US spy chief Clapper defends Prism and phone surveillance

[Keith Millea]

Published on Monday, July 22, 2013 by Common Dreams

Germany and the NSA: Spying BFFs

NSA equipped Germany's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies with spy program that makes "almost total digital surveillance possible"

- Andrea Germanos, staff writer

A demonstration against NSA surveillance at the U.S. Army's Dagger Complex, thought to be an NSA listening station, near Griesheim, Germany. (Photo: Joachim S. Müller/cc/flickr)

Germany was a willing and eager partner to the NSA's vast surveillance, German news magazine Der Spiegel has reported, countering claims by the German government that it was unaware of the NSA's spying programs.

The reporting by Spiegel is based on a "top secret" NSA document revealed to them by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

According to the document, Germany was the NSA's "most prolific partner" in Afghanistan.

Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, sought to cultivate a relationship with the NSA, meeting with the agency's secretive Special Source Operations, and, the magazine reports,

cooperation between Berlin and Washington in the area of digital surveillance and defense has intensified considerably during the tenure of Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to one document, the Germans are determined to "strengthen and expand bilateral cooperation."

And the head of the BND, Gerhard Schindler, showed an "eagerness and desire" for the partnership, while German officials showed a "willingness to take risks and to pursue new opportunities for cooperation with the US."

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, is also tied to a cozy relationship with the NSA, the magazine reports. Both the BfV and BND were equipped with the NSA's spy program XKeyScore to "expand their ability to support NSA as we jointly prosecute CT [counter-terrorism] targets."

XKeyScore, Spiegel reports,

doesn't just track call connection records, but can also capture the contents of communication, at least in part.
In addition, the system makes it possible to retroactively view which key words targeted individuals enter into Internet search engines and which locations they search for on Google Maps.
The program, for which there are several expansions known as plug-ins, apparently has even more capabilities. For instance, "user activity" can be monitored practically in real time and "anomalous events" traced in Internet traffic. If this is true, it means that XKeyscore makes almost total digital surveillance possible.

The hope for the NSA was that the cross-Atlantic cooperation "could benefit both Germany and the US."

At a press conference on Friday, where she faced a barrage of questions on the NSA surveillance, Merkel said, "Germany is not a nation of surveillance. Germany is a nation of freedom."

Repeat:"Germany is not a nation of surveillance. Germany is a nation of freedom."

Except,Ms.Merkel,you just got caught lying your ass off.....:nono:

[Jan Klimkowski]

As all DPF members know:

Gehlen Organization or Gehlen Org was an intelligence agency established in June 1946 by U.S. occupation authorities in the United States Zone of Germany, and consisted of former members of the 12th Department of the Army General Staff (Foreign Armies East, or FHO). It carries the name of Reinhard Gehlen.

Gehlen had all along been under the tutelage of US Army G-2 (intelligence), but he wished to establish and succeeded in establishing an association with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in 1947. In alliance with the CIA, the military orientation of the organization turned increasingly toward political, economic and technical espionage against the Eastern bloc and the moniker "Pullach" became synonymous with secret service intrigues.[1]

The Org was for many years the only eyes and ears of the CIA on the ground in the Soviet Bloc nations during the Cold War. The CIA kept close tabs on the Gehlen group: the Org supplied the manpower while the CIA supplied the material needs for clandestine operations, including funding, cars and airplanes.

(snip)

The Gehlen Org employed hundreds of ex-Nazis. Gehlen initially rejected hiring ex-SS personnel, but later as justification for their recruiting he insinuated that the East German State Security Service had been largely run by ex-SS personnel, i.e., it takes one to catch the other.[7]

(snip)

On April 1, 1956, the Gehlen Org was formally established as the Bundesnachrichtendienst (or Federal Intelligence Agency) of the Federal Republic of Germany, which exists to this day. Reinhard Gehlen stepped down as president in 1968 after reaching retirement age.

World War II was only twenty years earlier. Those in charge of the police, the schools, the government they were the same people who'd been in charge under Nazism. The chancellor, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, had been a Nazi. People started discussing this only in the 60's. We were the first generation since the war, and we were asking our parents questions. Due to the Nazi past, everything bad was compared to the Third Reich. If you heard about police brutality, that was said to be just like the SS. The moment you see your own country as the continuation of a fascist state, you give yourself permission to do almost anything against it. You see your action as the resistance that your parents did not put up.
Stefan Aust, author of Der Baader Meinhof Komplex[20]

[Jan Klimkowski]

Another lie exposed.

