A BIPARTISAN GROUP of lawmakers is none too happy that the executive branch is asking them to reauthorize two key surveillance programs next year without answering the single most important question about them.
The programs, authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, are called PRISM and Upstream. PRISM collects hundreds of millions of internet communications of “targeted individuals” from providers such as Facebook, Yahoo, and Skype. Upstream takes communications straight from the major U.S. internet backbones run by telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Verizon and harvests data that involves selectors related to foreign targets.
But both programs, though nominally targeted at foreigners overseas, inevitably sweep up massive amounts of data involving innocent Americans.
The question is: How much? The government won’t answer.
Fourteen members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper on Friday asking for at least a rough estimate.
“In order that we may properly evaluate these programs, we write to ask that you provide us with a public estimate of the number of communications or transactions involving United States persons subject to Section 702 surveillance on an annual basis,” said the letter. Signatories included ranking Democrat John Conyers Jr. and a senior Republican member, James Sensenbrenner.
Sen. Ron Wyden has asked for a number since 2011; the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board recommended in July 2014 that the government provide several. In October, more than 30 privacy groups asked for an estimate and explained how easy it would be to come up with one.
“House Judiciary Committee members have lent their voices to the growing chorus demanding hard facts about how foreign intelligence surveillance affects Americans,” said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, in a statement. “The NSA will soon be asking Congress to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and it will repeat its past claims that any collection of Americans’ communications is merely ‘incidental.’”
But, Goitein said, “We still don’t have this basic information.”
Top photo: “Red Bricks” by Grzesiek used under CC BY, modified with NSA logo.
But who’s going to collect that ” basic information”? Here’s a little historical footnote.
A 2011 online obituary noted that a veteran had retired from an element of the U.S. Army Security Agency, referred to as “Unit 10,” at Arlington Hall Station, Virginia.
As revealed by unclassified online sources, for possibly thirty years before the establishment of the Special Collection Service, the Army Security Agency, the Army’s signals intelligence branch from 1945 to 1976 – and predecessor of the National Security Agency – operated signals intelligence collection sites in U.S. embassies around the world. Staffed by Morse intercept operators (Army military occupational specialty 058, later re-designated 05H), who were authorized to wear civilian clothes, the Army Security Agency embassy sites were used to collect Morse code radio communications.
In the 1950‘s and 1960‘s knowledge of “embassy duty“ was widespread within the Army Security Agency as shown by veterans‘ oral history reports and other online sources. Army Security Agency recruiters mentioned the possibility of civilian clothes embassy duty to promising young men to induce them to enlist in the Army Security Agency for four years instead of being drafted into the combat arms for two years. In 1959 an Army Security Agency senior non-commissioned officer wrote “History of Project 78.” Project 78 may not have been related to the Army Security Agency embassy sites, however, the author of its history was, or had been, a member of Unit 10, which controlled the embassy sites, and subsequently was a member of a Unit 10 veterans’ reunion organization called the “Super Group.”
The Special Collection Service, formed between 1978 and 1982, likely inherited the Unit 10 sites as a result of a signals intelligence reorganization that led to the deactivation of the Army Security Agency.
It isn’t that- “programs inevitably sweep up massive amounts of data on innocent Americans”. — It’s that, these programs are a pretext, an excuse, for sweeping up the data that can’t justify collecting under any other rationale.
The are nothing but clandestine organizations dedicated to the overthrow of real democracy and the creation of a dystopian state. They exist to secure the safety of those in power, and those who put them into power. They do not serve the public.
True.
Maybe they should ask the most relevant question of them all: ” Is The National Security Agency conducting Electronic Warfare on innocent Americans?”
Maybe Clapper learned his lesson and has found that it is better to say nothing at all then to lie to congress again.
Glenn Greenwald has refused to divulge the number of Snowden documents that he was given. So what’s the deal here if NSA refuses to divulge the number of people they surveil?
Sure, Greenwald and our elected government are of equal importance to the citizens of the USA and to congress persons in fulfill their duties to make and pass laws that affect all of us. So great, Glenn! I knew he was good, but I did not know he was that good.
I would hope that General Hercules was being sarcastic.
Regarding this statement:
“But both programs, though nominally targeted at foreigners overseas, inevitably sweep up massive amounts of data involving innocent Americans.”
It ISN’T just data. There is an active 24×7 live surveillance program going on regarding American citizens within the continental US. The reason for this surveillance is potential leaks of both NSA and CIA within continental US.
