Orders To Destroy Guardian Hard Drives Came Directly From PM David Cameron (click here)
...A spokesman for Clegg made clear that Heywood was acting on the authority of both the prime minister and his deputy....
..."On the specific issue of records held by the Guardian, the deputy prime minister thought it was reasonable for the cabinet secretary to request that the Guardian destroyed data that would represent a serious threat to national security if it was to fall into the wrong hands. "The deputy prime minister felt this was a preferable approach to taking legal action. He was keen to protect the Guardian's freedom to publish, whilst taking the necessary steps to safeguard security. "It was agreed to on the understanding that the purpose of the destruction of the material would not impinge on the Guardian's ability to publish articles about the issue, but would help as a precautionary measure to protect lives and security."...
The development of this disastrous private surveillance industry was part of the Bush economy. It spread a lot of money around the country without concern for constitutionality or privacy rights. Then it just became a bad habit.
Top-secret files show first evidence of financial relationship (click here)
Prism companies include Google and Yahoo, says NSA
Costs were incurred after 2011 Fisa court ruling
Ewen MacAskill in New York
The National Security Agency paid millions of dollars to cover the costs of major internet companies involved in the Prism surveillance program after a court ruled that some of the agency's activities were unconstitutional, according to top-secret material passed to the Guardian.
The technology companies, which the NSA says includes Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, incurred the costs to meet new certification demands in the wake of the ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) court.
The October 2011 judgment, which was declassified on Wednesday by the Obama administration, found that the NSA's inability to separate purely domestic communications from foreign traffic violated the fourth amendment.
While the ruling did not concern the Prism program directly, documents passed to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden describe the problems the decision created for the agency and the efforts required to bring operations into compliance. The material provides the first evidence of a financial relationship between the tech companies and the NSA....
This is where the statutory laws are written:
50 USC § 1861 - Access to certain business records for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations (click here)
One might note this is suppose to be about foreign intelligence and international terrorism. However, that implies the USA can then turn toward domestic surveillance when the evidence is applied.
There are a couple of issues here. The first one is the NSA has overreached it's authority in other sovereign nations. It is one thing to have treaties and gain permission to use electronic surveillance, it is quite another thing to invade a sovereign nation's borders for information. It is espionage that is being conducted, not surveillance. This statutory law codifies espionage.
It isn't as though China and Russia aren't do this and violence networks like al Qaeda. But, this is espionage and not simply surveillance.
Americans are being attached to information obtained through espionage.
The development of this capacity has a long history. It began in 1981 and has been increased as time has gone on.
Executive Order 12333--United States intelligence activities (click here)
Source: The provisions of Executive Order 12333 of Dec. 4, 1981, appear at 46 FR 59941, 3 CFR, 1981 Comp., p. 200, unless otherwise noted.
(b) National Security Agency, whose responsibilities shall include:
(1) Establishment and operation of an effective unified organization for signals intelligence activities, except for the delegation of operational control over certain operations that are conducted through other elements of the Intelligence Community. No other department or agency may engage in signals intelligence activities except pursuant to a delegation by the Secretary of Defense;...
(6) Collection, processing and dissemination of signals intelligence information for counterintelligence purposes;...
(c) Offices for the collection of specialized intelligence through reconnaissance programs, whose responsibilities shall include:
(1) Carrying out consolidated reconnaissance programs for specialized intelligence;
(2) Responding to tasking in accordance with procedures established by the Director of Central Intelligence; and
(3) Delegating authority to the various departments and agencies for research, development, procurement, and operation of designated means of collection....
This is the part of the law whereby there is any limit on the NSA.
Part 2
Conduct of Intelligence Activities
2.1Need. Accurate and timely information about the capabilities, intentions and activities of foreign powers, organizations, or persons and their agents is essential to informed decisionmaking in the areas of national defense and foreign relations. Collection of such information is a priority objective and will be pursued in a vigorous, innovative and responsible manner that is consistent with the Constitution and applicable law and respectful of the principles upon which the United States was founded....
It is this part that adds to the activities of the NSA "Need to Know."
Where it gets interesting is that Ronald Reagan signed this Executive Order while receiving this letter to him:
According to William Albert Hewgley the surveillance was to induct the family into doing the government's work.
