The NSA Files (The Guardian) very helpful to dispel the label of "conspiracy theory"

[bobthedrummer]

The NSA Files
http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files

[OnyxCollie]

1. Nothing theoretical about it.

That's why the President's most ardent defenders have focused on the character of Greenwald and Snowden.

[bobthedrummer]

2. The US classififcation system (Top Level Communications 9-13-13 post) some used to hide crimes

even though the use of classification to hide crimes is a crime...

The US classification system
http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-us-classification-system.html

[bobthedrummer]

3. Various Items: NSA stories around the world (by Glenn Gould 9-23-13 Comment Is Free post) n/t

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/23/various-items-nsa-india-belgium

[bobthedrummer]

4. PRISM's Controversial Forerunner (by Richard L. Fricker 7-11-13 Consortium News) dispel CT today

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/07/11/prisms-controversial-forerunner

Since investigative journalists are, in fact, targeted people I'll honor Danny Casolaro in this post.

Inslaw (Wikipedia entry)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inslaw

Comments are encouraged.

[struggle4progress]

5. It's too bad the Guardian hasn't been more careful about sticking to reality:

the idea, for example, that the NSA collects 'nearly everything' folk do on the internet is laughable, as was Snowden's claim that he could "wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president"

That sort of hyberbole from Greenwald and friends, and the dishonest hysteria it deliberately fosters, undermines the possibility of coherent informed logical discussion about any number of very serious issues associated with the national security state, the constant dangers it poses, and the interests it actually serves

[Octafish]

7. Except, it was worse than that and goes back farther.

NSA Spied on MLK, US Senators and Other Vietnam War Critics, Documents Show

Agency's self-proclaimed 'disreputable if not outright illegal' practices threaten civil liberties then and now, critics warn

by Jacob Chamberlain,
CommonDreams.org, staff writer, Sept. 26, 2013

NSA documents that were declassified this week show that the agency—which has come under increased scrutiny for its dragnet surveillance practices—heavily surveilled and tapped the phones of high-profile critics of the Vietnam War, including Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, and two U.S. senators including Idaho Democrat Frank Church.

These revelations raise the obvious question: If the NSA was targeting people like Sen. Frank Church, who were in a position to oversee the NSA—is that happening now?

They were joined on the NSA's "watch list" by roughly 1,600 other prominent war critics whose overseas phone calls, telexes and cables were monitored.

While Vietnam-era spying on U.S. citizens, conducted under the codename Operation Minaret, was known at the time, the targets of this surveillance were not public until now.

The documents were forced to be declassified this week following an appeal to the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP) by an independent research institute, the National Security Archive.

Kevin Gosztola at FireDogLake reports Thursday, the documents, which comprise of the NSA's own multi-volume history of the agency, show that the Minaret project “employed unusual procedures.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/26-2

So, there is that.

[struggle4progress]

8. Yeah, that's what gave us the FISA court

The Church Committee reports are available online BTW

[bobthedrummer]

9. There was also the House investigation after Watergate that was disregarded, maybe...

It was more extensive and explicit in calling for REFORM of the intelligence community

The Pike Committee (3-11-08)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2990965

[struggle4progress]

10. Part of that Committee report seems to be available here:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/docset/getList.do?docSetId=1918

[2banon]

6. Check this Doc Film out... covers this issue from the past..

Very interesting documentary posted on du.. history also includes excerpts from Church Committee Hearings, dealing with the National Security State as well as CIA operations which included Domestic Spying on U.S. citizens, illegal wiretapping and surveillance. Issues of keeping secrets from congress, classification information that had no business being classified, etc.

Very interesting.



The Man Nobody Knew In Search of My Father CIA Spymaster William Colby

[bobthedrummer]

11. Remembering the Office of Strategic Influence & "role-playing" commanders

This seems as good a time as any to recall what we, the people, have lost due to the psychological warfare of the captive MSM (full spectrum dominance, baby).

Here's a November 27th, 2002 press release from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
The Office of Strategic Influence Is Gone, But Are Its Programs In Place?
http://fair.org/press-release/the-office-of-strategic-influence-is-gone-but-are-its-programs-in-place

General Hayden's Glass House (7-21-2013 Consortium News post by Ray McGovern)
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/07/21/gen-haydens-glass-house

Psychological warfare is illegal in the USA, on paper.

[bobthedrummer]

12. A bit more on the psychological warfare domestic front and it's commanders

Here's some news from a couple of days ago

Cybercom Activates National Mission Force Headquarters (by Cheryl Pellerin American Forces Press Service DoD 9-25-13 post)
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=120854

During the BUSH/CHENEY regime there was Donald Henry RUMSFELD's "transformations...and visions". One of them was the former USAF Space Command with leadership like former General Simon Peter Worden and a lot of other space and spiritual warriors in the DoD.

There was the 13 member RUMSFELD Space Commission and also reports like the USAF Vision 2020. Thank God for the Federation of American Scientists (as paradoxical as that sounds) who preserved the Vision for 2020 docs as a visbook pdf.

