Why I think I may have been targeted for NSA Wiretaps

[Geek_Girl]

From everything that I've read and heard about the NSA Wiretaps they seem to be targeting internet communications. Back before the elections I started a Liberal Blog I had several hits with the DOD domain. It was odd but I thought it just might be some disgruntled government worker surfing the web. Then I got about 30 or so hits a day from people overseas mainly in europe. Today I was listening to my podcast of the Al Frankin show from yesterday. And they had a reporter on there describing that the NSA had a couple of hundred operatives pretending to be from overseas monitoring American's internet communications.

I'm not scared or paranoid I just am very curious to the extent these wire taps are monitoring our communications.

[Fridays Child]

1. So...I'm behind on this issue, I guess.

Was the reporter saying that, to give the wiretaps a false veneer of legality, NSA operatives made it appear as if certain communications were international, when, in fact they were entirely domestic? If there is proof of this, I can't think of a more compelling argument that the B*sh administration knew full well its activites were illegal.

[Geek_Girl]

5. That's what it sounded like

[leveymg]

2. What have you been writing that might interest them?

:hi:

[Geek_Girl]

3. Nothing that hasn't been said before

But why would they spy on Quakers or Peta?

[tom_paine]

4. Observe the penultimate phase...

Project Genoa, which has been in the works for years, I first saw the DARPA's own web page on it, since removed, in 2002 or so.

They had a nifty "Power Point"-type slides showing them filtering all banking, medical, consumer, etc. data through the Genoa interface, which would then cross-reference and flag "potetntial terrorist patterns" to be viewed by people.

Like what we did manually to the Soviets and THEY did to themselves in the 1980s, but with much greater technological capacity for "sifting" data. Now the Busheviks do it to all of us. The circle comes full 'round, although clearly Comrade Bushevik Soulmate Putin is doing his own BushPutinist thing over there now.

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:3gxipFm1M3cJ:www.publici.org/dtaweb/report.asp%3FReportID%3D484+%22Project+Genoa%22+DARPA&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

How bad can it get? With computing power increasing exponentially? Pretty bad indeed.

[Swamp Rat]

9. This is just the beginning...

[leveymg]

13. Note the TIA contractors

Many of these same companies now also run NSA's domestic surveillance operations after Operation Groundbreaker privatized the Agency. There is now no one watching the watchers.


The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which oversees the Total Information Awareness System (TIA), awarded 13 contracts to Booz Allen & Hamilton amounting to more than $23 million. Lockheed Martin Corporation had 23 contracts worth $27 million; the Schafer Corporation had 9 contracts totaling $15 million. Other prominent contractors involved in the TIA program include SRS Technologies, Adroit Systems, CACI Dynamic Systems, Syntek Technologies, and ASI Systems International.

TIA itself was first proposed by an employee of a private contractor. John Poindexter, who worked on DARPA projects for Syntek, an Arlington, Va.-based technical and engineering services firm, suggested the program in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Poindexter, who headed the National Security Council during the Reagan administration, was convicted in 1990 on five felony counts for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. The convictions were overturned in 1991 because he had been given immunity for his testimony during the congressional investigation of the affair. On Jan. 14, 2002, he returned to the government as the director of the Information Awareness Office.

TIA draws heavily on the private sector. Five of the eight contractors identified by the Center are involved in evaluating future contracts for the program. Grey E. Burkhart, an associate of Booz Allen Hamilton, identifies himself on his resume as “assistant project manager” of TIA system implementation. Even the phrase “Total Information Awareness” has a private pedigree—Visual Analytics, Inc., a Poolesville, Md.-based software developer and DARPA contractor, has applied for a trademark for the phrase.

Also, see yesterday's post about Abramoff's NSA contractor scandal. Note the overlap (CACI): http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=235189&mesg_id=235189

[Angry Girl]

6. You should assume all your telecommunications are intercepted

And at all the major routers, not just here and there. Also, you can make it look like you're behind any number of IP addresses if you know what to do, as I'm sure the spooks do.

[Lisa]

7. a friend of mine who keeps a satirical "George W. Bush blog" ...

... reported that she was getting hits from something called the "EOP", in Washington D.C. -- she looked into it, and found out that it stands for "Executive Office of the President" (!). And oh -- she told me that she was having problems with mysterious noises on her phone line, a while back.

[Fox Mulder]

8. Fuck them.

Don't let them scare you. Post/write more! I would!

[tnlefty]

10. I didn't start a blog...

Before I changed computers my firewall would frequently go nuts and when I could finally trace them would have the extensions of .mil or .dod and appear to be overseas addresses. A little over a year ago I posted a question in the lounge about it for those who are more computer savvy than I, and I don't know what the hell was actually going on. I wouldn't doubt that you've been "tapped".

I was actually surprised to hear Randi Rhodes mention within the last week or so that her phone has been clicking and acting funny, and she stated it as if she was surprised! I was surprised that she hadn't noticed it earlier, lol! Mine first started that clicking sound before the primary got heated up and I was involved in the Dean for America campaign. I shouldn't be of interest to anyone, hell sometimes I bore myself!

[Geek_Girl]

11. I remembered I started a fire wall log a few weeks ago

I just checked it and I found this weird Ip address in the log. When I did an IP search it comes up as being in Washington DC. Can someone with more experience find out who's IP address this is.

I would really appreciate it.

216.158.28.197

[REP]

15. You're Kidding, Right?

; <<>> DiG 9.2.2 <<>> -x 216.158.28.197 any
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 43167
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;197.28.158.216.in-addr.arpa. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
197.28.158.216.in-addr.arpa. 28799 IN PTR www.democraticunderground.com.

;; Query time: 186 msec
;; SERVER: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
;; WHEN: Thu Jan 26 05:36:58 2006
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 88

[rumpel]

12. I thought that was Verboten also. read this:

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. Intelligence collection must not be undertaken to acquire information concerning the domestic activities of U.S. persons. (Sec. 2.3(b)). The least intrusive collection techniques feasible must be used in the United States or against U.S. persons located abroad. (Sec. 2.4). Finally, agencies in the Intelligence Community are prohibited from having other parties engage in activities forbidden by the Executive Order on their behalf. (Sec. 2.12) This means that NSA can not ask another country to illegally spy on U.S. persons on our behalf, and we do not.

from Hayden testimony 2001 on edit correction: 2000

http://www.nsa.gov/releases/relea00059.html

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

14. Everyone gets hits from the DOD.

I used to get them on my webserver. A few friends of mine get hits on theirs. All of it is entirely non-threatening content. A couple of times it appeared to be searchbots - wouldn't surprise me if DOD has its own version of google. More than a couple of times it was just random people with DOD IP addresses who surfed around and left. My guess? People at DOD surf the internet on their lunch break, too. :)

[H2O Man]

16. Right.

It's probably worth people's while to learn the differences between DoD and NSA, too.

[never_get_over_it]

17. I bet it safe to say

that most of us who are members of DU are being monitored.....the reason they didn't go to the FISA Court is because whatever they are doing FISA would have said NO there can be no other explanation it is way too easy to get a FISA warrant. They have cast a big net and most of us are probably in it.

So with that I will say good morning NSA how the hec are you today and oh and by the way if you have time today why don't you take a look at the 1st and 4th amendments to the Constitution maybe you'll learn something.