Allegedly your mobile can be located even when it's turned off.

There's No Hiding from the NSA

Submitted by Pivotfarm on 07/25/2013 14:13 -0400

Follow ZeroHedge in Real-Time on FinancialJuice

If you really do want to have every single trace of you lost, then you might like to think about living under ground for the rest of your life, or up a mountain in Outer Mongolia. The chances are that you will be found anyhow. It turns out that the National Security Agency of the US can actually locate your cell phone even when it has been turned off and is no longer emitting a signal.

It was previously believed by people that you could only locate the last emitted signal and if turned off, then that signal was lost. Your last known whereabouts could only be found. Now, it seems that that's not true. In Back-to-the Future-Flash-Gordon style, the NSA has gone beyond the bounds of technology, pushed the boat all the way out and they can find us even when you power down your phone. Is there no peace for the wicked, honestly? An even less peace for the honest, wickedly!

Are our everyday lives so interesting that I have to be monitored by the NSA? Says quite a lot for their own existence, doesn't it? Either they are just enjoying the voyeurism of listening into my conversations or eavesdropping on my texts when I write something like "hey, where are you?" or "Be home soon, honey", or they really do have nothing else to do.

Are my texts that interesting to the NSA?

The NSA had developed what they call The Find' by 2004, in the wake of growing anxiety over 9/11 and terrorism. The device enabled the locating of people via their mobile phones even when they were turned off. Normally, the phone loses the connection to the grid and when turned off it's impossible to locate it. By 2006 in addition, it was also stated that the FBI was able to infect mobile phones with spyware viruses that allowed them to be located when turned off.

We will all remember when journalists were asked by Edward Snowden to turn their phones off and then put them in the fridge. Very James Bond-007-treatment, don't you think? But, Mr. Snowden, that wouldn't have done very much apart from keep them in a cool place for storage. Blackberry was the target in the United Arab Emirates in 2009 of the fake update that was in fact a spyware virus. Are we sure that what we download from Apple or any other such phone producer is a bone fide update, these days? Are phone companies providing access today via downloads to our cell phones and mobile devices? Hardly needs very much of an answer, does it? Bit of a no-brainer these days really.

Targeting people that are the real security issues to our countries might well be acceptable: protecting the masses by eavesdropping on the dangerous few. But, the whole problem in this story is that just possibly we have all downloaded an update from our phone providers these past few years and months, or even days. Perhaps mass infection by spyware means that the minority that is a security issue have been got'. But, it also means you and I have been well and truly got' too. Anyhow, I have probably unknowingly typed one of the 70, 000 keywords that launchesPrism onto my back and gets me monitored today in this article. Wonder who can get the list of them?

[Magda Hassan]

Another lie exposed.

Allegedly your mobile can be located even when it's turned off.

Yes. I don't even know now if taking your battery and SIM card out will work. There was a recent murder case here in Melbourne. The woman was missing and they traced her phone movements and collected the CCTV footage from the route and matched it with a suspect. His mobile phone matched the same route at the same times. In this case it was good police work but we know they are doing this all the time.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-ord...6598588787

[Peter Lemkin]

Another lie exposed.

Allegedly your mobile can be located even when it's turned off.

Yes. I don't even know now if taking your battery and SIM card out will work. There was a recent murder case here in Melbourne. The woman was missing and they traced her phone movements and collected the CCTV footage from the route and matched it with a suspect. His mobile phone matched the same route at the same times. In this case it was good police work but we know they are doing this all the time.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-ord...6598588787

A rare example of this being used to solve a crime, rather than create one by illegal spying. I do believe removing the battery and SIM card would prevent tracking/listening in. In order to get some response from a phone when the battery is removed they must supply some energy via a beam of some kind and frequency....thus, would not be used for general surveillance - but for specific surveillance, IMO....as this is very intensive targeting and hard work for people, not computers alone. Don't think they YET have such a general system set up for this via automated systems, with the exception of collection devices that are able to detect any mobile phone that passes by it - with or without a battery - [many of these are mounted now in cities along busy roads, in shopping areas, city centers, etc.] Big Brother welcomes you and watches your every move!

