Obama Administration Launching NSA Transparency Website

[millennialmax]

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced on Friday it will create a new website to address concerns over the transparency of controversial dragnet surveillance programs.

“We also will be creating a website next week that is going to serve as the hub for further transparency, so this can be a home for citizens who are interested in learning more about our activities and declassifying efforts in responding to queries that people have about these programs,” said a senior administration official on a phone call with reporters ahead of a scheduled President Obama press conference.

The official also said that “in line with the President’s direction, the Department of Justice is going to be releasing the legal rationale for the government’s collection activities under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.” Section 215 of the Patriot Act provides the legal basis for some of the National Security Agency surveillance practices that have become a subject of national contention — and a locus for criticism of the Obama administration’s culture of secrecy — in the wake of revelations leaked by Edward Snowden to The Guardian.

Obama’s opening remarks at the press conference on Friday will focus on “the ongoing national debate and dialogue that he has encouraged as it relates to our intelligence community and, in particular, our surveillance programs, and some of the steps we have been taking as a government to respond to the President’s interest in pursuing greater transparency and pursuing necessary reforms to help build public confidence in our surveillance programs and our intelligence community, broadly,” a senior administration official said.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/obama-administration-launching-nsa-transparency-website

[tblue]

1. I thought we already knew all about it.

Least that's what some here have said. That, and it's all a figment of Snowden's & Greenwald's imagination. This will be interesting. Can't wait to see it.

[arely staircase]

17. Hey if some people didn't keep up with current events in 2006

what can you say?

[Aerows]

21. Or 2013 when this is now being discussed

I guess we can't all keep up with the times.

[arely staircase]

26. I just enjoy the "wait I thought this was old news" sarcastic posts

when in fact the most controversial part has been known to anybody paying attention since '06. some of us thought it was f'd up then as well as now. my all time favorites are the strawmen posts along the lines of "if nowden didn't reveal anything new, why is he being prosecuted?" as if the phone metadata program is all he released and as if he didn't steal even way more than he released and as if he didn't flee to an authoritarion country and threaten his own.

amazing, the traitor snowden and his defenders.

[Aerows]

30. It IS new news now that it has been broken

and it has been highlighted that our criminal courts are prosecuting people based upon tips that started with NSA surveillance.

That means many innocent people didn't get a fair trial, and many guilty people can now appeal.

[arely staircase]

36. which has nothing to do with snowden nt

[Aerows]

37. And the consequences are the same, regardless if Obama broke the news. n/t

[Mojorabbit]

39. No, we did not know till now that FISA was stretching interpretations of the law

for starters.

[arely staircase]

40. we knew they were allowing metadata collection as per their

interpretation of the law.

[Mojorabbit]

41. We still do not know how far they stretched their interpretation of the law so your

point is moot.

[arely staircase]

42. so then what did snowden tell us that was new? nt

[Aerows]

43. highlighted what a huge bunch of us

don't care for, no matter who is in the Oval Office.

[arely staircase]

44. for the record - I don't care for it either and am glad it is finally being discussed

but Snowden is a traitor for fleeing to authoritarian regimes and sharing other stolen secrets with them.

[Aerows]

45. Mostly just being disgusted with Snowden because

of the person in the Oval Office, and not the principle behind why there are many people that dislike the policy.

Snowden isn't a traitor in my view UNTIL it is completely shown that he has sold government secrets, has aided and abetted the enemy and defied the precepts of the Constitution. I personally don't believe he has done those things. When it has been shown that he has, I'll condemn him as quickly as anyone, you included.

[arely staircase]

47. he did right in front of the whole world when he was in china

and you think his KGB handler, excuse me lawyer, isn't part of a mission to drain those laptops?

[Aerows]

51. I don't know that "draining of laptops" happened

or that he has a "handler" or anything of the sort happened. You may be of the opinion that it happened that way, but it doesn't mean that it did.

I don't know. You don't either. We can speculate until the sun goes up and down, but it isn't clear by a long shot.

[arely staircase]

54. well we know he told the chinese about specific NSA spying on China

we know his lawyer is a big mover and shaker in the Russian state security apparatus.

[Aerows]

57. No, actually we don't know that

in the general public. Do you have some inside information, or is this speculation and popping off? Because either shouldn't be happening if it was official.

[arely staircase]

63. ok for the gazillianth time

Tsinghua University in extensive hacking attacks, says Snowden
Tsinghua University, widely regarded as the mainland’s top education and research institute, was the target of extensive hacking by US spies this year

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1266892/exclusive-nsa-targeted-chinas-tsinghua-university-extensive-hacking?page=all

A supporter of President Vladimir Putin who supported Putin's election campaign last year, Kucherena also has a legal practice in Moscow that takes on high-profile cases.

