ProPublica Offers NSA Monitoring Timeline; PEW Survey Majority Approve Monitoring

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Pew Research June 10, 2013

A few days ago ProPublica published a timeline of the US “Mass Surveillance” Program.  The timeline is critical for two reason. 

First, a reminder that much of the flack from people like Ron Paul, the entirety of Fox News and other conservative opportunistic vultures have to be countered by facts regarding genesis of the program.  As to the alleged, “It has been invigorated under Obama”, well so has efforts to attack the US. Factually the program paid off big in 2011 as a bomb plot was thwarted as the bomber enter the New York Metro Ara. His arrest and eventual conviction are directly attributable to the NSA’s monitoring (Probably the PRISM Program).   We have posted links to articles showing AT & T and NSA cooperation in phone system monitoring in San Francisco in 2006.

The second reason for posting the timeline is far more basic. We want to join ProPublica in providing a fact based chronology of what has developed onto the PRISM Program.  Multiple source for such information provides opportunity for educated people.  You will not find a comparable Timeline on CNN and Fox News.  In fact, I have not seen such a comprehensive timeline on MSNBC.

Mass Surveillance in America: A Timeline of Loosening Laws and Practices

by Cora Currier, Justin Elliott and Theodoric Meyer
ProPublica, June. 7, 2013

On Wednesday, the Guardian published a secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over data for all the calls made on its network on an “ongoing, daily basis.” Other revelations about surveillance of phone and digital communications have followed.

That the National Security Agency has engaged in such activity isn’t entirely new: Since 9/11, we’ve learned about large-scale surveillance by the spy agency from a patchwork of official statements, classified documents, and anonymously sourced news stories.

1978

Surveillance court created

Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) led the investigation.

After a post-Watergate Senate investigation documented abuses of government surveillance, Congress passes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, to regulate how the government can monitor suspected spies or terrorists in the U.S. The law establishes a secret court that issues warrants for electronic surveillance or physical searches of a “foreign power” or “agents of a foreign power” (broadly defined in the law). The government doesn’t have to demonstrate probable cause of a crime, just that the “purpose of the surveillance is to obtain foreign intelligence information.”

The court’s sessions and opinions are classified. The only information we have is a yearly report to the Senate documenting the number of “applications” made by the government. Since 1978, the court has approved thousands of applications – and rejected just 11.

Oct. 2001

Patriot Act passed

President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act.

In the wake of 9/11, Congress passes the sweeping USA Patriot Act. One provision, section 215, allows the FBI to ask the FISA court to compel the sharing of books, business documents, tax records, library check-out lists – actually, “any tangible thing” – as part of a foreign intelligence or international terrorism investigation. The required material can include purely domestic records.

Oct. 2003

‘Vacuum-cleaner surveillance’ of the Internet

Mark Klein

AT&T technician Mark Klein discovers what he believes to be newly installed NSA data-mining equipment in a “secret room” at a company facility in San Francisco. Klein, who several years later goes public with his story to support a lawsuit against the company, believes the equipment enables “vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the Internet – whether that be peoples’ e-mail, web surfing or any other data.”

March 2004

Ashcroft hospital showdown

Attorney General John Ashcroft

In what would become one of the most famous moments of the Bush Administration, presidential aides Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzalesshow up at the hospital bed of John Ashcroft. Their purpose? To convince the seriously ill attorney general to sign off on the extension of a secret domestic spying program. Ashcroft refuses, believing the warrantless program to be illegal.

The hospital showdown was first reported by the New York Times, but two years later Newsweek provided more detail, describing a program that sounds similar to the onethe Guardian revealed this week. The NSA, Newsweek reported citing anonymous sources, collected without court approval vast quantities of phone and email metadata “with cooperation from some of the country’s largest telecommunications companies” from “tens of millions of average Americans.” The magazine says the program itself began in September 2001 and was shut down in March 2004 after the hospital incident. But Newsweek also raises the possibility that Bush may have found new justification to continue some of the activity.

