Follow up to previous postings: UK Guardian – Verizon forced to hand over telephone data – full court ruling;  EPIC: Sweeping NSA Domestic Surveillance Order Approved Without Any Ties to Foreign Intelligence Collection and EPIC – Congress Begins Investigation of NSA Domestic Surveillance Program see:

Via EPIC: “Presidential Policy Directive 20 orders the creation of potential targets for Offensive Cyber Effects Operations by the NSA. According to the classified document, the “Government shall identify potential targets of national importance where [cyberattacks] can offer a favorable balance of effectiveness and risk . . .” The Directive was signed last October and EPIC immediately filed a Freedom of Information request seeking public release of the policy as it implicates the privacy of domestic communications. The NSA refused to release the Directive. The White House released a summary of the Directive, but failed to disclose information about the NSA’s proposed cyberattacks. PPD-20 was made available to the public in a post to the Guardian by Glenn Greenwald.”

Via UK Guardian: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations: “The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA’s history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows • Q&A with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: ‘I do not expect to see home again’

Via The Atlantic and EFF: “The documents in question provide evidence of a data-mining tool with the Orwellian nickname of “Boundless Informant.” The tool, according to a factsheet The Guardian obtained, “allows users to select a country on a map and view the metadata [Why Metadata Matters – via EFF] volume and select details about the collections against that country.” It was designed, per one document, “to give NSA officials answers to questions like, ‘What type of coverage do we have on country X’ in ‘near real-time by asking the SIGINT [signals intelligence] infrastructure.'”