As Judge Rules NSA Surveillance “Almost Orwellian,” Obama Prepares to Leave Spying Program Intact

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democracynow on Dec 17, 2013

democracynow – A federal judge ruled Monday the National Security Agency”s bulk collection of American’s phone records “almost certainly” violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon described the NSA’s activities as “almost Orwellian.” He wrote, “I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen.” Judge Leon was appointed to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush in 2002. Leon suspended enforcement of his injunction against the program pending an expected appeal by the government. The lawsuit was brought by conservative attorney Larry Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch and based on information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. In a statement Monday, Snowden said, “I acted on my belief that the NSA’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts. Today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights. It is the first of many.” We are joined by Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. He served as an expert witnesses on the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications, which was tasked by President Obama to review NSA’s activities.

Glenn Greenwald: Is U.S. Exaggerating Threat to Embassies to Silence Critics of NSA Domestic Surveillance?

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democracynow on Aug 5, 2013

XKeyscore, The Scariest NSA Program Revealed By Edward Snowden So Far + Glenn Greenwald: If you allow this kind of surveillance, it will be abused

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

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David Seaman on Jul 31, 2013

David explains XKeyscore, the completely terrifying “new” NSA Internet spying program that was revealed to the public by additional Edward Snowden documents earlier today.

Whistleblower Russ Tice: NSA Blackmailing Obama? + Does Dianne Feinstein Know She Was Wiretapped? by Peter B. Collins

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Updated: July 17, 2013

breakingtheset on Jul 9, 2013

Abby Martin talks to Russell Tice, former intelligence analyst and original NSA whistleblower, about how the recent NSA scandal only scratches the surface of a massive surveillance apparatus, citing specific targets that he saw spying orders for including former senators Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Sandy Staub from CT ACLU at the “NSA Don’t Spy on US Forum”: We Have Filed a Lawsuit Challenging the Spying Scheme

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strugglevideomedia on Jul 2, 2013

Mongi Dhaouadi of CAIR CT introduces Sandy Staub of the CT Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. She speaks at the “NSA Don’t Spy on US Forum” June 30, 2013, Berlin, CT for more http://www.acluct.org.

NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden: I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things

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The Guardian Jul 9, 2013

Congress Expands Spying On Americans + Nadler: More Oversight Needed for Warrantless Wiretaps + Kucinich: Let’s Vote Against Big Brother

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Image by Bebopsmile via Flickr

Sep 12, 2012 by RTAmerica

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives will vote on whether or not to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. If passed, FISA will essentially extend the powers of the government and give the authorization to wiretap Americans without a warrant. As of now it is unknown exactly how many Americans are being spied on, but the question is how many more Americans will be scrutinized because of this legislation. RT Producer Adriana Usero joins us with more.

Coleen Rowley on How Top Secret America Misfires

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Image by Bebopsmile via Flickr

May 9, 2012 by SocialJusticeNOW

Coleen Rowley, one of three whistleblowers chosen as persons of the year for 2002 by Time Magazine, will speak about her experiences in the FBI and broader issues of official surveillance and massive data collection. When Coleen Rowley was an FBI agent in Minneapolis, her office got a lead just three weeks before 9/11 that a known extremist had paid $8.000 for lessons to fly a Boeing 747. Her office arrested him, but, her superiors would not allow a full investigation.

Obama Administration Asks Supreme Court to Dismiss ACLU Challenge to Warrantless Wiretapping Law

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American Civil Liberties Union
February 17, 2012

ACLU Argues Dragnet Surveillance of Americans Is Unconstitutional

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – The government today asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that allowed the American Civil Liberties Union to challenge the constitutionality of a law that gives the government unprecedented authority to monitor international emails and phone calls by Americans.

Google Teams Up with CIA to Fund “Recorded Future” Startup Monitoring Websites, Blogs & Twitter Accounts

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Democracy Now!
July 30, 2010

Google Teams Up with CIA to Fund “Recorded Future” Startup Monitoring Websites, Blogs & Twitter Accounts

Investors at the CIA and Google are backing a company called “Recorded Future” that monitors tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts in real time in order to find patterns, events and relationships that may predict the future. The news comes amidst Google’s so-called “Wi-Spy” scandal, that refers to revelations that Google’s Street View cars operating in some thirty countries snooped on private WiFi networks over the last three years.

The Makings of a Police State-Part VI: A Nation of Suspects by Sibel Edmonds

by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
2 February 2010

A Nation of Suspects

Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in ‘changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them‘- – Paulo Freire

The illegal domestic wiretapping of all Americans, the invasive search practices at every airport directed at every single US passenger, the compilation of all data on all citizens in not only one but multiple government databases, the unreasonable and warrantless search and seizure practiced on US masses facilitated arbitrarily by the FBI, are among many known and unknown government practices directed at the entire population of the United States of America.

A Real American Hero, Mark Klein: Wiring Up The Big Brother Machine… and Fighting It

with Peter B. Collins and Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
The Peter B Collins Show
Info on Podcast #80
29 December 2009

Or: http://www.peterbcollins.com/podcast/PBC_20091229.mp3

Let’s Talk about VUI: Voting Under the Influence by Sibel Edmonds

by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
7 December 2009

Revisiting ‘The Lesser of Two Evils’ Mentality

The real face of our two-party but one-establishment system of politics seems to have made a rare appearance again with Obama’s speech last Tuesday. That is, to those among the wannabe gullible majority, since a small fraction have known this true face for a while. The good news is that finally we are seeing a significant number of apologists who are coming to the realization of being taken for a ride during this last election. The not so good news has to do with the depth of this new realization, thus the extreme vulnerability of being misdirected and exploited again, over and over, as has been done for decades.

Last May I put forth a discussion topic on the issue of casting votes based on the ‘lesser of two evils’ decision-making process. Here are the questions I posed back then, which I am posing again now that we have more people waking up to smell their new Whitehouse Roses:

State Secrets Privilege: The Puppets & Puppet Masters by Sibel Edmonds

by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
23 November 2009

It’s Time to Get the Facts Straight

I want to revisit a topic which happens to be extremely important to me, both personally and politically, and even more important to our civil liberties.

Some of you have already read my brief piece on Richard Horn & the CIA dishing out $3 million to buy silence in this narco scandal. Those of you who have not read it click here and read it – because this story also goes to the heart of a very significant and ongoing issue: The State Secrets Privilege.

My recent heads-up piece on Horn focused mainly on the CIA’s attempt to hush another narco scandal where the agency was directly and actively involved. Although I introduced Horn as ‘another recipient of the government’s State Secrets Privilege invocation’, I didn’t delve into the significance of this case on this repeatedly used and abused draconian privilege. This was partly due to wrongly assuming that the media, at least the alternative media, would have gotten all over it since lately the SSP has been a quite fashionable and talked about topic among the wanna-be progressive community. Well, I was wrong. Despite the scandalous nature of the case, and despite the massive implications to SSP, those who’ve been publicizing themselves and cashing in using SSP did not touch or mention the case.

An Analysis of Warrantless Wiretapping – Part II by Richard Scott

by Richard Scott
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
19 November 2009

Parental Controls on Everyone

In Part one of my piece, I attempted to explain the nature and scope of the US Warrantless Wiretap Program and the growing Surveillance Regime being built in this country. In Part 2, I will compare and contrast the growth and structure of the aforementioned Surveillance Regimes with other countries’ corresponding Systems of surveillance and control. I will also spotlight the International Surveillance Industry and its efforts to market its products by offering this technology to governmental power centers around the world.