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9-11
Meta Index September 11 2001
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INTERNET News:
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20081110
 Barack
Obama -  E-Mail
-  Database
- 2008
Election -  People
-  Communications
-  Media
-  Politics
-  GOV
-  Legislation
- 2010
Election
"Under
Obama, Web Would Be the Way: Unprecedented Online
Outreach Expected." ... "Armed with millions of e-mail addresses and a
political operation that harnessed the Internet like no campaign before
it, [Democratic President-Elect] Barack Obama will enter the White House
with the opportunity to create the first truly "wired" presidency." ...
"Obama aides and allies are preparing a major expansion of the White House
communications operation, enabling them to reach out directly to the supporters
they have collected over 21 months without having to go through the mainstream
media." ... "The nucleus of that effort is an e-mail database of more than
10 million supporters. The list is considered so valuable that the Obama
camp briefly offered it as collateral during a cash-flow crunch late in
the campaign, though it wound up never needing the loan, senior aides said.
At least 3.1 million people on the list donated money to Obama." ... "Millions
more made up the volunteer corps that organized his enormous rallies, registered
millions of voters and held countless gatherings to plug the senator to
friends and neighbors. On Election Day [2008], they served as the backbone
of Obama's get-out-the-vote operation, reaching voters by phone and at
the front door, serving coffee at polling stations and babysitting so parents
could stand in line at voting precincts." ... "After Obama declared victory,
his campaign sent a text message announcing that his supporters hadn't
heard the last from the president-elect. Obama conveyed a similar message
to his staff in a campaignwide conference call Wednesday, signaling that
his election was the beginning, and not the culmination, of a political
movement." ... "Accordingly, the president-elect's http://www.change.gov
transition Web site features a blog and a suggestion form, signaling the
kinds of direct and instantaneous interaction that the Obama administration
will encourage, perhaps with an eye toward turning its following into the
biggest special-interest group in Washington." ... "Once Obama is sworn
in, those backers may be summoned to push reluctant members of Congress
to support legislation, to offer feedback on initiatives and to enlist
in administration-supported causes in local communities. Obama would also
be positioned to ask his supporters to back his favored candidates with
fundraising and turnout support in the 2010 midterm elections." (1, 2)
-By Shailagh Murray and Matthew Mosk with contributions
by Alec MacGillis -WashingtonPost
20081106
 Chinese
- Hackers
-  US
- Government
- E-Mail
- Network
-  Military
-  Technology
-  Intelligence
- Politics
"Chinese
hack into White House network." ... "Chinese hackers
have penetrated the White House computer network on multiple occasions,
and obtained e-mails between government officials, a senior US [United
States] official told the Financial Times." ... "On each occasion, the
cyber attackers accessed the [Republican President Bush] White House computer
system for brief periods, allowing them enough time to steal information
before US computer experts patched the system." ... "US government cyber
intelligence experts suspect the attacks were sponsored by the Chinese
government because of their targeted nature. But they concede that it is
extremely difficult to trace the exact source of an attack beyond a server
in a particular country." ... "The official said the Chinese cyber attacks
had the hallmarks of the “grain of sands” approach taken by Chinese intelligence,
which involves obtaining and pouring through lots of - often low-level
- information to find a few nuggets." ... "Some US defence companies have
privately warned about attacks on their systems, which they believe are
attempts to learn about future weapons systems." ... "The National Cyber
Investigative Joint Task Force, a new unit established in 2007 to tackle
cyber security, detected the attacks on the White House. But the official
stressed that the hackers had only accessed the unclassified computer network,
not the more secure classified network." ... "The US has increased efforts
to tackle cyber security, particularly since Chinese hackers believed to
be associated with the Peoples’ Liberation Army last year perpetrated a
major attack on the Pentagon." ... "US military computer experts battled
for weeks against a sustained attack that eventually overcame the Pentagon’s
defences. The cyber attackers managed to obtain information and emails
traffic from the unclassified computer system that supports Robert Gates,
the defence secretary. Pentagon IT technicians were forced to take the
network down for days to conduct repairs." -By Demetri
Sevastopulo -FT.com
20081105
Barack
Obama -  John
McCain -  Sarah
Palin -  Fashion
-  Money
- Internet
- Hacking
- Federal
-  Investigation
- 2008
Election - Technology
- Politics
- US
-  Russia
- China
"Hackers
and Spending Sprees." ... "The computer systems of
both the [2008 Election Presidential Candidates] Obama and McCain campaigns
were victims of a sophisticated cyberattack by an unknown "foreign entity,"
prompting a federal investigation, NEWSWEEK reports today." ... "At the
Obama headquarters in midsummer, technology experts detected what they
initially thought was a computer virus—a case of "phishing," a form of
hacking often employed to steal passwords or credit-card numbers. But by
the next day, both the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] and the Secret
Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: "You have a problem
way bigger than what you understand," an agent told Obama's team. "You
have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off
your system." The following day, Obama campaign chief David Plouffe heard
from White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, to the same effect: "You have
a real problem ... and you have to deal with it." The Feds told Obama's
aides in late August that the McCain campaign's computer system had been
similarly compromised. A top McCain official confirmed to NEWSWEEK that
the campaign's computer system had been hacked and that the FBI had become
involved." ... "Officials at the FBI and the White House told the Obama
campaign that they believed a foreign entity or organization sought to
gather information on the evolution of both camps' policy positions—information
that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration. The
Feds assured the Obama team that it had not been hacked by its political
opponents. (Obama technical experts later speculated that the hackers were
Russian or Chinese.)" ... "NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping
spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously
reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately
fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide
said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention
and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying
for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such
as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable
sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor,
who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers
to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found
out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that
she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that
$20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of
clothing have apparently been lost." (1, 2)
-Newsweek
20080914
Sarah
Palin -  Rove
-  Abramoff
- E-Mail
- Secrecy
- Government
-  Archive
- Politics
- Legal
- Investigation
-  Computer
- Internet
- Tech
-  Alaska
- 2008
Election
"Even
before VP nomination, Palin's e-mail use questioned."
... "Moments after [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate
and Alaska Governor] Gov. Sarah Palin's first speech as Republican [2008
Election Presidential Candidate] John McCain's running mate, she sat with
her kids backstage, thumbing one of the two BlackBerrys that are always
with her." ... "The tech-savvy governor has one of the devices (which allow
users to read and send e-mails) for state business and another for personal
matters, but those worlds intertwine." ... "Palin routinely uses a private
Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state business. Others in the governor's
office sometimes use personal e-mail accounts, too." ... "The practice
raises questions about backdoor secrecy in an administration that vowed
during the 2006 campaign to be "open and transparent."" ... "Even before
the McCain campaign plucked Palin from Alaska, a controversy was brewing
over e-mails in the governor's office. Was the administration trying to
get around the public records law through broad exemptions or private e-mail
accounts?" ... "The governor's Yahoo account is "the most nonsensical,
inane thing I've ever heard of," said Andree McLeod, who is appealing the
administration's decision to withhold e-mails." ... ""The governor sets
the tone and the tone that has been set by this governor is beyond the
pale," McLeod said. "Common sense tells you to use an official state e-mail
account for official state business."" ... "State lawyers say that the
governor's e-mails about public business should be treated like any other
public record, even if she's sent them through a private account such as
Yahoo." ... "Some of her aides also routinely use Yahoo, but even messages
sent from one private account to another should be public, if they concern
public business, said Dave Jones, an assistant attorney general." ... ""The
difficulty is finding out they exist," Jones said." ... "The [Republican
President] Bush administration has drawn heat over revelations that more
than 80 White House aides, including senior Bush adviser Karl Rove, used
private GOP e-mail servers for government business. The controversy surfaced
during congressional investigations into White House contacts with convicted
lobbyist Jack Abramoff and into the firings of U.S. attorneys." -By
Lisa Demer -ADN.com
via -McClatchyDC.com
20080827
John
McCain -  Houses
- Economy
-  Car
- Internet
- US
-  Foreign
-  Gas
- Torture
- Guantanamo
- Prison
- Stem
Cells -  Health
Care - Politics
- 2008
Election
"Trust
Me." ... ""You’re the Republican candidate for president
and you want to fix the country's problems even though you don’t know much
about the economy, you don’t know how to use the internet, you don’t know
how many houses you own or what kind of car you drive, you admit you don’t
think clearly when you’re tired, you make frequent gaffes on foreign policy,
you think offshore drilling is a short-term solution to high gas prices,
you support torture and keeping the Guantanamo prison open, you make rash
decisions and statements from which you have to quickly backtrack, you
have an explosive temper on a hair trigger, your idea of health care reform
is 'wear more sunscreen,' you're for stem cell research except when it's
done on stem cells because you consider them all American citizens, and
you voted to support the policies of the worst president ever 100 percent
of the time this year?"" ... ""Trust me, my friends. I was a POW."" ...
