tagged w/ Government Eavesdropping
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General Dynamics has selected HBGary Inc to provide this proposal for development of a software application targeting the Windows XP Operating System that, when executed, loads and enables a covert kernel-mode implant that will exfiltrate a file from disk (or other remotely called commands) over a connected serial port to a remote device. The enabling kernel mode implant will cater to a command and control element via the serial port. The demonstration will utilize an exploit in Outlook as the delivery mechanism for said software application. The subsequently loaded implant will be stable and will not crash the demonstration system. A usermode component will be included as part of the exploitation package that exercises the kernel mode implant for demonstration purposes. The loaded implant will use the connected serial port to remotely enable functions which can be visible on the collection computer connected on the other end of the serial line. The purpose of the demonstration setup is to verify the functionality for the customer and validate that all work has been completed.
Primary Objectives:
• Development of a kernel-mode implant that is clearly able to exfiltrate an on-disk file, opening of the CD tray, blinking of the keyboard lights, opening and deleting a file, and a memory buffer exfiltration over a connected serial line to a collection station. For demonstration, a null modem cable will be used to connect the collection station
• The use of a standard Outlook Exploit as a delivery mechanism for the implant, with the intention being that any suitable exploit could be used for the same.
• As part of the exploit delivery package, a usermode trojan will assist in the loading of the implant, which will clearly demonstrate the full capability of the implant.
• Test set (which will consist of two computers networked together via a null modem cable using HyperTerminal) that can reliably and repeatedly demonstrate the exploit and subsequent implant capability of the system.
GO TO STORY:
http://publicintelligence.net/hbgary-general-dynamics-malware-development-project-c/General Dynamics has selected HBGary Inc to provide this proposal for development of a... more
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Anonymous Swarms on Security Firm That Poked the Hive
By Richard Adhikari
TechNewsWorld
02/07/11 2:52 PM PT
A security company has felt the wrath of Anonymous after its CEO told a newspaper he had discovered personal information about individuals he believes are high-ranking members of the hacktivist group. In retaliation, the group disabled the company's website, published thousands of its internal emails and posted an online rebuke to the executive's claims.
So, what Is HBGary Federal?
HBGary Federal was the U.S. government cybersecurity services arm of HBGary. It was spun off in December of 2009.
HBGary CEO and Founder Greg Hoglund hired cybersecurity experts Aaron Barr and Ted Vera as the spin-off's CEO and COO, respectively. Both are former employees of Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC).
Barr, whose interview triggered the retaliation from Anonymous, reportedly served as the director of technology for the cybersecurity and signal intelligence business unit in Northrop Grumman's Intelligence Systems Division.
HBGary Federal's targeted customers included the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. intelligence community and other government agencies.
Breaking Into HBGary Federal
Anonymous apparently hacked into HBGary Federal by first hacking a tech support server, then compromising an insecure Web server to get at the company's emails, Hoglund told the Financial Times.
Finding and getting into a relatively insecure server in order to penetrate the enterprise network is a pretty standard hacking technique. Shouldn't a company that specializes in security perhaps have all its servers secured?
"If you're in the security business you probably need to make sure your own stuff is secure," Enderle said. "But often it's a case of the cobbler's children not having new shoes -- a company puts out new technology but that technology isn't necessarily applied to its own operations."
That's because the workings of many security companies' operations and in-house IT are kept separate, Enderle elaborated.
"The general security posture across the industry is very low right now," Cenzic's Khera said. "Most companies, for example, are testing only a fraction of their Web applications for security."
However, it might not be feasible to harden all a company's systems, even if that company specializes in security, suggested Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET.
"Even security companies have budgets and resource limitations," Abrams told TechNewsWorld. "Security is all about managing risk and, in weighing how secure the least important servers need to be, public relations should be part of the risk assessment for a security company."
nonymous, an amorphous group of cyberactivists, has set its sights on HBGary Federal, a company claiming to provide security expertise to the United States' federal government.
