Patterico's Pontifications

6/6/2013

Government Has Been Secretly Collecting Data from Internet Companies Too; UPDATE: And Credit Card Transactions!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:40 pm



New York Times:

The federal government has been secretly gathering information from the nation’s largest Internet companies going back nearly six years — including Google, Facebook and, most recently, Apple — according to documents that emerged on Thursday. A senior government official confirmed the program, but said it targeted only foreigners abroad.

While the data provided varies according to the online provider, it could include e-mail, chat services, videos, photos, stored data, file transfers, video conferencing and logins — according to an apparently highly classified document describing the National Security Agency program called Prism.

The program is authorized under law and was recently reauthorized by Congress, said the senior official, who said it minimizes the collection and retention of information “incidentally acquired” about Americans and permanent residents. Several of the Internet companies issued statements strongly denying knowledge of or participation in the program.

“The law does not allow the targeting of any U.S. citizen or of any person located within the United States,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss a highly classified program. “Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats.”

But the disclosure of the documents by American and British newspapers came just hours after government officials acknowledged a separate seven-year effort to sweep up records of telephone calls inside the United States. Together, the unfolding disclosures opened an extraordinary window into the growth of government surveillance that began under the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has clearly been embraced and even expanded under the Obama administration.

The extraordinary revelations, in rapid succession, also suggested that someone with access to high-level intelligence secrets had decided to unveil them in the midst of furor over leak investigations. Both were reported by Britain’s Guardian newspaper, while The Washington Post, relying upon the same presentation, simultaneously reported the Internet company tapping. The Post said a disenchanted intelligence official provided it with the documents to expose government overreach.

Embraced “and even expanded.”

Didn’t Obama say he was going to be different from Bush when it came to surveillance?

I didn’t think that meant he was going to do even more intrusive collection of data.

UPDATE: Per the Wall Street Journal, they’re collecting information about credit card transactions too.

UPDATE x2: And every call in America.

You knew it couldn’t just be Verizon — but now it’s official.

121 Responses to “Government Has Been Secretly Collecting Data from Internet Companies Too; UPDATE: And Credit Card Transactions!”

  1. I think Glenn Greenwald had better assume his communications are going to be monitored, heavily.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. Same goes for the WaPo reporters who broke this story.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  3. And this little anecdote from Shia LaBeouf seems less outlandish than perhaps one might have decided when he told the story.

    http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/06/06/Shia-LaBeouf-FBI-Consultant-Played-Me-a-2-Year-Old-Private-Phone-Call

    SarahW (b0e533)

  4. Fierce moral urgency to elect Obama, remember?

    SPQR (768505)

  5. So, I guess the idea/claim is that the govt can collect masses of data without specific court order as long as there is no analysis of the data regarding an individual.

    In some ways I am not surprised by this at all. Once data goes into a computerized system, I imagine it is in the system forever unless it is deliberately erased, or erased by an upgrade in hardware without backup.
    That’s why I thought most of the HIPPA regs had very little to do with security of computerized medical data, it doesn’t address the real problem, scads of info sitting in databases waiting to be accessed.

    If we could trust the people with access to the info, including the counterbalancing of oversight, it would be more comforting.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  6. this is disgusting

    there’s simply nothing so super special about this broke-ass fascist whore of a country what justifies this kind of third reich wet dream surveillance crap

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  7. So, what’s Admiral Poindexter up to these days? This was exactly his plan after 9-11.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  8. I’ve never been alone
    It’s a comfort to know

    nk (875f57)

  9. nk–

    Here’s the clip you’re looking for…

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  10. So, when are we going to impeach this mofo?

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  11. Thanks, Kevin. I don’t like chess, so I hope they’ll allow WiFi cafes.

    nk (875f57)

  12. Kevin, sorry to violate security protocol but it’s urgent. The white roses have not bloomed, order carnations.

    nk (875f57)

  13. The problem is not that I’m paranoid, it’s that I am not sufficiently paranoid and they are out to get us.

    htom (412a17)

  14. The credit card history grab is completely hopeless. It’s not like there is a repository of credit card transaction histories for terrorists to compare to histories of normal people. That whole project is fraud and treason by the vendors we’re hiring.

    notAgoodTime (a36123)

  15. R.I.P. Esther Williams

    Icy (e6f6e4)

  16. I saw a group of NSA whistle blowers today on Special Report. I didn’t even know they existed! So is this the first time they came out of the closet?

    Smart to come to Fox. Anyone else would have ignored them.

    Patricia (be0117)

  17. The galling thing to me is not the fact that data mining of EVERYthing occurs.

    What is so ^$&*^*()&*(%^#%#%^*( maddening is that when they actually identify folks – like the murderer(s) in Boston, they DON’T DOOOOOOOO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!