"Only in Republicanland." -Bill
in Portland Maine -DailyKos.com
20080617
Obama
- 2008
Election - Internet
- Media
-  Cable
Networks - Politics
- Religion
-  Women
- "Jon
Stewart Mocks Media For Peddling Insane Obama Rumors."
... "On Monday night's "Daily Show," Jon Stewart mocked the media's willingness
to peddle insane rumors about [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate]
Barack Obama — and their tendency to blame the rumor-mongering on internet
sites. Calling it "Baracknophobia," Stewart showed clips of anchor and
pundits from all three cable networks repeating baseless rumors (Muslim,
plagiarist, sexist, etc.) about Barack Obama (and his wife Michelle)."
-HuffingtonPost.com
 WATCH!-)
Jon Stewart on "Baracknophobia" ... "The irrational fear of hope."
20080613
 Tim
Russert - Barack
Obama - John
McCain - Internet
- EMail
- Media
-
- Politics
- Religion
-  Indiana
-  Illinois
- US
-  Iraq
-  Iran
- Military
- Money
-  Social
Security - 2008
Election
[NOTE:
On the day MSNBC's Meet
the Press television political journalist Tim Russert died, MSNBC published
this interview with Tim Russert:]
"Vigilance
needed on campaign claims: Big issues, not smears,
need to be the focus." ... "Msnbc: Tim, www.fightthesmears.com
is a web site launched by the [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate]
Barack Obama campaign to combat potentially damaging rumor about the candidate
and his wife, Michelle. Is this necessary? How big of a problem is
this really?" ... "Tim Russert: It’s amazing how much the Internet
has changed our lives. People get emails that make accusations without
foundation and they are circulated around the country within seconds and
suddenly become topics of conversations around water coolers or in lunchrooms."
... "I remember being in Indianapolis [Indiana's capital] covering the
Indiana primary and a man came up to me and said he wasn’t going to vote
for [Illinois] Senator Obama because he was very concerned about the comments
made by Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor. I said, “That’s interesting.
As a reporter, I’m curious what comments particularly bothered you?”
He said, “Well, I can’t think of any that come to mind, but I also read
on the Internet that he’s a Muslim.” And I said, “Now wait a minute.
You can’t have both. You can’t be offended by his Christian minister
and then say he’s a Muslim. You’ve got to pick one.”" ... "But that
just underscores what we’re dealing with in this modern era." ... "Now
I’m told there’s a counter organization with a very similar name that is
going to be positioned and posted to spread the rumors, so that people
that go to the Internet to get clarification will go to the wrong web site
and get confused." ... "It’s a virus. You have bloggers on both sides,
liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats all trying to utilize
this vehicle without any kind of fact checking and without any kind of
editorial control." ... "Msnbc: Given the way people use the
Internet, do you wonder if there are going to be some things said or done
during the course of this campaign that will be very unsettling?" ... "Russert:
That’s what we have to be conscious of and vigilant against, particularly
at the end of the campaign as things are put out there. We’ve already
had a few fake videos with different words dubbed in and people say, “This
must be true because I saw it on the Internet.”" ... "What we hope to do
in this campaign is recognize there are big differences on big issues between
John McCain and Barack Obama – the war in Iraq, Iran, Social Security,
taxes. You don’t need to get into this other stuff. If it does
surface, then I think the mainstream media has an obligation not to just
instinctively put it out there without vetting it. Or, if it is something
that is manufactured as a virus, report on that – who did it and why.
