James Bamford and the US DOJ's Criminal File on the NSA

Interesting read--James Bamford and the US DOJ's Criminal File on the NSA--

The NSA and Me - The Intercept: "...The solution is not to jail the whistleblowers, or to question the patriotism of those who tell their stories, but to do what Attorney General Edward Levi courageously attempted to do more than a third of a century ago – to have the criminal division of the Justice Department conduct a thorough investigation, and then to prosecute any member of the intelligence community who has broken the law, whether by illegally spying on Americans or by lying to Congress. I would be happy to lend my copy of the NSA’s criminal file to Attorney General Eric Holder, if he would like to see how to begin. Or he can read it here...." (more at link above)

Follow @johnmpoole

Snowden's Five Biggest NSA Bombshells (video)

The Five Biggest NSA Bombshells Dropped by Snowden: Video - Bloomberg: Nine months and counting... NSA fugitive Edward Snowden is still making waves. And he warns that more secrets will be revealed. Here are some of the biggest bombshells he's exposed so far. (Source: Bloomberg, March 25) (go to link above if video does not show or play after 4 seconds)

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

US Intelligence, Desperate Lies, Huge Incompetence

Watch Stephen Colbert lambast the NSA and Snowden at security conference | The Verge: "We can trust the NSA," explains Colbert, "because without a doubt it is history's most powerful, pervasive, sophisticated surveillance agency ever to be totally pwned by a 29-year-old with a thumb drive.""

The Crimea Blame Game Turns To Edward Snowden: "U.S. intelligence officials — in leaks to news organizations and quiet conversations in Washington — have begun to blame Edward Snowden for their failure to anticipate Russian aggression in Crimea. But several current and former intelligence officials said that the U.S. failure to see into Vladimir Putin’s plans is profound and long-running, and that there is little evidence that Snowden’s leaks allowed Russia to evade U.S. intelligence more effectively than it had already been doing...."

Oh yes, everything from hereon out is poor Edward's fault. Overnight the NSA and CIA and the rest of the US national intelligence [sic] bureaucracies became impotent and inept, full of intelligence failures, all due to (as Steven Colbert put it) being pwned by a 29-year-old with a thumb drive!

Better explanation of NSA, CIA, et al failures: extraordinary incompetence (see Peter Thiel say this of  the NSA here).

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

Mike Rogers, Goodbye and good riddance!

Mike Rogers to retire, heading to radio? Goodbye and good riddance to a national disgrace, traitor to the US Constitution, and now he is going to spew his ignorance on radio? Good place for that hack -- radio is a dying medium. He never did his job of oversight of the NSA and look what a debacle and mess he has made! And all he has been doing is run around making stupid and groundless attacks on the one guy who exposed the Constitutional abuses going on at the NSA, that massively incompetent agency (Peter Thiel's words, not mine) --

Mike Rogers to retire, heading to radio - John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman - POLITICO.com: "He has been a harsh critic of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, suggesting — without offering additional proof — that Snowden was working with foreign intelligence agencies."

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

If you are going to SXSW

I recommend attending: 

Snowden 2.0: A Field Report from the NSA Archives
Monday, March 10 at 9:30AM - 10:30AM

Schedule | sxsw.com: "Gellman is one of three reporters entrusted by Edward Snowden last May with top secret NSA archives. In December, he was the first to interview Snowden face to face in Moscow. Nine months after breaking the PRISM story in The Washington Post, Gellman looks back at what we have learned, what it means, and what we still don't know. Snowden gave birth to an insurgency against the surveillance-industrial state. A counterinsurgency rose to defend the status quo. Gellman offers an insider's view of who is winning and why."

Presenter - Barton Gellman
Author/Journalist
The Century Foundation

Barton Gellman, a critically honored journalist and author, is senior fellow at the Century Foundation and Lecturer at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. He is one of three journalists entrusted by Edward Snowden last May with top secret NSA archives. In December, he was the first to interview Snowden face to face in Moscow. 
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP28121

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

US Senator Rand Paul vs Obama and the NSA

Not everyone on Capitol Hill is scared of the national surveillance state -- enter US Senator Rand Paul (read his full article at the link below--excerpt follows):

The NSA is still violating Americans' rights, despite what James Clapper says | Rand Paul | theguardian.com: "The notion that if the NSA had informed us they were monitoring every American would somehow make it OK, does not make it OK. Explaining why you are violating the Fourth Amendment does not invalidate the Fourth Amendment."

