Glenn Greenwald:The Way That Government Is Supposed To Work Is The Exact Reverse Of How We Have It

 

If NSA is storing 1.7 billion records per day, at that rate it would take over 10,000 days (27.4 years) to reach the 20 Trillion records allegedly stored. That means they’ve been storing our private records for decades while publicly denying the same. And they’re planning even bigger things…

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. – via Wired

“The NSA Is Lying”: U.S. Government Has Copies of Most of Your Emails Says NSA Whistleblower

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DemocracyNow.org – National Security Agency whistleblower William Binney reveals he believes domestic surveillance has become more expansive under President Obama than President George W. Bush. He estimates the NSA has assembled 20 trillion “transactions” — phone calls, emails and other forms of data — from Americans. This likely includes copies of almost all of the emails sent and received from most people living in the United States. Binney talks about Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and challenges NSA Director Keith Alexander‘s assertion that the NSA is not intercepting information about U.S. citizens.

I HEART WHISTLEBLOWERS! Senator Grassley

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March 15, 2012 C-SPAN

Sibel Edmonds: Obama administration charges a record number for espionage

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From Thomas Drake to Bradley Manning, many whistleblowers have faced retaliation for revealing controversial government information. Last week the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises passed a bill that weakens the protection for whistleblowers. The bill involves the whistleblower to meet the company in question before going to a regulatory agency. Then the agency would inform the entity being suspected of wrong doing before any enforcement action is taken. Sibel Edmonds, editor of Boiling Frogs Post, gives us a firsthand perspective for the war against whistleblowers.

Whistleblowers improvement act to weaken #whistleblowers rights?

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The House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises passed a bill that severely dwindles protection for whistleblowers on Thursday. The bill necessitates the whistleblower to confront the enterprise in question before going to a regulatory agency and has the support of many lobbyists including the US Chamber of Commerce. Many critics believe the bill makes it easier for firms to retaliate against whistleblowers. Kathleen McClellan, attorney for the Government Accountability Project, joins us to explore how this bill could make whistleblower rights vanish completely.

Bradley Manning made an example of by the Obama administration?

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It’s been almost two years since Private First Class Bradley Manning was arrested. He is being accused of releasing classified documents to Wikileaks. As a whistleblower Manning was held for nine months without being charged for a crime and starting Friday evening Occupy the Truth will kick off in Berkeley. At the conference Bradley Manning’s case will be an important topic and activist Cindy Sheehan brings us the latest about Occupy the Truth.

Whistleblower U.S. Army Colonel Explains How The Pentagon Is Lying About ALL Progress In Afghanistan

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February 14, 2012 PBS News Hour

“Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away With Murder”: Book Ties Johnson Admin to Guevara’s Death

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democracynow.org – Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith are the co-authors of a new book about the U.S. role in the killing of Cuban revolutionary, Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Born in Argentina in 1928, Che rose to international prominence as one of the key leaders of the 1959 Cuban Revolution that overthrew U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. After a period in the new Cuban government leadership, Che aimed to spark revolutionary activity internationally. On October 8, 1967, he was captured by Bolivian troops working with the CIA. He was executed one day later. In their book, “Who Killed Che?” Ratner and Smith draw on previously unpublished government documents to argue the CIA played a critical role in the killing. “The line of the [U.S.] government was that, ‘The Bolivians did it, we couldn’t do anything about it.’ That’s not true,” Smith said. “This whole operation was organized out of the White House by Walt Whitman Rostow and the CIA.” On Che’s significance, Ratner said, “Che became a symbol for revolutionary change. … He still remains that today. If you go to Tahrir Square or Occupy Wall Street, people are wearing Che T-shirts because they understand their obligation, their necessity is to take on the 1 percent. That is what Che was about. I think that is why he is such a hero for people in the streets today.”

Pepe Escobar: US will continue to arm anti-government rebels in Syria after veto

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For several months anti-government rebels have been protesting the government led by Basgar al-Assad. In the past few days the violence in Syria has increased radically and over the weekend the Syria resolution proposed by the UN Security Council was vetoed by China and Russia. Many have criticized the two countries for the veto but many feel Syria will share the same fate as Libya if the resolution passes. Pepe Escobar, Asia Times correspondent, joins us to look at the bigger picture

Ex-KGB spy Litvinenko was working for MI6 when he died

Confidential documents leaked to the British press show that a leading medical examiner wants to reinspect the 2006 death of a former Soviet intelligence officer, in light of new revelations. Alexander Litvinenko was an employee of the Soviet KGB and its successor organization, the FSB, who in 2000 defected with his family to the United Kingdom. He soon became known as an increasingly vocal critic of the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 2006, Litvinenko came down with radioactive poisoning soon after meeting a former colleague, Andrey Lugovoy, in a London restaurant. The latter is believed by British authorities to have assassinated Litvinenko “with the backing of the Russian state”. Although much of the case remains shrouded in mystery, an important new clue was added to the equation in October, when Litvinenko’s widow publicly admitted that her husband had been a paid employee of British intelligence services MI5 and MI6. Marina Litvinenko told British tabloid newspaper The Mail on Sunday that Alexander had advised both agencies on “combat[ing] Russian organized crime in Europe”. She had previously denied rumors that her husband had been working for British intelligence when he was killed —ostensibly by the Russian government.

The revelation appears to have prompted a British coroner to request that the medical investigation into Litvinenko’s death be reopened. Documents leaked to The Mail on Sunday appear to show that Andrew Reid, a coroner at St Pankras Hospital in London, has formally requested that both MI5 and MI6 release all of their internal files on Litvinenko, in the context of a new investigation. Dr Reid, who is in charge of an ongoing classified inquest into the former KGB officer’s alleged assassination, states in his written request that any evidence supplied by MI5 and MI6 will be fed into “a wide-ranging investigation” that will “extend beyond the mechanical circumstances of [Litvinenko’s] death”.

The medical examiner adds that the information regarding Litvinenko’s employment with the British intelligence services requires further elaboration, and that the inquest into the late spy’s death may benefit from any documents, reports, and telephone or email intercepts, that British intelligence may have on him. Dr Reid’s request also raises the possibility that the inquest may be upgraded into a full-scale public inquiry headed by a senior judge, who will be able to consider evidence by MI5 and MI6, presented behind closed doors at an “appropriately secure” venue.

via Ex-KGB spy Litvinenko was working for MI6 when he died « intelNews.org.