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Tag Archives | Spying

Judge Favors Constitution on NSA Wiretaps

By on April 2, 2010 in Judiciary, Law 0

Not a common thing these days, but a Federal judge ruled against the federal government on NSA wiretaps. From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON – A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s program of surveillance without warrants was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush….

The ruling by Judge Walker, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, rejected the Justice Department’s claim – first asserted by the Bush administration and continued under President Obama – that the charity’s lawsuit should be dismissed without a ruling on the merits because allowing it to go forward could reveal state secrets….

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CIA Buys Another Front Company

By on November 6, 2009 in Big Brother 5

This time, to track blogs, tweets, Amazon book reviews. (h/t Lew Rockwell)

From the article:

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates – even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using “open source intelligence” – information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.

Does anyone find this surprising? Or did you people who supported spying in the last administration forget that a different group of people might want to use that same power against you?

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Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old

By on November 2, 2009 in Republocrats 2

What was once depicted as a grave act of lawlessness — Bush’s NSA program — is now deemed a vital state secret. The Obama administration, happy to hold on to the power that the Bush administration handed to it, is now saying “toss the wiretap lawsuit.” Why? Because it threatens to expose ongoing government intelligence activities.

Seriously. From the AP report:

Attorney General Eric Holder says a lawsuit in San Francisco over warrantless wiretapping threatens to expose ongoing intelligence work and must be thrown out.

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