Friday, 21 June 2013

permenant war, indefinite detention ,indefinite surveillance and hellish hoovering

"Hoovering"  does not just mean the vacuuming up of information.  It actually points  to Edgar Hoover and his infamous leadership  of  the FBI. A time when it was used to  collect information about all protesters -including Martin Luther King Jr.

And the phrase "allowing unrestricted analysis and research of captured records pertaining to any organization or individual “now or once hostile to the United States” just means never forgetting the past  to ensure  a future of eternal war.


Indefinite Surveillance: Say Hello to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014


Passed in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) set the groundwork for surveillance, collection, and analysis of intelligence gathered from foreign powers and agents of foreign powers, up to and including any individual residing within the U.S., who were suspected of involvement in potential terrorist activity. On October 26, 2001, a little over a month after 9/11, President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act into law. Two provisions, Sec. 206, permitting government to obtain secret court orders allowing roving wiretaps without requiring identification of the person, organization, or facility to be surveyed, and Sec. 215 authorizing government to access and obtain “any tangible thing” relevant to a terrorist investigation, transformed foreign intelligence into domestic intelligence.

NDAA 2014 builds on the powers granted by both the Patriot Act and FISA by allowing unrestricted analysis and research of captured records pertaining to any organization or individual “now or once hostile to the United States”. Under the Patriot Act, the ability to obtain “any tangible thing” eliminated any expectation of privacy. Under NDAA 2014 Sec. 1061(g)(1), an overly vague definition of captured records enhances government power and guarantees indefinite surveillance.

On May 22, 2013 the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities, one of several Armed Services Committees, met to discuss the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014. The main subject of the hearing was Sec. 1061, otherwise known as Enhancement of Capacity of the United States Government to Analyze Captured Records. This enhancement provision of NDAA 2014 would effectively create a new intelligence agency, one with the authority to analyze information gained under the Patriot Act, FISA, and known spying programs such as PRISM.

Sec. 1061(a) authorizes the Secretary of Defense to "establish a center to be known as the 'Conflict Records Research Center'" (Center). The main purpose of the center, according to the bill text, is to create a "digital research database," one with the capability to "translate" and facilitate research on "records captured from countries, organizations and individuals, now or once hostile to the United States." 
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The new enhancement provision, as well as the previous NDAA's indefinite detention mandate, goes to show how far the legislation has strayed from its stated purpose. According to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-California), the NDAA "authorizes funding for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths, and for other purposes."

Instead, the NDAA has become the vehicle for the Executive Branch and Department of Defense to bypass Congress and legislate away any perceived right, liberty, or privilege that conflicts with permanent war and indefinite surveillance.
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If indefinite detention became the primary reason for opposing NDAA 2013, then the enhanced provision authorizing unlimited indefinite surveillance may fuel the most outrage against NDAA 2014. If passed in its current state, NDAA 2014 will further guarantee that people exist not only under indefinite detention and permanent war, but also under indefinite surveillance by its government.

Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/17070-indefinite-surveillance-say-hello-to-the-national-defense-authorization-act-of-2014


FBI Chief Demands Broader Surveillance Powers

Current Internet Surveillance Still Doesn't Satisfy Officials


by Jason Ditz, June 20, 2013
It’s never enough, is it?
Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee today, FBI Chief Robert Mueller lamented that the current level of Internet surveillance, now known to be enormously broad and capturing huge amounts of ordinary Americans’ day-to-day emails, is insufficient for his goals.
Direct server access to the PRISM Nine, along with all the other indirect surveillance available to the administration, and a FISA court warrant system that signs off on literally every single request, no matter how asinine, covers an awful lot of ground. But conceivably two people could still communicate in other ways online without it being hoovered up as a matter of course.
That’s a terrifying notion to Mueller, who insisted that “criminals and terrorists” (and everyone else) have access to communications tools that he can’t always immediately spy on, and getting warrants keeps him from getting “timely” access. So he wants more unilateral authority.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was quick to reject the notion, noting that the government already has ridiculous levels of surveillance ongoing at any given time, and describing as “breathtaking” the notion that they would ask for even more. Since Mueller did use the word “terrorist” in his remarks, however, it will likely mean broad support in the Senate for whatever he wants.


http://news.antiwar.com/2013/06/20/fbi-chief-demands-broader-surveillance-powers/

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