[Albert Rossi]

You've all probably seen this, but I'll post it anyway.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4992[/ATTACH]

And, while I'm at it, another one from a couple of years ago.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4993[/ATTACH]

[Malcolm Pryce]

Remove the battery? Ha those were the days! The iPhone battery is built in. The story has been going round for a long time now that the spooks can turn your phone's microphone on and listen in, even when the phone is switched off. If true, that's quite an astonishing development since every one in the developed world has a mobile phone and most people keep it close to hand, even on the bedside table. Just think, they can tune in and listen to people fuck all over the world. If it's technically possible you can guarantee they would do it, if only as a party trick to entertain new recruits.

[Peter Lemkin]

Remove the battery? Ha those were the days! The iPhone battery is built in. The story has been going round for a long time now that the spooks can turn your phone's microphone on and listen in, even when the phone is switched off. If true, that's quite an astonishing development since every one in the developed world has a mobile phone and most people keep it close to hand, even on the bedside table. Just think, they can tune in and listen to people fuck all over the world. If it's technically possible you can guarantee they would do it, if only as a party trick to entertain new recruits.

That's for sure. They have long been able to listen to voice and the gps location even when you think you have the phone off! I'd not buy a phone one can't take the battery and SIM card out of, if you care about your privacy - especially if you ever plan to make an 'escape' from authorities [in which case you'll need another SIM card not registered to you* and never before used by you!....a whole bunch of them would be best; a new one every day and every few hours if on the 'run'. It seems that they've gotten the major companies to allow both back-door entry and now to build them where one can't remove the battery.....very clever, eh!?...or is that sinister. Elsewhere I mentioned that slightly over 20 years ago I met and interviewed a rouge NSA person who was quite low level - basically a computer tender on the night shift. He told me, among more substantive things, that to entertain themselves, and under the guise to their bosses of making sure the system was working, they would randomly plug into the stream of downloaded conversations - until they found a 'sexy' one, and then they'd tell their buddies how to locate it and listen in too. So, your guess is on the mark...and that was over 20 years ago.

On a slightly different angle...but related....the NSA and like organizations can - besides making/storing illegal and immoral recordings of voice, photos, video, geospatial position, and other data - create out of thin air fake recordings, as I believe they did with many of the 'phone calls' from doomed planes on 9-11-01. And since we now have secret courts and secret trial 'evidence', what is to stop them from presenting faked accounts of who one called, where one was, and what one said and did....etc.

The future doesn't look very rosy [understatement!] unless we stop this monster that has been created - and very quickly. This cancer is about to kill the host, which is already in 'intensive care' and dying.

*As it has been a long times since I lived in my own country and never bought a mobile phone there, I don't know if when one buys a SIM card it is registered as to who bought it. Here, it is not and one can go in and pay cash for a handful of them - even choose the numbers one likes of those available. Unlike in the US, from what I understand, you do not have to register with a company provider, but can just pay as one goes using prepaid cards. I keep an extra SIM card and unregistered mobile [with removable battery] handy, purchased in another part of the planet and not by me....just in case.

[David Guyatt]

If they listened in to my conversations/texts they'd die of boredom.

Suits me.:phone:

I always figured the in-built battery in the iPhone was to ensure people keep buying new iPhones, rather than anything else. But I can see how it could have a multiple layer to it.

[Peter Lemkin]

Bruce Fein & Associates, Inc.
722 12th Street, N.W., 4th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: 703-963-4968
bruce@thelichfieldgroup.com

