ABC and CBS Ignore News That the Intelligence Community Actually Did Warn Obama About ISIS Threat

By Curtis Houck

News Analyst

Throughout the day on Monday, several sources in the intelligence community disputed President Obama’s comments in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday night that the intelligence community and Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper are to blame for not recognizing the threat posed by ISIS.

On the Monday evening newscasts of the major broadcast networks, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir chose to ignore the story all together while the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley simply re-aired Obama’s comments from 60 Minutes the night prior without acknowledging the criticisms since the interview aired. [MP3 audio here]

NBC Nightly News offered a stark contrast as it aired a two-and-a-half-minute segment that included not only Obama’s comments, but congressional testimony from intelligence officials over the past year warning of ISIS and reports from NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel going back to January that both cited the falling apart of the Iraqi army in being able to hold territory and losses in territory to terrorists that U.S. troops had secured during the Iraq war.

http://goo.gl/XN6PhE

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Social Media Spies: NSA Built Its Own Secret Google To Search And Share Billions Of Calls, Emails

Giuseppe Macri

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The National Security Agency has built a “Google-like” search engine that allows multiple government agencies to sift through more than 850 billion communications records — including those belonging to Americans, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

Almost two dozen agencies including CIA, DEA and FBI have used the engine known as “ICREACH” to efficiently share and search billions of phone calls, emails, web chats and phone location data obtained without a warrant according to the documents obtained by The Intercept.

A document from 2007 described the program as “a one-stop shopping tool” for communications analysis, which was masterminded by recently retired NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander.

http://goo.gl/myQefj

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NSA Tried To Delete Court Transcript In Lawsuit Over Deleting Evidence

12:08 PM 08/08/2014

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Giuseppe Macri

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The National Security Agency secretly tried to delete part of a public court transcript after believing one of its lawyers may have accidentally revealed classified information in a court case over alleged illegal surveillance.

Following a recent hearing in the ongoing Jewel v. NSA case, in which the Electronic Frontier Foundation is challenging NSA’s ability to surveil foreign citizen’s U.S.-based email and social media accounts, the government informed U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White it believed one of its attorneys mistakenly revealed classified information.

The government then requested that the select portion of the hearing’s public transcript be secretly deleted without alerting the public to the alteration. According to the EFF, the open courtroom case — which has been steadily picking up media coverage following NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s bulk surveillance revelations — was “widely covered by the press” and “even on the local TV news on two 

http://goo.gl/COLRWT

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Newly Released Document Reveals How The US Government Defines A Terrorist

  

Giuseppe Macri

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A A A Newly leaked documents from the National Counterterrorism Center is giving the world its first inside peek at how the U.S. government identifies and tracks suspected terrorists in country and abroad.

A copy of the National Counterterroism Center’sWatchlisting Guidance report from March 2013 shows a dramatic expansion in the criteria used to target potential terrorist suspects under the Obama administration — a system which “requires neither ‘concrete facts’ nor ‘irrefutable evidence,’” according to The Intercept.

The list is distributed throughout the intelligence community as a uniform standard for designating suspects, and though it is unclassified, its secrecy has been guarded by both the Bush and Obama administrations. Just last month Attorney General Eric Holder brought the criteria under the state secrets privilege in order to prevent them from being disclosed in a legal challenge against an American placed on the list — a designation that can bar suspects from flying, and leave them open to prosecution for minor offenses.

In his argument, Holder described the list as a “clear roadmap” of the U.S. intelligence terrorist-tracking system, and that reveling the list to the public “could cause significant harm to national security.”

http://goo.gl/AueWaL

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NSA Surveillance Programs Too Big to Hold Data

Sherry Karabin, Law Technology News

June 10, 2014    |1 Comments

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The controversy over the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs continues.  According to a post on Slashdot, a recent story by The Washington Post reporter Andrea Peterson stated that the agency is facing a host of lawsuits, many of which were launched after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information on the agency's spying last year.

Peterson’s article discussed Jewel v. NSA, which pre-dates Snowden’s revelations.  Filed in 2008 to end the surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans, it challenges the constitutionality of programs that collect information about Americans' telephone and Internet activities.