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

The Five Surveillance Myths Stalling NSA Reform

Myths, lies, whatever you want to call them --

Myth No 1: NSA surveillance programs have thwarted terror attacks here at home.
Myth No 2: NSA data-crunching programs only work if you collect all information on everyone.
Myth No 3: All relevant decision-makers were briefed on the programs and approved them.
Myth No 4: There’s simply no other less-intrusive way to achieve the same ends.
Myth No 5: President Obama’s changes sufficiently address the privacy violations revealed in the last eight months.

Five surveillance myths stalling NSA reform, debunked | Michelle Richardson | Comment is free | theguardian.com: "The Day We Fight Back deserves truth amidst the administration’s half-truths and trolling. From thwarted attacks (zero) to President Obama’s new rules (not good enough), this is what you need to know to make real reform happen . . . ." (read more at the link above)

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

Obama's best speech ever because of Snowden's NSA disclosures

Obama to call for significant changes in NSA practices http://t.co/GFC3W7839V #NSA #Obama
— johnmpoole.com (@johnmpoole) January 17, 2014

Now it comes down to execution and follow-up. There are a lot of details to fill in. The devil is in the details.

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

President Obama's BIGGEST Lie in 2013

I know what you are thinking -- "if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan" -- the problem is that Obama LIE was repeated multiple times from 2009 through last year, so it is technically disqualified. Here's the BIGGEST Obama Lie of 2013 --

President Obama claims the NSA has never abused its authority. That's false | Trevor Timm | theguardian.com: "The facts that we know so far – from FISA court documents to LOVEINT – show that the NSA has overstepped its powers - Time and again since the world learned the extent of what the NSA was doing, government officials have defended the controversial mass surveillance programs by falling back on one talking point: the NSA programs may be all-powerful, but they have never been abused. President Obama continually evokes the phase when defending the NSAin public. In his end-of-year press conference, he reiterated, "There continues not to be evidence that the [metadata surveillance] program had been abused". Former NSA chief Michael Hayden says this almost weekly, and former CIA deputy director and NSA review panel member Mike Morrell said it again just before Christmas. This mantra is likely to be repeated often in 2014 as Obama is set to address the nation on government surveillance, and Congress and the president debate whether any reforms are necessary.

There's only one problem: it's not true.

We don't have to look further than the Fisa court opinions that have been released in the past few months (thanks to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits by Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union). One of the opinions from 2009 deals directly with the phone metadata surveillance program that has caused so much controversy – the same program a Washington DC district court recently ruled is likely unconstitutional . . ." (read more at the link above)

Memo to Obama: if you have to lie to justify a government program, you have a problem. It remains to be seen in 2014 what Obama does to fix his NSA problem. And his lying problem? Probably beyond hope of fixing.

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

NSA Analyst: "We Could Have Prevented 9/11"

Why is the US government so scared that Americans might find out the truth?

Washington Spectator: NSA Analyst: "We Could Have Prevented 9/11": "Thomas Drake, a brilliant intelligence analyst, software engineer, and IT management consultant, worked at the CIA in the 1980s, then as a contractor at the National Security Agency (NSA), and ultimately as an NSA senior executive in 2001. But from 2006 until July 2011, he became the government's and NSA's public enemy. Why? From his high-level perch at NSA, he saw the failure to act on intelligence that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks, and he saw corruption at the highest levels..." (read more at link above)

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

The Snowden Effect

No one individual has had a more profound on the United States, its national surveillance complex, issues of privacy, and the abusive government power and control post-9/11, than Edward Snowden. President Obama (and others) has said it is a conversation we needed to have (yet Obama continues to chill free speech). Truly the Man of the Year (forget TIME--it's a dinosaur), Edward Snowden's revelations will continue to impact the US and world in 2014.

The Snowden saga heralds a radical shift in capitalism - FT.com: " . . . . the National Security Agency contractor turned whistleblower has revealed too many uncomfortable truths about how today’s world works. Technical infrastructure and geopolitical power; rampant consumerism and ubiquitous surveillance; the lofty rhetoric of “internet freedom” and the sober reality of the ever-increasing internet control – all these are interconnected in ways most of us would rather not acknowledge or think about. Instead, we have focused on just one element in this long chain – state spying – but have mostly ignored all others. . . ."

