Archive for the ‘NSA’ Category

US Congress to NSA: How many Americans do you illegally spy on? – The Register

If there is one piece of information that would fatally undermine the NSA's argument that it doesn't abuse Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), it would be the number of American citizens whose personal information it has "incidentally" hoovered up.

And that is why it refuses to provide the figure.

There were two House Judiciary Committee meetings in Congress yesterday over the reauthorization of Section 702 in December. The first was held in secret with members of the security services; the second in public with panelists.

We don't know what happened in the first but in the second, a number of Congressmen made it plain that the NSA had failed to provide an estimate for the number of American citizens it has data on despite the committee asking for it 11 months ago in a formal letter.

John Conyers (D-MI), the lead Democrat on the committee, noted that the lawmakers had repeatedly asked for the estimate but "the intelligence community has not so much as responded to our December letter" a letter that asked for no more than an update on how long it would take to arrive at an estimate.

The intelligence community continues to argue it is difficult to tell the nationality of someone making a call or sending an email without a huge amount of effort or without violating their privacy.

That claim "seems like baloney to me," said Jim Jordan (R-OH), adding: "It's the greatest intelligence service on the planet. You'd think they'd be able to know that."

The truth is that the NSA cannot disclose the true figure if it wishes to retain its extraordinarily broad surveillance powers powers that it has interpreted to include tapping the internet's backbone and big tech companies' server farms.

Section 702 repeatedly and explicitly notes that it only provides authority to gather information on non-US citizens and events occurring outside of the United States. And yet, incredibly, the security services have layered misinterpretation of the law on top of misinterpretation in order to authorize themselves to tap into US companies' systems based in the US.

The moment the scale of the domestic spying this has enabled is laid bare, the NSA's obtuse claim of "incidental" and "accidental" gathering of data on US citizens will be shown to be the faade it is. Which is why it won't release the figure.

In a political climate where up is down and down is up, where the attorney general can answer an explicit question with a No and then claim he was asked a different question when that turns out not to be true, it is perhaps not surprising that some of the other answers asked at the hearing stretched reality to the breaking point.

One of the panelists, assistant professor at the US Naval Academy Jeff Kosseff, argued that the Fourth Amendment (no unreasonable search without a warrant) did not apply to Section 702 because it covered "foreign intelligence."

That is despite the fact that the Snowden documents showed particularly through the PRISM system that the security services were spying on domestic telecommunications.

Equally mind-boggling was the claim by former NSA attorney April Doss, now a partner at Saul Ewing LLP, that Section 702 was only used for "targeted surveillance." While that is certainly the intent of the law, the reality is the opposite we know, again from the Snowden documents, that vast quantities of data are pulled into government databases, retained, and then searched.

Doss also repeated the NSA argument that trying to estimate how many Americans had been included in the broad sweep of communications would lead to a greater intrusion into their privacy.

You suspect that the argument that Congressmen shouldn't consider anything in the Snowden documents because they were leaked illegally is rolling around the back of their heads just waiting to slip out.

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US Congress to NSA: How many Americans do you illegally spy on? - The Register

Trump’s attacks on the NSA are actively harming morale, report … – BGR


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Trump's attacks on the NSA are actively harming morale, report ...
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The intelligence community has come under fire from newly sworn-in President Donald Trump for what he perceives to be attacks on his own credibility. Now ...
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Trump's attacks on the NSA are actively harming morale, report ... - BGR

Fmr. NSA Director: Trump’s Military Spending Increase is Needed … – Fox Business

During an interview with Neil Cavuto on the FOX Business Network, former NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander addressed the recent controversy involving Attorney General Jeff Sessions and allegations he communicated with Russian diplomats during the presidential election, despite stating that he didnt during his confirmation hearing before Congress.

Well, I think the facts are what we need and I think jumping to the conclusion that the Attorney General did something wrong is a big jump, General Alexander said.

He went on to add that he doesnt believe Sessions intended to mislead or do anything wrong.

