look at who has been spying on us

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20050425/ts_latimes/expertscallspyagencypracticeaneyeopener

Experts Call Spy Agency Practice an Eye-Opener

The National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on electronic communications around the world, receives thousands of requests each year from U.S. government officials seeking the names of Americans who show up in intercepted calls or e-mails — and complies in the vast majority of cases without challenging the basis for the requests, current and former intelligence officials said.

The volume of requests and the NSA's almost reflexive practice of disclosing Americans' identities — which under federal law are shielded unless there is a compelling intelligence reason for releasing a name — have come as a surprise even to some members of Congress and government officials deeply involved in intelligence matters.

Officials from the NSA and other agencies say that the disclosures are proper and that there are significant protections against abuse. But the practice is coming under new scrutiny because of the recent disclosure that John R. Bolton, President Bush's nominee for ambassador to the U.N., submitted numerous requests for the identities of U.S. officials whose conversations were recorded by the NSA while monitoring overseas targets.
-snip-
----------------------------


see how valuable chem trails are? where would Bolton be without them.

Oh com'on anybody since the 1950s who has been paying attention knows that we have to say every so often FUCK HOOVER... who was infamous to do this as well. It just never stopped


So say it after me, FUCK HOOVER

When my bro was a paramedic, he had a call to a house where a guy did fuck hoover. Not pretty.

Ok took a second but the follow through was worth it, thanks for the guffaw!

(I think I got it anyway)

tsk tsk tsk... Seems they are not doing it so much to protect us as to be protected from us, doesn't it?

Throw away your tin foil bonnet! It won't protect you and things are worse than your worst conspiracy theories

NSA data can't usually be used in criminal proceedings, so has always been pretty much exempt from many of the usual rules on domestic surveillance.

Google ECHELON for some more fun.

None of this is remotely new or surprising to me. This sort of thing has been going on practically since the hidden microphone was perfected.

since back in the good ol' days there were no emails for them to read (CARNIVORE), keystrokes for them to log, and they didn't have the computing power to decrypt or compare notes.

And the old Secret Police programs like COINTELPRO weren't authorized in PATRIOT acts.

(Musta been a hell of a security clearance to work there. I was in a signal line unit and even with top secret crypto clearance there was stuff we couldn't see.)

"The Puzzle Palace," by James Bamford. The NSA tried to suppress the book. The updated version has information on the NSA's secret role in the Korean Airlines incident; Iran-Contra scandals; and the first Gulf War.

It also has a good history of the agency. Started off with railroad telegraphers. The actual "new" agency only dates back to 1942, but the foundation of it is much older.