RKMBs
Posted By: the G-man Obama collecting our phone records daily - 2013-06-06 6:26 AM
NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama.

This presents a dilemma for Obamaphiles.

You will hear the excuse that Bush did it. From people who hated Bush for doing it, but still love Obama.
Isn't there already a wiretap thread?

Same thing holds true with what I posted back than, except of course it's now legal and Bush's wiretapping was retroactively made legal. May I assume your sticking with your previous defense of wiretapping?
 Originally Posted By: Matter-eater Man
it's now legal and Bush's wiretapping was retroactively made legal


Actually, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, this action is being undertaken under a section of the Patriot Act, but is a clear overstep of the law’s requirement that it be targeted at individuals under some sort of suspicion in specific investigations:
  • “This confirms what we had long suspected,” says Cindy Cohn, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a civil liberties organization that has long accused the government of operating a secret dragnet surveillance program. “We’ve been suing over this since 2006.”


    The order is based on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows law enforcement to obtain a wide variety of “business records,” including calling records. EFF has long criticized Section 215, which sets a threshold for obtaining records much lower than the “probable cause” standard required to get a search warrant.

    But Cohn argues that the kind of dragnet surveillance suggested by the Verizon order exceeds even the authority granted by the Patriot Act. “Section 215 is written as if they’re going after individual people based on individual investigations,” she says. In contrast, the order leaked to the Guardian affects “millions and millions of innocent people. There’s no way all of our calling records are relevant to a terrorism investigation.”

    “I don’t think Congress thought it was authorizing dragnet surveillance” when it passed the Patriot Act, Cohn says. “I don’t think Americans think that’s OK. I would be shocked if the majority of congressmen thought it’s okay.”

So, in this case, the Obamaphiles can't even fall back on "a republican did it first."
Obama Releases Nation's Phone Records to the Public
 Quote:
WASHINGTON—On the heels of reports that the National Security Agency has secretly been amassing the private telephone records of Verizon’s more than 120 million customers, President Barack Obama announced Thursday that his administration is releasing the entire country’s phone records to the public in an effort to handle the situation with complete transparency. “Honesty and openness have always been the hallmarks of my presidency, which is why I believe that everybody should have free access to this essential information,” the president said at a press conference, encouraging the public to visit a newly created online database containing the time, duration, and location of every wireless and landline phone call made by all 315 million Americans. “We—all of us—are laying our cards on the table here. Now, everyone in the country will know who’s calling whom, and when, and how often, and for how long. My administration doesn’t have any secrets, and from now on, neither will you.” Obama noted that, for the sake of national security, personal emails, consumer reports, and medical histories will remain the exclusive property of the federal government.
New York Times: “[t]he administration has now lost all credibility.”

MEM, it's okay. The house newspaper of the DNC has turned on dear leader. You don't have to keep defending him now.
 Quote:
...A handful of in-the-know lawmakers lined up to defend the program, while acknowledging the need to protect privacy.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House intelligence committee, said the effort is not "data mining," and has helped quash a terrorist attack on U.S. soil in the past few years. He would not elaborate.

The leaders of the Senate intelligence committee also defended the program, saying it is "nothing new." Republican Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss said it's been going on for seven years.


...
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/.../#ixzz2VU2Z9600


Seven years? I wonder if G can do the math?
 Originally Posted By: the G-man


MEM, it's okay. The house newspaper of the DNC has turned on dear leader. You don't have to keep defending him now.
does this mean all those times the doctor has had phone sex with Pro will now be open to the public?
that is so hot.
 Originally Posted By: thedoctor
Obama Releases Nation's Phone Records to the Public
 Quote:
WASHINGTON—On the heels of reports that the National Security Agency has secretly been amassing the private telephone records of Verizon’s more than 120 million customers, President Barack Obama announced Thursday that his administration is releasing the entire country’s phone records to the public in an effort to handle the situation with complete transparency. “Honesty and openness have always been the hallmarks of my presidency, which is why I believe that everybody should have free access to this essential information,” the president said at a press conference, encouraging the public to visit a newly created online database containing the time, duration, and location of every wireless and landline phone call made by all 315 million Americans. “We—all of us—are laying our cards on the table here. Now, everyone in the country will know who’s calling whom, and when, and how often, and for how long. My administration doesn’t have any secrets, and from now on, neither will you.” Obama noted that, for the sake of national security, personal emails, consumer reports, and medical histories will remain the exclusive property of the federal government.


