Follow up to related postings, via the New York Times: “Today, a revolution in software technology that allows for the highly automated and instantaneous analysis of enormous volumes of digital information has transformed the N.S.A., turning it into the virtual landlord of the digital assets of Americans and foreigners alike. The new technology has, for… Continue Reading
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Search Results for: NSa Surveillance
EFF – Gov’t Says Secret Court Opinion on Law Underlying PRISM Program Needs to Stay Secret
News release: “In a rare public filing in the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the Justice Department today urged continued secrecy for a 2011 FISC opinion that found the National Security Agency’s surveillance under the FISA Amendments Act to be unconstitutional. Significantly, the surveillance at issue was carried out under the same controversial legal… Continue Reading
DNI Statement on Recent Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information
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: DNI Statement on Recent Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information, June… Continue Reading
EPIC: White House Releases Unclassified Summary of Presidential Cybersecurity Directive
EPIC: “The White House has released an unclassified summary of Presidential Policy Directive 20. The Policy Directive sets out the cybersecurity authority of the National Security Agency in the United States and has raised concerns about government surveillance of the Internet. The existence of the Directive was detailed in a story in the Washington Post… Continue Reading
CDC – 2011 State Obesity Map Now Available
“2011 CDC map detailing adult obesity prevalence for all U.S. states based on Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data. In 2011, rates of adult obesity remain high, with state estimates ranging from 20.7 percent in Colorado to 34.9 percent in Mississippi. No state had a prevalence of adult obesity less than 20 percent, and… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Energy-Water Nexus, Humanitarian and Development Assistance, SBA Loan Management, Nuclear Weapons
Energy-Water Nexus – Information on the Quantity, Quality, and Management of Water Produced during Oil and Gas Production, GAO-12-156, Jan 9, 2012 Humanitarian and Development Assistance – Project Evaluations and Better Information Sharing Needed to Manage the Military’s Efforts, GAO-12-359, Feb 8, 2012 Information Technology – SBA Needs to Strengthen Oversight of Its Loan Management… Continue Reading
Court Rejects Government's Executive Power Claims and Rules That Warrantless Wiretapping Violated Law
Follow up to previous postings on the Domestic Surveillance Program, via EFF, Kevin Bankston: “Today, Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the federal district court in San Francisco found that the government illegally wiretapped an Islamic charity’s phone calls in 2004, granting summary judgment for the plaintiffs in Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Obama. The court held… Continue Reading
Book Review – The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security
The New York Review of Books – Who’s in Big Brother’s Database? By James Bamford – The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the, National Security Agency, by Matthew M. Aid, Bloomsbury. “…this library expects few visitors. It’s being built by the ultra-secret National Security Agency which is primarily responsible for “signals intelligence,” the… Continue Reading
EFF: Government Must Provide More Info on Campaign to GiveTelecoms Retroactive Immunity
News release: “A judge ordered the government Thursday to release more records about the lobbying campaign to provide immunity to the telecommunications giants that participated in the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White ordered the records be provided to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) by October 9, 2009. The decision is… Continue Reading
ACLU letter to President of the EU's Article 29 Working Group
Barry Steinhart, director of the ACLU Technology & Liberty Project: April 16, 2008 Letter from the ACLU to the President of the European Union’s Article 29 Working Group urging investigation of NSA spying. “We would like to take this opportunity to raise with you and your colleagues our concerns regarding new extrajudicial surveillance of European… Continue Reading
House Committee Leaders Unite to Oppose Immunity for Telecoms
Follow up to postings on the domestic surveillance program, from EFF, House Committee Leaders Unite to Oppose Immunity for Telecoms: February 8, 2008 “a formidable trio of House Committee Chairmen sent a stern letter to their colleagues urging them to oppose immunity for phone companies that assisted in the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program. The White… Continue Reading
National Security Archive Announces Decisions in Two FOIA Cases
Court Permits CIA to Withhold Historic President’s Daily Briefs, But Denies Categorical Exemption for PDBs: “The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week held that the disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act of two Presidential Daily Briefs written for President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s could reveal protected intelligence sources and methods. The… Continue Reading
