Greenwald's Latest Scoop: The NSA Rules

[KramerDSP]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/20/fisa-court-nsa-without-warrant

Revealed: the top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant
Fisa court submissions show broad scope of procedures governing NSA's surveillance of Americans' communication

It's a scary read, but here's the money quote, IMO:


However, alongside those provisions, the Fisa court-approved policies allow the NSA to:

• Keep data that could potentially contain details of US persons for up to five years;

• Retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;

• Preserve "foreign intelligence information" contained within attorney-client communications;

• Access the content of communications gathered from "U.S. based machine[s]" or phone numbers in order to establish if targets are located in the US, for the purposes of ceasing further surveillance.

The broad scope of the court orders, and the nature of the procedures set out in the documents, appear to clash with assurances from President Obama and senior intelligence officials that the NSA could not access Americans' call or email information without warrants.

I liked this comment:


Robbie Wallis BillOwen
20 June 2013 8:11pm

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This is the very scary thing that no one is confronting. This effectively means that the NSA - and unelected, unsupervised, unanswerable group of military/corporate/intelligence interests - can spy on any politician on the planet, leak scandals to discredit them, create scandals, push through their "desired" puppet, control them with the information they have on them, and basically rule the freakin' planet.

The NSA has itself become the biggest threat to democracy the world has ever seen.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity

I must have missed the memo, but when did NSA get involved in domestic law enforcement?

I didn't think that was ever part of their charter.


or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity

translation = TURN ON THE UBER VACUUM CLEANER! WEZ got the all clear to snag EVERYTHING!!!!!

-t

[HOLLYWOOD]

Fuckin 1984 is here 110% I presume you are all aware, the latest CISPA bill that passed the house, also gives IMMUNITY & RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY to all CORPORATIONS that spy/collect/handover all data on behalf the the federal government.

So today's spin by the Fascist-Corporatist Media is to say, all the collected data on every person can be used by lawyers seeking to exonerate defendants/prisoners/whatever. Incredible how the establishment is trying to say this spying and collecting of data on everyone within the US will help people, who have been charged, etc.

What makes MSNBC think the government would turn over such data with the corruption, racketeering, fraud at very level and every department with the federal government? It's an echelon of sychophants and criminals, vying for; self gain, promotion, &/or power.

Nazi States of America or Soviet Union if United States

http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/20/19061109-lawyers-eye-nsa-data-as-treasure-trove-for-evidence-in-murder-divorce-cases?


Lawyers eye NSA data as treasure trove for evidence in murder, divorce cases
By Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News


The National Security Agency has spent years demanding that companies turn over their data. Now, the spy agency finds the shoe is on the other foot. A defendant in a Florida murder trial says telephone records collected by the NSA as part of its surveillance programs hold evidence that would help prove his innocence, and his lawyer has demanded that prosecutors produce those records. On Wednesday, the federal government filed a motion saying it would refuse, citing national security. But experts say the novel legal argument could encourage other lawyers to fight for access to the newly disclosed NSA surveillance database.
"What's good for the goose is good for the gander, I guess," said George Washington University privacy law expert Dan Solove. "In a way, it's kind of ironic."

Defendant Terrance Brown is accused of participating in the 2010 murder of a Brinks security truck driver. Brown maintains his innocence, and claims cellphone location records would show he wasn't at the scene of the crime. Brown's cellphone provider — MetroPCS — couldn't produce those records during discovery because it had deleted the data already.
On seeing the story in the Guardian indicating that Verizon had been ordered to turn over millions of calling records to the NSA last month, Brown's lawyer had a novel idea: Make the NSA produce the records.
Brown's lawyer, Marshall Dore Louis, said he couldn't comment while the trial was ongoing.
"Relying on a June 5, 2013, Guardian newspaper article ... Defendant Brown now suggests that the Government likely actually does possess the metadata relating to telephone calls made in July 2010 from the two numbers attributed to Defendant Brown," wrote U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenbaum in an order (http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/06/18/Brown%20Order.pdf) demanding that the federal government respond to the request on June 10.
The laws of evidence require that prosecutors turn over to the defense any records they have that might help prove a suspect's innocence.
"This opens up a Pandora's box," said Mark Rasch, former head of the Department of Justice Computer Crimes Unit, and now an independent consultant. “You will have situations where the phone companies no longer have the data, but the government does, and lawyers will try to get that data.”