July 26, 2013
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Re: Civil Disobedience, Edward J. Snowden, and the Constitution
Dear Mr. President:
You are acutely aware that the history of liberty is a history of civil disobedience to unjust laws or practices. As Edmund Burke sermonized, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Civil disobedience is not the first, but the last option. Henry David Thoreau wrote with profound restraint in Civil Disobedience: "If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine."
Thoreau's moral philosophy found expression during the Nuremburg trials in which "following orders" was rejected as a defense. Indeed, military law requires disobedience to clearly illegal orders.
A dark chapter in America's World War II history would not have been written if the then United States Attorney General had resigned rather than participate in racist concentration camps imprisoning 120,000 Japanese American citizens and resident aliens.
Civil disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act and Jim Crow laws provoked the end of slavery and the modern civil rights revolution.
We submit that Edward J. Snowden's disclosures of dragnet surveillance of Americans under § 215 of the Patriot Act, § 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments, or otherwise were sanctioned by Thoreau's time-honored moral philosophy and justifications for civil disobedience. Since 2005, Mr. Snowden had been employed by the intelligence community. He found himself complicit in secret, indiscriminate spying on millions of innocent citizens contrary to the spirit if not the letter of the First and Fourth Amendments and the transparency indispensable to self-government. Members of Congress entrusted with oversight remained silent or Delphic. Mr. Snowden confronted a choice between civic duty and passivity. He may have recalled the injunction of Martin Luther King, Jr.: "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it." Mr. Snowden chose duty. Your administration vindictively responded with a criminal complaint alleging violations of the Espionage Act.
From the commencement of your administration, your secrecy of the National Security Agency's Orwellian surveillance programs had frustrated a national conversation over their legality, necessity, or morality. That secrecy (combined with congressional nonfeasance) provoked Edward's disclosures, which sparked a national conversation which you have belatedly and cynically embraced. Legislation has been introduced in both the House of Representatives and Senate to curtail or terminate the NSA's programs, and the American people are being educated to the public policy choices at hand. A commanding majority now voice concerns over the dragnet surveillance of Americans that Edward exposed and you concealed. It seems mystifying to us that you are prosecuting Edward for accomplishing what you have said urgently needed to be done!
The right to be left alone from government snoopingthe most cherished right among civilized peopleis the cornerstone of liberty. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson served as Chief Prosecutor at Nuremburg. He came to learn of the dynamics of the Third Reich that crushed a free society, and which have lessons for the United States today.
Writing in Brinegar v. United States, Justice Jackson elaborated:
The Fourth Amendment states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
These, I protest, are not mere second-class rights but belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so
effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the
first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. And one need only briefly to have dwelt and worked among a people possessed of many admirable qualities but deprived of these rights to know that the human personality deteriorates and dignity and self-reliance
disappear where homes, persons and possessions are subject at any hour to unheralded search and seizure by the police.
We thus find your administration's zeal to punish Mr. Snowden's discharge of civic duty to protect democratic processes and to safeguard liberty to be unconscionable and indefensible.
We are also appalled at your administration's scorn for due process, the rule of law, fairness, and the presumption of innocence as regards Edward.
On June 27, 2013, Mr. Fein wrote a letter to the Attorney General stating that Edward's father was substantially convinced that he would return to the United States to confront the charges that have been lodged against him if three cornerstones of due process were guaranteed. The letter was not an ultimatum, but an invitation to discuss fair trial imperatives. The Attorney General has sneered at the overture with studied silence.
We thus suspect your administration wishes to avoid a trial because of constitutional doubts about application of the Espionage Act in these circumstances, and obligations to disclose to the public potentially embarrassing classified information under the Classified Information Procedures Act.
Your decision to force down a civilian airliner carrying Bolivian President Eva Morales in hopes of kidnapping Edward also does not inspire confidence that you are committed to providing him a fair trial. Neither does your refusal to remind the American people and prominent Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate like House Speaker John Boehner, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann,and Senator Dianne Feinstein that Edward enjoys a presumption of innocence. He should not be convicted before trial. Yet Speaker Boehner has denounced Edward as a "traitor."
Ms. Pelosi has pontificated that Edward "did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents." Ms. Bachmann has pronounced that, "This was not the act of a patriot; this was an act of a traitor." And Ms. Feinstein has decreed that Edward was guilty of "treason," which is defined in Article III of the Constitution as "levying war" against the United States, "or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."
You have let those quadruple affronts to due process pass unrebuked, while you have disparaged Edward as a "hacker" to cast aspersion on his motivations and talents. Have you forgotten the Supreme Court's gospel in Berger v. United States that the interests of the government "in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done?"
We also find reprehensible your administration's Espionage Act prosecution of Edward for disclosures indistinguishable from those which routinely find their way into the public domain via your high level appointees for partisan political advantage. Classified details of your predator drone protocols, for instance, were shared with the New York Times with impunity to bolster your national security credentials. Justice Jackson observed in Railway Express Agency, Inc. v. New York: "The framers of the Constitution knew, and we should not forget today, that there is no more effective practical guaranty against arbitrary and unreasonable government than to require that the principles of law which officials would impose upon a minority must be imposed generally."
In light of the circumstances amplified above, we urge you to order the Attorney General to move to dismiss the outstanding criminal complaint against Edward, and to support legislation to remedy the NSA surveillance abuses he revealed. Such presidential directives would mark your finest constitutional and moral hour.
Sincerely,
Bruce Fein
Counsel for Lon Snowden
Lon Snowden