The defense that NSA activity only impacts non-US citizens and terrorists is now utterly specious

[dkf]

The Snowden effect continued to roll today, with fresh revelations detailing how the pervasive surveillance of the National Security Agency (NSA) is in fact linked to domestic criminal prosecution. The idea, and the defense, that NSA activity only impacts non-United States citizens and terrorists, is now utterly specious.

The NSA is one of the member agencies of a DEA unit called the Special Operations Division (SOD). The SOD, according to Reuters who broke the story, is at work “funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help” start, and win criminal investigations of United States citizens.

Therefore, there is a direct connection between the NSA and its surveillance efforts and regular criminal prosecution in the country.


What’s most surprising about today’s revelations is the process by which the DEA covers the tracks of its information. Using “parallel construction,” where information came from is hidden. Reuters tells a story in which a judge was told that a tip kicked off the investigation at hand. However, after pressing, it was admitted that the data had in fact been first captured by the NSA, and distributed by the SOD.

By creating new pasts for received data, the DEA can avoid potentially awkward questions about the legality of its evidence.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/05/dea-repotedly-hiding-nsa-data-used-to-prosecute-us-citizens/

[msongs]

1. our government is lying?? OMG nt

[dkf]

2. How will congress like this one I wonder.

Now the problem isn't only what was being collected but how it's being used. Who filled our erstwhile leaders in about this? Will this also be news?

[blackspade]

3. +1000

[delrem]

4. The NSA is formally linked with Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand.

The english speaking "homeland".
Only the US is forbidden to dragnet US data. Not Canada. Not the UK. ...
The linked agencies have formal agreements to share data.
The NSA can spoof data as easily as the DEA.
“parallel construction”
"constructing a lie"

[cantbeserious]

5. 1984 Made Manifest In 2013 - What's Next, Thought Crime

eom

[Hydra]

12. Actually, yes

They're working on(read: they have it already) a way to scan your brain and read what's going on there.

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies/

I've been watching carefully- the number of people pushing the idea of "illegal thoughts" is increasing. This, coupled with the blanket spying(Total Information Awareness) means it's 1984:

"Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing."

[cantbeserious]

14. All Too True And Sobering - Wonder If The Sleeping Public Will Ever Awake

eom

[Hydra]

16. Yes and no

I've met some people who get it and are being quiet. Others are in denial. Others still think it's a good thing.

While I think a lot of people are aware that something is "not right," their degree of comfort blunts the impact what they see has on them.

I'm not sure what they see, but I see the net closing on all of us.

[Ford_Prefect]

6. File this under creative accounting?

[bowens43]

7. The usual suspects will soon be here to defend it

probably spouting off about the oh so convenient phoney terror threats.....

[MelungeonWoman]

9. One has to think that

At some point the usual suspects will themselves tire of being lied to.

[TransitJohn]

11. Doubtful. eom

n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. The guy has a D behind his name, so it's ok

Why I hate cults of personality.

[Life Long Dem]

8. Since NSA communications originate in a foreign land,

so would the DEA's use in using NSA's foreign communications. Just as NSA's terrorism communications originate in a foreign land with the FBI using NSA's communications which originally started out in a foreign land as well. Same with the DEA. But it all starts in foreign land when using the NSA.

[randome]

10. Without basic journalistic details, it's impossible to know how this came about.

Was the data furnished to the DEA part of an ongoing foreign-based investigation by the NSA?

Basic question. Never asked, never answered.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[dkf]

13. How can we begin to answer these questions if they've taken pains to hide SOD involvement?

[randome]

15. A good journalist would at least ask that question.

A 'no comment' would actually increase the level of suspicion he is trying to convey here.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[ProSense]

17. What's "utterly specious"

"Therefore, there is a direct connection between the NSA and its surveillance efforts and regular criminal prosecution in the country. "

...is that bogus claim.

U.S. to review DEA unit that hides use of intel in crime cases
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023413365

[Recursion]

18. If it's true that they're reverse-engineering investigations based on unwarranted intel...

... that's a problem, though it's hardly limited to NSA wiretapping. Then again, I think the DEA is one of the worst organizations ever.

[dkf]

19. They are tampering with the justice system and rules of evidence.

No one can say this isn't a violation of a person's right to a fair trial.

Interview with Reuters reporter JOHN SHIFFMAN :

Well, my colleague Kristina Cooke and I spoke with about a dozen or two dozen agents and obtained some internal documents that showed that what federal agents, not just DEA agents but other agents who work with the DEA and do drug investigations—what they’re doing is, is they are starting—they are claiming that their investigations start, say, at step two. They are withholding step one from the investigations. And, I should say, it’s not just NSA intercepts. It’s informant information, information obtained from court-ordered wiretaps in one case, and using those for information in a second case. They also have a large database of phone records. Whenever the DEA subpoenas or does a search warrant and gets phone records for someone suspected of involvement in drugs or gang involvement, they put all those numbers into one giant database they call DICE, and they use that information to compare different cases. All of the collection is—seems perfectly legitimate, in terms of being court-ordered. What troubles some critics is the fact that they are hiding that information from drug defendants who face trial. The problem with that is that—is that these defendants won’t know about some potentially exculpatory information that may affect their case and their right to a fair trial.

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/6/a_domestic_surveillance_scandal_at_the

[Recursion]

20. The nexus of national security and the war on drugs is a bad, bad place

I have a very simple solution that will remove that nexus and send tax dollars flowing into our treasury...

[dkf]

21. But hasn't this always been the fear of mass data collection? That it will be used domestically?

It was obvious that if not now, someone would eventually abuse it.

The irony is it started who knows when, and we are discussing it like its a future danger.

[Recursion]

22. The DEA gave up on the 4th amendment decades ago, unfortunately

So while this is awful it's not terribly surprising. I hope Congress manages to do something this time. (Though a "stop that" from the WH couldn't hurt, either, and I wouldn't be surprised if we got one soon.)

[dkf]

23. Well the DOJ reviews the program so its not the DEA going rogue.

This is the entire federal enforcement apparatus.

On edit: I took out the "supposedly reviews" and changed it to just "reviews" because there is a sealed review of the program so we know Justice is not unaware of what is being done.

[Recursion]

24. DoJ's sign-off makes me think there's more to this than we're seeing, personally

But, just on the whole, I have trouble coming up with a scenario in which this is OK.

[dkf]

25. Yes it is. The more I learn...sigh.

It's disillusioning certainly.