Surveillance: An American Success Story

Ronald Kessler, veteran journalist and author of several books on the FBI and the CIA, offers a good piece in Politico in defense of surveillance in the name of security.

It’s fine for Democrats and Republicans to target potential voters based on what they buy, whether they attend a church or a synagogue, or whether they subscribe to hunting magazines or contribute to the Sierra Club.

It seems to be fine for Gmail to read our email messages to target us with ads tailored to whether we are about to get married, vote for a certain candidate, or purchase a house.

But what’s not fine, according to many in the media and politicians on the extreme left and extreme right, is for the government to store telephone numbers in case a warrant is needed at some point in the future to uncover the identity of a terrorist plotting to kill thousands of Americans.

Never mind that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the practice of obtaining telephone call records without a warrant. Never mind that a warrant must be obtained for the FBI to listen to a call. Never mind that no actual abuse has been found.

To be sure, errors — which the National Security Agency (NSA) has itself uncovered — occur, just as newspapers make errors that they correct daily. But no one has been able to cite a case of the government actually “spying on innocent Americans,” a breathless term used freely by the media and critics to imply improper intent.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/surveillance-an-american-success-story-95828.html

Former NSA Director Hayden: We Did Not Break Rules

Former NSA Director General Michael Hayden (Ret) spoke to Newsmax.com about the flap over NSA's surveillance program.

Former NSA Director Michael Hayden denied reports that the agency has repeatedly broken privacy rules or exceeded its legal authority in an exclusive interview with Newsmax late Friday.

"If, at any step in the data-collection process, you discover that the signal you're working is a protected signal, you've got to stop," Hayden, a retired Air Force general who directed the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005, told Newsmax in the interview. "At each step, you've got that requirement: Is this or is this not a communication of someone who is protected by the Fourth Amendment?"

 Based on information provided earlier this summer by former NSA secrets leaker Edward Snowden, The Washington Post published details of an internal audit on Friday that purportedly showed the agency overstepped its authority thousands of times since Congress granted it broad new powers in 2008.

"If, at any step in that process, you think you have a protected communication, you stop and you report it," Hayden countered.
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Hayden-Newsmax-NSA-Audit/2013/08/16/id/520888?s=al&promo_code=148EB-1

Note: According to the report, many of the errors were simply typos and cases of overseas suspects bringing their cell phones onto U.S. soil.

I'm not against further oversight of NSA, but I fear that too much oversight and undue criticism of the surveillance program will hamper their important mission - which is to keep Americans safe.

The above NSA photo is an aerial shot of NSA headquarters in Maryland. 

In The Age Of Terrorism, Curtailing NSA Is Madness

Betsy Woodruf at National Review offers a piece on Peter King's criticism of Republicans who supported curtailing the National Security Agency (NSA).

On CNN’s State of the Union this morning, Representative Peter King (R., N.Y.) wasn’t shy about criticizing his Republican colleagues. He told host Candy Crowley that he found it “absolutely disgraceful” that so many House Republicans voted last week to curtail the NSA’s surveillance powers. 

“This is an isolationist streak that’s in our party, it goes totally against the party of Eisenhower and Reagan, Bush,” he said. “I mean, we are a party of national defense. We are a party that did so much to protect the country over the last twelve years.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/354600/rep-peter-king-rand-paul-madness-betsy-woodruff

Note: Unlike Senator Rand Paul, I think Edward Snowden is a little creep who has given our secrets to the Russians and the Chinese. He ought to be in jail. He would be, if President Obama had the courage to stand up to former KGB agent Vladimir Putin.

Snowden says he is concerned about U.S. government abuse and secrecy and talks about openness and freedom.And he then runs to the Communist Chinese and Russians.

Of course, both the Chinese and Russians are well known for openness and freedom, right? And the Chinese and Russians are not secretive and they don't abuse their citizens, right?

Snowden, like WikiLeaks leaker Army PVC Bradley Manning, is no hero in my view. They both are all about fame, politics and ego.

NSA, along with the rest of the intelligence community, law enforcement and the military, are responsible for thwarting most of the planned terrorism attacks since 9/11.

As a conservative, I'm against government interference in our lives, but we must have government agencies like NSA take security measures to protect us.

In my more than 37 years in the Navy and at the Defense Department, I worked with NSA, visited NSA headquarters, and over the years I received regular briefings and security training by NSA.

Although I'm suspicious of Obama's political appointees, I can attest that the military and civilian workers at NSA are dedicated, hard-working, law-abiding and patriotic.

NSA listens in to phone conversations and reads terrorists' email and also checks out the American citizens who contact them.

Don't want the NSA to read your email?