Prediction: Edward Snowden will never be prosecuted in the United States, but will live out his life as a free global citizen.

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

"Americans must never make the mistake of wholly 'trusting' our public officials"

Bad week for the NSA, first the Court ruling declaring NSA practices likely unconstitutional. Then the day after Obama met with tech leaders for two and half hours (solely about the NSA), the White House releases the Report, and having read it, here's a money quote:

Report and Recommendations of The President’s Review Group on Intelligence  and Communications Technologies --

“Americans must never make the mistake of wholly “trusting” our public officials. As the Church Committee observed more than 35 years ago, when the capacity of government to collect massive amounts of data about individual Americans was still in its infancy, the “massive centralization of . . . information creates a temptation to use it for improper purposes, threatens to ‘chill’ the exercise of First Amendment rights, and is inimical to the privacy of citizens.” ( p. 116) (read more at the link above)

If I were with the NSA (or CBS News), I would be looking for a rock to crawl under.

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

Is Congressman Mike Rogers a Liar?

(Tip of the hat to: "UT Documents: The trustworthiness of Congressman Mike Rogers")

Fox News, December 2, 2013: The evidence surrounding the case of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden suggests he did not act alone when he downloaded some 200,000 documents, according to the Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee. "We know he did some things capability-wise that was beyond his capabilities. Which means he used someone else's help to try and steal things from the United States, the people of the United States. Classified information, information we use to keep America safe," Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., told Fox News.

Reuters, today (11 days later) - reporting on comments made in "a rare interview at NSA's heavily guarded Fort Meade headquarters" with "Richard Ledgett, who leads a task force responding to the leaks": The NSA's internal review has determined about 98 percent of the scope of the material that Snowden had accessed, and officials have found no evidence that he had help either within the NSA or from adversary spy agencies.
So how could Congressman Rogers have known something that the NSA itself says there is no evidence of? Just more pathetic lies from Washington officials about the NSA -- Congressional oversight? -- LOL!

Clowns and fools and LIARS! At this point, anybody who votes for Mike Rogers is irresponsible. He didn't do his job of oversight as Committee chair, and he has lied to the American people about the facts. Guys like this are not worthy of holding public office or serving in any capacity in government.

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

ICANN, like NSA, a self-serving bureaucracy killing the internet

All of the hopes, dreams, and promise of the internet, dashed by the NSA and ICANN et al:

ICANN leaders push for broad-based Internet governance | PCWorld: "The revelations this year of NSA surveillance by former contractor Edward Snowden have stirred up Internet governance issues, Chehadé said. “That’s, frankly, almost irrelevant at this point,” he said. “What is more important is to focus ... on a future that allows all people—governments, businesses, civil society, technical organizations—to feel that they together have an equal footing in the governance of the Internet. That’s the future.”

Such grand words! Unfortunately, ICANN abandoned "serving in the public interest" and instead has adopted its own self-serving mission of greed -- read more here.

And the NSA long ago went astray of its mission, and became an out-of-control self-serving bureaucracy, complete with secret rubber-stamp FISA court, in the absence of any real overight or Presidential direction, all in the name of "national security." The legacy of the Bush-Obama era is that the NSA and the other self-serving bureaucracies, DHS, TSA, et al, have made "national security" a suspect phrase. No thinking American today believes anything that the NSA or these other acronyms say, as they have been shown to lie consistently to the American people, including under oath to Congress, and as a result, they are not trustworthy. And they have almost nothing to show for all of the billions of dollars wasted on their grand schemes of "keeping America safe." Puh-leeze, get off the security theatre and BS! And stop lying to the American people!

So how does a low-level government contract worker walk off with all of the NSA top-secret classified documents? That's not hard to do when the government agency, in this case the NSA, is an arrogant, fat, lazy, inept, self-serving bureaucracy, accountable to no one except the small-minds who run the NSA. And to think that the NSA had Congress and the public believing they were doing a good job and were good stewards of the billions in tax dollars wasted on their grand schemes of spying on Americans and the rest of the world! That is, until Mr. Snowden exposed all of their secrets to the world. One man did what the FISA court, Congress, and the President all failed to do -- hold the NSA accountable.