But sometimes it’s very hard to trace it back to its original source."
-MSNBC
20080611
Secret
-  Surveillance
- Cellphone
-  Tracking
- Technology
- Internet
- Financial
- Data
- Electronic
- Intelligence
-  Counterterrorism
- Investigation
- Law
- Politics
"Secret
Spy Court Repeatedly Questions FBI Wiretap Network."
... "Does the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] track cellphone users'
physical movements without a warrant? Does the Bureau store recordings
of innocent Americans caught up in wiretaps in a searchable database?
Does the FBI's wiretap equipment store information like voicemail passwords
and bank account numbers without legal authorization to do so?" ... "That's
what the nation's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [FISC] wanted
to know, in a series of secret inquiries in 2005 and 2006 into the bureau's
counterterrorism electronic surveillance efforts, revealed for the first
time in newly declassified documents." ... "The inquires are the first
publicly known questioning of the FBI's post-9/11 surveillance activities
by the secret court, which has historically
approved nearly every wiretap application submitted to it. The
court handles surveillance requests in counterterrorism and foreign espionage
investigations. The inquiries add to questions surrounding how the FBI
has used the broad powers handed to it by Congress in the 2001 USA Patriot
Act, including the FBI's admitted
abuse of so-called National Security Letters to get stored telephone
and financial records." ... "Among other things, the declassified documents
reveal that lawyers in the FBI's Office of General Counsel and the Justice
Department's Office of Intelligence Policy Review queried FBI technology
officials in late July 2006 about cellphone tracking. The attorneys asked
whether the FBI was obtaining and storing real-time cellphone-location
data from carriers under a "pen register" court order that's normally limited
to records of who a person called or was called by." ... "Separately, the
secret court questioned if the FBI was using pen register orders to collect
digits dialed after a call is made, potentially including voicemail passwords
and account numbers entered into bank-by-phone applications." ... "EFF's
Bankston says it's clear that FBI offices had configured their digit-recording
software, [Digital Collection System] DCS 3000, to collect more than the
law allows." ... "For more on the FBI's sophisticated wiretapping technology
and how it links in with the nation's phone and internet infrastructure,
see Point,
Click, Eavesdrop." -By Ryan Singel
-27B/6 -Wired
20080609
John
McCain - Racism
- Homophobia
- Sexism
- Language
- Politics
- Internet
- Media
- Obama
- 2008
Election
"McCain's
Web site talks about the anti-Christ being 'a Jew,' Hillary being a 'bitch,'
Obama being a 'Muslim fag,' and America bringing 9/11 on itself."
... "UPDATE: Jed
finds more on other McCain sites, including a reference to Obama as
a n*gger." ... "Some folks on the right thought they'd pull an "I gotcha"
on Obama by trying to find kooky things visitors have written on [2008
Election Republican Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama's blog. So, I
thought I'd take a look at [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
John McCain's campaign Web site and do a search for words like "fag," "bitch,"
and "Jew," for starters. What I found wasn't pretty. It's interesting to
note that each comment has a "flag as offensive" button next to it, so
that readers can inform the moderator that the comments are offensive.
Either McCain's readers don't find any of this offensive, or McCain's staff
was informed and didn't care." -By John Aravosis
-AmericaBlog.com
20080601
Politics-Networking
-  Entertainment
- "Every
Thursday Night, Liberal Politics and Pints." ...