He also sits on the "public council" of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which was created by Putin in 2006.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g8VxMJ-Rk1g2-rCyqzjdO2zmuHdw?docId=CNG.4d19f8675cf9b564045e6e60706bbcbd.c1&hl=en

[Aerows]

65. You just stated telecomms didn't have enough storage space

I think that disqualifies you for discussing tech. Good God.

[arely staircase]

67. to keep a fucking recording of every conversation?

no they don't have that kind of storage space. that is ridiculous.

[Aerows]

69. Hi

I'd like to introduce you to new technology. With redundancy. Not just once. It can do it twice. Maybe three times. Failover is amazing, plentiful and gorgeous.

[Aerows]

70. I think you aren't really that naive

You couldn't be. Text is easy. Voice streams have become MUCH easier. They can be compressed to 64-bit and fully discernible. Would you like to guess how much space a 64bit or 128bit conversation needs, space wise? A few GPUs that can crunch it? Not much, my friend.

[Aerows]

68. And for the gazillianth time, the FSB

warned us of the Tsarnaev brothers, and we did nothing about it. All that security apparatus, and they blew 7 American citizens to smithereens, and decimated several people including a man that lost both of his legs.

What did all of this horseshit that we spend billions of dollars on do? Dead citizens to terrorist attacks that this entire bullshit couldn't do anything about.

[MNBrewer]

46. What "metadata" are you referring to? You have no idea! It's classified!

[arely staircase]

50. this

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm

[MNBrewer]

52. That's pretty general.

And your belief that it doesn't involve listening to or recording conversations is pretty naive. Such a thing would be what? Classified!

[arely staircase]

55. you think they are recording every american's phone conversation? nt

[MNBrewer]

58. If the data exist at the telecoms

the NSA has it all.

[arely staircase]

59. you think telecoms have that storage capability?

they don't even have the space for the metadata.

[Aerows]

61. LMAO

You think they don't, and redundancy? Good God.

[djean111]

2. I think that ship has sailed. n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

3. Oh, FFS.

That's NOT what this is. Read again: "address concerns over the transparency of controversial dragnet surveillance programs." It's a spin website and nothing more.

Misleading Subject Line. I call bullshit. Again.

[Aerows]

22. You have to give them a little bit of sweetness

before the crushing defeat comes that it's PR that doesn't work.

I give them points for trying, but their points don't buy jackshit or votes.

[krispos42]

4. Betcha it uses cookies and tracks your IP address

Lord knows what else it will do.

[JoePhilly]

5. I hear it will be able to read minds.

[krispos42]

15. So...

...it's making a massive database of porn?

[JoePhilly]

16. lol ... and then they'll use it against you. nt

[Aerows]

25. In votes. n/t

[Aerows]

23. I hear it will be able to read minds

and they are all proclaiming "this is bullshit, and you shouldn't be doing it."

[arely staircase]

18. it will kill us with drones nt

[Aerows]

24. Or kill us at the polls n/t

[arely staircase]

34. unlikely nt

[Aerows]

35. I hope not

but some think nothing can harm them until the poll and public opinion says otherwise.

[tazkcmo]

6. Credability

Our government has no credibility anymore. Are they liars now or were they liars before? It has to be one of the times because the story is changing. Stopped "several" terrorist attacks turns into maybe one. With a warrant turns into mass data collection on everyone for which no warrant is needed. So U.S. Government, are you liars now or were you liars before and why should I believe you at all?

[Recursion]

19. So what the hell do you suggest, then? (nt)

[Aerows]

27. Don't spy on people without probable cause

You know, the 4th Amendment. Don't leave the door open for innocent people to get prosecuted because secret surveillance sets them up to get sent to prison. Don't leave the door open for guilty people to be able to overturn their sentence because illegal (or at the very least, unethical) means were used.

I don't think that should be difficult to understand.

[Recursion]

28. We've seen no evidence the 4th Amendment is being violated

We've seen evidence that statutes protecting routing data (which is not protected by the 4th Amendment) have been violated. So, since what you want is already what's happening, I guess we're all good?

[Aerows]

32. You addressed nothing

in my valid concerns. What is going to happen is innocent people sent to jail and guilty people having sentences turned over. Which do you think is wrong, because I think both things need to happen, and the only people benefiting are going to be lawyers, not people stuck in jail for no reason, and guilty people that get out on a technicality that they are lawfully able to utilize.

Law is to protect the innocent. If it lets go of the guilty, that is the price of living in a free society. When it becomes a tool to subjugate the innocent to beat the innocent and the guilty alike into submission, it isn't law, it's anarchy.