Dec. 2005

Warrantless wiretapping revealed

Michael Hayden, director of the NSA when the warrantless wiretapping began

The Times, over the objections of the Bush Administration, reveals that since 2002 the government “monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants.” The program involves actually listening in on phone calls and reading emails without seeking permission from the FISA Court.

Jan. 2006

Bush defends wiretapping

President Bush speaks at Kansas State University.

President Bush defends what he calls the “terrorist surveillance program” in a speech in Kansas. He says the program only looks at calls in which one end of the communication is overseas.

March 2006

Patriot Act renewed

The Senate and House pass legislation to renew the USA Patriot Act with broad bipartisan support and President Bush signs it into law. It includes a few new protections for records required to be produced under the controversial section 215.

May 2006

Mass collection of call data revealed

USA Today reports that the NSA has been collecting data since 2001 on phone records of “tens of millions of Americans” through three major phone companies, Verizon, AT&T, and BellSouth (though the companies level of involvement is later disputed.) The data collected does not include content of calls but rather data like phone numbers for analyzing communication patterns.

As with the wiretapping program revealed by the Times, the NSA data collection occurs without warrants, according to USA Today. Unlike the wiretapping program, the NSA data collection was not limited to international communications.

2006

Court authorizes collection of call data

The mass data collection reported by the Guardian this week apparently was first authorized by the FISA court in 2006, though exactly when is not clear. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, said Thursday, “As far as I know, this is the exact three-month renewal of what has been in place for the past seven years.” Similarly, the Washington Post quoted an anonymous “expert in this aspect of the law” who said the document published by the Guardian appears to be a “routine renewal” of an order first issued in 2006.

It’s not clear whether these orders represent court approval of the previously warrantless data collection that USA Today described.

Jan. 2007

Bush admin says surveillance now operating with court approval

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announces that the FISA court has allowed the government to target international communications that start or end in the U.S., as long as one person is “a member or agent of al Qaeda or an associated terrorist organization.” Gonzalez says the government is ending the “terrorist surveillance program,” and bringing such cases under FISA approval.

Aug. 2007

Congress expands surveillance powers

The FISA court reportedly changes its stance and puts more limits on the Bush administration’s surveillance (the details of the court’s move are still not known.) In response, Congress quickly passes, and President Bush signs, a stopgap law, the Protect America Act.

In many cases, the government can now get blanket surveillance warrants without naming specific individuals as targets. To do that, the government needs to show that they’re not intentionally targeting people in the U.S., even if domestic communications are swept up in the process.

Sept. 2007

Prism begins

The FBI and the NSA get access to user data from Microsoft under a top-secret program known as Prism, according to an NSA PowerPoint briefing published by the Washington Post and the Guardian this week. In subsequent years, the government reportedly gets data from eight other companies including Apple and Google. “The extent and nature of the data collected from each company varies,” according to the Guardian.

July 2008

Congress renews broader surveillance powers

Congress follows up the Protect America Act with another law, the FISA Amendments Act, extending the government’s expanded spying powers for another four years. The law now approaches the kind of warrantless wiretapping that occurred earlier in Bush administration. Senator Obama votes for the act.

The act also gives immunity to telecom companies for their participation in warrantless wiretapping.

April 2009

NSA ‘overcollects’

The New York Times reports that for several months, the NSA had gotten ahold of domestic communications it wasn’t supposed to. The Times says it was likely the result of “technical problems in the NSA’s ability” to distinguish between domestic and overseas communications. The Justice Department says the problems have been resolved.

Feb. 2010

Controversial Patriot Act provision extended

President Obama

President Obama signs a temporary one-year extension of elements of the Patriot Act that were set to expire — including Section 215, which grants the government broad powers to seize records.