I was about to write - "WTF? that's insane!".

Then I saw where the link went. Heh.

This issue made the news here in Australia, by the way. I agree its a big deal. I'm not fan of government intervention in privacy. On the face of it this seems utterly unwarranted.
 Originally Posted By: Matter-eater Man
 Quote:
...A handful of in-the-know lawmakers lined up to defend the program, while acknowledging the need to protect privacy.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House intelligence committee, said the effort is not "data mining," and has helped quash a terrorist attack on U.S. soil in the past few years. He would not elaborate.

The leaders of the Senate intelligence committee also defended the program, saying it is "nothing new." Republican Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss said it's been going on for seven years.


...
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/.../#ixzz2VU2Z9600


Seven years? I wonder if G can do the math?


You quoted FAUX "News" to boot. Poor g-man is really going to duck that one!
Posted By: the G-man Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-06-07 6:38 PM
 Originally Posted By: Matter-eater Man

It never ceases to amaze me how quick some people are willing to chuck their rights just so that they can feel safe.


U.S. agencies have secret Internet-monitoring program: The NSA and FBI appear to be casting an even wider net than thought under a clandestine program code-named “PRISM,” which gives the U.S. government access to email, documents, audio, video, photographs and other data belonging to foreigners on foreign soil who are under investigation.

 Originally Posted By: the G-man

This presents a dilemma for Obamaphiles.

You will hear the excuse that Bush did it. From people who hated Bush for doing it, but still love Obama.


I think that using software to discover suspicious patterns of call-placement — and going no further without a court order — is reasonable in times of war, and we are at war, and Americans continue to die.

The problem is that President Obama’s administration has a history of using data gathering to harass opponents, as demonstrated most recently by the IRS scandal.

Furthermore, just recently he explained that all wars should end, and accordingly he was ending the War on Terror by divine fiat ...so how can he justify wartime levels of domestic spying?

He’s either disingenous or incompetent. Or both.
Kind of like Rumsfeld, during the Abu Gharaib scandal.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-06-10 6:37 PM
 Originally Posted By: G-man


You will hear the excuse that Bush did it. From people who hated Bush for doing it, but still love Obama.

I think we need more checks and balances on this no matter if it's a d or an r in the White House. People need to decide what they really want instead of playing politics with our national security.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-06-25 7:08 AM
From the Huffington Post, of all places:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/edward-snowden-booz-allen-hamilton_n_3491203.html

 Quote:
Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who leaked information on the National Security Agency's surveillance programs, says he sought the job with Booz Allen Hamilton to gather evidence on the agency's data collection networks.

In a June 12 interview with the South China Morning Post published Monday, Snowden, who previously worked as a CIA technician, said he took the position with the intention of collecting information on the NSA.

“My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked,” he said. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”

SCMP reports:

  • Asked if he specifically went to Booz Allen Hamilton to gather evidence of surveillance, he replied: “Correct on Booz.”
    His intention was to collect information about the NSA hacking into “the whole world” and “not specifically Hong Kong and China”.

    The documents he divulged to the Post were obtained during his tenure at Booz Allen Hamilton in April, he said.



Snowden also told the Hong Kong newspaper that he intends to leak more documents on the NSA's programs.

Last week, Reuters reported that Booz Allen Hamilton hired Snowden despite finding possible discrepancies in his resume. The Senate has also launched an investigation into USIS, the government contractor that vetted Snowden in 2011.

"We are limited in what we can say about this investigation because it is an ongoing criminal matter," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said of the investigation. "But it is a reminder that background investigations can have real consequences for our national security."