[Rex]

7. Is this from the Onion?

nt.

[Recursion]

20. I figured

Yep, it never really was the surveillance.

[Rex]

31. You did?

nt.

[woo me with science]

8. They spelled "propaganda" wrong.

It doesn't start with a "T."

[DesMoinesDem]

10. They have change.gov siting around, might as well use it.

And like change.gov it will be full of bs and then shut down after it has served it's purpose.

[PSPS]

11. LOL. This is rich

First, they are going to "address concerns over the transparency of controversial dragnet surveillance programs."

But, no. Not really. It will merely be "a home for citizens who are interested in learning more about our activities and declassifying efforts in responding to queries that people have about these programs." In other words, just more of the same spinning likely with lots of "least untruthful answers."

And then there's the claim that they will release "the legal rationale for the government’s collection activities under Section 215 of the Patriot Act." But that's meaningless because it supposedly "provides the legal basis" for only "some" of the NSA's wholesale law breaking. The rest must be one of those many "secrets" that must never be disclosed lest the earth go hurling off its orbit.

Then there's the usual wordy boilerplate about "some of the steps we have been taking as a government to respond to the President’s interest in pursuing greater transparency and pursuing necessary reforms..." blah blah. In short, as our so-called "constitutional scholar" joke of a president would say, "shut up peons and eat your peas." If Obama were really interested in "pursuing greater transparency and pursuing necessary reforms," he could accomplish that by fiat.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Great. The regime will allow us to discuss secrecy but not what's being kept secret.

Because what's being kept secret is secret.

[AndyA]

13. Bet it'll just be a black page with no text or images on it

It will load a secret program onto your computer without your permission, along with your IP number, operating system, screen size, etc.

From then on, it will track every key stroke you make.

Oh, it was transparent, all right...it warned you what was happening...the black text on the black background was indeed there!

[Safetykitten]

14. Hi, Joe Smith here, are you spying on me? Well Mr. Smith...

If you fill out these blanks on the screen, we can see if we are. In the meantime, please feel free to go to our, "Ask Mr. Privacy" forum, where we have "Privacy Stranger Danger" for your kids, "Paranoid Me" the simple question and answer area about stuff all things that we will tell you are paranoid about, and how you as an average citizen do not have to worry about anything in the least.

The "Mr. Privacy" forum is moderated by a third party multinational that hires mostly Cheetos eating non-dating moderators, so keep it clean, don't ask TOO many probing questions, do not mention any household cooking equipment, except for Martha Stewart mixers, and please do not mention the Obama administration or it's policies, as there is another site on the internet that can handle the "issues" you may have with it with people trained to do that.

Remember, your rights as a citizen are important to us! Give us feedback at the "Chattin' bout Delusions" area, and as always we hold your information and your rights to privacy sacred.

At this moment, your computer will start a non-denominational prayer to begin your session.

[marions ghost]

33. Appropriately scathing

you saved me the trouble of responding similarly. OMG--"Remember your rights are important to us!" Too surreal....

"Now don't worry citizen, all your concerns about transparency will be kept private here":

[AppleBottom]

29. Is it a transparency website or an IQ test for naive people.

After all we don't have a domestic spying program right? So why all the sudden lip service for NSA transparency...

[marions ghost]

38. No Trust

"In the opening remarks to his press conference, Obama promised that the NSA would hire a full time privacy and civil liberties officer."

Uh, yeah.

[Fumesucker]

48. Yeah, it's going to be www.neutronium.gov

And it's going to tell us all about installing skylights in the NSA data center in Utah in order to go green.

[Autumn]

49. Okay....

[DisgustipatedinCA]

53. Will there be coloring pages?

Wait...even more fun than coloring, maybe they'll have pages where you can click on a word to redact it with a black rectangle. You win once you've redacted all the nouns on a page.

[millennialmax]

56. The Guardian is working on the coloring book version for their audience. eom

[DisgustipatedinCA]

60. Yeah. We all know the dumbass reputation the Guardian has.

I'm terribly sorry that reality refuses to line up with the points you'd like to be able to make.

[Aerows]

64. I'm beginning to think there are a few in this thread

that need connect the dots and paint by numbers kits.

Asking if the telecoms have storage capacity. For fuck's sake. It's like asking if the sea has enough water and salt.

[Cha]

62. Aww, that's gonna piss off greenwald, the guardian, and snowden.. I'm sure

Russia already has one. they'll accuse PBO of copycatting Putin.. that champion of Human Rights.

"These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations."

http://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html

[PowerToThePeople]

66. This is transparent

and contains as much useful stuff as this website likely will.

[neverforget]

71. If Clapper has anything to say about it: