DNI denies NSA analysts can tap calls without a warrant

[ProSense]

DNI denies NSA analysts can tap calls without a warrant

By Meghashyam Mali

The intelligence community on Sunday rejected claims from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden and reports suggesting that intelligence analysts were able to listen to domestic phone conversations without warrants.

“The statement that a single analyst can eavesdrop on domestic communications without proper legal authorization is incorrect and was not briefed to Congress,” said the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in a statement.

“Members have been briefed on the implementation of Section 702, that it targets foreigners located overseas for a valid foreign intelligence purpose, and that it cannot be used to target Americans anywhere in the world,” it added.

The statement came a day after a report by CNET which said that Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) had said he was told in a classified briefing that NSA analysts were allowed to listen to domestic phone calls without a prior warrant.

- more -

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/305859-dni-nsa-cant-tap-domestic-phone-calls-without-a-warrant

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Breaking News: Govt denies wrongdoing by Govt!

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. PLUS ONE MILLION. n/t

[kestrel91316]

2. Baldfaced lie. It may be against the law, but they CAN do it and

they DO do it.

And I imagine that those warrants are laughably easy to get anyway.

[ProSense]

5. This is similar

"Baldfaced lie. It may be against the law, but they CAN do it and they DO do it. "

...the claim Snowden made that was said to be false.

NSA Director Says Leaker’s Wiretapping Ability Claims Are ‘False’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023007548

[Downwinder]

13. World of difference between can and may.

[leveymg]

3. This is all double-talk. The dragnet warrants authorize collection of everyone's data.

You have to parse Mr. Clapper's statement. The following words in bold have a specific meaning that may be lost to those unfamiliar with FISA law:

“The statement that a single analyst can eavesdrop on domestic communications without proper legal authorization is incorrect and was not briefed to Congress,” said the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in a statement.

Protocols place some limits on what single analysts can access but the system allows managers to look at anything.

The warrants allow NSA to order telcos to provide all data on everybody. The system works to scan metadata in phone calls and combine this information with data obtained by from email and by FISA Court orders and administrative orders issued to the online search engines, social networking sites, to Microsoft and Apple to access OS backdoors, and the rest of the data the NSA acquires both with and without warrants, such as credit records, shopping records, and marketing information to construct predictive profiles that are used to target further investigations of individuals.

That latter part about predictive profiling -- Son of TIA -- is not being briefed to Congress or talked about, and is not explicitly authorized by Sec. 702. It is probably the most danger thing about the NSA/CIA/FBI/IC system.

[ProSense]

6. I really believe

"This is all double-talk. The dragnet warrants authorize collection of everyone's data."

...there is confusion. The data collected does not include content. That has been established.

Two of the four collection programs, one each for telephony and the Internet, process trillions of “metadata” records for storage and analysis in systems called MAINWAY and MARINA, respectively. Metadata includes highly revealing information about the times, places, devices and participants in electronic communication, but not its contents. The bulk collection of telephone call records from Verizon Business Services, disclosed this month by the British newspaper the Guardian, is one source of raw intelligence for MAINWAY.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3028409

[dkf]

11. Both these programs "process" the data. Yes they don't have the content...

Because the content is in the "collecting" of the data.

They haven't begun to disclose exactly what they are collecting yet.

[leveymg]

12. The voice record is stored and recalled if the profiling algorithm tags the individual for study.

Last edited Mon Jun 17, 2013, 12:10 PM - Edit history (4)

Everything else is made part of the profile. You're still stuck on that one aspect of the universal profiling step in the PRISM system.

The system doesn't protect anonymity - it profiles EVERYONE. You don't have to believe me, read William Binney, who was the NSA's lead Program Manager developing the ThinThread surveillance program before he resigned and became a whistle blower. Binney gave a lecture at MIT in which he explained how the Terrrorist Detection Program works by profiling every caller. Here's part of it: http://civic.mit.edu/blog/schock/the-government-is-profiling-you-william-binney-former-nsa

Relationship Mapping

He describes the key points of the slide: “Validating the data is crucial. Then you move to event recognition, check against your graph to see if you want that data or not. You also need privacy protection: determine whether to encrypt. Then you build an activity graph, and take other graphs from other domains: banking, phones, travel, twitter, whatever else you can gather. With a consolidated graph across all those domains, you analyze.“

One goal they had in the 1990s was to detect social security fraud. Their attempt was subject to an investigation. Binney thinks the data process they were using to do this wasn't unconstitutional.

In target development and discovery, you needed to figure out the network of possibles (suspects), separate from 'knowns,' and eliminate the vast bulk of traffic. This is what big data initiatives are looking for: automating target development.

He shows another slide: timeline analysis, email and phone. The slide shows communications activity over time across multiple platforms (email, phone, etc). Binney feels this also needs to be automated: what transaction combinations in this group need to trigger a warning?

For example: if you're trying to smuggle drugs from Colombia into the USA, the buyer and seller have to communicate to plan the transaction. “We have to find these communications and assess them.” Everyone in the USA is profiled. The info is gathered, and all they have to do is point to the target.

Someone from the audience asks “are those real phone numbers on the screen? Those are US phone numbers”

The image is of analysis of 9/11, Binney says. This is the danger. If you become a target, like Petraeus, now you're in the DB. The problem is, the FBI has access to this data. Mueller testified to that in March 2011 to the Senate judiciary committee.

In response to the Q: how would you prevent a future terrorist attack? Mueller said: we have a DB where one query can get all past emails and future emails as they come in. Then he says that “This is what (the new NSA server farm at) Bluffdale (Utah) is all about: storage for all that data.”

[cali]

4. bwahahahahaha.

[99Forever]

7. Bwahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahhahahahhaha.

Kewl story, bro.

[MotherPetrie]

8. These guys would disagree.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/16/snowden-whistleblower-nsa-officials-roundtable/2428809/

[ProSense]

9. Given that

"These guys would disagree."

...those guys exposed Bush's illegal wiretapping, they really can't speak to Obama's policies.

Another misleading media report implies that warrantless wiretapping is legal.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023026724

[magellan]

10. What has Obama changed?

Aside from making it illegal to wiretap Americans, I mean. Has he addressed the other concerns raised by those guys?

[Union Scribe]

14. They can certainly speak to capabilities. nt

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

16. Of course they do, they would not want to admit to a CRIME now would they?

3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/16/snowden-whistleblower-nsa-officials-roundtable/2428809/

NSA taps directly into fiber optic trunk cables of ATT (AT&T Whistle-Blower's Evidence)
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/05/70908

Daniel Ellsberg On Edward Snowden: 'He Made The Right Choice' (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/daniel-ellsberg-edward-snowden_n_3438431.html

Edward Snowden himself, which has caused the hill to go apoplectic...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video

NOTHING will get a sophist to change their tune, except their master, calling the tune.

Fortunately, all of you, are losing your psyop war here on DU, as the polls on here have indicated all week.

Though I want to toast you for all the teachable moments you provide for, thank you

[Gravitycollapse]

17. Breaking: Notorious liars claim they're telling the truth.