Ha!  I’ve been writing about this for some time.  Apparently the ALCU, never one for caring much about military folks or especially that weird category of civilians who work for the military … not military members and not civilian contractors, neither fish nor fowl … has decided we (I’m a former governement employee, retired from the world of being unprotected under both civil and military law) have some rights too.

The informaton from actual NSA (National Security Agency) operatives is chuilling tosay the elast.  Read the excerpted article and then ask yourself, seriously, is this the America you really want?

Both current presidential candidates say they are about change … I hope so.

Two former NSA intercept operators have sparked a firestorm of discussion over the past week thanks to their whistleblowing accounts
of the routine eavesdropping that targeted innocent military personnel
and humanitarian aid workers overseas. But civil libertarians hoping
that the story will prove a game-changing bombshell in the fight over
warrantless surveillance may want to dial-down their expectations. As
even the ACLU acknowledges, the eavesdropping described in these
reports is only indirectly related to President Bush’s now-infamous
“Terrorist Surveillance Program,” and is unlikely to have violated the
existing FISA law…. Read more about how Bush considers even your most intimate conversatons ‘fair game’ … anything and everyhting in the name of “security” … sigh

I’ve worked with Canadians in a technical and business capacity for many years.  In some ways I feel I know the pulse of our northern neighbors better than most.  But still I am often surprised by how a people so educated and intelligent can appear so naive’

… Companies hoping to dial up international business with China may have yet another reason to think twice about privacy concerns, following new revelations that the Communist country has been spying on Skype-based phone calls and text messages.

Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto-based security and human rights research group, partnered with several other international agencies to release a report this week detailing flaws within TOM-Skype, the Chinese version of the popular Internet protocol (IP) communications company. The company has apparently been monitoring personal information generated by phone calls, focusing on keywords in messages and storing all text messages on publicly accessible servers that were discovered by Citizen Lab. … full article on Chinese eavesdropping

Just what the heck makes these Canadian researchers think that the exact same thing, on a much larger scale, is not going on, right now, in our own countries.

China spies.  wow.  Big news.  What about the Internet spying that Washington and Ottawa are conducting this very minute, as we speak … or surf.  wake up, dudes and focus closer to home … it is certainly not only China who boldly invades its own citizen’s privacy.

I wonder how long we Americans will continue to put up with lies, falsehoods and government-sanctioned “nanny programs” designed to ‘protect us from ourselves’?  I also wonder how many people reading this may have actually read the Constitution of the United States of America.  Very few, I will wager…

Comcast’s move to limit its broadband customers’ throughput to 250GB per month starting in October might anger those who want unlimited access, but it’s actually good for privacy. Because the cap applies to all traffic equally, it doesn’t require that Comcast snoop for particular types of application data. Contrast that with its previous (and initially undisclosed) practice of interfering with peer-to-peer traffic (in an effort to limit customers’ downloading of huge, bandwidth-hogging files). The ISP says less than 1 percent of customers will be affected.

Of course, there’s nothing to stop broadband companies from snooping in other ways. AT&T, for example, said earlier this year that it’s investigating ways to dig deep into its customers’ Internet traffic in search of copyrighted material, according to the New York Times. Meanwhile, AT&T is still getting flack because of its alleged spying on Internet traffic for the National Security Administration, without warrants. Read more about this effort to further take away our freedoms here.

Exclusive: Widespread cell phone location snooping by NSA?

Posted by Chris Soghoian

If you thought that the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping was limited to AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, think again.

While these household names of the telecom industry almost certainly helped the government to illegally snoop on their customers, statements by a number of legal experts suggest that collaboration with the NSA may run far deeper into the wireless phone industry. With over 3,000 wireless companies operating in the United States, the majority of industry-aided snooping likely occurs under the radar, with the dirty-work being handled by companies that most consumers have never heard of.

A recent article in the London Review of Books revealed that a number of private companies now sell off-the-shelf data-mining solutions to government spies interested in analyzing mobile-phone calling records and real-time location information. These companies include ThorpeGlen, VASTech, Kommlabs, and Aqsacom–all of which sell "passive probing" data-mining services to governments around the world.  Rest of NSA cell phone location article here.

I’ve been telling you folks this.  Again and again.  The cell phone companies can auto-locate every single cell phone even if you don’t place a call.  It’s a function of the way the cellular network is designed.  This means all cell phones, not just those with GPS.

Since 9-11 the NSA has just pressed their intelligence-gathering throttle to the floor.  No need to have a reason to suspect, no need to use the non-secret legal system, monitor everyone and figure out later who actually deserved to be tracked.  A license to steal, and they have it.

