Extent Of NSA's E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns In Congress

New York Times:

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Toonadude]

George W. Bush doesn't use the internets or the e-mails so I'm guessing he isn't concerned about this news.

[DXM]

And how is any of this surprising? I can also guarantee that, aside from some potential policy changes to mitigate the abuses somewhat, nothing much is going to happen either. No one will lose their job, or go to jail or be held accountable in any way for flagrantly abusing the Constitutional rights of millions if not tens of million of American citizens..­. nothing.

[KnowzyRowzy]

“The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authoritie­s.”

Zbigniew Brzezinski, "Between Two Ages", 1970

[Toonadude]

Just wait until the few remaining deep-pocket employers get a hold of those electronic medical records. Imagine -- being able to restrict hiring to only perfect specimens.

[HonorJusticeTruth]

You ever read what you agree to on an application for employment. Your signature gives them carte blanche to get every and any record about you that is out there, in the name of doing such things as determining if you are of "good character". And do they check further than the stuff they are given to check it's validity, no. They'll make a quick decision and move on to the next applicant because it 's not worth their time. Health? First they're going to figure out your age. Over your mid forties, good luck at this point. Over your mid fifties, do some heavy praying.

[OdysseusNemesis]

As at now, if you encrypt your email, you will raise NSA suspicion: This is because many of us don't, but if many people start using steganography and cryptography, NSA will be overwhelmed by the share volume of work involved in detecting, crytanalyzing or steganalyzing encrypted emails -- even with the help of NSA giant mainframes.

Make this your next Christmas resolution: “I will encrypt all my emails”

[fcsakes]

I don't even know what most of those words mean, although I will of course Google them right now...:)

[Keith52]

Shocking, Shocking, Shocking..­. not really.

[xansam]

of course they did. there is no constitution anymore.

[MakeAWish]

Another Obama promise, another BIG disappointment! He will never get my vote again.

[Grunty1]

Yeah! He hasn't fixed 30 years worth of damage in 30 days!!

Oh wait, that makes no sense.

[YewNeekId]

Take off the official Obama tin foil hat - it's blocking your vision of reality.

[AnnfromCA]

Hello. He reversed his position on FISA in the primary.

You're stuck with it.

[BBackSoon]

Thanks Mr. Obvious, you’re a lifesaver.

[brandnewstuff]

Liars Liars Liars and just one the Program that had the DOJ with James Comey and FBI Director Mueller have an almost massive walkout-- AMAZING...­... That Still AG Holder has not been PUSHED Hard Enough to follow Constitutional rule of LAWS...

SO who is being protected? Who is being Violated?

[JohnHKennedy]

"agency routinely examined large volumes of Americans’ e-mail messages without court warrants. Two intelligence officials confirmed that the program was still in operation.­"

Our Democrats have filed to protect our rights under our Constitution for over seven years.

Nothing will come of this unless you push them hard.

They could start a Commission to investigate, but will they?
They could push AG Holder to appoint a Special Prosecutor, but will they?
They could push Obama to allow Holder to do it, but will they.

I'm a 44 year Democrat who has very little faith in our Democratic politicians.

The only way any of them will do anything is if We Keep Up The Pressure.

SIGN THE PETITION
To Prosecute Those that Tortured In Our Name

http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG

.

[RRoadrunner]

It is imperative for the NSA to collect as much information on Americans as possible. Experian, Equifax, TransUnion depend on this information!

[Rog49Thomas]

Time for some bold decisive Congressional action.

Let's have a hearing and pretend to ask questions they can pretend to answer.

[lochnessmonster]

They should have thought about it more and been more concerned BEFORE they passed the law and allowed this to happen. What did they think would happen...t­hat they wouldn't do this? Give them an inch and they'll take a mile.

[thinkfreemind]

Part 3:

In conclusion, I suppose we are should be happy with at least the knowledge that the same people who readily broke the law are now secretly working to make sure nothing changes. I mean, if they wanted to change this, it's a very simple issue of bringing it up in congress and talking about the mistake openly to have it resolved as quickly as possible, and with a promise that this will never happen again. Why not take these steps? Perhaps it's just because they can't be bothered to lie to us three times about the same issue. They are busy people after all, what with their not researching the topics they vote upon and their constant struggle (on both sides) to see who can fudge us over the most.

[thinkfreemind]

Part 2:

5. The N.S.A. will not talk about this issue because "relevant laws and procedures, technical or inadvertent errors can occur" (probably as a result of breaking the law of course) and that "when such errors are identified ... they are reported to the appropriate officials, and corrective measures are taken.” However, they didn't say who those appropriate officials are. Most likely they are just the same people who are in those secret meetings, because they're sure to be held accountable there right?

6. Officials acknowledge that "over collection on that scale could lead to a significant number of privacy invasions of American citizens ... setting off the concerns among lawmakers and on the secret FISA court." The secret FISA court, by the way, is where they get the permission slips to spy on everyone, and without anyone really knowing, because it's another secret of course.

7. In the pushing for telecom immunity last year (for their role in breaking the law), the measure passed "tacitly acknowledged that some amount of Americans’ e-mail would inevitably be captured by the N.S.A." So, at least it's not like they didn't know that they were passing a law to break the law.