Thread: National Security Agency Utah Data Center Powered By YouTube construction, data cente

The NSA Is Building the Country�s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)

By James Bamford
Wired

(...)Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world�s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails�parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital �pocket litter.� It is, in some measure, the realization of the �total information awareness� program created during the first term of the Bush administration�an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans� privacy.

But �this is more than just a data center,� says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle�financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications�will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: �Everybody�s a target; everybody with communication is a target.�

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The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) | Threat Level | Wired.com


(Flashback to a previously defunded program)

Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans





By JOHN MARKOFF
New York Times
Published: November 9, 2002


The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt for terrorists around the globe � including the United States.

As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant.

Historically, military and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to spy on Americans without extraordinary legal authorization. But Admiral Poindexter, the former national security adviser in the Reagan administration, has argued that the government needs broad new powers to process, store and mine billions of minute details of electronic life in the United States.

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Intelligence - Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans - NYTimes.com

More than just a data center, the Utah data center could very well
be the realization of the Technocracy's goal of 'Total Information
Awareness'.

"This would be achieved by creating enormous computer databases to
gather and store the personal information of everyone in the United
States, including personal e-mails, social networks, credit card
records, phone calls, medical records, and numerous other sources,
without any requirement for a search warrant." - New York Times 2002

The facility is expected to be up and running by September 2013.

Video:

Offensive technology: National Security Agency Utah Data Center

Goodman Green
- Brasscheck

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Friday, May 4, 2012
FISA Approves EVERY Secret Surveillance Warrant in 2011: Report
Activist Post

An annual government report showed that every warrant submitted by the Feds to spy on Americans was approved by the secret FISA court in 2011. The 1,745 total number of applications and warrants approved was a 10.5% increase over 2010.

An anonymous counterterrorism official said the increase was "in response to materials seized in relation to the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and the resulting investigations."

Although the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) is secretive and does not reveal the type of surveillance that was approved, it may be the most transparent surveillance program the Feds admit to. At least the warrants are issued and can be counted.

FISA has only been one of the tools used to spy on the communications of Americans.

The FBI, under the authority of the PATRIOT Act, issues "administrative subpoenas" in order to get citizens' telephone, Internet and banking records, while these organizations turning over personal information have also been conveniently exempt from invasion of privacy lawsuits. According to Huffington Post, 16,511 FBI subpoenas were issued in 2011, down from 24,287 the year before.

Since Bush authorized the NSA to bypass the FISA court to spy on electronic communications of Americans to fight the "war on terror" after 9/11, the number of reported warrants seems moot however much they increase or decrease.


Despite Obama's 2008 campaign rhetoric to end the practice of "warrantless surveillance," he not only continued the practice but fought to do so in court in a case where his Administration's only defense of claiming "state secrets" (so much for his government transparency rhetoric too) was slapped down by a judge in 2010.

Since that ruling, the government and the NSA has been far less public about whether they have the right to secretly, but openly, spy on American's communications. But they never seem to give up their goal of invading everyone's privacy in the name of security.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the new cybersecurity bill CISPA that passed the House and waits for the Senate vote, authorizes the NSA to spy on email and other electronic communications. The NSA's new $2 billion dollar facility set to open in September 2013 all but guarantees it.

So, despite government reports attempting to give the facade of accountability for secret surveillance programs, the details and extent of how much spying is occurring remains hidden from the public.

One thing is certain: if the admitted cases of spying are increasing, Americans can only assume that hidden cases are too; and if CISPA becomes law, expect intrusions into privacy to become even more commonplace.

Read other articles by Activist Post here.



Activist Post: FISA Approves EVERY Secret Surveillance Warrant in 2011: Report

Sunday, May 13, 2012
Thanks to U.S. appeals court we will likely never know the details of the NSA-Google relationship
Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

We have devoted a significant amount of coverage to Google’s Big Brother activities – which are set to rise exponentially once their recent troubling patent is put into use – not the least of which includes deliberately stealing personal information from Americans with their Street View vehicles, as well as their connections to the U.S. government and intelligence community.