And you think the terrorists haven’t won>

Welcome, fellow agents of foreign governments.  It’s a lovely morning here as I type this … how’s the weather where you are?

I don’t know where you are, but there’s a good chance Uncle Sam knows where you are and who you are typing to and even whose blog you read.

What’s that you say, you are not an agent of a foreign power?  Well you may not be, but then again, any person in the US government who wishes to believe you are can ‘tag’ you with that label and you will never know about it and have no right to protest it.  Ever email someone in China?  Got a girlfriend in the Philippines?  Checked out manga sites in Japan?  yep, that would be more than enough excuse for the US government to force your Internet Service provider to give them complete, anonymous access to records of every email and every page you have ever surfed.  Scary.  What gives them that right?

FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act  of 1978)  1978?  Man, that was 30 years ago!  Are you insane, Scoop?  This can’t possibly apply to us today, on the Internet, can it?  there wasn’t even an Internet in 1978.

Correct, there was no public access ‘Net anything like we know it today, but FISA doesn’t really care.  FISA, in application, is a law that allows the government to essentially snoop on its citizens with blanket impunity.  You know how when you watch a crime show in TV the law enforcement folks have to be ever so careful about warrants … especially about getting court permission to wiretap?  Probable cause and all that sort of thing?  Well, FISA exempts telecommunication providers from following the law.  It allows them to turn over every piece of information the government asks for, regardless of probably cause.

There is a court procedure required … but it comes from a special impendent court system, the FISA curt.  Never heard of it?  That’s because it’s secret!  Why would an American citizen have access to court records about himself, eh?  He or she must be up to no good if they want to be notified, ergo, we, the ever-infallible government will just do as we want and keep the procedures secret.

I don’t know about you, but here the sun just went behind a crowd.  I’m pretty sure this post will be picked up by the NSA or someone else snooping on me … hope they have a good time reading it.

In addition to the Wikipedia link, there is some really great info on the FISA at K.M. Henry’s site to read more about your Civil Rights And Bible Prophecy.

Ever see a "throw away" quote in an otherwise mundane news article that you feel should just be broadcast to the world so that people could see just how far we have gone along the track of totally giving up our personal freedoms in the name of "Anti-terrorism"?

I came across this article this morning … a municipal council (city government) in England is invoking their anti-terrorism powers to monitor people’s lives to make sure they don’t claim some obscure tax discount, or even to prove they aren’t lying about living within a specific school’s "catchment area".  ( a reference to school attendance districts).  High risk activities to monitor indeed.

Think about how the folks you elect to office are planning to use their anti-terrorism powers to monitor you. Not some mythical Muslim extremist, but little old you.

Council used terror powers to spy on cheats

By Jon Austin »

BASILDON Council has used powers introduced to track terrorists to spy on 156 residents, the Echo can reveal.

Council bosses have defended the specialised surveillance operations, 148 of which focused on suspected benefits cheats. The council refused to be specific about what the eight other residents, who were secretly monitored, were thought to be doing.

But it admitted investigating flytipping (I had to look it up: a British term for illegally dumping waste somewhere other than an authorised landfill) offences, antisocial behaviour and environmental health issues.

The figures were released to the Echo following a Freedom of Information Act request.

Tony Ball, deputy council leader, said most cases involved video surveillance. People were tracked on a daily basis.

Mr Ball is “99 per cent” certain the authority has not used an extra EU directive, introduced in 2005, which allows councils to snoop on people’s e-mail and phone records.

He said: “It is very important to protect the public purse.

“Benefit fraudsters are cheating everyone and I make no apology for using the power in these circumstances.

“I am sure most people will see this as justified.  (submit for the greater good)

“We are not interested in using the Act to look into people’s bins or for other minor stuff like some councils have.

“Everyone is entitled to a private life and it is not for the Government and councils to pry into this.

“We are not Big Brother yet.” … full article on the abuse of anti-terrorist powers is here.

Maybe not yet, but the path is certainly clear.  Scary.

If I were re-born as "czar of the US" for just a day… (don’t worry Shrub …  I mean Mr. Bush, it’s only a figure of speech … I would herd the president, in particular his non-elected and strange-minded staff, and every member of the legislature into a huge assembly hall and make them take a lecture on the Constitution of our country …with a required passing grade on a quiz at the end before releasing them.  Most would need to sit through several repeats before they "got" the message.

The single unique thing that made the US grow from a bunch of ner-do-well dirt farmers to the strongest country on earth was and is the US Constitution.  Now, because of 19 Saudi Arabian terrorists we seem to have completely lost site of that valued document and most importantly its meaning.