According to the latest reports, Snowden has left Hong Kong and is believed to be in Russia. Snowden reportedly did not make a Monday flight to Cuba as planned.

During a Monday conference call with reporters, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Snowden is "safe and healthy," but would not give further details on his whereabouts.



So he didn't just do his job and discover something wrong with the system.
No.
Before he even worked at the NSA, he went in with the premeditated treasonous plan to go in to find and leak as much information as he could.

Also suspect is that he first went to our our greatest enemies, China and Russia. I'd be surprised if either of these countries allowed him to leave until they, voluntarily or unvoluntarily, squeezed out every last bit of top secret information Snowden has on U.S. national security.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-06-25 7:23 AM
 Originally Posted By: Matter-eater Man
I think we need more checks and balances on this no matter if it's a d or an r in the White House. People need to decide what they really want instead of playing politics with our national security.



I certainly support more checks and balances.

I had an idea I haven't seen suggested anywhere, that they could set up a review board of retired military officers and intelligence officials, who would independently review all warrants for records. They would already have pensions that could not be threatened, and thus could review independently, while also having great experience with the material they would be reviewing.

If you have a problem with politicizing national security, you should have huge problem with the Obama administration. Examples include leaking every detail of the Bin Ladin raid, to the point that former defense secretary Robert Gates told them to "Shut the fuck up!"

And the Obama administration's betraying --again at the the very highest level, from Obama's White House national security staff-- of Israel's planned attack on Iran from airfields in Aizerbaijan, that would have done out dirty work for us, but had to be scrapped, thanks to the political motivations of Obama's inner circle. Thanks to Clapper or whoever, Iran is still building nukes.

When Obama has a Scooter Liddy he has to pardon for his lying and obstucting you might have something. Than again Dems didn't even than as you and other republicans were concerned.

We can do the partisan crap here but that doesn't help either of us when we both agree that more checks and balances would be nice. Actually it would be more than nice but needed because eventually these types of programs will be misused.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-08-09 1:05 AM




HALF OF AMERICANS DON'T WANT THE MEDIA TO REPORT ON NSA SURVEILANCE

 Quote:
new poll published on Tuesday revealed that Americans are evenly split over the media’s reporting on the federal government’s surveillance programs.

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that while 47 percent of Americans thought that the media should report on the “secret methods gov’t is using to fight terrorism,” 47 percent held the opposite view.

Also, a majority of members of both major parties — 51 percent Republican and 51 percent Democrat — said that they preferred that the media not report on the issue; 43 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of Democrats said they were in favor of the media reporting on the programs


Fifty-one percent of independents, on the other hand, said that they believed the media should report about the anti-terror tactics.

The survey was conducted between July 17 and 21.

“We don’t have a domestic spying program,” President Barack Obama told late-night talk show host Jay Leno Tuesday. “What we do have is some mechanisms that can track a phone number or an email address that is connected to a terrorist attack.”

Obama’s denial of a domestic spying program came a day after Reuters revealed that a secret unit inside of the Drug Enforcement Administration was funneling tips from the National Security Agency to local law enforcement.

Recipients of a DEA tip were then instructed to lie about how they came about their evidence.




Last week Friday, the administration ordered the closing of 22 U.S. Embassies in the Middle East and Africa due to an intercepted electronic message between al-Qaida leaders about a planned major attack against the U.S. facilities.

The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that the intercepted message was actually a conference call that took place between senior al-Qaida leaders throughout the region.


Posted By: the G-man Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-08-22 1:16 AM
NSA Collected Thousands of Emails From Americans With No Terror Ties: The NSA was rebuked by a secret court for collecting thousands of emails and other online details from Americans who had no ties to terrorism, newly declassified documents reveal.

NSA Can Track Three-Fourths of American Internet Traffic: The National Security Agency -- which possesses only limited legal authority to spy on U.S. citizens -- has built a surveillance network that covers more Americans' Internet communications than officials have publicly disclosed, current and former officials say.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-08-22 1:40 AM
Hi NSA!