Lemme see if I understood you correctly. Americans are being spied on, just in case some NSA or CIA employee/contractor leaks information? Why not just spy on their own employees/contractors?
Claiming that any interception of Americans’ communications is incidental is like claiming that a comet that is known to one day be set on a collision course with Earth eight decades prior is not even registered on a database for possible catastrophes involving Earth, and therefore not required to be prepared against and destroyed so that a particular amalgam of elites can cower underground and continue existing before it impacts. How can those senators stop any metaphorical comets if they don’t possess the knowledge required to do so?
If Congress wanted an answer to its question, it could have it tomorrow by stating, “We are withholding funding for the NSA until it responds”.
However, Congress is designed for inaction and gridlock is its modus operandi. Criticizing Congress for inaction is similar to criticizing the sun for being hot, or water for being wet. It’s true, but unhelpful. Congress will still be asking that same question in 20 years time, and refusing to do anything until they get an answer. If by some chance, the NSA were foolish enough to answer the question, Congress would simply think up some other question.
It should not be construed that I am critical of Congress. I recognize its limitations, but I give it kudos for its achievements. Its rationale for inaction is endlessly varying and imaginative. When it comes to doing nothing, Congress is the best in the business.
It seems fairly clear that they put on a big show of fighting each other so that people don’t realize how much in agreement they really are and don’t take away their power. Congress, or the current presidential debate, it applies to both.
The fantasy of the rescue from the annunciationp of fear or disaster, fear of disaster, at some point, has to be real- otherwise it is a paranoid psychosis.
The problem with America is that it perpetrates an enemy-creating operating environement in proportion to their willingness to kill innocent persons.
This predatory nature as exemplified by the failure to prosecute wallstreet and the bush administration only amplifies the willingness of certain American warmongers to run the rescue-fraud on America. Like WMD.
As they have not answered this question it is quite evident that they don’t consider your questions to be valid. Any answer that the punks give you at this point forward will not be factual and they should never be trusted. I suggest that you do not appropriate any more funding of these programs. You know from past dealings with these people that they are committing criminal acts and rubbing your face in it.
Day by day, month by month, year by year, decade by decade, the Secret Team machines their malevolent capitalist designs upon the physical planet, unbeknownst to most of the living beings who supply their labor, their captured legislative arms in every captured nation on the planet who supply the legal imperialism to sustain 100 year old corporate family owned and controlled multinational corporations and control of the local/ nation wide law enforcement and Intelligence Community elements to such extent that even Orwell would faint in recognition of his naivety. If only you would grasp the history of the Secret Team and it’s relevance today, you would be on your way to to let go of every preconceived path and purpose of your journey through life.
http://www.oplysning.org/uploads/9/1/4/3/9143605/cia_-_the_secret_team_how_they_control_the_world.pdf
quote“We still don’t have this basic information.”unquote
As if the IC gave it to the Congress… they would do something with it. Hahahaha. Make my day. The only thing that would change is the words that the media would use to tell you the USG is still your benevolent godfather. Meanwhile, those in Congress who COULD do something, will cower in stark dark corners of their world to keep their skeletons from being exposed by the NSA.
there is one more important layer to this story. The public needs to know how these programs work so we can choose our representatives. The present system assumes we trust the ” honorable” persons that are our government representatives. Of course in the real world we know those charged with representing the public’s best interests really represent the best interests of those who finance their campaigns.
They don’t just steal data. They steal lives. That makes them murderers.
Check into it, journalist.
Here’s the REAL DEAL .. it’s FASCISM. The NSA is to big Internet Companies like the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is to REALTORS. The NSA COLLECTS all the data (like a MLS for houses) and it is shared by all the NSA Fascist Companies to use to target Americans based on what they know about them.
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/this_man_is_still_lying_to_america/
And he continues to lie.
And journalists are still not even close…
And this is the world’s “freest” democracy. One that we pressure other governments around the world to mimic…..
Absolutely. In fact, we are advocating on behalf of 3rd world predatory murderous dictators. They have minders and the secret police. We have the biggest secret police state on the planet. We send the police force out to arrest protesters, beat up protesters, kill unarmed persons, allow for the slaughter of children in schools, allow Americans to be robbed by wallstreet, invade sovereign countries, falsify evidence and lie to citizens.
And we complain about Bashar al-Assad?