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

NSA and its "Golden Age of Sigint" crushed by Snowden

It's always a good thing when arrogant pricks like the NSA get their comeuppance --

N.S.A. Report Outlined Goals for More Power - NYTimes.com: "...Using sweeping language, the paper also outlined some of the agency’s other ambitions. They included defeating the cybersecurity practices of adversaries [that probably includes ordinary Americans] in order to acquire the data the agency needs from “anyone, anytime, anywhere.” The agency also said it would try to decrypt or bypass codes that keep communications secret by influencing “the global commercial encryption market through commercial relationships,” human spies and intelligence partners in other countries. It also talked of the need to “revolutionize” analysis of its vast collections of data to “radically increase operational impact."..."

The strategy document, provided by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, was written at a time when the agency was at the peak of its powers and the scope of its surveillance operations was still secret. Since then, Mr. Snowden’s revelations have changed the political landscape."

In other words, the big, bad NSA with its grand schemes and plans, billions of  taxpayer funds to just throw away on useless projects, and free to do as it pleased by a clueless President, rubber-stamp secret Court, and dysfunctional Congress, was stopped by just one David -- thank you Mr. Snowden!

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

Why Care About the NSA? (video)

Why Care About the N.S.A.? - Video - NYTimes.com: "Why Care About the N.S.A.? BY BRIAN KNAPPENBERGER November 25th, 2013 A short film explores whether ordinary Americans should be concerned about online surveillance."

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

Qualcomm CEO Says NSA Fallout Impacting Its Business

Government bureaucracies like NSA only think about themselves, perpetrating and expanding their power, budget, and programs, with little if any thought of all of the unintended disastrous consequences that result --

Qualcomm CEO Says NSA Fallout Impacting China Business - WSJ.com: "Chief Executive Paul Jacobs acknowledged U.S. restrictions on Chinese companies and revelations about surveillance by the National Security Agency are impacting its business in the fast-growing country. "We are definitely seeing increased pressure," said Mr. Jacobs in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "All U.S. tech companies are seeing pressure." Mr. Jacobs stopped short of saying the pressure hurt its sales, but he did say it affected the way the company operated in China...The company doesn't build cutting edge technology there, but it does build some older trailing technologies in China. Mr. Jacobs said it is "very delicate balancing act that goes on. There's no question there is an impact." In the fiscal year ended Sept. 29, Qualcomm generated $1 billion in revenue from China."

Concepts like public service, stewardship of public funds, careful allocation and re-allocation of limited resources, limited government powers, freedom of enterprise, and individual  freedom itself, are foreign concepts in Washington DC today. Welcome to Big Brother Government. And if that puts YOU out of business, well too bad! There's always food stamps and Obama and his administration take great pride in that as do Walmart and all the other corporate welfare Queens (including Coke and Pepsi -- average SNAP recipient drinks much more sugar soda than average American) who financially profit from the SNAP program a/k/a food stamp program:


Obama expansion of the Food Stamp Program a/k/a SNAP --more than doubled in just three years (2008-2011) -- what a recovery!

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

US Navy joins NSA in US intelligence snafus

First some low-level contract worker walks off with all of the NSA's top secret classified documents. Now the US Navy Vice Admiral who is the Navy's top intelligence officer, and the US Navy’s director of intelligence operations, were both placed on leave Friday, November 8, and their access to classified material was suspended, the Navy said in a statement. "Both admirals are being investigated for their ties to a Singapore-based defense contractor, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, whose chief executive was arrested in September on charges that he bribed other Navy officers into giving him classified or privileged information in exchange for prostitutes and cash." Two admirals face probe in Navy bribery scheme - The Washington Post.

You have to hand it to the US government and the Commander in Chief, when it comes to security and intelligence, they really run a tight ship! And these are the clowns and idiots who are keeping us safe? LOL!  Intelligence, Security, Prostitutes, Cash -- see a disconnect here? This reminds one of the US Secret Service whose whoring around finally caught up with them in Colombia.