The group took down HBGary Federal's websites and posted a message denouncing the company online .
Anonymous' attack followed statements by Aaron Barr, HBGary Federal's CEO, that the company had collected information on the group's main leaders.
Anonymous has previously attacked the websites of governments and firms that opposed or took action against WikiLeaks for publishing more than 250,000 U.S. government cables on the Internet.
HBGary Federal did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
HBGary's Misstep
During an interview the Financial Times published last week, Barr claimed to have put together information about various high-ranking members of Anonymous through various means, including Facebook profiles.
Barr did this to demonstrate the security risks to organizations from social media and networking, he claimed.
In the interview, he also identified the nicknames and locations of a few individuals he believed to be top members of Anonymous.
Giving an interview to the Financial Times was probably a mistake, Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld.
"One thing you quickly learn as a security company is that you don't go out and bait people," Enderle said. "You don't go out and seek news coverage or it will backfire on you," he added.
"That's the risk you take any time you challenge hackers," Mandeep Khera, chief marketing officer at Cenzic, told TechNewsWorld. "They'll always find a way to get in."
Anonymous' Reaction
In addition to hijacking HBGary Federal's domain, Anonymous posted a message on the company's website.
The message also included an excerpt from what it claims is one of Barr's emails in which he essentially said his actions were about publicizing HBGary Federal's expertise.
Anonymous' message states the information Barr discovered is publicly available on its IRC networks, and it implies that Barr meant to sell his research to the FBI. The message claims Anonymous has in fact already sent the information to the FBI itself.
The cyberactivist group also posted 66,000 of HBGary Federal's corporate emails onto the Web.
Members of the group are being targeted by various governments. The British authorities have reportedly arrested five people they claim are members of Anonymous, and the U.S. authorities are claimed to have carried out 40 court-authorized searches in connection with their investigation into Anonymous.
GO TO STORY:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/71808.htmlAnonymous Swarms on Security Firm That Poked the Hive
By Richard Adhikari... more
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With reports of Egypt's government completing shutting down the Internet in the country, talk about an "Internet kill switch" bill in the U.S. has reemerged. Could it happen here?
The bill in question is the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, a cyber-security measure introduced in June by Sen. Joseph Lieberman. It was an over-arching cyber-security measure that, among other things, would create an office of cyberspace policy within the White House and a new cyber-security center within the Homeland Security Department.
A provision that got the most attention, however, was one that gave the president the power to "authorize emergency measures to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is about to be exploited."
Some interpreted that to mean that the president would have the authority to shut off the Internet at random. Lieberman refuted the "Internet kill switch" assertion as "misinformation" during an appearance on CNN, and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which he chairs, later published a "myth vs. reality" fact sheet on the bill.
The bill passed the committee, but did not see any significant action before the end of the session. Earlier this week, however, CNet reported that Lieberman will re-introduce the bill in this Congress, and that the updated bill will include a provision that says "the federal government's designation of vital Internet or other computer systems "shall not be subject to judicial review."
A Lieberman spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If it does go anywhere, though, should Americans be concerned about the Internet being shut down in the U.S.? In all likeliehood, no. Besides the fact that Lieberman himself says that his bill would not provide the government with an Internet kill switch, the bill - in theory - is intended to protect U.S. Web infrastructure from attacks that would irreperably harm the network rather than squash anti-government protests.
In Egypt, it appears that the government demanded that its four major ISPs shut down service. Could the U.S. government get away with asking Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, and the like to shut down their networks to stop citizens from organizing protests? Anything is possible, of course, but at this point, it seems unlikely.
The current administration has already condemned the shut down in Egypt. In a Friday tweet, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration is "very concerned about violence in Egypt - government must respect the rights of the Egyptian people & turn on social networking and internet."
PJ Crowley, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, also tweeted that the "events unfolding in #Egypt are of deep concern. Fundamental rights must be respected, violence avoided and open communications allowed."
