Obamas's list of dissidents

Lest we have any delusions

More Documents Leaked: Obama Collecting List of Political Dissidents

U.S. Internet companies that want to resist government demands to hand over customer data for intelligence investigations have few legal options, due to the classified nature of such probes and a court review process shrouded in secrecy.

Susanne Posel,

7 June, 2013

According to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) informant “this administration is collecting names of sources, whistle blowers and their families, names of media sources and everybody they talk to and have talked to, and they already have a huge list. If you’re not working for MSNBC or CNN, you’re probably on that list. If you are a website owner with a brisk readership and a conservative bent, you’re on that list. It’s a political dissident list, not an enemy threat list.”

The hacktivist group Anonymous has released 13 documents related to PRISM that are classified from federal agencies like the Department of Defense (DoD).

The documents show that the DoD and the National Security Agency (NSA) have been collecting data on Americans for years.

Under the NetOps Strategic Vision , the federal government has been monitoring the internet through corporations such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and others.

According to Anonymous: “NetOps will transform along with the Global Information Grid to dynamically support new warfighting, intelligence, and business processes and enable users to access and share trusted information in a timely manner. The future Global Information Grid will result in a richer Net-Centric information environment comprised of shared services and capabilities based on advanced technologies.”

The document goes to say: “It will be heavily reliant on end-to-end virtual networks to interconnect anyone, anywhere, at any time with any type of information through voice, video, images, or text. It will also be faced with greater security threats that NetOps must help address.”

The DoD is expanding the control over a division referred to as the Global Information Grid (GiG).

GiG is tasked with providing “a supportive information environment wherein every user can obtain the information needed, when and where it is needed, even in unanticipated situations.”

Indeed, it is clear that the NSA has had direct access to Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and other internet giants for years; amassing a gigantic database of information on the American public.

The NSA describes GiG to the public as an apparatus that provides “the National Command Authority (NCA), warfighters, DoD personnel, Intelligence Community, business, policy-makers, and non-DoD users with information superiority, decision superiority, and full-spectrum dominance.”

The leaked document provides more detailed information about GiG’s purpose: “The GIG includes all owned and leased communications and computing systems and services, software (including applications), data, security services, and other associated services necessary to achieve Information Superiority. It also includes National Security Systems as defined in section 5142 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. The GIG supports all Department of Defense, National Security, and related Intelligence Community missions and functions (strategic, operational, tactical, and business), in war and in peace. The GIG provides capabilities from all operating locations (bases, posts, camps, stations, facilities, mobile platforms, and deployed sites). The GIG provides interfaces to coalition, allied, and non-DoD users and systems.”

Internet users have their every move on the internet traced. This includes search history, emails, file transfers, live chats, etc . . .

In 2007, PRISM began data mining. Some sources say that PRISM actually extends as far back as 2003.

Their first collaboration was with Microsoft and conducted surveillance operations under the guise of searching for terrorist activity or cyber espionage.

Using automated algorithms , the NSA or other federal agencies can search for clues as to the next possible terrorist plot.

The NSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) have been acquiring “extracting audio, video, photographs, emails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.”

All of the tech corporations that have been used by the NSA, FBI and DoD in conjunction with sharing private user information to create the surveillance network grid are denying that they knew why the information was being requested of them.

Larry Page, co-founder of Google said that “we have not joined any program that would give the US government – or any other government – direct access to our servers. Indeed, the US government does not have direct access or a ‘back door’ to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called Prism until yesterday.”

Page goes on to explain: “We provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law. Our legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don’t follow the correct process.”

Mark Zuckerberg replied: “Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers. We have never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively. We hadn’t even heard of Prism before yesterday.”

Interestingly, upon close inspection of the denials from tech corporations, it appears that they do not deny that it is possible that the information they provided to the federal government may have been used in surveillance programs or for such purposes.

Under PRISM, these same corporations that deny knowledge or involvement in surveillance operations on the American public are listed with their entry date into the program as outlined in the leaked documents.

• 2008 – Yahoo
• 2009 – Google, Facebook, Paltalk
• 2010 – Youtube
• 2011 – Skype, AOL
• 2012 – Apple

In response to the leak, President Obama came out to publically endorse PRISM because it promotes public safety and protects of civil liberties.

Obama said that this “modest encroachment on privacy . . . helps us prevent terrorist attacks.”

According to the president Americans must accept this “trade-off” that creates balance between privacy and safety. He said: “Nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program is about. In the abstract you can complain about Big Brother and how this is a potential program run amok, but when you actually look at the details, I think we’ve struck the right balance. There are trade-offs involved.

In defense of unnecessary government surveillance on all Americans, Obama said: “You can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a society.

Simply put, Obama explained that “if the intelligence community actually wants to listen to a phone call, they’ve got to go back to a federal judge.”