"Mr. [Justin] Krebs was one of the founders of the progressive social networking
group called Drinking Liberally that has been meeting at Rudy’s [New York
City, New York's Bar and Grill] every Thursday night for the past five
years." ... "“We knew our friends wanted to talk about politics and the
state of the country, but it felt like that was a taboo thing to do in
a social setting,” Mr. Krebs said. “We wanted to create an environment
where people would be told that politics is not off the table — that in
fact, it’s what we’re here for,” said Mr. Krebs, a founder of The Tank,
a nonprofit space for performance and public-affairs events in Midtown
[New York City]." ... "In the beginning, Mr. Krebs and his partner in starting
the club, Matthew O’Neill, 30, would show up on Thursday, with just the
two of them sharing a pitcher of beer. Since then, online social networking
has helped the group grow into a national organization with 250 chapters
across the country, at least one in each state. " -By
J. Courtney Sullivan -NYTimes
DrinkingLiberally.org
/ STATE/City Locations:AK
- AL - AR
- AZ - CA
- CO - CT-
DE
- FL - GA
- HI - IA
- ID - IL
- IN - KS
- KY - LA
- MA - MD
- ME - MI
- MN - MO
- MS - MT
- NC -
ND-
NE-
NH
- NJ - NM
- NV - NY
- OH - OK
- OR - PA
- RI - SC-
SD
- TN - TX
- UT - VA
- VT - WA
- WI - WV
- WY, also:DC,
Australia:
Melbourne
- Canada:
Calgary, Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia - Japan:
Osaka - New
Zealand: Wellington
20080507
-
Secret
- Government
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Politics
- Illegal
- Surveillance
- Investigation
- Internet
- Archive
-
 Library
- Electronic
- Civil
Liberties - Brewster_Kahle
- Censorship
- San
Francisco -  California
-  Student
- Health
- Consumer
- Telephone
- Electronic
- Data
- National
Security Letter - "FBI
Targets Internet Archive With Secret 'National Security Letter', Loses."
... "The Internet Archive, a project to create a digital library of the
web for posterity, successfully fought a secret government Patriot Act
order for records about one of its patrons and won the right to make the
order public, civil liberties groups announced Wednesday morning." ...
"On November 26, 2007, the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] served
a controversial National
Security Letter (.pdf) on the Internet
Archive's founder Brewster Kahle, asking for records about one of the
library's registered users, asking for the user's name, address and activity
on the site." ... "The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Internet Archive's
lawyers, fought the NSL [National Security Letter], challenging its constitutionality
in a December 14 complaint
(.pdf) to a federal court in San Francisco [California]. The FBI agreed
on April 21 to withdraw the letter and unseal the court case, making some
of the documents available to the public." ... "The Patriot Act greatly
expanded the reach of NSLs, which are subpoenas for documents such as billing
records and telephone records that the FBI can issue in terrorism investigations
without a judge's approval. Nearly all NSLs come with gag orders forbidding
the recipient from ever speaking of the subpoena, except to a lawyer."
... "Brewster Kahle called the gag order "horrendous," saying he couldn't
talk about the case with his board members, wife or staff, but said that
his stand was part of a time-honored tradition of librarians protecting
the rights of their patrons." ... ""This is an unqualified success that
will help other recipients understand that you can push back on these,"
Kahle said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning." ...
"Though FBI guidelines on using NSLs warned of overusing them, two Congressionally
ordered audits revealed that the FBI had issued hundreds of illegal requests
for student health records, telephone records and credit reports. The reports
also found that the FBI had issued hundreds of thousands of NSLs since
2001, but failed to track their use. In a letter to Congress last week,
the FBI admitted it can only estimate how many NSLs it has issued." -By
Ryan Singel -Wired
20080409
-
 Connecticut
- Hack
- Political
- US
Attorney - Censorship
- 2006
Election - Web
- E-Mails
- Federal
- Attorney
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- "FBI
probe: Lieberman campaign to blame for crashing own Web site."
... "A federal investigation has concluded that U.S. [United States Connecticut
Independent Democrat Senator] Sen. Joseph Lieberman's 2006 re-election
campaign was to blame for the crash of its Web site the day before Connecticut's
heated Aug. [August] 8 Democratic primary." ... "The FBI [Federal Bureau
of Investigation] office in New Haven [Connecticut] found no evidence supporting
the Lieberman campaign's allegations that supporters of primary challenger
Ned Lamont of Greenwich [Connecticut] were to blame for the Web site crash."