… The amount of data which the Federal Government now collects and stores regarding the behavior of innocent American citizens is truly staggering. It is just literally true that the Government now maintains sweeping digital dossiers on its citizens, including ones who have never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any wrongdoing of any kind. And without much debate or attention of any kind, the amount of monitoring and the scope of the data just keeps growing. Since when was sweeping domestic surveillance and keeping records about innocent Americans ever supposed to be a function of the Federal Government? … This came via this link

It’s only one of many such tales of warning that out elected leaders and their salaried minions ignore in the name of "Security".  Friends, I worked on the fringes of that "protection by collection" world for years.  I can assure you that while you may think unlimited wire tapping, data mining and compilation of every piece of data the Federal government can find on you is adding to your security … it is actually the most dangerous thing that can be imagined for our country’s future. 

Far more dangerous than any plot to steal and airliner, build and explode a dirty bomb or any of the imaginary weapons of mass destruction that have lined Dick Cheney’s pockets for years … Hi Carnivore, bet this blog post set some triggers, eh?  Leave a comment, NSA, I’ll get back to you.

I’m 62 years of age.  I have served my country in government service through several wars and innumerable activities where I was proud to be a memeber of a team dedicated to freedom and the protection of our constitution.  now have seen the most shocking example of the diversion of my beloved country from it’s goals that I have ever seen in all m years, bar none.  I can only echo what my collegaue Alex Eckelberry said here:

Yesterday was a pretty bad day for the Bill of Rights. 68 Senators voted to pass S. 2248, a new law designed to replace the so-called "Protect America Act."

• It permits the President to spy on Americans without a warrant.
• It grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that collaborated with the Bush administration in previous warrantless spying, thereby creating an incentive for other companies to engage in similar crimes in the future (only Qwest Communications insisted on warrants).

Not a good day for the Constitution.

I am baffled, confused and disappointed as to what we, as American citizens have done to deserve this lehalized oppression … and I have to say I certainly applaud the lonely, and now futuile efforst of QWest to attempt to uphold our constitution.

To the men and women of our legislatute … for shame.  Most of you are better educated than I and all of you have sworn to uphold the same public trust as I did as a government employee.  How could you fail us so egregiously?

The title is a pull quote from an entry on the "End Time Prophecy News" which I strongly suggest you read.  Do not form an opinion based on the name of the source … this is not crackpot opinion but a quote from a blue ribbon team currently studying the idiotic and extremely dangerous mess we have spinelessly allowed the current administration to build under the auspices of the NSA (No Such Agency or National security Agency).  In my 38 years with the USAF I worked with the NSA a number of times, many of those times I still can’t mention.  I can say this … the NSA is like any other government agency .. they often get things right but they sometimes get things horribly, horribly wrong … and unlike most agencies they have the cloak of "national security" to hide all their possible misdeeds … as well as their amazingly loose budget behind.

…. By diverting the flow of so much domestic data into a few massive pools, the administration may have "[built] for its opponents something that would be too expensive for them to build for themselves," say the authors: "a system that lets them see the U.S.’s intelligence interests…[and] that might be turned" to exploit conversations and information useful for plotting an attack on the United States….

Let’s assume we did not have this huge ‘spy on ourselves" juggernaut in place.  let’s further suppose that I wanted to do you some injury or misdeed .. perhaps get my hands on on your money.  Since I am not a master criminal nor a spy it would be pretty difficult … and pretty expensive.

But with the mess we have made and continue to allow our loose cannon administration to perpetuate, it becomes much easier .. almost trivially easy if I had my old job back .. or went to work with one of our virtually unsupervised contractors who are the folks who actually run this system.  It’s scary. You know one of the reasons I finally decided to retire?  My security clearance review was already more than 5 years out of date, with no update time in sight, and the prospect of explaining every move I had made, every trip to China the government knew nothing about, every other change in my life that had happened was to daunting to cope with.  Security clearances are so far behind any more that it’s essentially a joke … once vetted, good for life … unless you meet the wrong people.  I no longer felt proud in being a part of the mess.

"Although the NSA has extensive experience in building surveillance systems, that does not mean things cannot go wrong," the authors state. "When you build a system to spy on yourself, you entail an awesome risk."  (The article, slated to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal IEEE Security & Privacy, was written by six experts from Sun Microsystems, Columbia University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and California-based research giant SRI International.)

If i were you, I’d get on the horn to your Congressman and Senators and tell them why you think this country should be owned by the citizens and not the NSA.

Of course, be very careful what you say and how you say it …..