From Veteran’s Today …
NSA is one of 16 known US spy agencies. They’re all up to no good. They violate core rule of law principles.
They do whatever they want. They operate out-of-control. They’re powers unto themselves. NSA reflects Big Brother writ large.
It operate globally. It’s the world’s biggest spy agency. It watches everyone. Advanced technology lets it go where no previous counterpart went before.
Privacy no longer exists. Congress ignores its lawlessness. Oversight is absent. NSA takes full advantage.
Two Washington Post articles revealed more. They’re based on documents Edward Snowden provided. Expect lots more disclosures ahead.
On October 14, WaPo headlined “NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally.” Many belong to Americans.
“The collection program (hasn’t) been disclosed before.” Intercepts include email address books and so-called buddy lists.
They’re from online instant messaging and/or cell phone text displays. They’re lists people want to keep track of.
They show who’s online or off, on but away from their computer, people with their phones on or off, and who’s currently using them.
NSA collects contact lists in large numbers. They amount to a sizable portion of email/instant messaging accounts.
Data analysis lets NSA “search for hidden connections.” It permits mapping relationships “within a much smaller universe of foreign intelligence targets,” said WaPo
In one day last year, “NSA’s Special Source Operations branch collected 444,743 e-mail address books from Yahoo, 105,068 from Hotmail, 82,857 from Facebook, 33,697 from Gmail and 22,881 from unspecified other providers.”
These figures are typical. They repeat daily. They add up. They “correspond to a rate of more than 250 million a year.” .
NSA has access to about 500,000 buddy lists as well as huge numbers of web-based email accounts.
A previous article called NSA spying worse than you think. Rules followed are its own.
It can monitor virtually everyone everywhere electronically. Doing so is unconnected to terrorism or other national security concerns.
Big Brother has lots of other Brothers watching. They’re making a list. They’re checking it twice. They know who’s naughty or nice.
They read your emails. They know what web sites you visit. They know your medical and financial history.
They know the company you keep. They watch every move you make. They know what you do, where and when.
They know when you’re sleeping. They know when you’re awake. They know when you’re bad or good. They know secretly. They know intrusively.
They know because they can go where no previous spy agencies went before. They exceed their capabilities.
Perhaps one day they’ll be able to anticipate things before they happen. Maybe they’ll be able to read minds.
“(S)ecret arrangements with foreign governments or allied intelligence services” controlling online traffic permits collecting buddy lists and emails, said WaPo.
Millions of Americans are affected. NSA won’t say how many. Perhaps its tens of millions. NSA can target virtually everyone everywhere.
DNI spokesman Shawn Turner lied saying it’s “focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets like terrorists, human traffickers and drug smugglers.”
“We are not interested in personal information about ordinary Americans.”
False! It targets you, me, our neighbors, families and friends.
NSA collects virtually all telecommunication records. They gotten under a separate program. Director Keith Alexander defends the practice.
He lied calling it an essential counterterrorism/foreign intelligence tool, saying:
“You need a haystack to find the needle.” He finds virtually none. So-called terror plots exposed were fake. Domestic ones virtually don’t exist. What’s claimed is fabricated.
It’s done for political advantage. It generates fear. It justifies lawless NSA operations.
Online call lists provide “far richer sources of data than call records alone,” said WaPo.
Address books include email addresses, phone numbers, street locations, as well as business and personal information.
Combined they let NSA “draw detailed maps of a person’s life.” Doing so creates false impressions.
NSA isn’t authorized to collect bulk contact lists. According to senior intelligence officials, doing so from US facilities is illegal.
NSA does what it wants anyway. It accesses information globally. When obtained from overseas, it assumes “you’re not a US person,” it claims.
Global sweeps target everyone. Americans are as vulnerable as foreigners. So-called “checks and balances built into (its) tools” don’t exist or aren’t used.
NSA claims authorization under the Patriot Act’s Section 215. It oversteps. It’s unconstitutional.
It permits warrantless searches without probable cause. It violates First Amendment rights.
It does so by mandating secrecy. It prohibits targeted subjects from telling others what’s happening to them. It compromises free expression, assembly and association.
It does so by authorizing the FBI to investigate anyone based on what they say, write, or do with regard to groups they belong to or associate with.
It violates Fourth and Fifth Amendment protections by not telling targeted subjects their privacy was compromised.
It subverts fundamental freedoms for contrived, exaggerated, or nonexistent security reasons. Doing so turns constitutional rights on their head.
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