Top-Secret Document Reveals NSA Spied on Porn Habits as Part of Plan to Discredit 'Radicalizers'

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as “exemplars” of how “personal vulnerabilities” can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target's credibility, reputation and authority.

The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger. “A previous SIGINT" -- or signals intelligence, the interception of communications -- "assessment report on radicalization indicated that radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviors are not consistent,” the document argues.

Among the vulnerabilities listed by the NSA that can be effectively exploited are “viewing sexually explicit material online” and “using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.”

Via: Huffington Post

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Barack Obama, Derelict

Derelict: ('derəˌlikt/) neglectful of duty, delinquent; a person guilty of neglect of duty; a bum. SYNONYM-see Obama, Barack.

A thought experiment can be useful to explain why America is in a mess.

Let's take Barack Obama at his word -- a stretch certainly for anyone who would lie about his own mother's death to score partisan points will lie about...well, anything.  But let's put the most positive spin on what President Obama has been conveying to his fellow Americans. One can try to be optimistic even in these perilous times -- it is one of the great traits of being American.

Barack Obama and those who serve at his whim have declared that he knew nothing about the IRS witch-hunt of Republicans, spying by the NSA on Americans and foreign leaders, Fast and Furious, ObamaCare website problems, that he actually set red lines regarding Syria (though he denied it later), security problems at the Benghazi consulate, and spying on the Associated Press. When asked, Obama has asserted that he learned about all these problems only after reading about them in the media. Who knew our presidents would model themselves after Sergeant Schultz on the old Hogan Heroes television series (Obama has admitted he watched a lot of television when he was younger -- and some with reason believe he still does).

What conclusions can be drawn from these excuses? One is immediately apparent: the sequester did not go far and deep enough. After all, we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars and the president of the United States has to rely on newspapers to be informed of what is happening in his own administration. Time to outsource everything to people who work for peanuts -- such as bloggers (yours truly, for one example -- I would like to see a return on, or of, my taxes).

But the second conclusion is more pointed: we have elected (twice!) a derelict as president.

Via: American Thinker

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A Russian GPS Using U.S. Soil Stirs Spy Fears

WASHINGTON — In the view of America’s spy services, the next potential national security threat from Russia may not come from a nefarious cyberweapon or intelligence gleaned from the files of Edward J. Snowden, the former security contractor now in Moscow.

Instead, this menace may come in the form of a seemingly innocuous dome-topped antenna perched atop an electronics-packed building surrounded by a security fence somewhere in the United States.

In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to build about half a dozen of these structures, known as monitor stations, on United States soil, several American officials said.

They fear that these structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry, the officials said. These monitor stations, the Russians contend, would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of Moscow’s version of the Global Positioning System, the American satellite network that steers guided missiles to their targets and thirsty smartphone users to the nearest Starbucks.

Via: NYT

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Think NSA Snooping Is Bad? Check Out MPAA Theater Security

Hollywood studios are urging theater operators to crack down on in-theater camcording with the deployment of night-vision goggles, low-light binoculars and security cameras.

The latest version of the Motion Picture Association of America’s “Best Practices to Prevent Film Theft” (.pdf) also suggests old-school surveillance, like “random bag and jacket checks for prohibited items” and to “observe patrons” when entering the theater.

“Look for the unusual, such as someone wearing a long or unseasonably heavy coat in warm weather, odd shapes outlined in pockets or patrons carrying shopping bags. If any of these are observed, please take a closer look,” the 12-page memo advises.

Camcording and industry leaks are the top methods of choice for movies to find their way to file-sharing sites like The Pirate Bay and on unauthorized DVDs. Camcording is a federal felony carrying a maximum 3 year penalty. The District of Columbia and 41 states also have their own laws against it.

The MPAA guidance urges theater employees, who are eligible for $500 rewards, to call the police immediately if they think illegal filming is occurring. “Let the proper authorities determine what laws may have been violated and what enforcement action should be taken,” according to the memo.

The document also asserts a top rule practiced by all the world’s spy agencies: Trust no one.

“Be aware of ‘friends’ of staff,” the protocol warns. “Does one member of your staff frequently have ‘friends’ joining them at the theater at odd times? Look for non-employees coming or going out of the projectionist’s booth or those arriving at odd hours claiming to be ‘friends’ of an employee or manager.”