May 2011

Patriot Act renewed, again

The House and Senate pass legislation to extend the overall Patriot Act. President Obama, who is in Europe as the law is set to expire, directs the bill to be signed with an “autopen” machine in his stead. It’s the first time in history a U.S. president has done so.

March 2012

Senators warn cryptically of overreach

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)

In a letter to the attorney general, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mark Udall, D-Colo., write, “We believe most Americans would be stunned to learn the details” of how the government has interpreted Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Because the program is classified, the senators offer no further details.

July 2012

Court finds unconstitutional surveillance

According to a declassified statement by Wyden, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held on at least one occasion that information collection carried out by the government was unconstitutional. But the details of that episode, including when it happened, have never been revealed.

Dec. 2012

Broad powers again extended

President Obama

Congress extends the FISA Amendments Act another five years, and Obama signs it into law. Sens. Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Oregon Democrats, offer amendments requiring more disclosure about the law’s impact. The proposals fail.

April 2013

Verizon order issued

As the Guardian revealed this week, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge Roger Vinson issues a secret court order directing Verizon Business Network Services to turn over “metadata” — including the time, duration and location of phone calls, though not what was said on the calls — to the NSA for all calls over the next three months. Verizon is ordered to deliver the records “on an ongoing daily basis.” The Wall Street Journal reports this week that AT&T and Sprint have similar arrangements.

The Verizon order cites Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the FBI to request a court order that requires a business to turn over “any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items)” relevant to an international spying or terrorism investigation. In 2012, the government asked for 212 such orders, and the court approved them all.

June 2013

Congress and White House respond

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper

Following the publication of the Guardian’s story about the Verizon order, Sens. Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the chair and vice of the Senate intelligence committee, hold a news conference to dismiss criticism of the order. “This is nothing particularly new,” Chambliss says. “This has been going on for seven years under the auspices of the FISA authority, and every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this.”

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper acknowledges the collection of phone metadata but says the information acquired is “subject to strict restrictions on handling” and that “only a very small fraction of the records are ever reviewed.” Clapper also issues a statement saying that the collection under the Prism program was justified under the FISA Amendments of 2008, and that it is not “intentionally targeting” any American or person in the U.S.

Statements from the tech companies reportedly taking part in the Prism program variously disavow knowledge of the program and merely state in broad terms they follow the law.

For more on surveillance, check out our roundup of investigative reporting on the issue and our rundown of how the government can get your digital data without a warrant.

ProPublica Permission 

Snowden A Ron Paul Supporter?

Small Image of the Day!  The TPI does not see a national hero here.  We see one who has motives beyond his on camera ramble, and we see a dangerous person who is awful physically close to China.

Huffington Post reports Snowden is a Ron Paul supporter.  From my perspective, that places him squarely in the corner of potential seditionist (anti-federal government stance), state’s rightist and libertarian. I may singularly hold the view that all of the aforementioned are bad for the nation.

I made that last statement with full knowledge, many potential felt the same way about Ron Paul aspiring to the US Presidency.  As I think of Paul, my mind is clouded by a few considerations.

Paul wanted to eliminate federal agencies that despite the need for tweaking have real value in our society. He openly and boisterously spoke of eliminating FEMA. He spoke as such with natural catastrophes sprang-up around the nation like unwanted weeds (fires, tornadoes, hurricanes).  I recall one utterance. He stated in the old days the “church” took care of people in times of catastrophe. The GOP is about regression, but reaching back to colonial times for examples is typical Paul. Didn’t Paul indicated an affinity for legalizing Heroin?

IMe thoughts of  Paul are embodied in this image (below and in this context).

NewsOne

“Anonymous” Reveals Close Ties Between Ron Paul And Neo-Nazis

Feb 1, 2012 By Casey Gane-McCalla

Ron Paul’s “South Was Right” Civil War Speech With Confederate Flag 

Ron Paul Was Implicated In Failed White Supremacist Island Invasion 

Jamie Kelso, a notorious white supremacist has bragged about being a Ron Paul organizer and has several pictures from Ron Paul events posted on his website “White News Now” 

Kelso was the person who took the picture of Ron Paul with former Ku Klux Klansman, Don Black and his son, Derek. 

