I'm sick of this bull mantra "after 9/11" - NSA domestic surveillance

[rumpel]

From NSA "Transition 2001" declassified

(U) POLICY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (page 31)
(U-) Policy development at NSNCSS is the responsibility of the Director of Policy, who leads
the NSA Office of Policy and reports to the NSA Chief of Staff. The Chief of Staff reports to the
Director of NSA,
(U/) The Office of Policy ensures that NSNCSS complies with and implements national, DoD
and Director of Central (DCI) Intelligence policy, as appropriate. This is done through the NSAICSS
policy directive system, the United States Signals Intelligence Directive (USSID) system, and for
human resources issues, through Personnel Management Memoranda. The Office of Policy oversees
all policy development within NSA, and advises the Director on policy issues affecting NSA's signals
intelligence and information assurance missions. The Office also oversees and supports NSA
participation in external policymaking activities, such as the DCI's Policy Advisory Group, the
Intelligence Community Principals and Deputies Committees, and the Military Intelligence Board.

MAJOR POLICY ISSUES
(U) NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: RELEVANCE OF EXISTING AUTHORITIES IN THE INFORMATION AGE

(U) The National Security Agency is prepared organizationally, intellectually and -- with sufficient
investment -- technologically, to exploit in an unprecedented way the explosion in global
communications. This represents an Agency very different from the one we inherited from the Cold
War. It also demands a policy recognition that NSA will be a legal but also a powerful and permanent
presence on a global telecommunications infrastructure where protected American communications
and targeted adversary communications will coexist.

In the past, NSA operated in a mostly analog world of point-to-pint communications carried along
discrete, dedicated voice channels. These communications were rarely encrypted, and those that were
used mostly indigenous encryption that did not change frequently. Before the arrival of fiber optic
technology, most of these communications were in the air and could be accessed using conventional
means; the volume was growing but at a rate that could be processed and exploited.

NOW, communications are mostly digital, carry billions of bits of data, and contain voice, data and
multimedia. They are dynamically routed, globally networked and pass over traditional
communications means such as microwave or satellite less and less. Today, there are fiber optic and
high-speed wire-line networks and most importantly, an emerging wireless environment that includes
cellular phones, Personal Digital Assistants and computers. Encryption is commercially available,
growing in sophistication, and packaged in off-the-shelf computer software. The volumes and routing
of data make finding and processing nuggets of intelligence information more difficult. To perform
both its offensive and defensive missions, NSA must "live on the network"

(U) GROUNDBREAKER (page 33)
(U) Issue
(U) NSA intends to outsource its Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. The final decision will
be made after contractor proposals are evaluated and a determination is made on the advantages to
outsource rather than keep the work in house. The acquisition would represent a multi-billion dollar
investment over its 10-year contract term.

Project GROUNDBREAKER is an NSA initiative to outsource the
non-mission support areas of its IT infrastructure. NSA intends to pursue a
government-industry partnership in four IT areas: distributed computing;
enterprise and security management; internal networks; and telephony.

The news of outsourcing by the NSA was already on the internet in April of 1999, even though ultimately a year later the amount was 5.1 Billion, the plan to restructure an live on the network was already underway:
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/14_1/cover/449-1.html

NSA Outsourcing: A Pot of Gold

By Nick Wakeman
The National Security Agency is quietly taking steps to outsource its data centers, desktop computers, telecommunications and other pieces of its information technology infrastructure under a contract that could be worth $4 billion over 10 years.

snip
Known as Groundbreaker, the potentially lucrative contract to manage a large slice of the agency's IT infrastructure has sparked interest from a host of leading systems integrators and one telecommunications giant.

snip
Executives with Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo, Calif., and OAO Corp. of Greenbelt, Md., confirmed that their companies intend to pursue a prime contractor role for this effort. Also leaning toward bidding as a prime is AT&T Corp. of New York, sources said. AT&T officials declined to comment on the NSA contract.

These three companies are part of a larger group that NSA has designated pre-qualified to bid on the Groundbreaker contract. The others are: Andersen Consulting of Chicago; EDS of Plano, Texas; GTE Corp. of Irving, Texas; IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y.; Keane Inc. of Boston; and Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md.

Executives with EDS, GTE and Keane said they are still reviewing their strategies. Officials from IBM and Lockheed Martin declined to comment on the project.

Industry comments on a request for information from NSA are due May 3, so companies have until then to decide whether they are bidding as a prime or will join a team. Several sources said they did not expect more than four companies to bid as a prime.

