Second verse same as the first! A second round of data spying by the Obama administration has been exposed, but this ones appears to be even more expansive than what we found out about yesterday...
So the spying of Americans has gone international...awesome.WaPo: The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.
The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley.
Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: “Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”
London’s Guardian newspaper reported Friday that GCHQ, Britain’s equivalent of the NSA, also has been secretly gathering intelligence from the same internet companies through an operation set up by the NSA.
The Wall Street Journal reported late last night that the NSA has been cataloguing credit card transactions as well.
Facebook, along with Apple and Google, have denied giving the NSA direct access to their servers.
And of course, the administration once again defends its actions by saying, 'don't worry, we're not targeting you'...
So, the Bush administration opened the door, and the Obama administration has gone through and made itself at home...in our homes. Yet another reason to make the Hoover-to-FDR comparison. When the Republican establishment opens the door, this is what Democratic statists give you...FoxNews: The Obama administration found itself defending -- and beginning to explain -- yet another surveillance effort after leaked documents revealed information about two secret National Security Agency intelligence-gathering programs.
On top of a Guardian newspaper report that revealed how authorities were collecting phone records from millions, a Washington Post report detailed another program that scours major Internet companies including Google and Facebook for data. A former senior NSA official confirmed to Fox News that the program was started in 2007 by the FBI and NSA and allows them to tap into top U.S. Internet companies to pull audio, video and other data.
A senior administration official also pushed back, saying the Guardian article and Washington Post article about the Internet mining refers to collection under a law that "does not allow the targeting of any U.S. citizen or of any person located within the United States.”So, see, they're not 'targeting' you, they're just spying on you. So that's fine...
It was not immediately clear how the official defined “targeting.”
Uh, just looking at metadata...uh, looking for terrorist, see. Give me a break. Nothing to see here, move along.
I'll repeat it again...
Not even Nixon could ever have dreamed of this.
Related links: Obama Defends Spying On Innocent Americans: “You Can’t Have 100% Security And Then Have 100% Privacy And Zero Inconvenience”
Obama Calls NSA Scandal Just A Bunch Of “Hype”
“F” In FISA Means Foreign
Dem Senator: Obama Not Telling The Truth When He Said Every Member Of Congress Was Briefed On NSA Domestic Spying Program
Obama: If You Can’t Trust Me “Then We’re Going To Have Some Problems Here”
NSA Whistleblower: 'Metadata' of Phone Call Can Be More Revealing Than Listening In