Via: Wired'

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Sauk Rapids Graphic Artist Challenges National Security Agency

SAUK RAPIDS, Minn. (WCCO) – It was Edward Snowden’s revelations of domestic spying by the National Security Agency that hatched the idea — graphic artist Dan McCall would take the NSA’s emblem and create a new look with a funny twist.

“When I got finished I thought, this is pretty good – I thought it was fun,” McCall said.

Soon, he was having T-shirts emblazoned with the NSA logo accompanied by the slogan, “peeping while you’re sleeping.” Under the parodied emblem was the statement, “the only part ofgovernment that actually listens.”

What McCall meant as pure parody, apparently wasn’t very funny to bureaucrats at the NSA.

(credit: CBS)

While he calls it parody they call a violation of the spy agency’s intellectual property.

Via: CBS Minnesota

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[CARTOON] NSA Snake

Via: California Political Review

5 Things The Obama Administration Had No Idea The Obama Administration Was Doing

"I wouldn’t be surprised if President Obama learned Osama bin Laden had been killed when he saw himself announce it on television." -- Jon Stewart

What's the point of having a President who learns about everything his administration is doing from the newspapers, just like everyone else? When do you start to ask, "Is this guy stupid or just dishonest?" Given that Barack Obama seems to know so little about what's going on in his administration that it's starting to resemble a "Hogan's Heroes" rerun with Bo playing the role of Colonel Klink, maybe the answer is "both."

1) Obama didn't know we were spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel for five years.

The White House cut off some monitoring programs after learning of them, including the one tracking Ms. Merkel and some other world leaders, a senior U.S. official said. Other programs have been slated for termination but haven’t been phased out completely yet, officials said.

The account suggests President Barack Obama went nearly five years without knowing his own spies were bugging the phones of world leaders. Officials said the NSA has so many eavesdropping operations under way that it wouldn’t have been practical to brief him on all of them.

2) Obama didn't know that his administration was sending guns to Mexican drug cartels via Fast and Furious.

In the March 22 interview, Obama said: “There have been problems, you know. I heard on the news about this story that fast and furious, where allegedly guns were being run into Mexico and ATF knew about it but didn't apprehend those who had sent it. Eric Holder has -- the attorney general has been very clear that he knew nothing about this. We had assigned an IG, inspector general, to investigate it.”

3) Obama didn't know the DOJ seized the AP's phone records.

(Press Secretary) Carney later added about the scandal, "We don't have any independent knowledge ... [Obama] found out about the news reports yesterday on the road."

4) Obama didn't know the IRS was targeting Tea Party groups.

During a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday, President Obama was asked about the IRS scandal. He responded, ”I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this. I think it was on Friday.”

5) Obama didn't know the Healthcare.gov website was going to fail.

In an exclusive interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked when the President first learned about the considerable issues with the Obamacare website.

Sebelius responded that it was in "the first couple of days" after the site went live October 1.

"But not before that?" Gupta followed up.

To which Sebelius replied, "No, sir."

Via: TownHall
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U.S. Bullies Man over “Department of Homeland Stupidity” Mugs

The feds have threatened to criminally prosecute a novelty store owner who sells products—such as “Department of Homeland Stupidity” coffee mugs—making fun of the U.S. government. Could this be a matter of national security, or that Uncle Sam simply lacks a sense of humor?

To poke fun at the National Security Administration (NSA) the merchant, Dan McCall, sells T-shirts with the agency’s official seal that read: “The NSA: The only part of government that actually listens.” Other parodies say “spying on you since 1952” and “peeping while you’re sleeping.” The designs may seem funny—and possibly represent reality—but to the government it’s no laughing matter. In fact, it’s a serious issue worthy of an investigation and legal action.

The NSA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quickly fired off “cease and desist” letters to the website that sold the products, threatening litigation and criminal prosecution if the parody designs weren’t immediately removed. The agencies claim the parody images violate laws against the misuse, mutilation, alteration or impersonation of government seals. The intimidating communication scared the website enough to remove the items, but McCall isn’t going down without a fight.

In a federal complaint filed this week he claims the government is violating his First Amendment right because the special statutes protecting the NSA and DHS seals from misuse can’t properly be applied to forbid parodies. McCall says his images make fair use of the NSA and DHS seals to “identify federal government agencies as the subject of criticism.” Therefore it’s unconstitutional for the government to forbid him from displaying and selling his parodies to “customers who want to display the items to express their own criticism of NSA and DHS,” according to his complaint.