In a statement to Fox News, the Attorney General denied the accusations, I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false," he wrote.

Alexander also noted that the presidents promise to rebuild the military and to increase defense spending by $54 billion is a good thing.

I have tremendous confidence in Secretary Mattis. He is a good person. He will take the money needed; he will come back with a great plan and help get us the military that we need.

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Alexander went on to add that taking care of those who would give their life for this nation is the right thing to do.

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Fmr. NSA Director: Trump's Military Spending Increase is Needed ... - Fox Business

Congress Asks NSA for Estimate of American Surveillance Before Reauthorization – InsideSources

National Security Agency building at Fort Meade, Md. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, file)

Congress is still waiting for an intelligence community estimate of the number of American communications swept up in widespread surveillance programs authorized by law due to expire this year.

Lawmakers blasted the intelligence community Wednesday after a classified briefing from members of the National Security Agency, FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and others. Representatives again failed to respond to a year-old request for an estimate of the number of American communications caught up in electronic surveillance programs.

Representatives have asked repeatedly for the information ahead of Congress reauthorization of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Amendments Act Section 702. The law legalizes broad electronic surveillance programs like Prism, revealed by NSA leaker Edward Snowden in 2013. Section 702 expires Dec. 31.

Michigan Democrat Rep. John Conyers said the intelligence community has not so much as responded to another December request for the estimate. He added lawmakers will not simply take the governments word on the size of the so-called incidental collection.

Section 702 authorizes NSAs upstream surveillance programs when the signals intelligence agency taps the physical infrastructure of the internet, such as undersea fiber cables, to surveil the content of foreign communications including emails, instant messages, etc. as they exit and enter the U.S.

It also allows the agency to submit selectors to U.S.-based communications providers, like e-mail addresses, who then provide the agency with any communications relevant to those selectors.

The programs essentially allow NSA to incidentally sweep up unrelated data belonging to Americans in communication with foreigners. Privacy advocates likeElizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at NYU Laws Brennan Center for Justice, say such incidental collection likely amounts to millions or tens of millions of warrantless interceptions.

I dont mean to imply that this trust was misplaced, Goitein told the House Judiciary Committee during the unclassified half of Wednesdays briefing. In fact, weve seen essentially no evidence of intentional misuse. But what we have seen is mission creep, so that a law designed to protect against foreign threats to the United States has become a major source of warrantless access to Americans data and a tool for ordinary, domestic law enforcement.

NSA can share raw data it collects absent a warrant with CIA and FBI. All three can hold onto data for five years, but encrypted communications, those reasonably believed to contain secret meaning, and any U.S. person information that has foreign intelligence value or is evidence of a crime, can be kept indefinitely. None estimate how many Americans are swept up annually in what privacy advocates have dubbed back door searches.

Goitein said that data can be used to prosecute Americans for crimes unrelated to the original search. Legal requirements for secrecy and national security allow prosecutors in some instances not to reveal how such information was gathered, making it difficult to surmise if its happened already.

She and others at Wednesdays hearing including California Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu say thats a clear Fourth Amendment violation, and Congress should rewrite the law with reforms instead of a blanket reauthorization. Jeff Kosseff, a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, argued national security gives the intelligence community exception to the Fourth Amendments warrant requirement.

An anonymous White House official told Reuters Wednesday the Trump administration supports renewal without reforms.

We support the clean reauthorization and the administration believes its necessary to protect the security of the nation, the official said.

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Congress Asks NSA for Estimate of American Surveillance Before Reauthorization - InsideSources

Jaishankar meets US NSA, Speaker – The Hindu


The Hindu
Jaishankar meets US NSA, Speaker
The Hindu
On his third trip to the United States since the election of Donald Trump, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar met U.S. National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon on Wednesday.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar meets US NSA, discuss bilateral tiesEconomic Times
S Jaishankar holds talks with US Speaker Paul Ryan and NSA McMaster; safety of Indians, counter terrorism ops ...India.com
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Jaishankar meets US NSA, Speaker - The Hindu