Note: if you would like to block at least some of Google’s tracking methods, you can read this easy to follow guide
http://endthelie.com/2011/07/28/a-qu...#axzz1uxpufRZQ
and implement some of the solutions today.

The tight-knit relationship between the American government (the intelligence community in particular) and Google is becoming increasingly plain to see.

This was made even more blatant in the decision of the Washington D.C. Circuit appeals court which allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to neither confirm nor deny their relationship with Google.

The NSA – the world’s largest surveillance agency which keeps tabs on Americans and people around the globe – has been given the authority to refuse to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) by the court.

The court ruled that one of the many FOIA exemptions covers any and all documents which supposedly may jeopardize the NSA’s national security mission and that they do not even have to respond to the request.


Potentially, by rejecting the request, they could supposedly reveal some critical secret details of the NSA-Google relationship, according to the court.

“If NSA disclosed whether there are (or are not) records of a partnership or communications between Google and NSA regarding Google’s security, that disclosure might reveal whether NSA investigated the threat, deemed the threat a concern to the security of U.S. Government information systems, or took any measures in response to the threat,” reads the court ruling.

“As such, any information pertaining to the relationship between Google and NSA would reveal protected information about NSA’s implementation of its Information Assurance mission,” they added.

The history behind this case stretches back to 2010 when Google revealed that they had been attacked by hackers supposedly from China targeting the email accounts of Chinese activists.

At the time, The Washington Post revealed that the NSA and Google had teamed up to boost their defenses against potential cyberattacks in the future.

Shortly after, Mike McConnell, the director of the NSA, wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post which further reinforced the clear ties between the highly secretive spy agency and the internet giant.

“Neither side [meaning the government and the private sector] on its own can mount the cyber-defense we need; some collaboration is inevitable,” McConnell wrote.

This understandably riled many a privacy advocate and EPIC quickly moved to file a FOIA request in an attempt to find out about this clandestine relationship.

The NSA responded with what is referred to as a “Glomar” response, which is the typical refusal to confirm or deny that records relating to the program even exist.

This type of dismissal dates back to a refusal from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) issued when a journalist attempted to obtain information about the “Glomar Explorer” secret underwater vessel.

“We are disappointed by the decision of the DC Circuit,” EPIC director Marc Rotenberg wrote to Andy Greenberg of Forbes.

”The NSA has adopted an increasingly public-facing role with its Information Assurance mission. And of course the agency’s surveillance activities raise profound concerns for Internet users. Under these circumstances, EPIC believed that the agency could not rely on a Glomar response prior to an actual search for responsive records, but the court held otherwise,” Rotenberg added.

I find this decision troubling, to say the least, especially with all of the clear special treatment Google receives, as highlighted by the recent decision surrounding their spying via Street View cars.

Coupling this with the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) which already passed the House with quite worrisome amendments, the soon-to-be-implemented digital spying scheme spearheaded by internet service providers, the NSA’s massive new cybersecurity/surveillance complex leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, to put it lightly.

The collusion between these private sector giants and government is just becoming more open and brazen. Unfortunately it appears that our courts, our so-called representatives and the regulators have no interest in doing anything.

Should we wait for all of these people to step up to the plate after years of inaction? If you said yes, you’ll probably be waiting for quite a while.

Did I forget anything or miss any errors? Would you like to make me aware of a story or subject to cover? Or perhaps you want to bring your writing to a wider audience? Feel free to contact me at admin@EndtheLie.com with your concerns, tips, questions, original writings, insults or just about anything that may strike your fancy.

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This article first appeared at End the Lie.

Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on Orion Talk Radio from 8 pm -- 10 pm Pacific, which you can find HERE. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com

Activist Post: Thanks to U.S. appeals court we will likely never know the details of the NSA-Google relationship