President Obama, meanwhile, made net neutrality and the concept of an open Internet part of his campaign , and continues to support the idea. The administration also relied heavily on social networking and the Web to reach voters, so efforts to restrict the Web for anything other than public safety would be surprising.
Of course, defining what constitutes a public safety threat could be a bit tricky. That being said, the bill still has to be formally introduced and make its way through a now-divided Congress by the end of the year; Lieberman has announced plans to retire in 2012.
TO GO TO THIS STORY:
http://mobile.pcmag.com/device2/article.php?CALL_URL=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376888,00.aspWith reports of Egypt's government completing shutting down the Internet in the... more
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http://sourceforge.net
By Marius Bosch and Georgina Prodhan
JOHANNESBURG/LONDON (Reuters) - If anyone needed proof that cyber activists can create havoc in the real world, the last few weeks have provided evidence in megabytes.
Rallying behind WikiLeaks, the thousands of internet activists who made headlines in December by bringing down the websites of MasterCard and Visa have been branching out.
Operating under the banner "Anonymous", their other forms of action have included hacker defacements of websites, real-life protests such as mass leafleting, and a role in Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution".
Anonymous activists attacked and shut down several government websites before the ouster of former President Zine al Abedine Ben Ali. They have also targeted governments they see as enemies of free speech. Last month the website of Zimbabwe's finance ministry was hacked and the homepage replaced by a message from Anonymous.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) this week said such attacks on computer systems are unlikely to cause a global shock on their own, though could do if launched in the midst of a natural disaster such as a large solar flare that wipes out satellites and other key communications hardware.
But this misses the point. Global chaos is not Anonymous' aim. As the WikiLeaks and Tunisia cases show, the group targets specific institutions and its attacks are designed to temporarily delay more than destroy. Think of them not as acts of cyber war but as high-profile guerrilla strikes.
1> CATALYSTS
A look inside some of the main online forums suggests that those behind the WikiLeak-inspired attacks are patient, coordinate almost organically, and remain wary of outsiders. That all means that their next moves remain unpredictable.
In the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels -- chat rooms where up to 3,000 participants at a time can discuss strategy and plot attacks -- reporters are treated with suspicion. Over the past few weeks, though, a few Anons -- as activists refer to themselves online -- agreed to talk to Reuters.
There is anecdotal evidence that Anonymous is growing stronger. Several Anons told Reuters the arrest of Assange and the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against Visa and Mastercard -- in which company websites were bombarded with so many requests they crashed -- inspired them to join the group.
"Saw it on a news article, joined the IRC, and things went on from there. 4 months ago," one Anon nicknamed "tflow" told Reuters in a private message on the IRC channel.
"I was angry at the arrest of Assange and how the credit card companies shut down WikiLeaks' accounts. Been here since," said another, going by the name of Noms9001, referring to the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Britain.
"I'm not a rebel, I can say that. For me, it's been an issue of governments and corporations attempting to control what we say and hear online."
One said they had been involved with Anonymous since the group's Project Chanology protests against the Church of Scientology in 2008. Another blamed a failed late December attack on Bank of America on a splinter group of Anonymous, and said an expected drop by WikiLeaks of documents related to the bank could provide an opportunity for a renewed effort to bring down its site.
2> MONITORING
Targets are chosen by consensus and can be attacked by as many as 10,000 computers simultaneously. Communication is mainly through IRC but supporters also use micro-blogging site Twitter and video-sharing site YouTube to release information.
The activists claim to come from all over -- Europe, the United States, China and elsewhere in Asia -- and share an almost paranoid concern with covering the tracks left by the software they use.
During the attacks on Tunisian government websites over the past couple of weeks, activists warned Tunisian citizens in the OpTunisia IRC channel against joining an assault on local internet hosting organisation ATI.
"If you are Tunisian, do not participate in the DDoS attack. Chances are that you will get traced and arrested. Unless you have means to conceal your IP and know what you are doing, do NOT attack," warned one activist.
"Do NOT give out any personal information on this IRC network. This is a public chat and you can be sure that it is monitored," the activist added.
There's a good reason for the caution. Two Dutch teenagers were arrested in December in connection with cyber attacks by WikiLeaks supporters. Both have been released and are awaiting trial.
And the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation raided a Texas server-hosting company last month looking for evidence that Anonymous had used its servers to launch attacks on PayPal, according to an affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun website.
Some activists hope their sheer numbers will prevent authorities from trying to trace them. "Imagine tracking 9,000 plus computers across the planet for an arrest," Calgarc said in the IRC channel in reply to a question on how an attacker can hide his tracks.
3> FIRE YOUR CANNON
All you need to wage cyber war is a fast-paced internet forum packed with hundreds of determined activists and a simple piece of software called a Low Orbit Ion Cannon. Activists download the LOIC -- initially developed to help internet security experts test website vulnerability to DDoS attacks -- and start firing packets of data at the targeted website.
If enough people join in, a DDoS attack prevents the overloaded server from responding to legitimate requests and slows the website to a crawl or shuts it down totally.
Attackers can even listen to a dedicated internet radio station, Radiopayback, during attacks.
A quarter of a million copies of the LOIC software have been downloaded from sourceforge.net so far, more than half of them since November when Web hosting and banking organisations began withdrawing support from WikiLeaks.
One in five downloads since the start of November was in the United States, with a few hundred in Tunisia, and a handful in bandwidth-deprived Zimbabwe.
Users of the software can be traced. A study by Dutch researchers found last year that the tool did not mask the host computer's internet protocol (IP) address.
Barrett Lyon, a security expert who specialises in protecting companies against denial of service attacks, said the LOIC program is fairly rudimentary but effective if used by thousands of people. "It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. It's not as focused as it could have been. If they got their software together in a more sophisticated kind of way, this kind of thing could have gotten easier with more violence."
Lyon said depending on the time of day there were 500-10,000 computers involved in the attacks.
"10,000 people have quite a bit of fire power," he added.
4> CREDIBLE COUNTERFORCE
TO GO TO NEXT PAGE CLICK BELOW :
http://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-54257020110119?ca=rdt
http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2011/1/6/tunisia-cyber-special-anonymous-takes-down-the-government.htmlhttp://sourceforge.net
By Marius Bosch and Georgina Prodhan
JOHANNESBURG/LONDON... more
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Please support Wikileaks by donating.
Click here: http://213.251.145.96/support.html
Please sign the petition: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks...
If you would like to become even more involved, then there may be a "support Wikileaks protest" near you.
Click here for details: http://wlcentral.org/events-protests
Here is a list of Wikileaks mirror sites:
http://wikileaks.ch/mirrors.html
After Effects template for opening by Kenzei via Video Hive.
The statistics of how many have died as a result of the war on terror is an estimate taken from http://www.unknownnews.net
It is hard to pin pinpoint just how many have died due to the fact that this information isn't released. estimates have the toll somewhere between
800,000 and 1,200,000
Requests under freedom of information act denied by Obama Administration should read 49% - for more info
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/16...
Another point to make is that the clip of Obama talking about different terrorists was an except taken from an interview with Bill O'Reilly where he was explaining the difference between terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, i thought it was relevant as so much of the terminology in the media is focused around labelling wikileaks and it's people terrorists.
The song "Your the Voice" was by Coldplay featuring John Farnham - song was originally by John Farnham.
The clip was taken from a concert in Sydney "Sound Relief" where many bands came together to support people who were devastated by the Black Saturday fires. - of whom Coldplay were amongst them.
PLEASE POST THIS AROUND.
CheersPlease support Wikileaks by donating.