... "Lieberman, who was fighting for his political life against the anti-Iraq
war candidate [Ned] Lamont, implied that joe2006.com was hacked by Lamont
supporters." ... ""The server that hosted the joe2006.com Web site failed
because it was overutilized and misconfigured. There was no evidence of
(an) attack," according to the e-mail." ... "The e-mail, dated Oct. [October]
25, 2006, was included in a technical packet of information recently sent
to The Advocate in response to requests under the Freedom of Information
Act filed in late 2006 with the offices of state Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal and U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor." ... "The Advocate filed the
requests after Blumenthal and O'Connor closed the case but declined to
divulge details. They stated only that they found no evidence that Lamont
supporters were to blame." ... "Visitors who tried to access Lieberman's
site at the time received a message calling on Lamont to "make an unqualified
statement denouncing this kind of dirty campaign trick and to demand whoever
is responsible to cease and desist immediately."" ... "Blumenthal denied
The Advocate's FOI [Freedom of Information] request on the grounds it was
a federal matter, and it took more than a year for the FBI and U.S. Department
of Justice to respond." ... "According to the FBI memo, the site crashed
because Lieberman officials continually exceeded a configured limit of
100 e-mails per hour the night before the primary." -By
Brian Lockhart -StamfordAdvocate.com
20080310
-
Secretive
- Government
- Domestic
Spying - American
- Peoples
- Communications
- Travel
- Finances
- Electronic
- EMails
- Internet
-
 Searches
- Databases
- Civil-Liberties
- Law
- Terrorism
- Politics
- Investigation
- International
- Military
- Intelligence
- TIA
- "NSA's
Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data."
... "Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism
program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to
search for suspicious patterns [the TIA program: the Total Information
Awareness program]. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans'
privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." ... "But the data-sifting
effort didn't disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to
foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system." ...
"The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering
has never been publicly disclosed. But an inquiry reveals that its efforts
have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications,
travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs
brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks." ... "Congress now is
hotly debating domestic spying powers under the main law governing U.S.
surveillance aimed at foreign threats. An expansion of those powers expired
last month and awaits renewal, which could be voted on in the House of
Representatives this week. The biggest point of contention over the law,
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is whether telecommunications
and other companies should be made immune from liability for assisting
government surveillance." ... "Largely missing from the public discussion
is the role of the highly secretive NSA in analyzing that data, collected
through little-known arrangements that can blur the lines between domestic
and foreign intelligence gathering." ... "According to current and former
intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records
of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card
transactions, travel and telephone records. The NSA receives this so-called
"transactional" data from other agencies or private companies, and its
sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious
patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs
across the U.S. government, such as the NSA's own Terrorist Surveillance
Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and
overseas without a judge's approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected."
... "The NSA's enterprise involves a cluster of powerful intelligence-gathering
programs, all of which sparked civil-liberties complaints when they came
to light. They include a Federal Bureau of Investigation program to track
telecommunications data once known as Carnivore, now called the Digital
Collection System, and a U.S. arrangement with the world's main international
banking clearinghouse to track money movements." ... "The effort also ties
into data from an ad-hoc collection of so-called "black programs" whose
existence is undisclosed, the current and former officials say." ... "Two
current officials also said the NSA's current combination of programs now
largely mirrors the former TIA [Total Information Awareness] project. But
the NSA offers less privacy protection." -By Siobhan
Gorman -WSJ.com
20080306
-
Illegal
- Corporate
- Government
- Surveillance
- Terrorism
- Investigation
- Consumer
- Finances
- Telephone
- Internet
- Data
- Intelligence
- Politics
- Rights
-
 History
-  Audit
-  Vt
- "More
FBI Privacy Violations Confirmed." ... "The FBI [Federal
Bureau of Investigation] acknowledged it improperly accessed Americans'
telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth
straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at
tracking terrorists and spies." ... "Testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee
hearing, [FBI Director Robert] Mueller raised the issue of the FBI's controversial
use of so-called national security letters [NSLs] in reference to an upcoming
report on the topic by the Justice Department's inspector general." ...
"An audit by the inspector general last year found the FBI demanded personal
records without official authorization or otherwise collected more data
than allowed in dozens of cases between 2003 and 2005. Additionally, last
year's audit found that the FBI had underreported to Congress how many
national security letters were requested by more than 4,600." ... "National
security letters, as outlined in the USA Patriot Act, are administrative
subpoenas used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases. They allow the
FBI to require telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks,
credit bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records
about their customers or subscribers without a judge's approval." ... "Speaking
before the FBI chief, [Vermont Democratic Senator and] Senate Judiciary
Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. [Democratic-Vermont], urged Mueller to be
more vigilant in correcting what he called "widespread illegal and improper
use of national security letters."" ... ""Everybody wants to stop terrorists.