Then don't correspond with a terrorist in Afghanistan and don't use key security words that light up the NSA computers like "jihad," "death to Americans," "bombing," "shooting" and other fun words.

The NSA surveillance program should be given a once over by Congressional Committees, but to cut the NSA while we are at war with a regrouping al Qaeda is, like Peter King states, madness.  

The American public should be thankful we have them protecting us.        

You can also read a previous post on the NSA via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/06/security-leaks-have-done-great-harm.html 

Terrorists Changing Tactics In Wake Of NSA Surveillance Program Leaks, Officials Say

Justin Fishel at FoxNews.com offers a piece on how terrorists are changing tactics since NSA leaker Edward Snowden released information about NSA's surveillance program.

Known terrorist groups already have begun to change the way they communicate in the wake of classified leaks detailing U.S. surveillance tactics, U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials tell Fox News.

"We are already seeing indications that they are attempting to change their communications behaviors," said one senior U.S. official, speaking to Fox News on the condition of anonymity. "That is a direct result of what we are seeing in the media. That is a fact." 

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has acknowledged providing sensitive information to the media on U.S. surveillance programs. Facing federal charges in the U.S., Snowden continues to evade capture and is said to be in a Moscow airport. 

Counterterrorism officials say that although some of the basic principles of U.S. surveillance were known before the leaks, terrorist groups are now armed with new details that can help them keep their communications private. 

"They now know the scope and breadth of our abilities and our collection," one official said. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/25/terrorists-changing-tactics-in-wake-surveillance-program-leaks-officials-say/

Former CIA Director Woolsey: U.S. Lost Leverage In Snowden Talks

R. James Woolsey was interviewed on the BBC last week about NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

The US has criticised Russia and China for allowing fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden to leave Hong Kong for Moscow.

As the Obama administration warns countries around the world not to harbour Mr Snowden, who is wanted for leaking top secret intelligence documents to the media, former CIA Director R James Woolsey said that the US had lost "a great deal of the leverage" in talks with countries such Russia, China and Ecuador by being insufficiently firm in the past.

"They've said something's unacceptable, and then they accept it," Mr Woolsey said.

Mr Woolsey told the BBC's Laura Trevelyan the US must now persuade countries assisting Mr Snowden that "we're serious and their lives will not be pleasant."

You can watch the BBC news clip via the below link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23041628

U.S. Charges NSA Leaker Edward Snowden With Espionage

Peter Finn and Sari Horwitz at the Washington Post reported yesterday that the U.S. Justice Department charged the NSA leaker Edward Snowden with espionage and other charges.

Federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of documents about top-secret surveillance programs, and the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain him on a provisional arrest warrant, according to U.S. officials.

Snowden was charged with theft, “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person,” according to the complaint. The last two charges were brought under the 1917 Espionage Act.

The complaint, which initially was sealed, was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, a jurisdiction where Snowden’s former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered and a district with a long track record of prosecuting cases with national security implications. After The Washington Post reported the charges, senior administration officials said late Friday that the Justice Department was barraged with calls from lawmakers and reporters and decided to unseal the criminal complaint.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Snowden flew to Hong Kong last month after leaving his job at an NSA facility in Hawaii with a collection of highly classified documents that he acquired while working at the agency as a systems analyst.

The documents, some of which have been published in The Post and Britain’s Guardian newspaper, detailed some of the most-secret surveillance operations undertaken by the United States and Britain , as well as classified legal memos and court orders underpinning the programs in the United States.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-charges-snowden-with-espionage/2013/06/21/507497d8-dab1-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_print.html   

Surveillance Stopped More Than 50 Terror Plots, Says NSA Chief

Nick Simeone at the American Forces Press Service offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2013 - The director of the National Security Agency told Congress today more than 50 terrorist plots worldwide have been prevented since the 9/11 attacks through the classified surveillance programs the government uses to gather phone and Internet data, programs he said are legal and do not compromise the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.

Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander, who also commands U.S. Cyber Command, told the House Intelligence Committee he plans as early as tomorrow to provide lawmakers with classified details about the plots that were foiled in an effort to show how valuable the programs are to national security.

Alexander and other senior U.S. officials were called to testify in response to unauthorized disclosures to the media by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed details about the agency's gathering of telephone numbers and the monitoring of Internet activity by foreigners overseas, leaks that Alexander said have caused irreversible and significant damage to the security of the United States and its allies.

Testifying alongside Alexander, Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce discussed two terrorist plots that he said the surveillance programs helped to prevent. In one, emails intercepted from a terrorist in Pakistan helped to stop a plot to bomb New York City's subway system. Another involved a failed attempt by a known extremist in Yemen who conspired with a suspect in the United States to target the New York Stock Exchange. Both cases led to arrests and convictions, Joyce said.

