2nd Circuit Court Of Appeals: NSA Spying Program Illegal

Secular Talk

Sources state that on Thursday, a panel of three federal judges from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the NSA’s bulk-phone records spying program was illegal.

Reuters states:  “Ruling on a program revealed by former government security contractor Edward Snowden, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the Patriot Act did not authorize the National Security Agency to collect Americans’ calling records in bulk.

“Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel that Section 215, which addresses the FBI’s ability to gather business records, could not be interpreted to have permitted the NSA to collect a “staggering” amount of phone records, contrary to claims by the Bush and Obama administrations.”

Also, According to the National Journal, more court decisions are on the way:

“Two other appeals courts have in recent months heard arguments considering the legality of the NSA bulk telephone program, but neither has issued a ruling yet. Any split among the courts likely will prompt a Supreme Court review.

Boing Boing and The Electronic Frontier Foundation state:

1. When Congress gave the NSA the power to gather “relevant” information and do so for an “investigation,” they didn’t mean “gather everything and store it forever in case it becomes relevant later.”

2. Having your data collected by the NSA gives you the right to sue them — even if the NSA never looked at that data.

3. Metadata is sensitive information, and the NSA can’t argue that its mass-spying is harmless because it’s collecting metadata instead of data (the fact that you called a suicide hotline is every bit as compromising as what you said while you were talking to them).

4. The judges have “concerns” about the constitutionality of mass spying (though the didn’t go so far as to say that it is unconstitutional, partly because the ACLU had already won on the statutory language alone).

5. One judge added: The government shouldn’t have secret laws. The government argued that its interpretation of surveillance laws was a secret, and the court spanked them for it, saying that a law that’s “shrouded in secrecy” lacked legitimacy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/07/us-usa-security-nsa-idUSKBN0NS1IN20150507

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/federal-appeals-court-says-nsa-phone-records-program-illegal-n355271

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/federal-appeals-court-rules-nsa-spying-illegal-20150507

http://boingboing.net/2015/05/10/what-did-the-courts-just-do-th.html

John Oliver Interview With Edward Snowden

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

A huge T.V. event on Easter Sunday came and went without any fanfare whatsoever.

John Oliver, HBO’s comedy newscaster, aired a lengthy interview with none other than N.S.A. whistleblower Edward Snowden. The interview starts in the video above around the 13:45 mark.

CNN:

“The comedian surprised viewers on Sunday night by revealing that he visited Russia last week and met with Snowden, who leaked a trove of documents about the American government’s mass surveillance programs to journalists in 2013.”

Strange Situation At NSA

Officers opened fire after two men allegedly dressed as women refused to stop a stolen vehicle Monday at the National Security Agency gate at Fort Meade in Maryland. The stolen vehicle smashed into a police vehicle blocking the road, officials said.

One of the men died, and the other man and an officer were hurt.

Officials claimed that there were plenty of chances for the incident to end nonviolently.

The NSA released a statement Monday afternoon saying the driver of the sport utility vehicle disobeyed instructions from an NSA police officer and failed to stop shortly before 9 a.m.

Investigators are looking into whether the men were under the influence of drugs following a night of partying, a federal law enforcement official said.

A man reported his car stolen from a hotel not far away from NSA Headquarters and said he had been with two men who had taken his car. Cocaine was found in the vehicle. The Howard County Police Department confirms that a Ford Escape reported stolen in Howard County, Maryland, is the vehicle involved in the incident.

The FBI said they did not think terrorism was related to the incident.

MSNBC

More here

What Are The Lesser-Known Spying Programs?

Most people are aware of internet and cellphone spying programs divulged by former NSA employee Edward Snowden.

What are some of the lesser-known spying programs?

License-plate readings and airplane “dirt-box” data collection devices are a couple of the lesser-known surveillance programs.

Mike Papantonio and Kevin Gosztola discuss what’s happening and what authorities look for.

Ring Of Fire

CNN / WSJ: Federal Law Enforcement Uses Planes To Spy On Americans’ Cellphones

According to CNN, federal law enforcement agents fly small planes loaded with gear to spy on Americans’ cell phone calls.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, revealed the extent of the program: Federal government gathers the data from Cessna airplanes and can cover most of the U.S. population.

CNNMoney has independently confirmed that at least one federal agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has used this technology on planes since 2010, according to government documents. The planes carry a box that serves as a dummy cell phone site. That device mimics actual towers, duping nearby cell phones into connecting to it instead of a real phone company tower.

An official at the Department of Justice would not confirm or deny the use of flying spoof cell towers. He said any discussion would let criminals and foreign governments “determine our capabilities and limitations.” The official told CNNMoney that any tactics used comply with federal law.

This news is the latest revelation about the extent of surveillance on Americans by their government. This type of spying has increased dramatically since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Local police and federal agents make widespread use of these types of devices. Public records, such as a Florida court transcript, have revealed that police use this technology to gather information about suspects.

“Stingrays,” for instance, are machines that also spoof legitimate company cell phone towers.

New Head Of GCHQ: Privacy Was Never ‘An Absolute Right’

Robert Hannigan, the new head of the British spy agency GCHQ, said in an editorial in the Financial Times that privacy “has never been an absolute right” and that social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp are helping criminals and terrorist groups like ISIS build their operations.

In the editorial, Hannigan called on tech companies to cooperate with intelligence agencies in order to protect citizens.

Video by The Lip TV with Elliot Hill and Mark Sovel.

Did A School In Alabama Hire An Ex-FBI Agent To Spy On Students?

Huntsville City Schools in Huntville, Alabama, seemed to be so concerned about what students were posting on their social media accounts that they paid a former Fed $157,190 a year (or $110 an hour) to spy on the students’ Instagram and Twitter accounts.

According to Alabama.com, the Huntsville City Schools paid the former agent, Chris McRae, to monitor its students over the past year through a program called SAFe, Students Against Fear. Six hundred of those students were flagged by students and teachers. McRae then examined their online accounts for “for images of guns or gang signs.” They also looked for evidence of drug use and mentions of sex. This led to the expulsion of 14 students.

Beyond a blatant attack on student privacy, critics are also saying that there was a racially motivated undercurrent to the expulsions through the spy program and throughout the system.

According to Huntsville City Schools records, the school expelled 305 students last year, 238 of whom were Black. So 78 percent of all expulsions involved Black children in a school system where they make up just 40 percent of students. And the of the 14 expulsions related to social media, 86 percent involved Black students.

Video by The Lip TV.

More:

http://madamenoire.com/485921/alabama-school-hired-ex-fbi-agent-spy-students-black/#sthash.GARfgmSS.dpuf

Uncomfortable Exchange With The NSA At Job Fair

A student and his friend press the NSA on spying and legalities at a job fair. The NSA man must have felt he was between a rock and a hard place…

The above video was taken at the University of New Mexico.