Thanks for storing this topic in the Utah database!
Posted By: Son of Mxy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-08-22 1:58 AM
Hi NSA, if you have a hot chick within your ranks, please ask her to review this thread in a state of undress. It would also be better if she can bite her lip a little bit, because I get off on that.
Posted By: MisterJLA Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-08-24 10:30 PM
According to this guy, Obama hasn't made enough excuses for the government spying on its own people.

The GOP. The party of limited government and personal freedoms.



http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/201...ce-program?lite

 Quote:
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, criticized proposals announced by President Barack Obama to bring more oversight to surveillance carried out by the National Security Agency.

On NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, McCaul said that in the wake of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has been given asylum by Russia, Obama was belatedly “trying to come up with ways to salvage the program by window dressing…. The problem fundamentally is he’s failed to explain these programs, which are lawful, which have saved lives, (and) which have stopped terrorist plots. He has not adequately explained them or defended them.”
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-08-25 12:22 AM
That's what the liberal media (who are not even pretending at this point to be anything other than what they truly are: an auxiliary branch of the DNC) always do... find one Republican that voices an opinion they wish to project and ridicule, and say "THIS is what all Republicans think and believe."

Ignoring, of course, all the Republicans who demand investigation, and want to shut down this unconstitutional surveilance. And ignoring that a number of Democrats have defended the un-Constitutional NSA intrusions as well.

What exactly does monitoring and recording 75% of all e-mail and cel-phone calls of AMERICAN CITIZENS have to do with islamic terrorism? Absolutely nothing. It shouldn't be done. It's invading the privacy of more than 220 million Americans, for nothing.

And that's more to the point, it's not about terrorism, it's (as recent activities of IRS, ATF, DEA, OSHA and otheragencies, including NSA prove) about locking down authoritarian control on the American people.
And even more specifically, those who are Veterans, self-described "Patriot" groups, Tea Party groups, religious conservative groups who organize political opposition to gay marriage and other views that buck the Politically Correct views of the forming authoritarian state, and other conservative groups. All of which crackdowns have been exposed in recent headlines.

In other words, any who are patriotic toward the America we have been, and who resist what our elites want to radically transform us into.
Posted By: Matter-eater Man Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-08-25 12:29 AM
Data mining was going on long before Obama became President. It was reported on and it wasn't a big deal. If another republican gets into office you'll quit bitching about it.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-08-25 2:54 AM
 Originally Posted By: Matter-eater Man
Data mining was going on long before Obama became President. It was reported on and it wasn't a big deal. If another republican gets into office you'll quit bitching about it.



Abuse of the IRS, ATF, DEA, FBI, OSHA and other federal agencies to intimidate and harass Tea Party, Christian and other political opposition was NOT occurring all along.
Attempting to retrieve phone records, recorded calls and e-mails on virtually every American was not occurring before. It was more centered on Islamic terrorism.
Under Obama --who can't even allow description of any incident as Islamic terrorism-- the focus is not even still on islamic terror communications. That surveilance is directed inward, at Military veterans, Tea Party, Christian conservatives, and those who describe themselves as "Patriots".


And I've seen interviews of several former NSA employees who say where they were in opposition and/or quit because of abuses under W. Bush's presidency, they are terrified of how much more is occurring under Obama. What one described as "beyond anything Orwell could have imagined."

I know you think it's your job to sell the DNC party line and say "move along, keep moving, nothing to see here", but it is an absolute lie to say this was going on 5 years ago.
\:lol\:

You always make allegations but so far pppfffft. Like I said you'll be ok with it if there's ever another republican in the WH.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-08-25 12:16 PM
Posting a \:lol\: emoticon doesn't even come close to providing the slightest evidence to back that claim.


M E M, you are in blatant denial of the overwhelming evidence of Obama/DNC abuse of power. And Obama's crash in the polls in recent weeks reflects that. (Even despite the Obama cock-slurping media doing its damnedest to fly cover for him and diminish coverage.)

I devoted a whole topic to citing the evidence


As well as multiple other topics and links by myself, G-man and others on the subject.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-09-24 9:41 PM
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-09-24 9:44 PM



Just a coincidence, I'm sure.