The people who created this mess is not Mr. Snowden, but rather some of the members of our 3 branches of Government who Mr. Snownen blew the whistle on, they and they alone are the ones responsible for the crimes they have committed ! ! ! See Title 18 Sec. 241 & 242 (Google It )
Secrecy and opacity are the ultimate enablers of corruption. Both political parties and all branches and tiers of government take full advantage of existing laws/rules and ‘reform’ the current system to their advantage. This is definitely one area where there is no significant difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates for president.
The single most transformative and revolutionary fix would be universal whistleblower protection. Oligarchy, legal and illegal corruption and influence peddling (legal corruption) is only possible if kept out of sight. Secrecy in government activity, industrial practices such as deleterious/hazardous working conditions, improper containment/control/dumping of hazardous materials/waste, safety record of consumer/market goods and fairness of worker wages allows owners/operators/politicians (drink freely of the ‘safe’ water in Flint) to maximize profits at consumer ignorance.
The best way to ensure a geopolitical/economic system with greatest flexibility, fairness and competition is to maximize transparency and make all information freely available.
“The single most transformative and revolutionary fix would be universal whistleblower protection. ”
The single most transformative and revolutionary fix would be true democracy and an end to capitalism. All whistleblower protection means is allowing someone to safely lift the cover, from time to time, on the cesspool beneath that continues unabated.
There was a study done that pointed out forty percent of a congressman’s/congresswomen’s time was spent on raising campaign funds. It was nice they found the time to ask this question, but is highly unlikely that they will take the necessary time to see that they get an answer. In the event a whistle blower makes the answer available they can always claim they asked.
If congressman/congresswomen spend too much time focusing on an issue like this it will just put them behind in serving the wants of their funding masters.
Dan —
When everything — voice telephony, Internet, video whatever else — travels Internet packet mode over global fiber optic networks, they have to start by mirroring _everything_that goes through the switching stations, before they can begin data mining it on any level — for metadata, trigger words, whatever.
This is a fundamental, inescapable fact built into the infrastructure of electronic networks. Practically speaking, leaving aside diatribes about the Stasi-like aspirations of the surveillance-industrial complex, that’s how 21st century surveillance has to done.
Any ordinary fiber optic engineer — let alone the likes of William Binney — could tell you that and could have told you in 2003-2007.
In 2015 the fact that you imagine questions like these are even moot suggests you haven’t done the most basic homework that you need to do if you’re going to try to report on these issues.
There are other, more appropriate and constitutional methods of surveillance for the 21st century. This wiretap of everyone really needs to end. If you want a wiretap, get a fucking warrant. Our packets should never be inspected between the user and the server they’re communicating with, unless there is a warrant signed by a judge to intercept them. I am fed up with government entitlement.
I’ve read With Liberty and Justice for Some, I aced my Political Science courses, I keep my ear to the ground with current events.
PRISM and Upsteam will pass. 2:1 odds, any takers?
I’m pretty sure the answer to “How much?” is EVERYTHING.
EVERYTHING is collected, but this will never be acknowledged by Surveillance Agencies. It is the INDEX to everything, what they call “metadata”, that Surveillance Agencies profess to utilize in keeping with the Rule of Law. The difference between having everything and having the index to everything is what makes FISA a sham, and makes the regulators’ questions moot.
Yes! Exactly correct.
They will not answer the questions – because it becomes an admission of doing unauthorized wire-taps… If you watch you will see a wonderful two-step around the issues. Will they invoke their FIFTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS??
Until they make it messy- congressional inquiries, indictments, purse-strings, etc- they’ll never get an honest response. It’s amazing how impotent congress is in this regard.
Parse the wording carefully. It may be possible to bounce a phone call off a satellite or route an email through a Canadian server thereby re-designating it as “foreign” or “international.”
Also, other countries are spying on Americans, Israel, Britain, Canada etc. They then swap their information with the US intelligence agencies via “intelligence sharing arrangements.”
Looked up long enough from their wallow in frothing trough to blink, did they? Not at all f’in likely…
We have a collection of terrorists listed because of PRISM and are sure there would be incidental crimes of mass proportion without it.
What, the Congress “persons” have looked up from their frothy troths long enough to have blinked? Not bloody likely…
Congress is a joke. Esp. the Senate “Intelligence” committee which has AIDED AND ABETTED torture, renditions and numerous breaks of US and International law.
‘But both programs, though nominally targeted at foreigners overseas, inevitably sweep us massive amounts of data involving innocent Americans.
The question is: How much? The government won’t answer.”
allow me
EVERYTHING.
If it was just the metadata as they have claimed before (and we already know they are sociopathic liars who feed on power) then they would proudly say so. Not happening.