Vision For 2020
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usspac/visbook.pdf

One more link for today-the Wikipedia Office of Strategic Influence entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Influence

Check out the history that hasn't been rendered into a 404. Yep, a lot of reality used to be dismissed as wingnut conspiracy/paranoia-for instance domestic Psychological Operations.

[bobthedrummer]

13. I really miss Angus Mackenzie who passed away before the publication of his work SECRETS

he was years ahead of his time when it came to researching the intelligence community's criminal domestic operations and some of the blowback. Here's a link for all of US today.

SECRETS: The CIA's War at Home
http://www.whale.to/b/mackenzie_b.html

[bobthedrummer]

14. NSA and GCHQ target Tor network that protects anonymity of web users (James Ball, Bruce Schneier and

Glenn Greenwald 10-4-13 Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/nsa-gchq-attack-tor-network-encryption

I think that 12 Step programs were penetrated long ago, in the context of the loss of anonymity. Vulnerable people have been targeted throughout history-this just makes it easier.

[bobthedrummer]

15. Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe by Philip Agee and Louis Wolf (1978) Worth the download time

http://www.scribd.com/doc/127591463/76584907-Dirty-Work-CIA-in-Europe-Philip-Agee-1978

For those unfamiliar with Philip Agee here are a couple of links

Philip Agee.com
http://www.philipagee.com

Spartacus Schoolnet entry
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKagee.htm

Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Agee

Interesting read as the US is possibly heading towards default-also helps to dispel what was once called conspiracy theory in the context of the US intelligence community

[bobthedrummer]

16. The ACLU Spy Files page

The ACLU Campaign to Expose and Stop Illegal Domestic Spying
http://www.aclu.org/spy-files

[bobthedrummer]

17. Glad to see that some US whistleblowers met with Ed Snowden somewhere...

Here's a highly informative Tom Shorrock article from 4-15-13 (taxday)@The Nation

Obama's Crackdown on Whistleblowers: The NSA Four reveal how a toxic mix of cronyism and fraud blinded the agency before 9/11
http://www.thenation.com/article/173521/obamas-crackdown-whistleblowers#

[bobthedrummer]

18. Editors on the NSA files: "What the Guardian is doing is important for democracy" (10-10-13)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/10/guardian-democracy-editors

We don't have a fourth estate anymore-that's changing in many ways because an informed citizen is a requirement of democracy.

[bobthedrummer]

19. NSA Files: Live updates of all developments and reaction (The Guardian) thank the editors for adding

this quite handy feature

http://theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/14/nsa-files-live-coverage-of-all-developments-and-reaction

[bobthedrummer]

20. Fresh Leak on US Spying: NSA Accessed Mexican President's Email (10-20-13 Der Spiegel article by

Jens Glusing, Laura Poitras, Marc Rosenbach and Holger Stark)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nsa-hacked-email-account-of-mexican-president-a-928817.html

[bobthedrummer]

21. Some Booz Allen Hamilton links for those of you that "got it" long ago (got it= documenting crimes)

Booz Allen Hamilton Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booz_Allen_Hamilton

Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (Tim Shorrock 2008)
http://www.zcommunications.org/carlyle-group-may-buy-major-cia-contractor-booz-allen-hamilton-by-tim-shorrock.html

Source Watch NSA entry
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/NSA

Thank you again Mr. Snowden.

[bobthedrummer]

22. The Electronic Frontier Foundation/EFF Deeplinks blog is also a great resource (hacked or not)

Deeplinks (EFF)
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks

Thank you Ed Snowden.

[bobthedrummer]

23. NSA goes on 60 Minutes: the definitive facts behind CBS's flawed report (The Guardian)

Here's The Guardian's 12-16 article followed by a CBS News 12-12 transcript via John Young's cryptome

http://theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/16/nsa-surveillance-60-minutes-cbs-facts

NSA Interviewed by CBS 60 Minutes Transcript
http://cryptome.org/2013/12/nsa-60mins/nsa-60mins.htm

[bobthedrummer]

24. I didn't know that SAIC is now leidos-oh well, better late than never.

Here's a link to the leidos national security newsroom page. Check out their 12-10-13 News Release about sponsoring the Air Force's CyberPatriot Program.
http://www.leidos.com/natsec/newsroom

I remember a lot about SAIC. I assume that leidos is contracted with Cyber Command, which activated its headquarters about the time that SAIC became leidos.
Science Applications International Corporation/SAIC (SourceWatch page)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Science_Applications_International_Corporation

Cybercom Activates National Mission Force Headquarters
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=120854

Happy New Year-I encourage more technically knowledgeable DUers to post in this thread.

[bobthedrummer]

25. Hey-this thread can be enhanced by your post, DUers. n/t

[bobthedrummer]

26. Here's a kick + news, the hacker known as Guccifer has reportedly been arrested in Romania

Guccifer Files Further Detail Hacking Spree (The Smoking Gun 1-22-14 update)
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/guccifer-archive-687543

Cryptome Guccifer Archive
http://cryptome.org/2014/01/guccifer-cryptome.htm

[jsr]

27. Recommend