Discoverthenetworks.org listing for William Ayers, and his connections to Obama

Yeah, sure. Just a coincidence.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-09-24 9:48 PM
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-10-03 6:24 AM






"I'm glad the federal government shut down! For the first time in years, you can send e-mails and talk on the phone without anyone listening in!"
--Jay Leno
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-10-03 6:48 AM
 Originally Posted By: Matter-eater Man
\:lol\:

You always make allegations but so far pppfffft. Like I said you'll be ok with it if there's ever another republican in the WH.


I guess you missed all the times I said the Patriot Act went too far [under Bush], and that we should be able to defend the nation by simply fully enforcing the existing laws.

Likewise, we should enforce existing immigration and border security laws, without "comprehensive immigration reform" (which is just code for giving amnesty to illegals).

So... I'm not okay with a Republican doing it either.
Posted By: the G-man Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-10-07 11:02 PM
Why reporters fear Team Obama: Relying on the 1917 Espionage Act, which was rarely invoked before President Obama took office, this administration has secretly used the phone and e-mail records of government officials and reporters to identify and prosecute government sources for national-security stories.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-10-08 12:24 AM
So Obama is using the same authoritarian tactics that the Chinese have used, when they hacked into the New York Times' employee e-mail accounts to find Chinese government informants to the Times.


Obama's use of the 1917 Espionage Act follows the path of the 1917 Lenin-Trotsky-Stalin Act.
Posted By: the G-man Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-10-08 2:50 AM
 Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy
So Obama is using the same authoritarian tactics that the Chinese have used, when they hacked into the New York Times' employee e-mail accounts to find Chinese government informants to the Times...


Not surprising, when you consider that Obama has a history of praising the Chi-coms.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-10-08 7:39 AM
Wow, I haven't seen that particular blunder of Obama's before.

But...


Obama communications director Anita Dunn praising Mao:


Obama transportation czar Ron Bloom praising Mao:


Obama communist friends, appointees, ally organizations, and like-minded members of congress:



...I'm shocked, I tell you! I never saw this one coming!

Seriously, how did Obama, with such abundant radical far-Left ties ever get elected unvetted in 2008, and again in 2012?

Well, we already know the answer to that, don't we?


Posted By: the G-man Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-10-15 5:30 AM
NSA collecting millions of contact lists: the spy agency intercepts hundreds of thousands of email address books every day from private accounts on Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook and Hotmail that move though global data links. The NSA also collects about a half million buddy lists from live chat services and email accounts.
Posted By: the G-man Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-10-24 9:46 PM
Hidden in Obamacare Site: Applicants Surrender Right to Privacy
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-10-25 3:03 AM
 Originally Posted By: the G-man
Hidden in Obamacare Site: Applicants Surrender Right to Privacy



I figured that --like the IRS scandal with Lois Lerner, and leading up to the Obama White House, and harassing conservative groups and donors with IRS, ATF, FBI, OSHA, DEA, etc.-- Obamacare (as a part of Obama's lockdown system) would deceitfully find a way to leak data to other branches of Obama's gestapo.

But I never would have expected something as overt as this.
We truly live in frightening times.
Posted By: the G-man NSA broke into Yahoo, Google data centers - 2013-10-31 2:09 AM
Associated Press
  • The Washington Post is reporting that the National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world. The Post cites documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with officials.

    According to a secret accounting dated Jan. 9, 2013, NSA sends millions of records every day from Yahoo and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the agency’s Fort Meade, Md., headquarters. In the last 30 days, the report Wednesday on the Post website said, field collectors had processed and sent back more than 180 million new records — ranging from “metadata,” which would indicate who sent or received emails and when, to content such as text, audio and video.

    The NSA’s principal tool to exploit the data links is a project called MUSCULAR, operated jointly with the agency’s British counterpart, GCHQ. The Post said NSA and GCHQ are copying entire data flows across fiber-optic cables that carry information between the data centers of the Silicon Valley giants.

