Declassified: Obama conducted illegal searches of Americans for years

[klnOmega]

http://circa.com/politics/barack-ob...s-of-illegal-nsa-searches-spying-on-americans

More than 5 percent, or one out of every 20 searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSA’s so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa.

...

The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an “institutional lack of candor” and that the improper searches constituted a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue,” according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017.

...
Officials like former National Security Adviser Susan Rice have argued their activities were legal under the so-called minimization rule changes Obama made, and that the intelligence agencies were strictly monitored to avoid abuses.

The intelligence court and the NSA’s own internal watchdog found that not to be true.

“Since 2011, NSA’s minimization procedures have prohibited use of U.S.-person identifiers to query the results of upstream Internet collections under Section 702,” the unsealed court ruling declared. “The Oct. 26, 2016 notice informed the court that NSA analysts had been conducting such queries inviolation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had been previously disclosed to the Court.”

...

The American Civil Liberties Union said the newly disclosed violations are some of the most serious to ever be documented and strongly call into question the U.S. intelligence community’s ability to police itself and safeguard American’s privacy as guaranteed by the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure.

“I think what this emphasizes is the shocking lack of oversight of these programs,” said Neema Singh Guliani, the ACLU’s legislative counsel in Washington.

HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.

And people thought Nixon was bad when we wiredtapped a few journalists. We let Obama wiretap and unmask thousands of people and get away with it.

Trump is already righting this ship though. Last month, the NSA announced it will delete the majority of its upstream data collected on US individuals, and that it will stop using merely mentioning a foreign target as surveillance criteria.

Also, surprising absolutely no one, there is a complete MSM blackout on this.

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[ripskater]

I'm not surprised.

 

[Undying Poster]

In question is the collection of what is known as upstream “about data”about an American that is collected even though they were not directly in contact with a foreigner that the NSA was legally allowed to intercept.

The NSA said it doesn't have the ability to stop collecting ‘about’ information on Americans, “without losing some other important data. ” It, however, said it would stop the practice to “reduce the chance that it would acquire communication of U.S. persons or others who are not in direct contact with a foreign intelligence target.”

I thought we agreed that we need to fight terrorism. Are you for the terrorists now? Before I read the article, I assumed that it had to do with """"Americans"""" that want to participate in Jihad or spy on us. And although it doesn't say it directly, I'm guessing these American's in contact with foreigners are being spied on for those reasons.

I suspect right wingers will assume that Obama was spying on White Conservative men, though.

 

[lecter]

ha! come at me obongo, can't keep up with my technology

 

[klnOmega]

I thought we agreed that we need to fight terrorism. Are you for the terrorists now? Before I read the article, I assumed that it had to do with """"Americans"""" that want to participate in Jihad or spy on us. And although it doesn't say it directly, I'm guessing these American's in contact with foreigners are being spied on for those reasons.

I suspect right wingers will assume that Obama was spying on White Conservative men, though.

He had the IRS target white conservative men. No reason to believe his intel targets would be any different.

 

[jimbob27]

Like it's the fault of one guy.... a guy who's generally got a reputation for being a well-meaning but ineffective president.

The governments of pretty much every western country have been on a massive power/freedom grab since 9/11 happened. Obama was just one tiny cog in that machine. Trump is in bed with the republicans who started it in the first place, he's not gonna be any different.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I'm sure the courts will quickly remedy this and that those taking part in the violations will be sufficiently punished.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

Every day, the last administration is embroiled in a convenient and underreported new scandal

Pretty nice of that black fella

 

[Undying Poster]

He had the IRS target white conservative men. No reason to believe his intel targets would be any different.

Except for your source which says that the main cause of violations was collecting info on Americans even though they were not in direct contact with these foreigners they were spying on.

Plus, the IRS is completely different context, since white guys pay taxes

 

[Falsedawn]

Can't be outraged if you didn't give a shit in the first place.

 

[klnOmega]

Except for your source which says that the main cause of violations was collecting info on Americans even though they were not in direct contact with these foreigners they were spying on.

Plus, the IRS is completely different context, since white guys pay taxes

Not sure how you are getting demographic information from the source.

 

[milliniar]

I thought we already knew this.

 

[Rod1]

But Snowden was a traitor mrite?

Seriously, thats fucked up, although if you read the article it points out that the NSA was failing to follow guidelines set by the administration, so it seems that its an NSA overreach not coming from the very top.

Still...

 

[klnOmega]

I thought we already knew this.

The point is that it is even worse than we thought.

 

[Joe_Armstrong]

And this stopped under Trump ?

 

[helltoupee]

The point is that it is even worse than we thought.

Plenty of people opposed the Patriot Act, which laid the groundwork for all this bullshit.

 

[klnOmega]

And this stopped under Trump ?

It probably hasn't stopped, but its getting better. They are deleting a lot of the upstream data collected under Obama, and they are no longer looking about people who only mention a foreign target.

 

[RetiredWisFighter]

So he improved social program reach but continued failed Bush war/anti 4th amend policies. Not surprised. Still fucking shitty

 

[VivaRevolution]

It probably hasn't stopped, but its getting better. They are deleting a lot of the upstream data collected under Obama, and they are no longer looking about people who only mention a foreign target.

That is about .01% of the problem.

Lets start with the fact that the Five Eyes group is basically an agreement for IC to spy on each others citizens to circumvent laws against them spying on their own citizens.

This is exactly what Trump was accusing Obama of when he said he had been tapped.

As bad as the NSA is, I am more concerned with what the GCHQ is doing with all that data on Americans, where their are no laws or oversight to govern its use.

With the swipe of a pen, Trump could put an end to that, and chooses not to.