK THE UNIVERSE!

If (and I am only some bloke on zero hedge, I'm PROBABLY full of shit) that turns out to be true, then this mass spying is both neccesary, and also NOT INTRUSIVE ENOUGH. My head hurts when I think of the difficulty of giving the human race any item that embodies some of the principles I have become aware of, because even here, where there is a reltively high proportion of quite advanced thinkers, and doers there are still quite a few idiots. I certainly do not want those sort of people to have access to a technolgy that could (for example) turn a large building into a small pile of fine dust, quietly and without drama. Who knows what they might do with it...

So gentle folk, if you could see this technology coming down the pike, AND you had the reins of power could you come up with a better idea, than trying to dumb down, divert, and above all SORT OUT the whole population, to try and identify the ones who will want to cause mass mayhem for fun or profit?

Currently we only have the technological capability to end ourselves, and much of the other life on this planet. And lord knows we have had enough trouble with that level of technology, for example it's by no means guaranteed that we will all survive Fukushima, and keeping "mad mullahs" from acquiring a massive strike force seems to be a preoccupation with some people, so IF I do understand what I think I understand about the not generally known physical properties of the universe, we could be in a really, really tricky situation right now, and this all encompassing surveillance just the thin edge of a wedge, that has the upside, of allowing us eventual access to "god-like" technological powers, without fucking it up for everyone.

But until I KNOW this to be true, by means of successful testing of hardware done by me in person, (and I don't yet, my investigations are continuing) the spying is bad, so how do we stop it?

[Black Swan 9]

Sadly it's news to 99% of Americans who rely on MSM.. Like the back door software used during the second selection of Bush, of which Mike Connell, Rove's IT guru, was about to testify in Congressional hearings (not that it would have made a difference) before he died in a small plane accident. Wellstoned, flash-fried like Hastings.

There's no hope for the US without a truly free & independent Fourth Estate, short of a revolution.

[Oldrepublic]

In the 1980s, the US ran an operation in the Soviet Far East, to tap Soviet underseas cables in the area. It was called Ivy Bells https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells

[are we there yet]

Snowden has not been seen publicly since arriving in Moscow. I did not think he was camera shy. Perhaps he is resisting being milked.

[Jumbotron]

While we are on the subject of new spying revelations......fuck you very much AGAIN Microshit......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-...

Revealed: how Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages

• Secret files show scale of Silicon Valley co-operation on Prism
• Outlook.com encryption unlocked even before official launch
• Skype worked to enable Prism collection of video calls
• Company says it is legally compelled to comply

• In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the  NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through  Prism;

[Trampy]

even our hostess, Zero Hedge requires registration...sigh

it's easy enough to be anonymous here by registering using a VPN and giving an email that you don't use for anything else.

ZH doesn't care if my IP changes while i'm logged in, only if it changes while editing a post.

[OneTinSoldier66]

GW, you might want to consider making articles such as this, that are so controversial and politically incorrect... double top-secret. I mean, should people really be knowing this stuff?

/s

[bank guy in Brussels]

Yet the UK Guardian pumping Edward Snowden, is a 'news source' of the Rothschilds, the wealthiest family in the world

« The Guardian is controlled by Guardian Media Group, whose chairman is Paul Myners, a past employee of N M Rothschild & Sons Limited. Guardian Media Group is owned by the Scott Trust, which became a limited private company in 2008, with all trustees becoming directors of the Scott Trust. Anthony Salz was appointed as a trustee of the Scott Trust in 2009; he is currently executive vice-chairman of the investment bank Rothschild. »

http://www.abeldanger.net/2011/02/wikileaks-rothschild-operation-swiss.html

---

The Rothschild family is estimated by mainstream sources (Forbes etc) to have a wealth in excess of US $ 400 billion ($.4 trillion !), but they spread it among numerous family members and thus can avoid the 'top billionaires' lists.

One of the oddest things the ultra-Zionist Rothschilds have done, is their funding, design and construction of the extremely spooky Israeli Supreme Court building with Masonic and pagan symbols ... Very creepy and satanic-seeming, story has been covered by Israeli radical journalist Barry Chamish. Photos of that weird structure here -

http://www.gnosticliberationfront.com/rothschild__the_israeli_supreme.htm

[Black Swan 9]

Denver airport murals..

[Dewey Cheatum Howe]

Speaking of elite I don't know if my tinfoil hat is that accommodating for this sort thing but interesting graphic in the article using analytics showing what companies and institutions everyone in the Bilderberg group is connected to.

http://worldtruth.tv/this-chart-shows-the-bilderberg-groups-connection-t...

You need to go to the web page and click on the full size link for the picture to really be able to see the detail.

[Dagny Taggart]

Eventually the blowback from this to the NSA et al is going to be vicious. Keep up the good work GW! You are much appreciated.

[ToNYC]

Whistle-burner, witch-blower high priestess calls for the stake. Sacrilege is a religious crime that burns at the stake non-dogma  truthers on sight. Must be a hummm-dinger out there chasing the lady senator back to the Spanish Inquisition (never can tell when it will break out, I;ve seen),, but as Nina Turner's(D-OH) grandma says, ' You can throw the truth in the river 5 days after a lie, and the truth will catch up with it.'

[moneybots]

"Wyden and Udall said that they couldn’t reveal to the public – or even other members of Congress who lack top security clearance – what the secret interpretation is … and that most Congress members were totally ignorant about it."

Would they care even if they were not ignorant- unless they could gain political points by grandstanding the pretense of caring.  After all, it was the "freedom" loving republicans who pushed the Patriot Act through congress.

[q99x2]

These types of actions have been proven time and again to have seriously damaging adverse side effects once power is lost. And, it is the nature of such actions that predicts precisely what will happen to the perpetrators this time. It is blatant stupidity of any ruling class to allow such things to exist.

[WTFUD]

Waste of good cable! Best served for the hangman.

[stant]

and they are all moving to colorado around denver.

[Dollar Bill Hiccup]

They tapped undersea phone cable in the cold war.  Same ol trick, newer time and technology.

When you are the empire, everyone is your minion, and falls under your sway.

[rtalcott]

Tapping underwater fiber optic or electronic cables...that's OLD news...decades old..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Man's_Bluff:_The_Untold_Story_of_American_Submarine_Espionage

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/006097771X

Two fermions walk into a bar. The first says "I'd like a vodka martini with a twist." The second says "Dammit, that's what I wanted!"

[Dollar Bill Hiccup]

Whoops. You were much more diligent by providing a link!

[MrSteve]

Deep sea subs tapping fibre optic cables is very old news. The "booster switch junctions" where the fading signals get re-energized for continued transmission are the points of penetration in the undersea cables. This "tapping" is done with technology set up on the outside of the junction, so they are not interrupting flow to monitor it.

Russia has the same monitoring hardware, so in Spy vs. Spy, the game is even. It is only the lowly citizen who is in the dark and typically doesn't care anyway, anyhow. That's why we get what we deserve.

[failsafe]

"...most Americans will gladly embrace the matrix  for ... an instant rebate on that next bag of Doritos." yes.  Herein lies a HUGE part of the problem.  Values and sometimes at least the appearance of an almost willful  ignorance of what is going on.  Sorry for typos.  I am afraid for my colleagues to see what I am typing lol..

[Zer0head]

use google? you're surveilled

check out their most recent privacy terms

http://www.google.com/policies/privacy

download apps? you're really surveilled just ask Jay-Z

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/arts/music/jay-z-is-watching-and-he-kn...

and that's the tip of the iceberg

Mr. Softey gets a hard on when it comes to sharing your data, espcecially if it's encrypted

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-...

just wait for Googles launch of it's first "real" smart phone the

"Moto X(py)"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732442520457859807071090853...

you, your location, your politics, your beliefs, your everything exists on servers and as Big Data's capabilities increase that information will be available in an instant to the highest bidders. Layer on real time geo tracking and predictive algos and nothing will be left to the imagination.

And most Americans will gladly embrace this matrix for the assurance of safety and more importantly an instant rebate on that next bag of Doritos.

And when those same Americans do a search to find out why their shit is yellow  the actual "health" sites track and share that data

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/07/08/200055678/whos-watching-when-...

for now this is an option 

https://duckduckgo.com/ though your ISP has a record of everything

so a VPN should also be used http://lifehacker.com/5935863/five-best-vpn-service-providers

but at the end of the day .gov and corporations want your data, even our hostess, Zero Hedge requires registration...sigh

[Black Swan 9]

We can run, but we can't hide.. I know few people who have opted out of computers, smart phones, tvs, EZPass, Smart meters, just plain driving & walking around in cities and even smaller towns, cameras littered everywhere. There to protect us, keep us safe..

[lordbyroniv]

Bitchez.........

U allz gotz nothing to fearz

If U allz gotz nothingz to hidez

!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Never One Roach]

Spielberg's already working on this one for a film with Matt Damon as SnoDen I bet.

[thisandthat]

LOL That's what you deserve for supporting jayz... as for vpns, anon proxies, anything that's under anglo-saxon control, whether by location or ownership, forget about it...