PRISM

[Lamplighter]

I read this article yesterday, and it blew me away.
This 3-page article goes on and on with a new release of what NSA has been doing.

It seems outlandish to spend so many resources on fear,
...yet they still MISSED the Boston Marathon bombing.

Shouldn't there be something like a signal-to-noise ratio or a risk/benefit analysis.


Washington Post
Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani
10/14/13

NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally

The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists
from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world,
many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials
and top-secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The collection program, which has not been disclosed before,
intercepts e-mail address books and “buddy lists” from instant
messaging services as they move across global data links.
Online services often transmit those contacts when a user logs on,
composes a message, or synchronizes a computer or mobile device
with information stored on remote servers.
<snip>
During a single day last year, the 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,
according to an internal NSA PowerPoint presentation.

Those figures, described as a typical daily intake in the document,
correspond to a rate of more than 250 million a year.
Each day, the presentation said, the NSA collects contacts from an estimated 500,000 buddy lists
on live-chat services as well as from the inbox displays of Web-based e-mail accounts.
<snip>
<snip>
<snip>

[glatt]

They can't prevent stuff, because there is too much data. They can only go back after the fact and use their info to round up the rest of the gang after an attack has occurred.

[Lamplighter]

... maybe CDC could develop a vaccine

[gvidas]

To put it in context, all of these little bits of secondary information add up to an amazing picture of everyone. Bruce Schneier's summary is "metadata is surveillance," which I quite like:

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archiv...ta_equals.html

Imagine you hired a detective to eavesdrop on someone. He might plant a bug in their office. He might tap their phone. He might open their mail. The result would be the details of that person's communications. That's the "data."

Now imagine you hired that same detective to surveil that person. The result would be details of what he did: where he went, who he talked to, what he looked at, what he purchased -- how he spent his day. That's all metadata.

When the government collects metadata on people, the government puts them under surveillance. When the government collects metadata on the entire country, they put everyone under surveillance. When Google does it, they do the same thing. Metadata equals surveillance; it's that simple.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

It seems outlandish to spend so many resources on fear,
...yet they still MISSED the Boston Marathon bombing.

Boston Marathon is simply one example. Could easily be the outlier in the data.

But from most every leak is a pattern. Most all averted terrorist attacks were from similar sources that also saw and suspected 11 September. Information that resulted in a memo on the president's desk warning of such an attack. And it was ignored.

Most terrorism was averted by using conventional investigative techniques. Most every failure was due to people not following up on their information (ie underwear bomber). If all this high tech spying on Americans was so useful, then where are all the leaks reporting on those successes? Even bin Laden was located using more conventional techniques.

Conventional investigations: Diana Deans and three other officers - discovered the bomb for LAX. Therefore the word went out from President Clinton to look for other attacks. Using conventional investigation techniques, they probably averted the bombing of Time Square, of Toronto, of the Radisson Hotel in Amman Jordan, and the bombing of the USS The Sullivans. Because top management put out the word and took seriously information from conventional investigation sources.

These advanced investigation tools have proven useful AFTER other information targets a specific threat. IOW every one should require a bench warrant. Currently, even that legal requirement has been bypassed because, well, this is the problem. We still have not defined the definition of the word 'privacy'. And have too many lawmakers who are so wacko extremist that no time remains to address this now serious problem.

[Lamplighter]

This is now on Google News...

Former Pentagon Official to Be Nominated as Homeland Security Chief
New York Times - ‎1 hour ago‎

WASHINGTON - President Obama plans to nominate Jeh C. Johnson,
who framed many of the administration's national security policies as
the Defense Department's general counsel during Mr. Obama's first term,
to become the next chief of the Homeland ...

Now that a lawyer is running the whole show, can you imagine what "legalities" NSA will get away with.

.

[glatt]

The NSA is under the umbrella of the Department of Defense. So now that this guy is leaving DOD he will have no connection to the NSA.

Maybe you are thinking of the TSA? The TSA is under the Department of Homeland Security.

[Lamplighter]

That's probably my bad.
But is DOD under Homeland Security ?

I'm just leery of lawyers in any top position... except DOJustice, etc.
Advising is one thing, making top management decisions, ugh.

I know this particular fellow has been a big help to Obama, but still.

ETA: OK, I was, indeed, wrong. I looked it up and see the difference. Sorry about that.

[Lamplighter]

Apparently, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif) believes she is Mr. Phelps:

Good Morning, Mr. Clapper: Your mission, should you choose to accept it,
involves finding and storing each granule of data from everywhere in the world:



As always, should you or any of your NSA Force be caught or killed,
the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
This tape/disc will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim

[tw]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Apparently, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif) believes she is Mr. Phelps:

The revelations from Snowden have been so egregious and surprising that even Senator Feinstein has started criticizing the NSA.

[Lamplighter]

The revelations from Snowden have been so egregious and ...

Interesting choice of words

[tw]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Interesting choice of words

I never said who is being emotionally absurd as to be offended. That's a major part of the problem. Too many want to be angry (emotional) rather than understand the scope and underlying principles of this problem. So the problem festered - has been becoming severe. And not just with international relations. Would have been even worse - not much different than what was written in a famous book called "1984".

[sexobon]

The Cellar Security Council is monitoring this thread.

[tw]

George Bush Sr threatened to create a New World Order. Thank god we have citizens with assault rifles protecting us in our airports.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by tw

Thank god we have citizens with assault rifles protecting us in our airports.

I've seen multiple news reports that say the police are looking for a motive for why this guy hates the TSA.

Is there anyone in the country who likes the TSA? They have to be the most hated branch of the government. Well, maybe the IRS is more hated.



Not saying I approve in any way of the actions of this murderous thug. He belongs in prison. But looking for a motive? Duh.