A year earlier Michael Hayden in Congress in his own words:
http://www.nsa.gov/releases/relea00059.html

STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD OF
NSA DIRECTOR LT GEN MICHAEL V. HAYDEN, USAF

HOUSE PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE

12 April 2000

Statutory Restriction on Electronic Surveillance in the US. -- Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

Under FISA, NSA may only target communications of a U.S. person in the United States if a federal judge finds probable cause to believe that the U.S. person is an agent of a foreign power. Probable cause exists when facts and circumstances within the applicant’s knowledge and of which he/she has reasonably trustworthy information are sufficient to warrant a person of reasonable caution to believe that the proposed target of the surveillance is an agent of a foreign power. Under the statute, a judge may determine a U.S. person to be an agent of a foreign power only if there is information to support a finding that the individual is a spy, terrorist, saboteur, or someone who aids or abets them.

All FISA collection is regulated by special minimization procedures approved by the FISA Court and the Attorney General. Since the enactment of the FISA in 1978, there have been no more than a very few instances of NSA seeking FISA authorization to target a U.S. person in the United States. In those instances there was probable cause to believe that the individuals were involved in terrorism.

snip

Executive Order 12333 - Restrictions Im-Dosed on All Intelligence Collection Activities

There are certain restrictions imposed by E.O. 12333 upon all intelligence collection activities engaged in by the Executive Branch agencies. Intelligence collection must be conducted in a manner “consistent with the Constitution and applicable law and respectful of the principles upon which the United States was founded.” (Sec. 2.1). These include the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.

snip
Executive Branch Oversight


Within the Executive Office of the President, the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) conducts oversight of intelligence activities. The IOB reports to the President and the Attorney General on any intelligence activities the IOB believes may be unlawful. The IOB also reviews agency Inspector General and General Counsel practices and procedures for discovering and reporting intelligence activities that may be unlawful, as well as conducts any investigations deemed necessary to carry out their functions.
they can not report themselves do they?

It is so clear and obvious that * & Co abused the power and exploited the agencies involved.

[low_phreaq]

1. So if they started it before 9/11, what were they using it for?

Whenever * talks about starting up the NSA surveillance program because of 9/11, I just have to cringe, because this was going on well before 9/11, shortly after * took office. This hasn't been covered much in the mainstream media, but here are a couple links:

truthout - Jason Leopold | Bush Authorized Domestic Spying Before 9/11
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011306Z.shtml

truthout - Jason Leopold | NSA Spying Evolved Pre-9/11
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706Y.shtml

The National Security Agency Declassified
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB24

What really torques me, though, is hearing this utter B.S. from Michael Hayden:
"Had this program been in effect prior to 9/11, it is my professional judgment that we would have detected some of the 9/11 al Qaeda operatives in the United States, and we would have identified them as such"

They obviously did have the capability prior to 9/11, but did they detect anything?

Then there is this recent alleged Bin Laden tape, I think I heard somewhere that * learned of this tape right along with the rest of the country? So now that they've had this NSA program, they didn't know anything about this tape?

So if they aren't catching any terrorists with this NSA program, what are they doing?

Some of the more disturbing sections of one of the articles linked above:

"It was then that the NSA started receiving numerous requests from Cheney and other officials in the state and defense departments to reveal the identities of the Americans blacked out or deleted from intelligence reports so administration officials could better understand the context of the intelligence."

"Requesting that the NSA reveal the identity of Americans caught in wiretaps is legal as long as it serves the purpose of understanding the context of the intelligence information."

"But the sources said that on dozens of occasions Cheney would, upon learning the identity of the individual, instruct the NSA to continue monitoring specific Americans caught in the wiretaps if he thought more information would be revealed, which crossed the line into illegal territory."

"Cheney advised President Bush of what had turned up in the raw NSA reports, said one former White House official who worked on counterterrorism related issues."

"What's really disturbing is that some of those people the vice president was curious about were people who worked at the White House or the State Department," one former counterterrorism official said. "There was a real feeling of paranoia that permeated from the vice president's office and I don't think it had anything to do with the threat of terrorism. I can't say what was contained in those taps that piqued his interest. I just don't know."

[rumpel]

2. Yes, and Sen Kennedy is right. He said the telecommunication companies

have to be called. We will be able to determine when this surveillance was in fact online.

Hayden's stuttering and utter inattentiveness to listen to the questions may come from fear. I saw his biography, it appears he is just a career soldier, he knows it is illegal and he complied with Cheney's request.
He knows a good deal of this administration's doing from the beginning, he must believe he is in danger.

The name of Negroponte's program "Total Awareness', also says to me they want absolute control. Eliminate those in government who do not agree. Monitor your own employees and their connections. Blackmail based on private information is another thought that comes to mind...