    Like it or not, there are gonna be complicit judges that sign the warrants. We will never overcome our Judiciary. We should focus instead on our government’s inaction in combating our sworn enemies.

    Ed from SFV (e73d74)

  18. The UK Guardian is reporting that the companies named as “corporate partners” say the government tapped into their servers without their knowledge.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/prism-tech-giants-shock-nsa-data-mining

    Two different versions of the PRISM scandal were emerging on Thursday with Silicon Valley executives denying all knowledge of the top secret program that gives the National Security Agency direct access to the internet giants’ servers.

    The eavesdropping program is detailed in the form of PowerPoint slides in a leaked NSA document, seen and authenticated by the Guardian, which states that it is based on “legally-compelled collection” but operates with the “assistance of communications providers in the US.”

    Each of the 41 slides in the document displays prominently the corporate logos of the tech companies claimed to be taking part in PRISM.

    However, senior executives from the internet companies expressed surprise and shock and insisted that no direct access to servers had been offered to any government agency.

    This makes perfect sense. The NSA would never share the details of the program with these providers. In fact according to the WaPo article the NSA worked through the FBI to gain access to some information.

    In related developments there’s a good article up at Wired:

    http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/nsa-numbers/

    Also Revealed by Verizon Leak: How the NSA and FBI Lie With Numbers

    … Every year, the Justice Department gives Congress a tally of the classified wiretap orders sought and issued in terrorist and spy cases – it was 1,789 last year. At the same time, it reports the number of demands for “business records” in such cases, issued under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. And while the number of such orders has generally grown over the years, it has always managed to stay relatively low. In 2011, it was 205. There were 96 orders in 2010, and only 21 in 2009.

    Thanks to the Guardian’s scoop, we now know definitively just how misleading these numbers are. You see, while the feds are required to disclose the number of orders they apply for and receive (almost always the same number, by the way), they aren’t required to say how many people are targeted in each order.

    …The public numbers are the one bit of accountability around the surveillance court, and the Justice Department used them to misdirect the public away from a massive domestic NSA spying operation that, as several Senators approvingly noted today, has been running for seven years.

    Steve57 (7895a0)

  19. I know they will blame Bush, saying he started it and they only continued it. But Bush’s program was aimed at foreign intercepts. Obama is aiming this at Americans.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  20. Politico says a government whistleblower came forward because the government has access to current content:

    In the wake of last night’s Guardian report about the NSA’s collection of Verizon phone user metadata, the New York Times editorial board argued that the Obama administration “has now lost all credibility” in defending its abuses of executive power. That was before the report about PRISM, which unlike the Verizon metadata, includes surveillance of user content.

    “’They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,’ the officer said.”

    If that doesn’t make you uncomfortable, it should.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  21. The end of man comes when there is no end to what man can do.

    Ed from SFV (e73d74)

  22. Big Brother is watching.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  23. R.I.P. Esther Williams

    Her name stands out to me because I’ve seen it identified in the past with an uncommon trait in the world of showbiz: Common sense and socio-political maturity.

    classicmoviehub.com: She is a strong supporter of the Republican party. She appeared with Virginia Mayo at the 1953 Republican Rally and in past presidential elections she endorsed Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and John McCain.

    So this…

    Obama is aiming this at Americans.

    in light of this…

    What is so ^$&*^*()&*(%^#%#%^*( maddening is that when they actually identify folks – like the murderer(s) in Boston, they DON’T DOOOOOOOO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!

    …is the reason the bilge pouring out of the federal government for the past several weeks in particular, under the watchful eye of Obama and his band of merry men (and women), makes some of the “tinfoil hat” paranoia and theories I’ve come across for any number of years seem not quite so far fetched nowadays.

    If it weren’t for what you and DRJ point out, along with the shenanigans of the IRS, all tied together with crud like the shameless, brazen nature of blame-Benghazi-on-youtube-video-maker, I’d think “tinfoil” suspicions would only be justified if people were survivalists or anarchists, or Hollywood scriptwriters desperate for a breakout hit.

    Mark (0a4abe)

  24. As of April, 2010 the Library of Congress announced that it was archiving ALL tweets in a permanent database.

    A lawsuit was recently filed against the IRS for seizing 60MM healthcare files while raiding a CA based business as they pursued a former employee of the firm for tax issues. Soon such ruses will no longer be necessary since all medical records are to be converted to a digital form and available through a shared database.

    in_awe (7c859a)

  25. This is the counter, which doesn’t seem that convincing;

    http://www.volokh.com/2013/06/06/the-fisa-court-order-flap-take-a-deep-breath/

    narciso (3fec35)

  26. Live free or here.

    nk (875f57)

  27. Starts when you’re always afraid
    Step out of line
    Man’ll come and take you away

    Allahu Akhbar ammonium nitrate pressure cooker fundraiser

    nk (875f57)

  28. 15. Actually they’re encouraging terrorism as a pretext for control. All this data requires some analysis and organization for interdiction which isn’t even attempted.

