4um: Greenwald: Is U.S. Exaggerating Threat to Embassies to Silence Critics of NSA Domestic Surveillance?

Today I offer a quartet of news stories on the NSA, widespread targeting of Journalists even by New Zealand, broad cellphone tracking, and a synopsis of what Google knows about you.

Let's kick off with the GuardianXKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'.

• XKeyscore gives 'widest-reaching' collection of online data
• NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches
• Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.

XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA's "widest reaching" system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata.

The purpose of XKeyscore is to allow analysts to search the metadata as well as the content of emails and other internet activity, such as browser history, even when there is no known email account (a "selector" in NSA parlance) associated with the individual being targeted.

Analysts can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the language in which the internet activity was conducted or the type of browser used.

William Binney, a former NSA mathematician, said last year that the agency had "assembled on the order of 20 trillion transactions about US citizens with other US citizens", an estimate, he said, that "only was involving phone calls and emails". A 2010 Washington Post article reported that "every day, collection systems at the [NSA] intercept and store 1.7 billion emails, phone calls and other type of communications."

Targeting of Investigative Journalists

Pater Tenebrarum on the Acting Man blog writes about the Targeting of Investigative Journalists and those opposed to the War in Afghanistan.

There are seemingly constantly new revelations about extremely questionable practices employed by the security apparatus. The latest comes from 'five eyes' partner New Zealand, which not too long ago had to admit that its spooks illegally spied on Kim Dotcom to help the FBI make an example of the man in the context of copyright enforcement (we have previously discussed the case of Dotcom, who is accused of breaking laws that apparently don't even exist).

New Zealand's reaction to this embarrassment was, as you may have guessed, to introduce new legislation that will henceforth legalize domestic spying. In the meantime, its security apparatus seems not really deterred by the embarrassment caused to it by the Dotcom case and continues to engage in highly dubious surveillance activities, actively aided and abetted by US intelligence services. The target in the latest case was an investigative journalist working for McClatchy. Here is an excerpt from an article on the matter by the CPJ, [the Committee to Protect Journalists]. We want to direct your attention especially to the final paragraph below, which is quite chilling:

“Concern over government surveillance of journalists has washed up on the faraway shores of New Zealand, with a report in the country's Sunday Star this week asserting that the military there, with help from U.S. intelligence, spied on an investigative journalist who had been critical of its activities in Afghanistan.

Compounding concerns about the New Zealand military's targeting of journalists, the Sunday Star reported that a confidential military training manual drafted in 2003 lists investigative journalists as one of the top threats to state security–up there with terrorists and hostile foreign intelligence groups. A military official in New Zealand acknowledged the existence of the manual on Monday, referring to it as "inappropriate and heavy-handed," and ordered a revision to remove any references to journalists, news reports said.”

Whether or not they remove the references to journalists from their training manual, the mindset is clear – this is what they actually believe: “Investigative journalists are one of the top threats to state security–up there with terrorists and hostile foreign intelligence groups.”

We have to admit that this is actually true – in a dictatorship. In allegedly free countries, investigative journalists are usually deemed to be among the people who help seeing to it that they remain free.

Search for Pressure Cooker Leads to Knock on Door From Terrorism Police

Cont'd http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2013/08/04/nsa-tool-collects-nearly-everything-you-do-on-the-internet-targeting-journalists-what-google-knows-about-you-warrantless-cellphone-tracking-upheld-n1655820?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&

Greenwald: Is U.S. Exaggerating Threat to Embassies to Silence Critics of NSA Domestic Surveillance?

Obama: ‘We Don’t Have a Domestic Spying Program’

NSA Tool Collects "Nearly Everything You Do On the Internet"; Targeting Journalists; What Google Knows About You; Warrantless Cellphone Tracking Upheld