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors filed a motion (https://ia601800.us.archive.org/1/items/20130619USVDavisGovtUnclassifiedResponse/20130619_US_v_Davis_Govt_unclassified_response.pdf ) saying they cannot respond to Brown's request because the federal government does not have the data the suspect seeks — cell site location information, or CSLI. The leaked court order which inspired the request included was unclear on which metadata phone companies turn over.
The government’s motion also invokes the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which allows the prosecutors to respond to such requests "in camera," or privately with the judge, to explain what data it does or does not have.
"The (CIPA) allows the government to protect classified information by claiming that, first, the phone records are classified, and second, whether or not the government has phone records is also classified," Rasch said.
The assertion in the motion that "at the outset, the government does not possess the CSLI data," is intriguing, as it clearly refutes the notion that the NSA obtains location data as part of its routine records acquisition from telephone companies. But it's unlikely this case will yield more clues about what data the NSA does have, as additional legal discussion will be private.
Even without location data, it's easy to imagine other cases where call records might help prove a suspect's innocence. Rasch says the NSA should expect to deal with a lot of new requests for evidence now.
"The thing was, in the past, no one knew these records were there. Now lawyers know, and they will ask for it,” he said.
It's all part of the hazard of becoming, effectively, a backup server for all the nation's technology companies, said Solove.
"This is a little bit of an awakening to the government, that you can't hold massive amounts of personal data with impunity," he said. "Once you do, a lot of obligations and responsibilities kick in. One of the consequences of keeping data is that now you open yourself up to discovery."
Different standards apply to discovery in civil cases, such as contested divorce, but Solove said it's possible lawyers in those cases could also appeal to the NSA for evidence, now that they know the records exist.
While it might seem unusual to demand data from an agency that not long ago was invisible to most Americans, Solove said it's important not to put the NSA on some kind of legal pedestal.
"The NSA is not above the law. It's a government agency, just like every other government agency. Just because it has this Harry Potter-like disappearing cloak, it's still an agency that is subject to the law," Solove said.

[KramerDSP]

Crazy stuff!


"ScuzzaMan
20 June 2013 8:24pm

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@Glenn Greenwald:

Glenn, as of today, I count three (3!) national states of emergency declared by the President and active today:
1. FDR's March 9 1933 State of Emergency known as the Emergency Banking Act
2. Carter's November 1979 State of Emergency with respect to Iran (subsequent to the Iranian Revolution)
3. GWB's September 14 State of Emergency in response to the events of 9/11.

There may be more.

According to my information, the right of habeas corpus, for example, is subject to "suspension" or "revocation" during a state of national emergency.

I would also like to raise the issue of congressional oversight of such presidential declarations. The National Emergencies Act of September 14 1976 was an attempt by Congress to limit the open-ended states of emergency that had proliferated following FDR's example.
As we see above, this has been an epic failure, but not least because Congress still refuses to demand an accounting from the White House (more accurately, successive White Houses) and the application of congressional prerogative to review, debate and possibly shut down such states of emergency on a six monthly basis.

The biggest issue with these indefinite states of emergency is that they put into operation secret executive orders that revoke or suspend for the duration various elements of the Bill of Rights, and thus provide quasi-legal cover for executive wrongdoing. Not even the then-Chair of the Homeland Security Committee Peter DeFazio was able to see the secret aspects of the National Security Presidential Directive 51 declared by the Bush White House in 2007.