    Tsarnaevs case in point.

    No matter, even the State needs to protect its employees’ families:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-06/12-clear-signals-us-economy-about-really-slow-down

    Let it burn.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  29. Here’s our future, requiring nk commentary:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-06/greece-slides-fourth-world-full-photo-album

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  30. here’s you go, old long-haired hippie freaks…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etPsUw8frEw

    seriously, all technological advances, since the stick and rock, can be used fro good or ill
    will there ever be a technology so powerful it shouldn’t be developed? I don’t know
    But if it can be developed, somebody probably will eventually

    I think the only way you can avoid something like this is to purposefully make all computer networking stuff self-deleting, no more cached search histories, etc.
    Otherwise, it’s all their for the taking

    I think I might prefer some kind of medical record chip in my skin than have it in some database on the net
    I’d really prefer it to be in a flash drive in a ring or like dog tags, so it is always with you, always accessible, but not in you or in a database

    look at Joe the plumber, he makes a little rucous and some low level somewhere gets into his files

    the only way you can avoid that is to have no files or very elaborate security systems
    log on with retina screening so it is known exactly who it is that looked at what
    but that only is as good as the people in charge of monitoring behavior

    There was a reason those mission impossible messages self destructed, and spies ate their paper notes

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  31. here’s you go, nk.
    Never saw this version before
    And you know they all thought bushitler was bad

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7GCw02_5Pw

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  32. I can show you those exact same pictures from under the I-90/94 overpass at Belmont and Kedzie in Chicago, gary. I drive by there twice a week from the Jewel. The Best Buy where I bought my flatscreen TV is the next mini-mall entrance.

    nk (875f57)

  33. narciso #27,

    Andrew McCarthy makes sense, but I think he overlooks the Obama Administration’s willingness to transform America through incremental change. A little change here, a little there, and ultimately the impact can be dramatic. What bothers me here is the outright targeting of Americans, with no attempt to link it to a foreign call or person (let alone a suspicious call or person).

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  34. Doesn’t the F in FISA stand for foreign? So now we have purely domestic cell phone, Internet content, and credit card activity being tracked. Sweet.

    JD (20406c)

  35. JD, this administration has new, secret definitions for terms as well as massive secret domestic spying programs. According to the Obama WH the F in FISA no longer stands for foreign.

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/06/press-gaggle-deputy-principal-press-secretary-josh-earnest-and-secretary

    The intelligence community is conducting court-authorized intelligence activities pursuant to a public statute with the knowledge and oversight of Congress and the intelligence community in both houses of Congress. There is also extensive oversight by the executive branch, including the Department of Justice and relevant agency counsels and inspectors general, as well as annual and semi-annual reports to Congress, as required by law.

    There is a robust legal regime in place governing all activities conducted, pursuant to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act. That regime has been briefed to and approved by the court. And activities authorized under the act are subject to strict controls and procedures under oversight of the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the FISA Court, to ensure that they comply with the Constitution and the laws of the United States and appropriately protect privacy and civil liberties.

    Steve57 (7895a0)

  36. Patterico, how about saying something positive about Glenn Greenwald for breaking this? You have been pretty critical in the past, but it looks like he did a valuable public service in this case.

    Tom Hynes (a2e520)

  37. 8. Comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 6/6/2013 @ 8:08 pm

    So, what’s Admiral Poindexter up to these days? This was exactly his plan after 9-11.

    No, we’re missing the “prediction markets” (A government run Intrade about terrorism)

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  38. 25. Comment by in_awe (7c859a) — 6/7/2013 @ 12:19 am

    As of April, 2010 the Library of Congress announced that it was archiving ALL tweets in a permanent database.

    But it seems like nobody can actually get to see the tweets any time soon. It would have helped in understanding Weinergate. (these are the public tweets – they never had the Direct Messages)

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  39. I guess they know about the 10K rds of .308 I bought.
    Well, all I can say is: Molon Labe!
    But, in the words of Col. Troutman:
    Don’t forget a good supply of body bags.

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  40. Patricia @9:15:

    Anyone else would have ignored them.

    Hell, anyone else would have turned them over to their beloved God-Emperor as apostates.

    PCachu (e072b7)

  41. I don’t think people are analyzing this correctly.

    There is a value to the secrecy. It would be very damaging if Al Qaeda or others knew exactly what was being collected and what was not.

    The chief value of this comes when they get that wrong.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  42. Terrorists (and others) can make mistakes both ways, and there are different consequences either way.

    One way, is when they think they can do something without being detected and they actually can not.

    In that case what you get is a discovered plot.

    This is maybe the better mistake to have them make, provided that this causes them to avoid trying in the future, either because they have been disabled, or because they are afraid of what could happen to them.

    (If plots get detected but nothing much happens to them, they can just keep trying and trying, like they did in Iraq with roadside bombs. Plenty were detected, but enough exploded.)

    This is better for us, but only if any detection leads to an end, either because there are few people doing it and they all get caught, or because they get afraid they will lose more than they gain. Like maybe there might be an invasion, or a drone strike. If there are safe havens, they can just keep trying over and over again,.

    The other kind of mistake is when they think they can’t do something without being detected but they really could.

    The result then is plots are never attempted or that are slowed down because of all the precautions made, or work out less well.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  43. In short, when they underestimate what can be detected, success is to be measured in plots stopped, and when they overestimate what can be detected, success is to be measured in plots never attempted.

    I think Al Qaeda and terrorists in general tend to overestimate what can be detected (or are afraid of the consequences) so there are really very, very, few plots.

    The least good situation would be if Al Qaeda had an accurate understanding of just what was being listened to or what data was being collected.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  44. obama doesn’t give a shit about the muslims or terrorists. If any of the other regime scandals provide an indication of what obama is after, he wants to see what Patriots are saying, reading and writing, so he can shut them down.

    Jim (823b10)

  45. And what was not.

    Now they can mistakes. John Miller of CBS News told of the Nazibullah Zazi plot. This was first discovered because an old e-mail address was used, but it was still on the list.

    Pakistan’s rogue military intelligence agency had assumed it was no longer being checked against, or maybe didn’t realize it was on a list..

    But most of the time terrorists err on the other side – they assume surveillance or analysis is better than what it is, and what you get is plots never attempted.

    They were not afraid of that in Iraq because we were already at war, and no sanctuaries would be eliminated.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  46. We know all that, Sammy. It’s the price we pay for Arab oil.

    nk (875f57)

  47. Since this data collection would have included all election communications (e-mail, cell calls, etc), I wonder if any of the Republican candidates’ communications happened to leak out of the FBI (or, less likely, NSA) during the election period.

    Given what happened at the IRS and the politicization of everything by Obama, it would not surprise me at all.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  48. If Obama can use the IRS to punish conservatives, just think what he can do with our phone calls, emails, and credit card transactions. I’m surprised most of us don’t have the FBI knocking at our doors even as we speak.

    rochf (f3fbb0)

  49. As Ed Morrissey is pointing out at HotAir, is this Obama person who is collecting all this personal data for “counterterrorism” purposes the same Obama person who was lecturing us a couple weeks ago about how the war against terrorists is now over ?

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  50. nk at 47. We all know what?

    That the real value of this data collection comes when terrorists make mistakes about what is covered?

    How is whatever it is that we all know connected to Arab oil?

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  51. I’m really straying off-topic with my comments today, but reading this reminded me of something the actor James Woods reportedly said:

    My nightmare in life, my absolute fundamental, overwhelming, egregious nightmare, is Bill Gates’ vision of the future, where there will be a video camera on every corner and every conversation will be recorded. Man, I’d rather put a pitchfork in my eyes than live in a world like that.

    Woods is very interesting. He reported Arab passengers’ suspicious behavior that happened on a flight just before 9/11. He thought they might plan to hijack the plane, and I think he was a source of helpful information to the FBI after 9/11. In addition, he voted for George W. Bush in 2001 and, in 1994, described liberals who want to curtail free speech as fascists. He also reportedly has a very high IQ.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  52. He also attended MIT on an academic scholarship but dropped out as a senior to go into acting.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  53. I appreciate the need for thorough surveillance, but I am really thinking that the surveillance should be restricted to calls to or from a foreign country.

    Also, if they can read texts or listen in on calls, they need probably cause.

    OmegaPaladin (4ba63b)

  54. Honestly, this all goes back to something I swear I remember reading by one of the Founder types (I want to say Jefferson, but it sounds like Ben Franklin…I just wish it was original with me).

    The only just law is one you do not mind in the hands of your bitterest enemies.

    This approach helps keeps hypocrisy at bay. “It okay when we do it” seems to be the motto of this administration…

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  55. nk, we now produce domestically more oil than we import*….that hasn’t happened since I believe the Carter Administration.

    *No thanks to O’s Energy and Interior Dept’s + the EPA.

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  56. nk 7. Under the spreading chestnut tree
    I sold you and you sold me.

    Thaere was a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1807–1882. http://www.bartleby.com/102/59.html

    It was adapted by George Orwell in his book “1984”

    http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?1452-Under-the-spreading-chestnut-tree

    This is probably based on an intervening 1920s song/poem amd 1939 nursery rhyme.

    It was nostalgic because there were no more chestnut trees. When the original poem was written they still had lots of chestnut trees. No more in the Twentuieth Century.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight

    Efforts started in the 1930s and are still ongoing to repopulate the country with these trees, in Massachusetts[8] and many other places in the United States.[4]

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  57. The President of the United States is a stalker.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  58. They discounted Woods’ information because of PC. IMO, this massive surveillance is used so they don’t have to make any uncomfortable statements about race or religion.

    So 9/11 happened. Fort Hood happened. Boston. The people killed were sacrificial lambs to PC.

    BTW why should we trust Google et al. who deny knowledge of this? Yahoo’s former CEO gave secrets to the ChiComs so they could catch dissidents!

    Patricia (be0117)

  59. As I recall, when the Patriot Act was proposed, it was conservatives who were busy calling liberals who raised civil rights concerns “traitors.”

    JEA (fb1111)

  60. I am absolutely sick to my stomach about all of this.

    G (bbda88)

  61. None of this is Obama’s fault, he first heard about it yesterday on TV, and anyway if it wasn’t for an offensive TEA Party video Brian Terry would still be alive and those rogue IRS agents in Cincinnati never would have had to sell Gadaffi’s assault weapons to Mexican drug smugglers.

    There, now that any possible misunderstanding has been fully explained it’s unnecessary for Eric Holder, Lois Lerner, Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton et al to respond to unfounded questions or trumped up accusations by nosey Congressional investigators who should know enough to follow the example of MSM and just roll over and go back to sleep.

    ropelight (97e567)

  62. Nations rise and fall. This cycle is inevitable. And history shows that the world’s most dominant nation typically has a long, grinding decline. It’s going to take a while.

    That’s why, instead of trying to change the system, it’s so important to invest time, energy, and capital in the things that set up you and your family for maximum freedom and prosperity.

    that is very wise

    happyfeet (c60db2)

  63. As I recall, when the Patriot Act was proposed, it was conservatives who were busy calling liberals who raised civil rights concerns “traitors.”

    Really? I remember some leftists screaming about such things. I’m sure you have links, so I won’t argue.

    Regardless, if it was bad then, why is it not bad now? Other than the political party of the President?

    In other words, you have no point other than “Bush.”

    Ag80 (eb6ffa)

  64. 61. As I recall, when the Patriot Act was proposed, it was conservatives who were busy calling liberals who raised civil rights concerns “traitors.”

    Comment by JEA (fb1111) — 6/7/2013 @ 3:25 pm

    Not that I recall conservatives applying that word to liberals at the time, but the fact that they voted for Obama is proof positive we would have been right to do so.

    Steve57 (7895a0)

  65. This is a really big ‘effin deal.

    Sensenbrenner quote? Well, paraphrase call it.

    There isn’t enough rope in Amerikkka to do the job.

    gary gulrud (941a3b)

  66. What is the point ’bout anonymity again?

    gary gulrud (941a3b)

  67. As Elephant Stone correctly pointed out up thread, President Strawman and False Choices has been telling us that Al Qaeda is on the run and the war on terror is winding down. If that is the case, why does President Prevarication feel the need to hoover up all this electronic information about people in America and who does he believe current terror threats are emanating from? They certainly cannot be coming from radical Islamists or other prohibited labels President Petain has purged from lexicons of our intelligence and defense communities out of political correctness, can they? They must be coming from racist homophobic lifeydoodle Teabaggerz and returning veterans who oppose free abortion gay sex in schools or something.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  68. Have you seen Obama’s (imagined) apology letter to Booooosh? It’s kind of fun.

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/imagined-letter-president-obama-president-bush/story?id=19350973#.UbNne-eOS5V

    elissa (16bbd7)

  69. piggy american spy whores

    they have their own agenda

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  70. elissa – Barky is a very gracious man.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  71. The White House database knows what style of underroos I wear (Ok, I admit it, I still like to pretend I’m Aquaman !) and which restaurants I order take-out from, but none of their surveillance records happens to tell them who gave the orders for Benghazi or who gave the orders to the I.R.S. agents.

    Elephant Stone (da6dfd)

  72. ES – I favor Scooby Doo Dr. Dentons and matching sheets and pillow cases, but please keep that to yourself.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  73. Glenn Beck yesterday was in a pretty grim and Brave New 1984 World mode yesterday, including taking out the battereis of your iPads and computers when not using them which sounds a little far fetched…
    until…
    one recalls a situation where high school students in suburban Philadelphia had laptoos from their high school that could be set to have the video of whatever the camera less was pointed at monitored from the school:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District

    If a high school can do this having provided the computers, who knows what the NSA could do…

    Just think, even someone who never did one thing illegal or even immoral in their entire lives have moments they would not want posted on YouTube, for a price.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  74. You know, if the govt knew enough to think, “Say, this guy in the army is defending jihadists, saying they are justified, and identifies with them, maybe we should keep an eye on him”.

    If they could and would do that, then I would feel a little bit better about what info they were gathering…
    but someohow I think what they are interested in gathering is not what I think they should be interested in gathering, eh Inigo?

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  75. I think what I would like to do is event a double encryption code. The most easily found way to break the code results in text of all Painted Jaguar speak, then you have to figure out how to decipher the Painted Jaguar speak into the intended message.

    I’ll let you know when I’m done, but don’t hold your breath.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  76. event invent

    Look at that, already doing it without trying!!!

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  77. We need the Navajo Code talkers again.

    elissa (16bbd7)

  78. elissa – It’s all Greek to me.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  79. And the people who are monitoring this, at the lowest level, everything is just numbers to them, everything. They aren’t seeing what we are typing or saying or looking at. They are just seeing alerts when you jump to the next tier of “terrorist activity” whatever that means. They are all just numbers to them. Checks and balances my a$$.

    G (bbda88)

  80. No longer can any conspiracy theories exist unless the Government says it can. If you start to stumble onto start connecting dots of certain things, specifically people dying by “suicide” or “heart failure” you are going to be flagged in that database with nothing but a number to identify you, and once you start going on the rabbit hole they know you are there. Start looking back at things, the demonization of people, prostraight marriage people deserve whatever is coming to them, they are nothing but an obstacle and a nuisance. Look at those that died and the ridicule or blame to the reasoning behind that. Look at the suicides, can we trust the witnesses in black and white text? No longer can you use the internet to do research. Every search you do can be the trigger that gets added to your Government Watch List just takes you up to the next level, like achievements in video games, and once you get to a certain level you’ll really get their attention. We just got knocked back down to the Wild West, and it wasn’t Stand Your Ground that did it. The only thing keeping you safe is by ignorance and not speaking out. Welcome to the New World Order. While we were busy fighting each other about every single difference, no matter how petty, our constitution just got incinerated.

    G (bbda88)

  81. Whats his name, Greg Parker, Paker? I know never to trust him as a witness even though I believe he does that as his hobby or whatever.

    G (bbda88)

  82. 80. …one recalls a situation where high school students in suburban Philadelphia had laptoos from their high school that could be set to have the video of whatever the camera less was pointed at monitored from the school:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District

    If a high school can do this having provided the computers, who knows what the NSA could do…

    Just think, even someone who never did one thing illegal or even immoral in their entire lives have moments they would not want posted on YouTube, for a price.

    Comment by MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 6/8/2013 @ 12:35 pm

    It’s pretty simple technology. I agreed to a remote session with my security software provider the other day to solve some compatibility issues and during the course of the session all of a sudden I see myself on screen. I don’t use Skype but my laptop comes with the hardware and software to do so and the technician had activated the camera.

    Most computers now come with cameras and microphones and it’d be pretty easy for someone to activate them without your knowledge.

    It isn’t paranoid to talk about shutting your battery out of your cell phone. It’s possible to activate the microphone on that even when it’s turned off without indicating to the owner it’s even on. You have to take the battery out so it can’t be activated without your knowledge.

    The problem is the metadata. Thanks to the wonderfully named Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999 (I’ll give you two guesses as to who was President then and if your first guess was George Bush you’re wrong) your phone is a tracking device. Ostensibly so “they” can find you if you call 911. But if “they” can find you when you call 911 you can also be tracked when you don’t. Your phone automatically pings the nearest cell tower on a regular basis to give away your location whether you’re using it or not. For your own good. This feature is not unique to cell phones sold in the US.

    I don’t think shutting off the phone does all that much good because the metadata is more revealing. Link analysis is an intelligence tool designed to determine who is connected to who.

    To give an example, I was reading about how Erdogan is cracking down on press freedom in Turkey. Erdogan by the way is Obama’s closest friend among other national leaders, which is revealing when it comes to Obama’s own attitude toward the 1st Amendment, so listen up. Every reporter in Turkey believes he’s being monitored. And they are. I recalled reading how a US reporter commented it’s impossible to talk to a Turkish reporter about politics unless everyone first shuts off the cell phone and takes out the battery.

    Too late! Since they are being tracked Erdogan’s government already knows who was involved and where they gathered. They know they all shut off their cell phones at the same place at the same time. I bet when these reporters leave these meetings they turn on their phones within minutes again. So Erdogan’s government knows when their meeting started, where it was, who was there, and when it ended. Do they really need to listen in to figure out what these reporters were talking about?

    It’s not just reporters. The whole idea of getting a warrant to figure out exactly what someone is doing and with who becomes laughably quaint.

    Steve57 (7895a0)

  83. You still think it was a coincidence that Paterico went dark at a key moment during the 2008 election?

    @ comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 6/6/2013 @ 8:19 pm

    There are FOUR LIGHTS!
    Damn you.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  84. /\ Obama stole the extra t.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  85. RIP Joey Covington

    Colonel "Icy" Haiku (f416ac)

  86. On Saturday, Joey Covington performed in Palm Springs at a concert in honor of Marilyn Monroe’s 87th birthday.

    One has a difficult time picturing Marilyn at 87. Although, unlike her, quite a few of her Hollywood contemporaries are still alive and kicking. Of course, most of them prolly had the good sense to avoid the Kennedy men.

    elissa (16bbd7)

  87. Just thought of a good business opportunity for a conservative: an operating system and/or email provider that promises not to share info with anyone, without a subpoena from a real judge.

    Patricia (be0117)

  88. we need to bring back carrier pigeons and start thinking about clever things to do with pneumatic tubes

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  89. And smoke signals are hard to archive too.

    elissa (16bbd7)

  90. We’ll just need to start speaking in code. For example, when I say “Obama sucks monkey turds” it would mean “I am running to the 7-11 for some Snickers and Dr. Pepper”.

    nk (875f57)

  91. elissa @96, signal mirrors, too.

    Steve57 (7895a0)

  92. “We’ll just need to start speaking in code.”

    nk – Just follow Rep. Stockman’s advice if you want to keep your conversations private. Have them on MSNBC. Nobody watches that network.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  93. Dave Burge is on a roll on his twitter feed:

    https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog

    If you still think there are problems to which the solution is “more government,” go play in traffic.

    Govt needs a zillion dollar Leviathan surveillance program to monitor all communication because govt thinks immigration laws are icky.

    Govt has to give your grandma a full-body xray & prison patdown because govt doesn’t want to deny Chechen “refugees” welfare benefits.

    Govt has to scrape all your phone calls and emails because govt forgot to enforce immigration law on 20 expired visas in 2001.

    Government has a secret citizen surveillance program because government refuses to deny student visas to Yemenis.

    I used to follow Iowahawk’s blog religiously. But his last post is about Cinco de Mayo. Now I mostly follow him on twitter.

    Steve57 (7895a0)

  94. Guys, how do you think they knew to pin Benghazi on an internet video nobody saw? That’s how messed up this is. The metadata would have flagged all of that, all of it. They just were waiting for a moment to use it to their advantage.

    G (bbda88)

  95. nk, that is great.

    95.we need to bring back carrier pigeons and start thinking about clever things to do with pneumatic tubes
    Comment by happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/8/2013 @ 5:01 pm
    96.And smoke signals are hard to archive too.
    Comment by elissa (16bbd7) — 6/8/2013 @ 5:15 pm

    I have word from very good NSA surveillance sources that CPU (Carrier Pigeons United) request that you work on doing something clever with pneumatic tubes and smoke signals, not pneumatic tubes and carrier pigeons…
    That is all, carry on.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  96. i just had a vision of carol burnett hovering unsteadily over the end of a pneumatic tube

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  97. There are FOUR LIGHT! The Sparta Remix.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  98. “How many lights do you see?”
    The Jeopardy remix.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  99. The week in review;

    http://tiny.cc/vb0eyw

    narciso (3fec35)

  100. President Barack Obama used an unusually lengthy and informal desert summit to present Chinese President Xi Jinping with detailed evidence of intellectual property theft emanating from his country, as a top U.S. official declared Saturday that cybersecurity is now at the “center of the relationship” between the world’s largest economies.

    — Yes, Mr. President, because spying on the American people really is YOUR job, isn’t it?

    Icy (0884e8)

  101. piggy piggy president whore

    you need to stick to food stamps and corruption

    it’s called playing to your strengths

    and when you’re done you can get a nice tongue bath from porky porky chris christie

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  102. Returning control to teh IceMan…

    Colonel Haiku (f416ac)

  103. I must confess, Mr. Colonel, that I missed hearing about Joey Covington due to my over-reliance on Teh L.A. Dog Trainer for my obit info.

    Icy (0884e8)

  104. 108. By presenting the chinese president with “evidence” he’s only telling them what’s detectable amnd helping thjem to improve their spying.