And if you wonder why neither China nor Russia showed any interest in obtaining Snowden's documents, it's most likely both China and Russia already had everything Snowden had, long before he ever downloaded anything onto a thumbdrive. Whether somebody inside the NSA gave it to them (for prostitutes and cash?) or they used a backdoor or credentials, I'll leave for others to investigate. But remember, this is the same national security and intelligence apparatus that couldn't stop the Boston bombers (even after being given advance warning by Russia) nor make a facial ID after the suspects were caught on security cameras! And the Great Leader is a guy who, through his now National Security Advisor, tried to tell us that Benghazi was the result of a YouTube video. God help us.

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

NSA, Awash in Data, No Actionable Intelligence

Any damn fool can throw away billions of dollars collecting mountains and mountains of data -- but when it comes  to "NSA performance" there's no real "return on investment" -- see e.g., NSA Whistleblower: Government Failed to Stop Boston Bombing Because It Was Overwhelmed with Data from Mass Surveillance On Americans | Washington's Blog

No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A. - NYTimes.com: "But the documents released by Mr. Snowden sometimes also seem to underscore the limits of what even the most intensive intelligence collection can achieve by itself. Blanket N.S.A. eavesdropping in Afghanistan, described in the documents as covering government offices and the hide-outs of second-tier Taliban militants alike, has failed to produce a clear victory against a low-tech enemy. The agency kept track as Syria amassed its arsenal of chemical weapons — but that knowledge did nothing to prevent the gruesome slaughter outside Damascus in August." (read more at link above)

It is obvious the NSA has been a loose cannon for years, lacks management and direction from the Office of President (he admits being clueless), and so-called Congressional oversight is a joke. Prescription:

• scrap the secret FISA Court;
• completely change the leadership and direction at the NSA;
• repeal the so-called Patriot Act, and start over;
• pardon Edward Snowden, fire Attorney General Holder and find a replacement who has some common sense and respects the US Constitution, values whistleblowers, and understands the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and a free press;
• Cut the NSA budget to 20% of its present amount -- you'll get much better performance and intelligence. 

Now, there's some real hope and change!

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole

US Government is its own worst enemy

You have to hand it to Obama and his administration -- their ineptness leaves one breathless -- first they come down so hard on any and all whistleblowers (and target any member of the media who may be talking to whistleblowers uncovering US government misconduct) that the chilling effect produces (surprise!) a Snowden -- who changes the rules of the game -- rather than play by the US government rules and try to reform a corrupt administration from inside, he takes EVERYTHING and flees beyond the reach of Obama and his gang. Now ALL the information Obama and his administration wanted so badly to keep secret, including illegal and unconstitutional acts, are coming out, one by one, in media all over the world. Thanks to the NSA, Obama and his administration, and Bush before him, and their ilk, the reputation of the US in the world is in the toilet. So what do Obama's guys do? Why they take out their anger and vengeance against a small businessman named Levison and destroy his law-abiding company. What Justice?

ACLU: Lavabit 'fatally undermined' by US request for encryption keys | World news | theguardian.com: "ACLU lawyer Catherine Crump said the government's "unreasonably burdensome" demands "fundamentally destroyed the company as a whole". "Lavabit's business was predicated on offering a secure email service, and no company could possible tell its clients that it offers a secure service if its keys have been handed over to the government," Crump said. Lavabit closed its service in August after the US authorities demanded he hand over the encryption keys for its entire service – a move Levison said would have compromised the personal details of his 40,000 clients. Levison had previously offered the FBI access to the account that is believed to have been used by Snowden. The name of the FBI's target is redacted in court documents, and Levison is gagged by a court order from commenting."

One could call the actions of Obama's administration thuggish, moronic, short-sighted, and clumsy, but hardly effective. In the end, the might and power of a Goliath, has again been defeated by a David. Corrupt power never learns. If three years ago you had asked any of America's enemies for a strategy to diminish US influence and power in the world, none of them could have come up with the events of this year--the US government has been its own worst enemy, thanks to the policies of the NSA, Obama, and Obama's DOJ. They have no one to blame but themselves.

But I am optimistic. Somewhere in the future, the US will have wiser leadership, and a better government. That leadership and government will understand you want and need a leaky government in a democracy. That's how truth comes out, and how you stem the rot and corruption and excesses that are otherwise inevitable in all governments.

Tweet    Follow @johnmpoole