"These programs are immensely valuable for protecting our nation and the security of our allies," Alexander said, and added that they may have helped to prevent the 9/11 attacks themselves if the government had the legal authority, as granted by the Patriot Act, to use them at the time.

The disclosure of the NSA programs has generated a nationwide debate over what techniques the government can legally use to monitor phone and Internet data to prevent terrorism without violating the privacy and civil liberties of Americans. Alexander and other senior U.S officials emphasized that the gathering of phone numbers that already are being collected by service providers as well as the tracking of U.S-based Internet servers used by foreigners are legal and repeatedly have been approved by the courts and Congress.

"These programs are limited, focused and subject to rigorous oversight," and their disciplined operation "protects the privacy and civil liberties of the American people," Alexander said.

The details of the foiled terror plots that he plans to provide to Congress will remove any doubt about the usefulness of the surveillance in keeping the homeland safe, the NSA director told the House panel.

"In the 12 years since the attacks on Sept. 11, we have lived in relative safety and security as a nation," he said. "That security is a direct result of the intelligence community's quiet efforts to better connect the dots and learn from the mistakes that permitted those attacks."

To prevent another damaging leak such as the breach caused by Snowden's disclosures, Alexander told lawmakers, the NSA is looking into where security may have broken down and for ways to provide greater oversight for the roughly 1,000 or so system administrators at NSA who have access to top secret information.

Krauthammer: Pushing The Envelope, NSA-Style

Charles Krauthammer's column in the National Review offers his take on NSA's surveillance programs.

Thirty-five years ago in United States v. Choate, the courts ruled that the Postal Service may record “mail cover,” i.e., what’s written on the outside of an envelope — the addresses of sender and receiver.

The National Security Agency’s recording of U.S. phone data does basically that with the telephone. It records who is calling whom — the outside of the envelope, as it were. The content of the conversation, however, is like the letter inside the envelope. It may not be opened without a court order.

The constitutional basis for this is simple: The Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures” and there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for what’s written on an envelope. It’s dropped in a public mailbox, read by workers at the collection center, and read once again by the letter carrier. It’s already openly been shared, much as your phone records are shared with, recorded by, and (e-)mailed back to you by a third party, namely the phone company.

... But doesn’t the other NSA program — the spooky-sounding James Bond–evoking PRISM — give you the willies? Well, what we know thus far is that PRISM is designed to read the e-mails of non-U.S. citizens outside the United States. If an al-Qaeda operative in Yemen is e-mailing a potential recruit, it would be folly not to intercept it. 

As former Attorney General Michael Mukasey explains, the Constitution is not a treaty with the rest of the world; it’s an instrument for the protection of the American citizenry. And reading other people’s mail is something countries do to protect themselves. It’s called spying.

Is that really shocking?

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/351030/pushing-envelope-nsa-style-charles-krauthammer

Note: The above Defense Department photo is an aerial view of NSA headquarters.

NSA Surveillance Programs Helped Foil Terror Plots In 20 Countries, Officials Say

FoxNews.com offers a piece on the National Security Agency's surveillance programs:

U.S. intelligence officials released newly declassified information Saturday, stating the National Security Agency’s controversial programs gathering millions of phone and email records helped foil “dozens of potential terror plots.”

The three-page document regarding the NSA programs was released to congressional intelligence committees, and states the plots were thwarted in the U.S. and more than 20 other countries. The data is destroyed every five years, according to the document.

The officials also said the NSA checked just 300 phone numbers last year against its database of millions of U.S. phone records gathered daily, an attempt to argue the surveillance programs are less sweeping than alleged.

They also said they are working to declassify the dozens of plots NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander said were disrupted, to show Americans the value of the programs, but said they want to make sure they don't inadvertently reveal parts of the U.S. counterterrorism playbook in the process.

The programs were known to Washington lawmakers but unknown to the public until a series of new stories this month in The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers, leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who remains in hiding in Hong Kong.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/16/officials-nsa-programs-broke-plots-in-20-nations-1706735692/

David Letterman On NSA Surveillance Program And NSA Leaker

David Letterman on The Late Show offered a few jokes about the NSA surveillance program and the NSA leaker.

The NSA has been listening in on phone calls. It's people with cellphones — you hear these people walking down the street screaming into their cellphones — they're the ones who are upset about people listening to their phone calls.

You know your phone is being tapped when you're having a conversation and you hear the attorney general breathing.

This whistleblower is all over TV. His name is Edward Snowden, and he's very pleased with himself. He says he doesn't want to live in a society where the society monitors its people. And then he fled to China.

Happy birthday to the president's daughter Sasha, who is 12 years old. For her birthday, her father gave her Justin Bieber's phone records.