The chair of the congressional committee supposed to provide oversight cannot be given details of the executive orders they are supposed to act as a check and balance against!

I will be very surprised if these ongoing states of emergency do not provide a great deal of the legal cover claimed by successive administrations for their plainly unconstitutional actions.

Can you provide any kind of clarity as to how and why Congress have chosen to bilaterally abandon the application of any of the oppositional force of these laws, for decades?"



evenharpier ScuzzaMan
20 June 2013 8:48pm

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There may be more.

There has been a state of emergency declared every year since 2001.


Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks

Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 USC 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency previously declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.

Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2012. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency that was declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.
This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.



ScuzzaMan evenharpier
20 June 2013 8:55pm

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There has been a state of emergency declared every year since 2001.

And since 1979.

And since 1933.

All 3 have been renewed by the current President and are active today.

In no case has Congress demanded that the White House defend this position, nor debated it, nor chosen to end it, as is their legal duty every 6 months.

That is, just in the case of the "terrorism" state of emergency, 24 successive missed opportunites - and obligations - to shut this shit down!

[Occam's Banana]

"The NSA is not above the law. It's a government agency, just like every other government agency. Just because it has this Harry Potter-like disappearing cloak, it's still an agency that is subject to the law," Solove said.

:rolleyes:

[DamianTV]

Fuckin 1984 is here 110% I presume you are all aware, the latest CISPA bill that passed the house, also gives IMMUNITY & RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY to all CORPORATIONS that spy/collect/handover all data on behalf the the federal government.

http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/20/19061109-lawyers-eye-nsa-data-as-treasure-trove-for-evidence-in-murder-divorce-cases?

1984 has been fully surpassed with terrifying results. George Orwell would have been scared, and he was a self proclaimed Socialist.

[Cap]

With all the new revelations, there appears to be a crack in the dyke. smirk*

[UWDude]

Preserve "foreign intelligence information" contained within attorney-client communications;

I knew this was next, after all

WE CANT HAVE ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGE! YOU'LL REGRET THAT WHEN A NUKE GOES OFF IN SAN DIEGO BECAUSE WE COULDN'T FORCE AN ATTORNEY TO TALK ABOUT THEIR AL QUEADA TERRORIST CLIENT!

[HOLLYWOOD]

NO RULE of law left in America... it's all smoke & mirrors now... I just heard, 80-85% of people cannot even afford attorneys in court today, and of those, 90-95% take a plea deals, and their cases never get contested in court.

They have the entire system rigged... man are Americans stupid to willfully accept the 2 party dictatorship and the 3 us government branches of rigged criminality?


IT'S RULE: BY THE STATE, BY TYRANTS, BY DICTATORS... the only thing that will change is their names.

[ClydeCoulter]

DHS Hopes To Get Same Cyber-Spying Powers as NSA
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?418835-DHS-Hopes-To-Get-Same-Cyber-Spying-Powers-as-NSA

[KramerDSP]

Drudge is running with this as the top story now.

[tod evans]

http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/9244/10258488_1.jpg?v=8CD9663FAE9E830

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/9244/10258488_1.jpg?v=8CD9663FAE9E830

Funny that u should mention this. Bouncing rubber baby bumpers just got banned in my state. On cribs... THe state also wants kid sleeping on their back, no blankie, no stuffed animals, etc...

Hay - "IT TAKES A VILLAGE!" :rolleyes:

-t

[tod evans]

Hay - "IT TAKES A VILLAGE!" :rolleyes:
-t

To hunt down and hold accountable politicians and government employees..

My village is getting closer every day...

[luctor-et-emergo]

To hunt down and hold accountable politicians and government employees..

My village is getting closer every day...

50% off on pitchforks, only this month, until supplies run out.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/p480x480/418945_468937923124693_1892182032_n.jpg

j/k

[tod evans]

http://www.picturesof.net/_images_300/Hillbilly_Farmer_Royalty_Free_Clipart_Picture_0812 31-030769-446042.jpg