Click here: http://213.251.145.96/support.html... more
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2011-01-03: UPDATE: The Wrath of Anon in Tunisia
Submitted by knowledgeempire on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 09:20
If you thought the The Anonymous Group had hung their suits for the night, think again. The following is a list of additional Tunisian government and financial sites that have been rendered nonoperational; at the time of this publication, each site is still down:
www.bmvt.com.tn - Tunisian Stock Exchange
www.sicad.gov.tn - Tunisian Foreign Relations
www.industrie.gov.tn - The Ministry of Industry
www.commerce.gov.tn - Tunisian Government Commerce
www.carthage.tn - The Carthage Palace: Presidency of The Republic of Tunisia
benali.tn - Presidential Elections Site
www.ministeres.tn - Tunisian government site listing various ministries
Expressed motivations for these attacks, as well as yesterday's DDoS attack updates, can be found here.2011-01-03: UPDATE: The Wrath of Anon in Tunisia
Submitted by knowledgeempire on... more
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The Espionage Act is a huge danger to our open society; it's been used to send hundreds of dissenters to jail just for voicing their opinions, transforming dissent into treason.
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Rumors are swirling that the United States is preparing to indict Wikileaks leader Julian Assange for conspiring to violate the Espionage Act of 1917. The modern version of that act states among many, many other things that: “Whoever, for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States” causes the disclosure or publication of this material, could be subject to massive criminal penalties. It also states that: “If two or more persons conspire to violate any of the foregoing provisions … each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be subject to the punishment provided for the offense which is the object of such conspiracy.” (18 U.S. Code, Chapter 37, Section 793.)
I view the Espionage Act of 1917 as a lifelong nemesis. My parents were charged, tried and ultimately executed after being indicted for Conspiracy to Commit Espionage under that act.
The 1917 Act has a notorious history. It originally served to squelch opposition to World War I. It criminalized criticism of the war effort, and sent hundreds of dissenters to jail just for voicing their opinions. It transformed dissent into treason.
Many who attacked the law noted that the framers of the Constitution had specifically limited what constituted treason by writing it into the Constituton: “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort” (Article III, section 3). The framers felt this narrow definition was necessary to prevent treason from becoming what some called “the weapon of a political faction.” Furthermore, in their discussions at the Constitutional Convention they agreed that spoken opposition was protected by the First Amendment and could never be considered treason.
It appears obvious that the Espionage Act is unconstitutional because it does exactly what the Constitution prohibits. It is, in other words, an effort to make an end run around the Treason Clause of the Constitution. Not surprisingly, however, as we’ve seen in times of political stress, the Supreme Court upheld its validity in a 5-4 decision. Although later decisions seemed to criticize and limit its scope, the Espionage Act of 1917 has never been declared unconstitutional. To this day, with a few notable exceptions that include my parents’ case, it has been a dormant sword of Damocles, awaiting the right political moment and an authoritarian Supreme Court to spring to life and slash at dissenters.
It is no accident that Julian Assange may face a “conspiracy” charge just as my parents did. All that is required of the prosecution to prove a conspiracy is to present evidence that two or more people got together and took one act in furtherance of an illegal plan. It could be a phone call or a conversation.
In my parents’ case the only evidence presented against my mother was David and Ruth Greenglasses’ testimony that she was present at a critical espionage meeting and typed up David’s handwritten description of a sketch. Although this testimony has since been shown to be false, even if it were true, it would mean that the government of the United States executed someone for typing.
But the reach of “conspiracy” is even more insidious. It means that ANYONE with whom my parents could have discussed their actions and politics could have been swept up and had similar charges brought against them if someone testified that those conversations included plans to commit espionage. Thus, the case against my parents was rightly seen by many in their political community of rank and file Communist Party Members as a threat to them all.