Dear Mr. Reagan: (click here)
We must report to you on a situation which we feel must be dealt with personally by you-- the President of the United States. It is our belief that only you will deal with this matter forcefully and promptly. In brief, the following is our problem.
Our family has been under constant Government electronic and physical surveillance for over 5 years. The surveillance started during February 1976 in San Antonio, Texas, and has continued uninterrupted since then to this date. Since 1978 we have resided in Oak Ridge and Kingston, Tennessee.
The organizations we believe to be mainly responsible for this surveillance are the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is significant that neither of these organizations has informed us of the need to conduct this surveillance. Instead, the whole thing has been conducted in a shield of secrecy, which shield has disregarded our constitutional rights, in particular Amendment 4 to the Constitution.
We have suffered greatly from this constant intrusion into the privacy of our lives, and frankly we are not certain that we can take the stress much longer. Our health has suffered, and we have sustained symptoms similiar to those experienced by prisoners-of-war. At times we have feared for our lives. In summary, we are under duress and can not take much more of it. As citizens of this country, we respectfully request that immediate steps be taken to cease this outrageous intrusion in our lives.
Mr. President, would you please intervene in this matter? We want to know why we are under surveillance and when it will end. Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated....
It appears as though Reagan was disturbed enough and decided to cover his tracks to put everything that had gone on before into constitutional context. Presidents can be politically intimidated, so he refused to allow any government agency to impinge on his ambitions. This is my opinion, not one that is officially published anywhere.
The problem with this pre-emptive activity by a President to prevent political fallout never moves anything to the realm of sincere examination of the activities of the agencies. I am not surprised the overreach of the NSA now appears to be astronomical. The problem is the activities of these agencies really depends on the person in the Oval Office.
Can all this be improved upon? There should be a Congressperson somewhere who is dedicated to the people and respecting allies rather than Wall Street politics.
It seems strange to me this entire mess exists. It was Germany warning the USA about the expected attacks of al Qaeda in 2001. The USA actually has to carry out surveillance on Germany? Germany is where Atta was residing while he was making plans to 'attack within the USA.' I think a lot of this is overreach that grew out of a Bush White House that had no clue about actually growing an economy beyond promoting baby making.
...A spokesman for Clegg made clear that Heywood was acting on the authority of both the prime minister and his deputy....
..."On the specific issue of records held by the Guardian, the deputy prime minister thought it was reasonable for the cabinet secretary to request that the Guardian destroyed data that would represent a serious threat to national security if it was to fall into the wrong hands. "The deputy prime minister felt this was a preferable approach to taking legal action. He was keen to protect the Guardian's freedom to publish, whilst taking the necessary steps to safeguard security. "It was agreed to on the understanding that the purpose of the destruction of the material would not impinge on the Guardian's ability to publish articles about the issue, but would help as a precautionary measure to protect lives and security."...
The development of this disastrous private surveillance industry was part of the Bush economy. It spread a lot of money around the country without concern for constitutionality or privacy rights. Then it just became a bad habit.
Top-secret files show first evidence of financial relationship (click here)
Prism companies include Google and Yahoo, says NSA
Costs were incurred after 2011 Fisa court ruling
Ewen MacAskill in New York
The National Security Agency paid millions of dollars to cover the costs of major internet companies involved in the Prism surveillance program after a court ruled that some of the agency's activities were unconstitutional, according to top-secret material passed to the Guardian.
The technology companies, which the NSA says includes Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, incurred the costs to meet new certification demands in the wake of the ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) court.
The October 2011 judgment, which was declassified on Wednesday by the Obama administration, found that the NSA's inability to separate purely domestic communications from foreign traffic violated the fourth amendment.
While the ruling did not concern the Prism program directly, documents passed to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden describe the problems the decision created for the agency and the efforts required to bring operations into compliance. The material provides the first evidence of a financial relationship between the tech companies and the NSA....
This is where the statutory laws are written:
50 USC § 1861 - Access to certain business records for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations (click here)
One might note this is suppose to be about foreign intelligence and international terrorism. However, that implies the USA can then turn toward domestic surveillance when the evidence is applied.
There are a couple of issues here. The first one is the NSA has overreached it's authority in other sovereign nations. It is one thing to have treaties and gain permission to use electronic surveillance, it is quite another thing to invade a sovereign nation's borders for information. It is espionage that is being conducted, not surveillance. This statutory law codifies espionage.
