LOVEINT!!! oh god this alone makes it all worth it,,, thank you Snowden!
P.S. setup a bitcoin donation address. best regards, On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 9:21 PM, Yosem Companys <[email protected]> wrote: > http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130823/18432024301/nsa-admits-okay-okay-there-have-been-bunch-intentional-abuses-including-spying-loved-ones.shtml > > NSA Admits: Okay, Okay, There Have Been A Bunch Of Intentional Abuses, > Including Spying On Love Interests > > from the and-we're-just-now-telling-congress dept > > So, this week, we wrote about the NSA quietly admitting that there had been > intentional abusesof its surveillance infrastructure, despite earlier claims > by NSA boss Keith Alexander and various folks in Congress that there had > been absolutely no "intentional" abuses. Late on Friday (of course) the NSA > finally put out an official statement admitting to an average of one > intentional abuser per year over the past ten years. The AP is reporting > that at least one of the abuses involved an NSA employee spying on a former > spouse. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal suggests that spying on love > interests happens somewhat more often: > > The practice isn’t frequent — one official estimated a handful of cases in > the last decade — but it’s common enough to garner its own spycraft label: > LOVEINT. > > A handful is still significantly more than once. And it's a lot more than > the "zero" times we'd been told about repeatedly by defenders of the > program. > > While the NSA says it takes these abuses seriously, there's no indication > that the analyst was fired. > > Much more troubling is that it appears that the NSA only told its oversight > committee in the Senate about all of this a few days ago: > > The Senate Intelligence Committee was briefed this week on the willful > violations by the NSA's inspector general's office, as first reported by > Bloomberg. > > "The committee has learned that in isolated cases over the past decade, a > very small number of NSA personnel have violated NSA procedures — in roughly > one case per year," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who > chairs the committee, said in a statement Friday. > > Of course, this is the same Dianne Feinstein who, exactly a week ago, said > the following: > > As I have said previously, the committee has never identified an instance in > which the NSA has intentionally abused its authority to conduct surveillance > for inappropriate purposes. > > Yeah. Because apparently the NSA chose not to tell the committee until a few > days later, despite it happening for years. > > And, of course, they release this all on a Friday night, hoping that it'll > avoid the news cycle... > > In the meantime, the NSA just made Senator Feinstein look like a complete > fool. She's been its strongest defender in Congress for years, and has stood > up for it time and time again, despite all of this questionable activity. > Then, last week, it lets her tell lies about it without telling her > beforehand that there had been such abuses. At this point, it's abundantly > clear that Feinstein's "oversight" of the NSA is a joke. She's either > incompetent or lying. Either way, it appears that the NSA is running circles > around her, and isn't subject to any real Congressional oversight. At some > point, you'd think that maybe she'd stop defending it and actually start > doing her job when it comes to oversight. You'd think the fact that it let > her make a complete fool of herself by claiming there had been no > intentional abuses should make Feinstein realize that the NSA situation is > out of control. But, tragically, this seems unlikely. Even her statement > seems to want to minimize the seriousness of the fact that she -- the person > in charge of oversight -- was completely kept in the dark about very serious > intentional abuses. Senator Feinstein just got hung out to dry by the NSA. > You'd think she'd stop going to bat for it and its lies. > > Either way, we've now gone from General Keith Alexander and Feinstein > claiming "no abuses," to them saying no "intentional" abuses, to this latest > admission of plenty of intentional abuses, including spying on lovers. > Perhaps, instead of lying, it's time for the NSA to come clean and to get > some real oversight. > > > -- > Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. > Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, > change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at > [email protected].
