Thursday, October 31, 2013

Is There Anything That The NSA Does Not Spy On?

General Keith Alexander (L), director of the National Security Agency (NSA) testifies at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington October 29, 2013. Top U.S. intelligence officials appeared at a congressional hearing on Tuesday amid a public uproar that has expanded from anger over the National Security Agency collecting the phone and email records of Americans to spying on European allies. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper watches on at right. (REUTERS/Jason Reed )

Is There Anything Left for the NSA to Spy On? -- Dustin Volz, Matt Berman and Brian Resnick, Defense One/National Journal

There's a new leak out today from Edward Snowden and The Washington Post. And it just confirms the mantra of 2013: If you thought the last leak was big, just wait for the next one. Today we learn that the NSA dragnet can capture the cloud.

The fittingly named program, MUSCULAR, secretly sends "millions of records every day from Yahoo and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the agency's Fort Meade headquarters."

The new disclosure is stunning—even for a Snowden leak—because the National Security Agency already possesses court-approved authority to collect vast amounts of online communication records, thanks to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Legislation introduced this week by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would limit the government's authority for such data-sweeping under the section.

Read more ....

My Comment: After reading today's report that the NSA tried to spy on the Vatican conclave that chose Pope Francis .... nothing surprises me now.

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