    Syria and Iran did this kind of asking for evidence thing too.

    And Obama also doesn’t understand (or argue) that’s it’s also important when adversaries overestimate capabailities, not just when they underestimate it.

    Guessing right like Tamerlan Tsarnaev probably did is the worst outcome.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  105. 102. Comment by G (bbda88) — 6/8/2013 @ 7:01 pm

    Guys, how do you think they knew to pin Benghazi on an internet video nobody saw?

    Sooper sekrit intelligence coming from people in the Libyan government, and “intelligence partners” backed up by some not quite so secret intelligence that didn’t fit (a phone call between someone in benghazi and Al Qaeda in Yemen in which someone remarked that he had attacked or something the consulate after the Egyptian assault – not saying, by the way, because of it)

    You can see the Sooper Sekrit intelligence in the released Benghazi emails.

    There are two pages of information sent to Susan Rice – one about an unknown subject but presumably the Cairo attack and the video and the second about Libya.

    The pages are completely whited out except for the word “Libya:”

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  106. Comment by Elephant Stone (da6dfd) — 6/8/2013 @ 11:29 am

    who gave the orders to the I.R.S. agents.

    It wasn’;t someone close to Obama, because they were very interested in the National Organization for Marriage (proponents of gay marriage that is) and Obama isn’t interested in that subject.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  107. “It wasn’;t someone close to Obama”

    Sammy – You could argue that it was Obama himself with his repeated public denouncements of shadowy conservative groups with unknown donors who were perverting democracy, just like the progressive 501(c)4’s which were not targeted. Talk about yer dog whistles! Just sayin’.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  108. Sammy, how do you happen to know who did or didn’t give the orders to the I.R.S. agents ?
    It is amazing how often you make these pronouncements based on your assumptions that are shaped by what you read in the New York Slimes.

    If there wasn’t some very damaging smoking guns waiting to be unearthed, then the White House wouldn’t be sandbagging this issue, and Lois Lerner wouldn’t have taken the fifth.

    And Schulman wouldn’t have visited the White House 156 times.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  109. And Sammy, Daleyrocks infers a strong point about the culture and tone that Obama and his thugs established with all of their over-the-top public denouncements of the Tea Party groups.

    Elephant Stone (6a6f37)

  110. It wasn’;t someone close to Obama, because they were very interested in the National Organization for Marriage (proponents of gay marriage that is) and Obama isn’t interested in that subject.

    Huh? I almost have to laugh at your rationalization, in two ways.

    First, Obama apparently is bisexual, very emotionally leftwing, and any hesitancy he expressed in the past about the idea of same-sex marriage was more of a so-called stage whisper. Nothing but window dressing. So it’s ridiculous to assume that he of all people would not have a strong ideological (and personal) inclination for sympathizing with SSM.

    Second, NOM is a group opposed to gay marriage. It’s not a leftist outfit (which would be the case if they, as you say, supported SSM), is tilted to the right, and so it being targeted by the IRS fits the pattern. I’d buy into your excuse-making if NOM were politically in sync with a “Gay Pride” organization and yet still had been singled out by the IRS for extra scrutiny, had its donor list leaked to the public, and at the same time had piqued the curiosity of Obama and his minions.

    Since you’re surrounded by ridiculous amounts of liberalism in two categories, by residing in blue-berserk New York City and being a Jew (where over 75 to 80-plus percent are of the left), I know you struggle with liberal impulses on a constant basis. But try not to fall for them since they’re to common sense what sugar is to diabetes.

    blog.heritage.org, June 6: Adding to the list of complaints involving the IRS, this week, John Eastman, chairman of the board for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), testified before the House Committee on Ways and Means regarding last year’s illegal disclosure of the organization’s donors.

    In March 2012, NOM’s 2008 federal tax return (form 990-Schedule B)—which listed the names and addresses of NOM donors—was uploaded to the websites of the Human Rights Campaign and the Huffington Post. Computer analysts determined that the document’s leak came from within the IRS.

    According to Eastman, “the willful unauthorized public disclosure of NOM’s 2008 Schedule B by the IRS or its employees is a violation of federal law. Indeed, it is a serious felony punishable by a $5,000 fine and up to five years in federal prison, penalties that apply both to IRS and other government employees and third parties.”

    Moreover, Eastman testified that leaking the names of donors has a “chilling” effect that deters donors from future giving for fear of reprisal, intimidation, and harassment. Numerous cases of hostility toward those who support traditional marriage have been documented.

    Mark (bb410c)

  111. This is the new definition of BS – Barack Speak

    EWW (b85e76)

  112. I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this
    website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
    Plz answer back as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. thank you

    Lan (3b0852)


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