Viewing the Wikileaks situation through this lens, it becomes apparent why the government would seek to charge Assange with conspiracy. Not only Assange, but anyone involved in the Wikileaks community could be swept up in a dragnet. Just as in my parents’ case, the prosecutors could seek to bully some involved into ratting out others, in return for more favorable treatment. This divide and conquer approach would turn individuals against each other, sow the seeds of distrust within the broader community, and intimidate others into quiescence.
This kind of attack threatens every left wing activist. I urge all progressives to come to the defense of Julian Assange should he be indicted for violating the Espionage Act of 1917.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/149345/my_parents_were_executed_under_the_unconstitutional_espionage_act_--_here's_why_we_must_fight_to_protect_julian_assange?page=entireThe Espionage Act is a huge danger to our open society; it's been used to send... more
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"the world of modern eavesdropping...as each operation has come to light, an anxious public wants to know whether this program undermines privacy and civil liberties. whom is the government watching?...who is watching the watchers?""the world of modern eavesdropping...as each operation has come to light, an... more
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When you make a call on your cell phone, just how much privacy should you expect to enjoy? More importantly, does owning a cell phone give the government the right to track your whereabouts, even if it hasn't shown probable cause to believe it will turn up evidence of a crime? According to the Department of Justice, the answer to the second question is quite clearly yes.
In a case pending before the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals the Justice Department argues that it need only show "reasonable grounds" to believe that cell phone records are "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation" in order to access them. The issue illustrates a clash between federal criminal statutes, in this case the Stored Communications Act, and the Fourth Amendment. Privacy and civil rights advocates are closely watching the case as one that could set the standard for understanding the extent of individual privacy rights in the digital age.
The issue is not whether or not the government is entitled to cell phone location data, but rather, what legal showing the government must make before getting that information. In this case federal prosecutors had made a request for cell phone location data in connection with an ongoing investigation into a larger-scale narcotics trafficking and other violent crime. The location data was necessary, the government argued, because one of the targets of the investigation had used different vehicles and properties to conduct a variety of illegal activities making traditional physical surveillance difficult.
But the lower court had ruled that citizens maintain a reasonable expectation of privacy in those records and use of their cell phone does not suspend that expectation. So, just like any other search, before the government can access that information it must meet the standard Fourth Amendment probable cause showing. The government disagreed and appealed the ruling, arguing that it need only meet the lower reasonableness standard.When you make a call on your cell phone, just how much privacy should you expect to... more
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Open ID is now being used by Facebook, Yahoo, Flickr, Paypal, Google, Microsoft, AOL, MySpace, IBM, LiveJournal and VeriSign, among many others.
OpenID is a distributed single sign on solution that allows people to sign into different services with the same login credentials.
Simply put, one cracked OpenID site (by hackers, the government, parents, etc) could result in total profile information access and/or one's identity being abused over several other OpenID sites.
The creator of OpenID currently works at Google.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID#Security_and_phishingOpen ID is now being used by Facebook, Yahoo, Flickr, Paypal, Google, Microsoft, AOL,... more
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WASHINGTON — The departments of Defense, State, and Health and Human Services have not met legal requirements meant to protect Americans' civil liberties, and a board that's supposed to enforce the mandates has been dormant since 2007, according to federal records.
All three departments have failed to comply with a 2007 law directing them to appoint civil liberties protection officers and report regularly to Congress on the safeguards they use to make sure their programs don't undermine the public's rights and privacy, a USA TODAY review of congressional filings shows.WASHINGTON — The departments of Defense, State, and Health and Human Services... more
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James Bamsford's new book on the NSA.
The Bush administration’s wiretapping program has come under new scrutiny this week. Two influential congressional committees have opened probes into allegations US intelligence spied on the phone calls of American military personnel, journalists and aid workers in Iraq. We speak to James Bamford about the NSA’s spying on Americans, the agency’s failings pre-9/11 and the ties between NSA and the nation’s telecommunications companies.James Bamsford's new book on the NSA.
The Bush administration’s... more
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The National Security Agency said on Thursday it was investigating allegations that intelligence officials listened to personal phone calls from military officers, journalists and other Americans living outside the United States.