But we also, though, as Americans, we believe in our privacy rights and
we want those protected," Leahy said. "There has to be a better chain of
command for this. You cannot just have an FBI agent who decides he'd like
to obtain Americans' records, bank records or anything else and do it just
because they want to."" -By Lara Jakes Jordan
-AP via -SFGate.com
20080220
-
US
- China
- Bain
Capital - Networker
- Foreign
- Military
- Government
- Hacking
- Communications
- Technologies
- Politics
-
 Mass
- "3Com's
sale to Bain, Huawei stymied: National-security agency
fails to approve $2.2 billion deal." ... "Concerns about national security
could scuttle the $2.2 billion sale of networker 3Com Corp. [Corporation],
shares of which dropped as much as 20% on Wednesday." ... "Marlborough,
Mass.[Massachusetts]-based 3Com (COMS)
and its two partners -- Bain Capital Partners LLC [Limited Liability Company]
and Huawei Technologies Co. [Company] -- said they would withdraw their
application with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States."
... "The source of the agency's concern is the participation of Huawei,
the largest networker in China and a company with links to the mainland's
communist government. Huawei is run by a former mid-ranking officer in
the Chinese army whose firm has raised the ire of the U.S. [United States]
government and Western rivals such as Cisco Systems Inc. [Incorporated]."
... "It's no longer a top-tier networking company, but 3Com still does
substantial business with the U.S. The vendor's TippingPoint subsidiary,
for example, sells anti-hacking and other network-security services to
the Defense Department." ... "The U.S. has been particularly sensitive
about foreign ownership of networking and communications assets, especially
in light of repeated attempts to hack the nation's defense systems. Chinese-based
hackers are viewed as a major concern. " -By Jeffry
Bartash -MarketWatch
20080214
-
Political
- Terrorism
- Corporate
- Government
- Telecom
- Amnesty
- Surveillance
- Intelligence
- Secrecy
- Consumer
- Internet
- History
- "Bush
Spy Bill Stance Called Fear-Mongering: [Republican
President Bush] President: U.S. Could Face Attacks That Would Make 9/11
"Pale By Comparison"." ... "President Bush, in remarks meant to spur House
Democrats into accepting a controversial new bill that would expand the
government's ability to spy on Americans, warned that the country faced
terror strikes that would make September 11 "pale by comparison."" ...
"In response, critics of the new bill accused Mr. Bush of "fear mongering,"
and of trying to deflect attention from the bill itself. Its most controversial
provision would prevent Americans from suing phone companies that helped
the administration spy on them since the [Republican President Bush] White
House surveillance program was instituted in 2001." ... "Mr. Bush has made
immunity from civil prosecution for the telecoms a must-have element for
revamping the nation’s surveillance laws, repeatedly saying he would veto
any bill that does not exempt telecoms from lawsuits." ... "The House-passed
version does not include telecom immunity. This past week, the Senate approved
a similar version which includes a provision that protects telecoms from
civil lawsuits." ... "There are approximately 40 lawsuits now brought by
citizens and consumer groups against companies that enabled the government
to illegally eavesdrop on Americans' phone and Internet communications."
... "Opponents of the administration's program, which engaged wiretaps
against any and all Americans without obtaining court-ordered warrants,
say the telecoms' participation was illegal. They say that, given the Bush
administration's penchant for secrecy, lawsuits against the telecoms are
the only way to obtain disclosure about the facts from the government."
... "Information being sought includes details about the origins of the
program. The administration admitted that the sweeping domestic surveillance
originated in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. However, declassified
documents obtained by the National Security Archive and testimony that
is part of these lawsuits suggest the National Security Agency program
was put into place shortly after Mr. Bush was inaugurated, long before
9/11." -Contributed to by David Morgan
-AP -CBSNews
-
Terrorism
- Politics
- Corporate
-
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