When I think of Ron Paul, I think of the Ron Paul NewsLetter. Paul says he did not write those things. Well….

The Daily Kos “Associates of Ron Paul say he proofed and signed off on racist newsletters“

And, finally when I think of Ron Paul and his son, I think of their stance on state’s rights.

  

Ron Paul is as good for the United States as the Koch Brothers. Funny, they have one thing in common: Libertarianism.  

Huffington Post’s piece includes comment from Rand Paul  about the NSA meta-data gathering.

In a statement sent out Monday afternoon, Paul praised both Snowden and Guardian journalist Glen Greenwald: “We should be thankful for individuals like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald who see injustice being carried out by their own government and speak out, despite the risk. They have done a great service to the American people by exposing the truth about what our government is doing in secret.”

“I wish I could say I was shocked at the reports the NSA is secretly spying on the private phone calls of millions of Verizon customers,” said Paul in a statement. “However, this is a predictable result of a government that continues to erode our liberties while promising some glimmering hope of security.”  

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced a bill on Friday that would prevent the government from obtaining the phone records of Americans without “a warrant based on probable cause.”

A flipping Ron Paul supporter! The profile is set. Somehow someone gave him a break, hired him as a security guard (somewhat under-educated mind you), and set him on a path that could lead to technology secrets to China.  

Snowden joins the throngs of state’s rightist, legal heroin espousing, abolish FEMA Ron Paul nut cases. 

A debate about security vs privacy should ensue, but I just listened to a segment on NPR that really kinda of nails this guy. He is reported to be a Loner who would not say hello when spoken to.  In his video segment with Greenwald, Snowden lauded the virtues of a free society in Hong Kong (far from the truth and seemingly spoon feed propaganda).  His comments about the freedoms in Hong Kong speak directly to a mindset is generally found among “single issue” self-proclaimed activist, or Fox News viewers. 

You may have noticed that I am not one who at all favors release of government secrets. My thoughts are particularly germane as I consider the nature of modern day warfare. The very fact that at least one home grown terrorist (Linked see the “Plan Section”) was arrested as he journeyed to NYC with bomb material in his car.

The fact that Snowden subscribes to the belief systems of Ron Paul is very frightening.  It is sad to know that we have under-educated people in highly sensitive positions who have joined the flocks of people who remind of the good people who are referred to as “Dead Heads” (The Grateful Dead followers).  

We will report much more on this revelation. Our thoughts may require a degree of moderation or, for that matter, modification, but at this point I see no good in Snowden’s releases to Greenwald.

Snowden is no “Whistleblower”.

NPR Blogs

……whistle-blower, let’s turn to the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, which advocates on their behalf. Here’s how the organization defines a whistle-blower, using state, federal and international cases: 

Whistle-blowers are recognized and protected under the law, to an extent. PBS’s POV documentary series has a timeline, up to 2010, on whistle-blowers, including congressional enactment of the False Claims Act, which offers financial incentives “to uncover fraud harmful to the government.”

“An employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. Typically, whistleblowers speak out to parties that can influence and rectify the situation. These parties include the media, organizational managers, hotlines, or Congressional members/staff, to name a few.”

We will not hesitate to modify our point of view as information comes forth. Yet, our views on Snowden’s support for Ron Paul will remain as steadfast as a stainless steel structure. 

UPDATE: Snowden runs to a hotel in Hong Kong Berates US meat-data gathering and proclaims Hong Kong a place of idyllic freedoms.  Well, my suspicion of his Fox News like “less informed” bore it itself out  Checc this out.

A 2006 New York Times piece.

Hong Kong Surveillance Law Passes

By KEITH BRADSHER

Published: August 6, 2006

“Bush’d!”