The comments followed media reports that U.S. agents intercepted calls from U.S. citizens using satellite phones to call friends and relatives back home even though they were clearly not terrorism suspects.
"Some of these allegations have been investigated and found to be unsubstantiated. Others are in the investigation process," the agency said in a statement.
The allegations, reported by ABC News earlier on Thursday, were made by two former military linguists who said calls from Americans, including aid workers, were monitored as part of the Bush administration's controversial surveillance program.
Intelligence operators routinely shared details with each other from the intercepted calls, especially those including intimate conversations, one linguist told ABC.
Administration officials have said the program is used narrowly to protect the country against possible attack, but human rights groups and others say it threatens citizens' privacy.
Congress allowed the program to continue earlier this year, giving authorities the power to eavesdrop on people outside the United States without a court order, while including rules aimed at minimizing such surveillance.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller said his panel would examine the allegations and requested related information from the White House.
"There are strict procedures in place governing intelligence surveillance when it involves U.S. persons. The Committee will take whatever action is necessary to ensure those rules are followed and any violations are addressed," the West Virginia Democrat said.
Opponents of the program said the allegations showed the rules were inadequate.
"Today's report is an indictment not only of the Bush administration, but of all of those political leaders, Democratic and Republican, who have been saying that the executive branch can be trusted with surveillance powers that are essentially unchecked," said Jameel Jaffer, head of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project.The National Security Agency said on Thursday it was investigating allegations that... more
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Published on Thursday, October 9, 2008 by ABC News
Inside Account of US Eavesdropping on Americans
U.S. Officers' "Phone Sex" Intercepted, Recorded, Shared Across NSA Listening Post
by Brian Ross, Vic Walter, and Anna Schecter
"Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.
"These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones," said Adrienne Kinne, a 31-year old US Army Reserves Arab linguist assigned to a special military program at the NSA's Back Hall at Fort Gordon from November 2001 to 2003.
Kinne described the contents of the calls as "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism."
She said US military officers, American journalists and American aid workers were routinely intercepted and "collected on" as they called their offices or homes in the United States.
Another intercept operator, former Navy Arab linguist, David Murfee Faulk, 39, said he and his fellow intercept operators listened into hundreds of Americans picked up using phones in Baghdad's Green Zone from late 2003 to November 2007.
"Calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses, sometimes their girlfriends, sometimes one phone call following another," said Faulk.
The accounts of the two former intercept operators, who have never met and did not know of the other's allegations, provide the first inside look at the day to day operations of the huge and controversial US terrorist surveillance program.
"There is a constant check to make sure that our civil liberties of our citizens are treated with respect," said President Bush at a news conference this past February.
But the accounts of the two whistleblowers, which could not be independently corroborated, raise serious questions about how much respect is accorded those Americans whose conversations are intercepted in the name of fighting terrorism.
US Soldier's 'Phone Sex' Intercepted, Shared
Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer.
"Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News.
"This story is to surveillance law what Abu Ghraib was to prison law," Turley said.
Continued at link above
In light of this subject, "The Lives of Others" is a deeply provocative, beautifully crafted feature film addressing this subject. Highly recommend watching it if you haven't seen it. http://www.sonyclassics.com/thelivesofothers/swf/index.htmlPublished on Thursday, October 9, 2008 by ABC News
Inside Account of US Eavesdropping... more
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In addition to its current wiretap lawsuit against AT&T (which the government is trying to dismiss), the EFF has filed suit against Cheney, Gonzales, and a host of others.
By suing the government directly, the EFF is attempting to undermine the government's plan to use a new power handed to it by Congress in July. The so-called telecom immunity provision nearly automatically forces a judge to dismiss lawsuits against companies accused of helping the government spy -- without court approval -- on the phone and internet communications of Americans.
