Rand Paul: "Did Obama spy on me?"

The Sound of Silence

• Rand Paul stands almost alone in daring to ask about unconstitutional spying while the rest of the "small government" GOP silently funds the growing Police State.

(AOL)  -  Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has "formally requested" more information from the White House and the intelligence community on whether he was "surveilled" by the Obama administration during the presidential election, he said Friday.

"Did the Obama admin go after presidential candidates, members of Congress, journalists, clergy, lawyers, fed judges?" Paul tweeted. "Did the Obama admin use warrantless "wiretapping" on other candidates besides @realdonaldtrump?

Paul linked to an article by the publication Circa that said Americans overseas had had their information collected, "searched," and "disseminated" by the National Security Agency "after President Obama loosened privacy protections" in 2011. The article cited the Statistical Transparency Report published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence earlier this week.

Paul sent a letter to President Donald Trump on April 10 asking him to investigate a claim made to him by an "anonymous source" that his name was "unmasked" in intelligence reports collected under the Obama administration. He cited "revelations" that people associated with the Trump campaign had had their names unmasked as warranting an investigation into "allegations that myself and other elected members of the legislative branch may have also been unmasked."

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Secret Court orders spying on millions of people's emails

Freedom is being raped and no one cares

• In the nebulous name of "national security" a Secret Court issues a Secret order so the Secret police can spy on millions of American's emails in Secret.
• Note that both the GOP and Dems fully fund this Orwellian 1984 New World Order.

(Reuters) - Obama administration officials briefed key congressional staffers last week about a secret court order to Yahoo that prompted it to search all users’ incoming emails for a still undisclosed digital signature, but they remain reluctant to discuss the unusual case with a broader audience.

Executive branch officials spoke to staff for members of the Senate and House of Representatives committees overseeing intelligence operations and the judiciary, according to people briefed on the events, which followed Reuters’ disclosure of the massive search.

But attempts by other members of Congress and civil society groups to learn more about the Yahoo order are unlikely to meet with success anytime soon, because its details remain a sensitive national security matter, U.S. officials told Reuters. Release of any declassified version of the order is unlikely in the foreseeable future, the officials said.

The decision to keep details of the order secret comes amid mounting pressure on the U.S. government to be more transparent about its data-collection activities ahead of a congressional deadline next year to reauthorize some foreign intelligence authorities.

On Tuesday, more than 30 advocacy groups will send a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asking for declassification of the Yahoo order that led to the search of emails last year in pursuit of data matching a specific digital symbol.

“We believe such a massive scan of the emails of millions of people, particularly if it involves the scanning of email content, could violate (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), the Fourth Amendment, and international human rights law,” the coalition wrote in an advance draft of the letter that was shared with Reuters.

The Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Brennan Center, Human Rights Watch and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers are among the signatories.

The American Civil Liberties Union meanwhile filed a motion in the surveillance court asking that the Yahoo order and other significant ruling going back a decade be unsealed.

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Judge Napolitano On NSA Spying

"I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under."
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Edward Snowden

Police use Twitter, Facebook data to track protesters

Big Brother is Watching You

"Even if you're not doing anything wrong, you 

are being watched and recorded." 

Edward Snowden

(Engadget)  -  According to an ACLU blog post published on Tuesday, law enforcement officials implemented a far-reaching surveillance program to track protesters in both Ferguson, MO and Baltimore, MD during their recent uprisings and relied on special feeds of user data provided by three top social media companies: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Specifically, all three companies granted access to a developer tool called Geofeedia which allows users to see the geographic origin of social media posts and has been employed by more than 500 law enforcement organizations to track protesters in real time.

Law enforcement's ability to monitor the online activities of protesters could have a chilling effect on First Amendment rights, the post asserts. "These platforms need to be doing more to protect the free speech rights of activists of color and stop facilitating their surveillance by police," Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director for the ACLU of California, told the Washington Post. "The ACLU shouldn't have to tell Facebook or Twitter what their own developers are doing. The companies need to enact strong public policies and robust auditing procedures to ensure their platforms aren't being used for discriminatory surveillance."

Facebook (which owns Instagram) provided Engadget with the following comment, "This developer only had access to data that people chose to make public. Its access was subject to the limitations in our Platform Policy, which outlines what we expect from developers that receive data using the Facebook Platform. If a developer uses our APIs in a way that has not been authorized, we will take swift action to stop them and we will end our relationship altogether if necessary."

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Whistleblower: NSA Is Backbone Of World Surveillance State

Edward Snowden: "Hillary Clinton 'ridiculous' to think emails were secure"

(The Guardian)  -  Edward Snowden has branded as “completely ridiculous” the idea that Hillary Clinton’s personal email server was secure while she was secretary of state.

The National Security Agency whistleblower was speaking in an interview with Al-Jazeera.

In 2014, Clinton accused Snowden of inadvertently helping terrorists. Since then she has toned down such criticism and said the NSA needs to be more transparent.

On Thursday, Snowden was asked what he would say to Clinton now that she is being investigated for sending emails containing classified information while using a private server.

“This is a problem,” Snowden said, “because anyone who has the clearances that the secretary of state has, or the director of any top-level agency has, knows how classified information should be handled.”

He added: “If an ordinary worker at the State Department or the CIA … were sending details about the security of embassies, which is alleged to be in her email, meetings with private government officials, foreign government officials and the statements that were made to them in confidence over unclassified email systems, they would not only lose their jobs and lose their clearance, they would very likely face prosecution for it.”

Asked if Clinton “intentionally endangered US international security by being so careless with her email”, Snowden said it was not his place to say.

He did comment on Clinton’s choice of email server, Platte River Networks.

“When the unclassified systems of the United States government, which has a full-time information security staff, regularly gets hacked, the idea that someone keeping a private server in the renovated bathroom of a server farm in Colorado is more secure is completely ridiculous,” he said.

Snowden was also asked if he was concerned about what the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump might do to him if he is elected president in 2016. Trump has called Snowden “a total traitor” and “a bad guy” and said “there is still a thing called execution”.

Snowden was not concerned.

“It’s very difficult to respond in a serious way to any statement that’s made by Donald Trump,” he said.

He went on to question the credibility of politicians like John Kerry, Clinton’s successor as secretary of state, and compared “the good that they’re doing for the country” to the work of people like Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, who he said was “improving the world”.

Snowden added: “But it’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong. The arguments about whether I’m a good guy or a bad guy are a complete red herring.”

The full interview with Snowden will air on Al-Jazeera English on Friday.

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Donald Trump: "Death to Edward Snowden"

The Sam Adams Award
Edward Snowden (3rd R) receives the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence Award (SAAII) alongside UK WikiLeaks journalist Sarah Harrison (2nd R) who took Snowden from Hong Kong to Moscow and obtained his asylum and the United States government whistleblowers who presented the award (L-R) Coleen Rowley (FBI), Thomas Drake (NSA), Jesselyn Raddack (DoJ) and Ray McGovern (CIA) on October 9, 2013 in Moscow, Russia.
(Photo: Sunshinepress, Getty Images)
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Edward Snowden gets Sam Adams Award for "Integrity In Intelligence”

Trump: "What's a Bill of Rights?"

• Lovers of Liberty take note  -  The 4th Amendment was being openly raped by the Democrats and the GOP.  But Donald Trump's reaction was to call for the execution of the man who brought it to our attention rather than attack those spying on the public.

(Infowars News)  -  Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump called for the execution of Edward Snowden during a 2013 appearance on “Fox & Friends,” labeling the whistleblower a “traitor” for disclosing the National Security Agency’s illegal activities.

“You know, spies in the old days used to be executed,” Trump said.

Since Snowden first revealed the NSA’s widespread surveillance practices more than two years ago, the hotel tycoon has repeatedly called for both the death and imprisonment of the former intelligence contractor.

Only days after his initial comment, the reality TV host again repeated his desire to see Snowden put to death during a followup interview on Fox News.

“I think he’s a terrible traitor, and you know what we used to do in the good old days when we were a strong country? You know what we used to do to traitors, right?” Trump asked.

“Well, we used to kill them, Donald,” Fox host Eric Bolling responded.

Although Trump is currently facing criticism for reversing his stance on multiple issues, the real estate magnate has remained consistent in his disdain for Snowden.

Early last month during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Trump again referred to Snowden as a “total traitor,” pledging to deal with the whistleblower “harshly” as president.

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Judge Napolitano

I Still Think Snowden's An American Hero

Top NSA Whistleblower:
America Is A Pre Fascist State

A
"I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity, love or friendship is recorded."

Edward Snowden

NSA won't say if it automatically transcribes American phone calls in bulk

A Government of Liars and Whores

• You know a person is a liar when they will not give you a straight yes or no answer.

(The Intercept)  -  When it comes to the National Security Agency’s recently disclosed use of automated speech recognition technology to search, index and transcribe voice communications, people in the United States may well be asking: But are they transcribing my phone calls?

The answer is maybe.

A clear-cut answer is elusive because documents in the Snowden archive describe the capability to turn speech into text, but not the extent of its use — and the U.S. intelligence community refuses to answer even the most basic questions on the topic.

Asked about the application of speech-to-text to conversations including Americans, Robert Litt, general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said at a Capitol Hill event in May that the NSA has “all sorts of technical capabilities” and that they are all used in a lawful manner.

“I’m not specifically acknowledging or denying the existence of any particular capability,” he said. “I’m only saying that the focus needs to be on what are the authorities the NSA is using, and what are the protections around the execution of those authorities?”

Asked at a public event by The Intercept if anyone had ever explicitly advised the court that the NSA was using speech-to-text processing on voice intercepts that were collected by 702 programs, Litt replied: “The FISA court orders specifically dictate what we can do and what we can’t do in conducting collection under 702. You have seen those orders. You know what they say.”

He continued: “The orders also provide what kinds of processing we can do on them. We do what those orders authorize. If the orders authorize it, we’re allowed to do it. If they don’t, we’re not. And it doesn’t matter whether we would use this speech-to-text recognition tools or whether we use 800 monkeys sitting at typewriters.”

But none of the FISA court orders appear to say anything specific about processing. And the ability to turn massive amounts of voice into text raises intense privacy concerns because of the scale involved in the collection. Assigning an analyst (or even a single monkey) to listen in on every international phone call would be impossible. Automatically transcribing them and storing the text in a searchable database is not.

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Must See Video!

Pulling Back The Curtain: Full NSA Interview

Alex Jones talks with NSA Whistleblower William Binney about his 

experiences and what he thinks needs to be done to fix the country.

Victory? - NSA Spying May End?

"We should never give up our rights 

for a false sense of security." 

Senator Rand Paul

(Editor  -  I am in shock that there has been a small victory, but I firmly believe Big Brother in Washington will find ways to keep the spy program going.  For example, our allies the British or Japanese will use the Internet to spy on Americans, collect massive info and then "share" that data with the NSA.)


(Associated Press)  -  The National Security Agency has begun winding down its collection and storage of American phone records after the Senate failed to agree on a path forward to change or extend the once-secret program ahead of its expiration at the end of the month.

Barring an 11th hour compromise when the Senate returns to session May 31, a much-debated provision of the Patriot Act — and some other lesser known surveillance tools — will sunset at midnight that day. The change also would have a major impact on the FBI, which uses the Patriot Act and the other provisions to gather records in investigations of suspected spies and terrorists.

In a chaotic scene during the wee hours of Saturday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill known as the USA Freedom Act, which would have ended the NSA's bulk collection but preserved its ability to search the records held by the phone companies on a case-by-case basis. The bill was backed by President Barack Obama, House Republicans and the nation's top law enforcement and intelligence officials.

It fell just three votes short of the 60 needed for passage. All the "no" votes but one were cast by Republicans, some of whom said they thought the USA Freedom Act didn't go far enough to help the NSA maintain its capabilities.

If Senate Republican leaders were counting on extending current law and continuing the negotiations, they miscalculated. Democrats and libertarian-minded Republicans refused to go along. A bill to grant a two-month extension of the law failed, and senators objected to each attempt by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky offer up a short term extension.

The failure to act means the NSA will immediately begin curtailing its searches of domestic phone records for connections to international terrorists. The Justice Department said in a statement that it will take time to taper off the collection process from the phone companies. That process began Friday, said an administration official who would not be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky's other senator and a Republican presidential candidate, called the Senate's failure to allow an extension of the surveillance programs a victory for privacy rights.

"We should never give up our rights for a false sense of security," Paul said in a statement.

Some civil liberties groups joined Paul in praising the result, saying they would rather see the Patriot Act provision authorizing NSA phone collection expire altogether.

"For the first time, a majority of senators took a stand against simply rubber-stamping provisions of the Patriot Act that have been used to spy on Americans," said Michael Macleod-Ball, acting director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.

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Judge Napolitano: 

NSA More Interested In Spying On Americans Than ISIS

McConnell rams through NSA spying without any public hearings

The GOP - A Party of Whores

• It didn't take long.  The new "small government" GOP Congress is openly raping the Bill of Rights and jamming through unconstitutional NSA spying without any public hearings.
• Meanwhile the American Sheeple are more worried they might miss the next episode of Dancing with the Stars or the Kardashians.

(National Journal)  -  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill Tuesday night that would reauthorize a controversial surveillance authority of the Patriot Act until 2020, a push that comes just as a group of bipartisan lawmakers is preparing a last-minute push to rein in the government's mass-spying powers.

A McConnell aide said the majority leader is beginning a process to put the bill on the Senate calendar but said that the chamber will not take the measure up this week. That process, known as Rule 14, would bypass the traditional committee process. Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr is a cosponsor.

 

If you tell people the truth you have
to go into hiding from a government
openly pissing on the Bill of Rights.

Under the bill, Section 215 of the post-9/11 Patriot Act would be extended until December 31, 2020. The core provision, which the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of U.S. phone records, is currently due to expire on June 1.

The bill appears to be an attempt to thwart efforts to rein in the National Security Agency's expansive surveillance powers, which came under intense scrutiny nearly two years ago after the disclosures spurred by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers were expected to reintroduce on Wednesday a comprehensive surveillance-reform bill that would have effectively ended the NSA's dragnet of Americans' call data.

Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a chief backer of surveillance reform, quickly blasted McConnell's maneuver and vowed to oppose any bill that reauthorized Section 215 without "meaningful reforms."

"Republican leaders should be working across the aisle on legislation that protects both our national security and Americans' privacy rights, but instead they are trying to quietly pass a straight reauthorization of the bulk-collection program that has been proven ineffective and unnecessary," Leahy said in a statement. "And more, they are attempting to do so without the committee process that the majority leader has promised for important legislation. This  tone-deaf attempt to pave the way for five and a half more years of unchecked surveillance will not succeed."

Privacy advocates also immediately assailed McConnell's bill.

"The Senate majority leader's bill makes no attempt to protect Americans' privacy or reform ongoing NSA surveillance programs that do not provide any tangible benefit to national security," said Harley Geiger, policy counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology. "For Americans concerned about government intrusion in their lives, the bill is a kick in the stomach."

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Repeal The Patriot Act! 

"Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him... the better off we all are."

Edward Snowden

Obama's Internet Police: Now FTC to regulate web ads

(Infowars)  -  The FCC may now have control over the foundation of the net thanks to their legislative takeover under the flag of ‘Net Neutrality’, but the FTC may soon be swooping in for the final kill — regulating the entire world of internet web ads by which the entire online commerce system heavily relies on.

And, better yet, these regulations are being written up by the largest advertising corporations in the industry. In the event that these regulations are passed, we will be seeing the ‘Obamacare’ of the net. Regulations written to ‘protect you’ by none other than the corporations that will benefit the most. All with the help of the FTC bureaucrats.

In a move that has been expected for quite some time, the FCC is already working with ‘major advertising reps’ and other industry heads in order to create new ‘consumer protection’ laws aimed at punishing websites and ad agencies for running ads that could be ‘confusing’ to customers.

Sounds pretty fair, huh? Government colluding with the largest corporations in advertising to punish all other advertisers for their potentially ‘confusing’ ad banners.

But what does ‘confusing’ really mean? To boil it down, the ads under fire are called ‘native ads’ by the industry. These are ads that could be mixed with news (such as sponsored content, which sites often rely heavily on to keep running), or ads that ‘could be confused with content’.

Basically, it could apply to any ad that is well developed and uses even the most basic marketing standards. Unless you’re the advertising agency writing the rules, of course. And as we read from the FTC website, these leaders are already coming together to determine what ‘advertising’ means in the eyes of the government:

“The Federal Trade Commission hosted a one-day workshop to examine the blending of advertisements with news, entertainment, and other editorial content in digital media, referred to as “native advertising” or “sponsored content.” The workshop brought together publishing and advertising industry representatives, consumer advocates, academics, and self-regulatory groups to explore the ways in which sponsored content is presented to consumers online and in mobile apps; consumers’ recognition and understanding of it; the contexts in which it should be identifiable as advertising; and effective ways of differentiating it from editorial content.”

Once again, you simply cannot be trusted to make your own decisions. The web could be ‘confusing’ to you. That’s why the FTC is stepping in to help you.

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Obama's Internet Police
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"I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."

Edward Snowden