    White House officials and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the NSA, declined to comment


Good ol' G. Gordon Liddy went to prison for only breaking into one hotel room, jus' saying...
Once again, the pretense for all this NSA surveillance, along with the Patriot Act, and other intrusions on Constitutional rights, was to protect us from Islamic terrorism.

But when Obama became president, he and his administration stopped calling Al Qaeda "islamic" or even "terrorist", and increasingly began applying that label of terrorist danger to conservatives, veterans and Tea Party members.

And now we're at a stage where the NSA admits they are recording 75% of all e-mail and voice communications. Of EVERY U.S. CITIZEN.
That's in addition to Obama's suppression of the free press, abuse off the IRS to intimidate and stifle his political opposition, suing thestate of Arizona for defending its own borders, forcing Catholic schools and hospitals to provide contraceptive service that oppose their beliefs, and god knows what else.

Seriously, how can even Democrats support what Obama is doing?



Apple, Google, Microsoft unite against NSA spying program: The tech giants, along with Yahoo, Facebook, and AOL, call upon the Senate Judiciary Committee to substantially reform the US government's mass surveillance practices.
So you guys back Snowden for leaking this assault on the liberty of Americans?
Posted By: Pariah Re: NSA broke into Yahoo, Google data centers - 2013-11-01 9:57 AM
If he had stayed, I would be more inclined to consider his intentions meritorious.

But, well, he jumped ship, and jettisoned all of his alleged conviction for, and love of, American privacy/liberty so he could seek shelter from the inevitable fallout in enemy territory--where I guarantee he is coughing up military secrets.

As far as I'm concerned, he's a defector.

And he has made it that much harder for me to increase my own security clearance.
 Originally Posted By: First Amongst Daves
So you guys back Snowden for leaking this assault on the liberty of Americans?


I've always been somewhat torn by Snowden and Assaunge as well.

On one hand, I tend to agree with the premise that "sunlight is the best disinfectant." On the other, I understand that some things need to be classified for national security purposes.

Basically, for me, it comes down to this: I oppose leaking information (like military intelligence) that could put people in harm's way, but don't oppose (and often support) leaking information of apparent government corruption that won't hurt troops in the field or other innocents.

To date, most of what I've seen Snowden leak has fallen into the latter category so I tend to support what he did even if I'm not completely supportive of his probable motives for doing so.
I might be slightest bit supportive of Snowden if
1) he hadn't entered his contract job in the NSA with the predetermined intent to get classified information and expose it, before he knew anything was wrong. It wasn't a case of being a loyal employee until he saw something unethical. he went in with that intent beforehand.

And
2) If he had fled to some third-world country, and not straight to China and Russia, who would do maximum damage to U.S. national security with anything they learned from Snowden. And regardless of Snowden's consent or not, have definitely drained Snowden's laptop he brought with him of every last scrap of classified information. Snowden had to know in advance that would be the result with any information he carried to those two countries (regardless of his consenting to disclose it or not), to the greatest enemies of the United States.
Posted By: Pariah Re: NSA broke into Yahoo, Google data centers - 2013-11-01 11:47 PM
 Originally Posted By: the G-man
I've always been somewhat torn by...Assaunge as well.


Why?
 Originally Posted By: the G-man
Apple, Google, Microsoft unite against NSA spying program: The tech giants, along with Yahoo, Facebook, and AOL, call upon the Senate Judiciary Committee to substantially reform the US government's mass surveillance practices.


The fact that a reform of NSA hasn't already occurred, despite this enormous corporate-lobby pressure, is testament to how authoritarian the U.S. has become, and its accountability to no one, including the most powerful lobby interests.
New York Times: No Morsel Is Too Minuscule in N.S.A.’s Data Quest

 Originally Posted By: the G-man
MEM, it's okay. The house newspaper of the DNC has turned on dear leader. You don't have to keep defending him now.
Google says US govt demands for data tripled in past three years: Government requests for data soared from 3,580 in 2009 to 10,918, Google said on Thursday -- and those are only the data demands the web giant is allowed to publish.
It makes you wonder:

1) are they doing this just because they can? (A Forbes article I read about the DHS accumulating 1.6 billion rounds speculates that it is only because they have the ability to do so, and not a more nefarious plan)
or
2) Are they doing all this surveilence as part of a planned and orchestrated lockdown?