Last week, the government told a federal court judge overseeing some 38 cases against the telecoms that it would file those papers on AT&T's behalf by Friday.
Thursday's potential class action suit against the government -- filed in federal district court in Northern California -- seeks a halt to the program, an accounting of who was spied on and damages for the five named plaintiffs.
It also names high government officials -– in their official and personal capacities -- putting them at risk of fines they would be personally liable for.
Among those listed – former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, along with current and former heads of intelligence agencies involved in the spying.
"In addition to suing AT&T, we've now opened a second front in the battle to stop the NSA's illegal surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans and hold personally responsible those who authorized or participated in the spying program," said senior staff attorney Kevin Bankston.
The suit argues the spying violated federal wiretap law, the First Amendment's guarantee of anonymous speech and the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable searches.
Others have challenged the government program directly, but no one has succeeded so far. The EFF hopes the whistle-blower evidence it has used to keep the AT&T case alive will also work to prove it has a right to sue the feds as well.
The EFF plans to contest the legality of the so-called telecom immunity powers -- but wants to have another avenue to pursue its goal of having the program declared illegal.
Though the full extent of the secret spying is not known, media reports indicate the government collected phone calls and emails – with the help of American telecoms -- where one party was inside the U.S. and one was outside the country.
Until recently, wiretapping law required court orders to collect that information inside the U.S.
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which largely legalized did not immunize the government or government officials.In addition to its current wiretap lawsuit against AT&T (which the government is... more
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Some cite the argument that government eavesdropping is "no big deal" if they have "nothing to hide." But, the problem with a government that assumes control like this is that they could, ultimately, have control over what they consider problematic. Who knows how the rules will change with more and more government control?Some cite the argument that government eavesdropping is "no big deal" if... more
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MeAbby
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3 years ago
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UC TV had an interview with Coleen Rowley of the FBI, she wrote the memo that eventually came out proving that the FBI, CIA and the Bush Administration had information that may have been able to prevent 9/11. What about now? She sees only modest changes. What about all the 9/11 Report recommendations? When are they ever going to be acted on. When we remember the 3000 Americans we lost on 9/11, we must also remember the more than 3000 American Heroes who have given their lives since in the wars, and the many thousands more heroes coming home severely injured. Let this 9/11 be different, this time. For Democracy to work, it must be OF THE PEOPLE. Let's wake up and run our country. I have every confidence in the American People, to do the right things, when they know what's really going on. UC TV had an interview with Coleen Rowley of the FBI, she wrote the memo that... more
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If you chose to suck at the teat of unrestrited government power, then all that comes with it, ie., loss of your rights to privacy and to feel secure in your home-is what you will be feeding on.
The law enforcement system is out of control. It has become its own entity and is backed by the supreme court. I work for a law enforcement agency, I see it every day.
Do yourselves a favor and don't just put control of your lives in the hands of government.
THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU!!! THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT FULFILLING THEIR QUOTAS AND KEEPING THE STATISTICS UP SO THEY GET MORE OF OUR MONEY!!!
Read the constitution and Bill of Rights, people. Then do something to defend it-for ourselves and our prodigy.If you chose to suck at the teat of unrestrited government power, then all that comes... more
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A federal judge in New York has ordered Google to turn over to Viacom a database linking users of YouTube, the Web’s largest video site by far, with every clip they have watched there.
The order raised concerns among users and privacy advocates that the online video viewing habits of tens of millions of people could be exposed. But Google and Viacom said they were hoping to come up with a way to protect the anonymity of YouTube viewers.
A federal judge in New York has ordered Google to turn over to Viacom a database... more
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ACLU and The Underground present spoken word artists Steve Connell and Sekou (tha misfit) as they defend their need for privacy and protection against new technology and surveillance. For more of Steve & Sekou check out past pods by The Underground or go to http://www.aclu.org/unabridgedACLU and The Underground present spoken word artists Steve Connell and Sekou (tha... more
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