It isn't as though China and Russia aren't do this and violence networks like al Qaeda. But, this is espionage and not simply surveillance.
Americans are being attached to information obtained through espionage.
The development of this capacity has a long history. It began in 1981 and has been increased as time has gone on.
Executive Order 12333--United States intelligence activities (click here)
Source: The provisions of Executive Order 12333 of Dec. 4, 1981, appear at 46 FR 59941, 3 CFR, 1981 Comp., p. 200, unless otherwise noted.
(b) National Security Agency, whose responsibilities shall include:
(1) Establishment and operation of an effective unified organization for signals intelligence activities, except for the delegation of operational control over certain operations that are conducted through other elements of the Intelligence Community. No other department or agency may engage in signals intelligence activities except pursuant to a delegation by the Secretary of Defense;...
(6) Collection, processing and dissemination of signals intelligence information for counterintelligence purposes;...
(c) Offices for the collection of specialized intelligence through reconnaissance programs, whose responsibilities shall include:
(1) Carrying out consolidated reconnaissance programs for specialized intelligence;
(2) Responding to tasking in accordance with procedures established by the Director of Central Intelligence; and
(3) Delegating authority to the various departments and agencies for research, development, procurement, and operation of designated means of collection....
This is the part of the law whereby there is any limit on the NSA.
Part 2
Conduct of Intelligence Activities
2.1Need. Accurate and timely information about the capabilities, intentions and activities of foreign powers, organizations, or persons and their agents is essential to informed decisionmaking in the areas of national defense and foreign relations. Collection of such information is a priority objective and will be pursued in a vigorous, innovative and responsible manner that is consistent with the Constitution and applicable law and respectful of the principles upon which the United States was founded....
It is this part that adds to the activities of the NSA "Need to Know."
Where it gets interesting is that Ronald Reagan signed this Executive Order while receiving this letter to him:
According to William Albert Hewgley the surveillance was to induct the family into doing the government's work.
Dear Mr. Reagan: (click here)
We must report to you on a situation which we feel must be dealt with personally by you-- the President of the United States. It is our belief that only you will deal with this matter forcefully and promptly. In brief, the following is our problem.
Our family has been under constant Government electronic and physical surveillance for over 5 years. The surveillance started during February 1976 in San Antonio, Texas, and has continued uninterrupted since then to this date. Since 1978 we have resided in Oak Ridge and Kingston, Tennessee.
The organizations we believe to be mainly responsible for this surveillance are the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is significant that neither of these organizations has informed us of the need to conduct this surveillance. Instead, the whole thing has been conducted in a shield of secrecy, which shield has disregarded our constitutional rights, in particular Amendment 4 to the Constitution.
We have suffered greatly from this constant intrusion into the privacy of our lives, and frankly we are not certain that we can take the stress much longer. Our health has suffered, and we have sustained symptoms similiar to those experienced by prisoners-of-war. At times we have feared for our lives. In summary, we are under duress and can not take much more of it. As citizens of this country, we respectfully request that immediate steps be taken to cease this outrageous intrusion in our lives.
Mr. President, would you please intervene in this matter? We want to know why we are under surveillance and when it will end. Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated....
It appears as though Reagan was disturbed enough and decided to cover his tracks to put everything that had gone on before into constitutional context. Presidents can be politically intimidated, so he refused to allow any government agency to impinge on his ambitions. This is my opinion, not one that is officially published anywhere.
The problem with this pre-emptive activity by a President to prevent political fallout never moves anything to the realm of sincere examination of the activities of the agencies. I am not surprised the overreach of the NSA now appears to be astronomical. The problem is the activities of these agencies really depends on the person in the Oval Office.
Can all this be improved upon? There should be a Congressperson somewhere who is dedicated to the people and respecting allies rather than Wall Street politics.
It seems strange to me this entire mess exists. It was Germany warning the USA about the expected attacks of al Qaeda in 2001. The USA actually has to carry out surveillance on Germany? Germany is where Atta was residing while he was making plans to 'attack within the USA.' I think a lot of this is overreach that grew out of a Bush White House that had no clue about actually growing an economy beyond promoting baby making.