I frankly think the latter, because the economy is only being held afloat by trillions in Quantitative Easing, and they are preparing for the inevitable chaos when the system collapses.
On the NSA surveillance specifically, this one-hour (with commercials) special hosted by John Roberts, titled "Your Secret's Out", gives a concise overview of the NSA surveillance, and other surveillance by the government.

Especially chilling are the comments of two former NSA agents.
NSA reportedly amassing database of cell locations: NSA collects billions of records daily on location of cell phones abroad, including those belonging to Americans, as it adds to database used to track relationships worldwide.
Posted By: Son of Mxy Re: Obama collecting our phone records daily - 2013-12-05 11:23 PM
It's just Lucius Fox helping Batman track the Joker.
Judge: NSA's bulk collection of phone records violates Constitution:U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon says that massive collection program is an unreasonable search under the Constitution's Fourth Amendment.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-12-25 2:22 AM


 Originally Posted By: Matter-eater Man
\:lol\:

You always make allegations but so far pppfffft. Like I said you'll be ok with it if there's ever another republican in the WH.


You know that isn't true, M E M.
I complained about plenty of what W.Bush did as president. In particular the Patriot Act (which Obama promised to repeal, and instead renewed, by the way) that I said was unnecessary, and all that was needed was to enforce existing laws, not circumnavigate constitutional freedoms with the Patriot Act.

But never have you missed an opportunity to say "Well Republicans do it too.." even when that's clearly not the case.

Obama has a big-government authoritarian mindset like no other president in recent times, except for maybe Woodrow Wilson or FDR. And even your buddies in the liberal media who were unofficially part of the cheerleading section of Obama's 2012 campaign are increasingly pulling away from Comrade Obama.

There's a long laundry list of Obama's undermining of constitutional freedoms.



Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-12-25 2:25 AM
On the 6PM news tonight, an interesting quote from Edward Snowden:

""A child born today will never know what it is to have an unrecorded private moment."
Posted By: the G-man Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2013-12-31 8:44 PM
NSA has complete access to your iPhone, leaked docs show: A leaked NSA document, posted by tech news site The Daily Dot, describes a “software implant for the Apple iPhone” that can be used to gather information from the phone: It can turn on the microphone and camera, intercept text messages, creep through a contact list and more.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2014-01-02 7:51 AM
It is amazing, not only what they get away with, but even what they are capable of.

There's a light that comes on to show the microphone on the cel phone is on. And NSA (and probably other Federal law enforcement agencies) have a way to turn on the cel microphone without having the light come on to show it is activated.
I wonder why the republicans haven't stopped it?
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2014-01-02 8:07 AM
 Originally Posted By: Matter-eater Man
I wonder why the republicans haven't stopped it?


Yeah, because they clearly control both houses and the presidency, and are in a position to do that.
Republicans have certainly created multiple vocal committees to investigate these abuses.


Among the current Republicans, I would have the most confidence in Rand Paul as president to actually dial this authoritarianism back.
Posted By: the G-man Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2014-01-03 7:13 PM
NSA attempting to build quantum computer that could hack all encrypted data: the secretive agency could use the computer exponentially more powerful than standard computers to hack “banking, medical and government records around the world.”
Posted By: Pariah Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2014-01-03 9:06 PM
Quantum is the future. It's actually pretty damn neat.

The NSA wouldn't be unique in this instance.
Posted By: Wonder Boy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2014-10-08 6:17 PM





It disturbs me how often I read crucial news about the United States, that is not reported in the U.S., and I first see in British, Russian, or in this case first exposed in the German publication Der Spiegel, revealing the NSA's Tailored Access Operations unit (or TAO), used to hack into systems worldwide. And no doubt, companies and individuals in the U.S.
Posted By: Son of Mxy Re: Obama collecting our internet data - 2014-10-09 4:07 AM
But can the Quantum run Crysis in 1080p?
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