NSA To Sanders: We Can't Tell You If We're Spying On You In Order To Protect You

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM

CAITLIN MACNEAL – JANUARY 14, 2014, 5:57 PM EST

The National Security Agency on Friday told Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that it cannot reveal whether the agency has been targeting members of Congress in its metadata collection because doing so would violate privacy provisions accorded to civilians in the program, the Huffington Post reported Tuesday.

"Among those protections is the condition that NSA can query the metadata only based on phone numbers reasonably suspected to be associated with specific foreign terrorist groups," NSA chief Keith Alexander wrote in a letter to Sanders.

"For that reason," he added, "NSA cannot lawfully search to determine if any records NSA has received under the program have included metadata of the phone calls of any member of Congress, other American elected officials, or any other American without the predicate."

Alexander did say that the NSA does not spy on lawmakers. "Nothing NSA does can fairly be characterized as 'spying on Members of Congress or American elected officials,'" he wrote.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nsa-won-t-tell-sanders-if-it-s-spying-on-congress-to-protect-his-privacy

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[bucolic_frolic]

1. Unfairly then?

[BetterThanNoSN]

22. Exactly

You just know when they are playing semantics. And to Bernie, really? You had to ask? And actually thought you'd get a straight answer? Sheesh

[Scuba]

2. "Jamie Dimon says we can't tell you."

[Aerows]

16. Why he isn't in jail eludes me. That dude has swindled more money

than a mob boss and still sits pretty.

[Th1onein]

3. DEFUND this renegade agency, already!

[Ash_F]

9. Seriously, it took congress 2 seconds to defund ACORN for nothing.

What's so hard? The NSA obviously does not respect congress. At least not Democratic congressman Sanders.

[Psephos]

13. Actually, he's a Senator and an independent.

But I do hear you.

[Ash_F]

21. Thanks. I just assumed.

He's more of a Democrat then most Democrats!

[BelgianMadCow]

4. ...we spy on everyone, so the Congress shouldn't feel singled out.

See, I wasn't lying. We weren't specifically targetting them, but everyone, so, technically, ...

[erronis]

5. Any chance they'll let us know if they spy on Gen. Alexander

Or the White House, DOJ, SCOTUS, DoD?

Or other NSA/CIA/DIA/MI6/JS/NRO staff?

I really worry about a positive feedback loop where they are all intercepting each others meta (and actual) data and the petazillion storage facilities in Utah/Langley/VA will blow up from the explosion of worthless bits - recorded and rerecorded ad infinitum.

[24601]

6. Metadata R Metadata. The private sector turns it over to NSA as required by law. Looking through

it (without a warrant) just to determine if someone's number is included would itself be a violation.

So just presume that the telecoms' metadata (about all calls) is included. Their data about "your call" then hides in plain sight with everything else until a warrant lets them match an identity to your number and determine to what numbers that number connected, when and for how long. Content isn't there.

I repeat my offer - for a reasonable fee paying only for my time - at say $50 per hour, I'll bypass my telecom and send NSA metadata about my calls and even in an excel file.

For an extra $1000 a month, I'll consent (bypassing the need for a warrant) to an unlimited number of searches to determine to which numbers I called or was called by.

For an extra $2000 per call, I'll identify if any calls were to or from terrorists.

[erronis]

7. Nix the premise, however interesting proposition

I'm sure your

it (without a warrant) just to determine if someone's number is included would itself be a violation.

is just a nice snarkism since they "will" look at whatever data is under their lens - including voice/video. Warrants are such old school.

If the boyz are interested, I could also supply mega/biga/peta-sized data tables about my calls, real and imagined. Who knows, maybe I'm imagining having a tryst with some foreigner with an arabic name?

I'll make sure the data is encrypted with only the latest RSA/NSA-approved elliptical-curve algorithm (I thought that would conjure up images of fleshy hips) so it can be easily rendered.

Oh, I only take payments in bitcoin (or filthy gelt).

[JDPriestly]

12. Sounds like a good deal. If they want my metadata, they should pay me for it.

[truthisfreedom]

8. Spying while looking the other way.

Makes perfect sense to me. Up is down, black is white, perpetual war is the norm, and "Nineteen Eighty-Four popularised the adjective Orwellian, which describes official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of the past by a totalitarian or authoritarian state."

[Ash_F]

10. Also Alexander is clearly lying here

Alexander did say that the NSA does not spy on lawmakers. "Nothing NSA does can fairly be characterized as 'spying on Members of Congress or American elected officials,'"

That is what we call a 'Clapper' (soon to replace the term 'whopper')

[Aerows]

11. Both of them lied before Congress

What else won't they do? Anybody else would be under the jail.

[Psephos]

14. Exactly. Enough said. n/t

[Aerows]

15. Enough said is absolutely right n/t

[Gordon Alf Shumway]

17. We can't tell you ...

Because then we'd have to kill you? Is that the message?

[olddad56]

18. How about "I can't tell you because you already know, unless you are stupid".

[Solly Mack]

19. "Nothing NSA does can fairly be characterized as 'spying on Members of Congress or ..."

LMAO



Damn

[raven mad]

20. Sounds remarkably like

"We must destroy this village in order to save it."

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose