NSA Dumps Incriminating Documents

[Blade of Grass]

 

At 1:30pm on Christmas Eve, the NSA dumped a huge cache of documents on its website in response to a long-fought ACLU Freedom of Information Act request, including documents that reveal criminal wrongdoing.

 

The dump consists of its quarterly and annual reports to the President's Intelligence Oversight Board from Q4/2001 to Q1/2013. They were heavily redacted prior to release, but even so, they reveal that the NSA illegally spied on Americans, including a parade of user-errors in which NSA operatives accidentally spied on themselves, raided their spouses' data, and made self-serving errors in their interpretation of the rules under which they were allowed to gather and search data.

 

The NSA admits that its analysts "deliberately ignored restrictions on their authority to spy on Americans multiple times in the past decade."

 

 

The ACLU, which filed a lawsuit to access the reports, said the documents shed light on how the surveillance policies of NSA impact Americans and how information has sometimes been misused.

 

“The government conducts sweeping surveillance under this authority -— surveillance that increasingly puts Americans’ data in the hands of the NSA,” Patrick C. Toomey, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in an e-mail.

 

“Despite that fact, this spying is conducted almost entirely in secret and without legislative or judicial oversight,” he said.

 

The reports show greater oversight by all three branches of government is needed, Toomey added.

 

The ACLU filed suit to turn a spotlight on an executive order governing intelligence activities that was first issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and has been modified many times since then.

Source: Boing Boing

 

Opinion: Although Doctorow says that there is incriminating documents there, I'm sure that not much will be done about it other than the lawsuits filed by the ACLU. Though this might indeed be a step forward for Government oversight, I think that this may also be a strategic move on their part, hence why they still heavily redacted information.

[Sidiox]

So they broke the law as far as I can tell, will they now also be punished for doing that? Or will your government just say "No no that was bad, don't do it again, we will watch you" and then they can continue doing all that stuff, ignoring the public outrage?

[qwertywarrior]

"including a parade of user-errors in which NSA operatives accidentally spied on themselves,"

 

BUAHAHAHHAHA

 

1:30PM agent jack : agent Smith seems to be going to get coffee

1:31PM : agent smith : asking agent jack if he wants sugar . he says no

1:32 PM agent jack : i just burned my self drinking coffee . i think agent Smith is up to something

1:33 PM agent smith : Agent jack is adding his own sweetener in his coffee i suspect its cocaine

[Sharp_3yE]

HOLY BALLS! That's crazy. We kinda already knew this or had suspicions. I've heard people say that NSA is spying on us and probably doing it illegally for a few years and turns out they are right. Not shocking but very interesting. I hope courts get involved.

 

I've been watching action movies lately and cant help but think of some action hero like Jason Borne gathering this info and leaking it even though that's not what happens but would be cool.

[Scheer]

HOLY BALLS! That's crazy. We kinda already knew this or had suspicions. I've heard people say that NSA is spying on us and probably doing it illegally for a few years and turns out they are right. Not shocking but very interesting. I hope courts get involved.

 

I've been watching action movies lately and cant help but think of some action hero like Jason Borne gathering this info and leaking it even though that's not what happens but would be cool.

 

Basically already happened, just not as cool as it would have been in a movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden

[Fetzie]

Source: Boing Boing

 

Opinion: Although Doctorow says that there is incriminating documents there, I'm sure that not much will be done about it other than the lawsuits filed by the ACLU. Though this might indeed be a step forward for Government oversight, I think that this may also be a strategic move on their part, hence why they still heavily redacted information.

If they didn't redact the documents, then they would be putting themselves at risk of being sued for illegally farming data about US citizens (can only sue if you can prove you were personally affected, so they black out all personally identifiable information) and then illegally publishing that data about US Citizens (under personal data protection laws).

[Toddwjp]

As said in the tek, president Nixon was impeached for authorizing the wire tapping of one phone, president bush and Obama, wire tapped the entire country, no one gives a shit

[Simons]

I am not really surprised at all, CIA and NSA spies onto their citizens for good, and honestly as long as its just those two I dont really care. After all they are fighting terrorism and every other major crime that relates to national security.

[Trik'Stari]

I wonder how much of what was redacted relates to them spying on the current administrations political rivals. And how much of that information was transferred to the IRS before the last election to give them an excuse to audit people?

[Sharp_3yE]

Basically already happened, just not as cool as it would have been in a movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden

OH YEA he did lead stuff about the NSA spying on us. That's right.

[Blade of Grass]

If they didn't redact the documents, then they would be putting themselves at risk of being sued for illegally farming data about US citizens (can only sue if you can prove you were personally affected, so they black out all personally identifiable information) and then illegally publishing that data about US Citizens (under personal data protection laws).

My assumption was because he said heavily redacted is that more than just personal information was redacted, but I've yet to look and see.

 

I am not really surprised at all, CIA and NSA spies onto their citizens for good, and honestly as long as its just those two I dont really care. After all they are fighting terrorism and every other major crime that relates to national security.

True, but how far do they really need to go to protect us? When does protecting the nation end and fishing for crimes by violating our rights begin? What prevents them from using their power for other things (significant others looking through the others cell phone data etc)?

I'm all for the government protecting us from terrorism, but I also believe it is also their duty to protect our rights.

[Simons]

My assumption was because he said heavily redacted is that more than just personal information was redacted, but I've yet to look and see.

 

True, but how far do they really need to go to protect us? When does protecting the nation end and fishing for crimes by violating our rights begin? What prevents them from using their power for other things (significant others looking through the others cell phone data etc)?

I'm all for the government protecting us from terrorism, but I also believe it is also their duty to protect our rights.

 

It is one of those topics, that is so hard to describe what they should do and not do, and very hard to make a way to do so either. We can only assume that they are doing the right thing.

[Fetzie]

It is one of those topics, that is so hard to describe what they should do and not do, and very hard to make a way to do so either. We can only assume that they are doing the right thing.

 

Or rather, we can only HOPE that they are doing the right thing

[StarFire]

And this is why I cant trust 'em with my stuff.

 

They're supposed to spy on those outside the country to protect those inside (pretty sinister in itself actually)

 

Yet I'm safer here in Osaka than I was in Austin.

[McMurderMonkey]

Even if you don't care about being surveilled, imagine how much good could be done with the money spent on innefficiently spying on everyone.

[Blade of Grass]

"they reveal that the NSA illegally spied on Americans, including a parade of user-errors in which NSA operatives accidentally spied on themselves, raided their spouses' data, and made self-serving errors in their interpretation of the rules under which they were allowed to gather and search data."

this post made my day...lol....

It's one of my favorite parts too