Read more: http://www.lawtechnologynews.com/id=1202658881891/NSA-Surveillance-Programs-Too-Big-to-Hold-Data#ixzz34LfpOSEn

Top 10 in Law Blogs: Edward Snowden, Marijuana & the Workplace, Cruise Transparency

Could Edward Snowden be a spy? A recent story in the Wall Street Journal has raised that distinct possibility—one that Stewart Baker, formerly with the NSA, sinks his teeth into on the Steptoe Cyberblog. That and more in today’s Top 10. Total posts on the LexBlog Network today: 189.

• Mickey Rooney’s Estate — Separating Fact from Fiction – California lawyer Keith Davidson of Albertson & Davidson on the firm’s blogCalifornia Trust, Estate & Probate Litigation
• Interfaces (“APIs”) Are Subject To Copyright. No, They’re Not! Are Too! Courts Continue To Muddy Up The Water. – Texas lawyer Paul Stanfieldon the Austin Technology Law Blog
• Privacy Monday – May 12, 2014 – Boston lawyer Cynthia Larose of Mintz Levin on the firm’s blog, Privacy & Security Matters
• Colorado High Court to Rule on Rocky Mountain High – Detroit attorney Michael Groebe of Foley & Lardener on the firm’s blog, Labor & Employment Law Perspectives

http://goo.gl/FPgSla

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EU High Court Strikes Down Data Retention Law

Trade Secrets? Tips For Keeping Data Safe

WHITE HOUSE Obama: NSA Reforms Should Give Americans 'Greater Confidence'

But will they be enough to satisfy critics?

By Dustin Volz, Matt Berman, Brendan Sasso, Matt Vasilogambros and Jack Fitzpatrick

January 17, 2014

In a bid to calm growing privacy concerns about the government's spying powers, President Obama outlined a series of steps Friday aimed at ushering in "concrete and substantial" reforms to the National Security Agency.

RELATED STORIES

• Obama's NSA Proposals Fall Far Short of Real Change
• Full Text of Obama's Speech on NSA Surveillance

"Americans recognized that we had to adapt to a world in which a bomb could be built in a basement and our electric grid could be shut down by operators an ocean away," the president said during a major policy speech at the Justice Department.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/obama-nsa-reforms-should-give-americans-greater-confidence-20140117

Obama: 'I'll act on my own' agenda

By Justin Sink

President Obama vowed to use his executive authority to usher in a "year of action" even if Congress remains gridlocked, he said in his weekly address.

"Where Congress isn’t acting, I’ll act on my own to put opportunity within reach for anyone who’s willing to work for it," the president said.Obama pointed to a recent trip to North Carolina to announce the formation of a new public-private manufacturing institute as evidence of how he could act alone to spur economic activity.

"It’s a partnership between companies, colleges, and the federal government focused on making sure American businesses and American workers win the race for high-tech manufacturing and the jobs that come with it – jobs that can help people and communities willing to work hard punch their ticket into the middle class," Obama said.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/195869-obama-ill-act-on-my-own

After Obama NSA Speech, Spotlight on Congress

Todd Ruger, Legal Times

Lawmakers, civil rights advocates and tech companies shared a basic response to President Barack Obama's surveillance reforms: Good first step, but there's more to be done.

Congress needs to take action to address concerns about the scope of surveillance programs, Obama said. Much of the reaction focused on proposed changes to the most controversial program—the bulk collection of telephone records by the National Security Agency under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

Obama also called for greater transparency when it comes to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees NSA surveillance efforts.

Read more: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202639059915/After-Obama-NSA-Speech%2C-Spotlight-on-Congress#ixzz2qhHGdeXa

Key officials advocate NSA, Cyber Command leadership be split up

By Ellen Nakashima, Published: November 29 E-mail the writer

Key senior administration officials have advocated splitting the leadership of the nation’s largest spy agency from that of the military’s cyberwarfare command as a final White House decision nears, according to individuals briefed on the discussions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-us-cyber-command-leadership-should-be-split-up-officials-advocate-according-to-sources/2013/11/29/09fb5c02-5904-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html

Google: We're bombarded by gov't requests on user data

Requests from governments worldwide for user information have more than doubled since three years ago. Worse still, says Google, is what the US won't let us tell you.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57612322-83/google-were-bombarded-by-govt-requests-on-user-data/

Legislation Report

Legislation Seeks to Bar N.S.A. Tactic in Encryption - New York Times

http://nyti.ms/19riPzq