Furthermore, McCall is not mutilating or altering the agency seals, but rather using them in a parodic form that doesn’t create any likelihood of confusion about the source or sponsorship of the material. No reasonable viewer is likely to believe that any of the materials is affiliated with or sponsored by the DHS or the NSA, the complaint says. “Nor were the seals affixed to the items to be sold with any fraudulent intent.”

In short, the merchant claims that the First Amendment protects his use of the NSA and DHS seals to identify truthfully the agencies that he is criticizing. The two agencies at the center of this brouhaha most certainly have bigger fish to fry. So does the Department of Justice (DOJ), the agency that has threatened to prosecute the mug and T-shirt creator.

Via: Judicial Watch

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Hayden: Obama 'Rebalance' of US Intel Could Harm National Security

The National Security Agency (NSA) is being relentlessly pilloried by resentful detractors abroad — and strident critics on the left and right at home — which could force the Obama administration to weaken the intelligence community's ability to protect critical U.S. interests, former CIA head Michael Hayden wrote Thursday in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
 

Hayden, who was CIA director from 2006 to 2009, cautioned that the White House "needs to be careful not to overachieve."

It is not the place of an American president to invite other countries to tell him "what aspects of our espionage make them uncomfortable," Hayden wrote.

In the 1990s, criticism of the CIA's human-intelligence operations led to reforms that held back the agency's ability to collect information from "bad" people.

"If we tell signals-intelligence collectors in the NSA that they cannot listen to any 'good' people' similar damage is in store," Hayden warned. The agency only recovered from the order not to talk to "bad people" after 9/11.

Hayden insisted that "a formal framework for national intelligence priorities" is regularly agreed upon at the National Security Council level. So when U.S. policy makers confirm they want to better understand the strategy of a friendly, but headstrong ally, "What is it they think they are asking the intelligence community to do?"

Even if European leaders are pandering — theatrically — to their outraged constituencies, and notwithstanding that some concerns about privacy are legitimate, the end result could be "reduced cooperation with the U.S. on a variety of issues," he cautioned.

America's allies ought to appreciate that, "It is bad politics and bad policy for good friends to put their partners in politically impossible situations, and recent reports of aggressive American espionage have done just that."

Espionage may well not be compatible with a "political culture that every day demands more transparency and more public accountability," Hayden wrote. A balance is needed that preserves the confidence Americans have in what their spy agencies are doing with the ability of the intelligence community to get the job done.

Morale is also a factor. Hayden warned that the men and women of the intelligence community — whose work is being branded "excessive" "unconstrained" and "out of control" — could lose heart.

Via: Newsmax

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US 'spied on future Pope Francis during Vatican conclave'

The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, it was claimed on Wednesday.

The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff on March 13.

The claims were made by Panorama, an Italian weekly news magazine, which said that the NSA monitored the telephone calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the lead-up to the conclave, which was held amid tight security in the Sistine Chapel.

The information gleaned was then reportedly divided into four categories — “leadership intentions”, “threats to financial system”, “foreign policy objectives” and “human rights”.

At that time, Benedict XVI was Pope, suggesting that the Vatican may also have been monitored during the last few weeks of his papacy.

Via: The Telegraph

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Report: White House stopped phone tapping of foreign leaders this summer

(CNN) -- The release of further allegations of National Security Agency surveillance efforts caused the Spanish government to summon the U.S. ambassador Monday, and The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House ordered a halt to some eavesdropping on foreign leaders after learning of it this summer.

Quoting unidentified U.S. officials, the newspaper's website said the wiretapping of about 35 foreign leaders was disclosed to the White House as part of a review of surveillance programs ordered by President Barack Obama after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified information on the NSA's phone monitoring systems.

The White House ordered a halt to the monitoring of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and unspecified other leaders, the newspaper reported. The Journal report did not specify who gave the shutdown order or the date it was issued.

White House: Reviewing surveillance of allies

Accusations of US spying 'disingenuous'

Germany sending intel team to D.C.

Damage control on NSA Scandal

Sharing secrets: U.S. intelligence leaks

Responding to the report for the White House, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden did not directly address surveillance of foreign leaders. Instead, she described the ongoing review as "including when it comes to our closest foreign partners and allies."

Merkel said last week that reports of American spying on her and other leaders had "severely shaken" relationships between the United States and European nations.

The German leader said she told Obama last week that eavesdropping among friends "is never acceptable." The White House said at the time that Merkel's communications were not being monitored -- without saying whether she had been targeted in the past.

Should the president know wiretap details?

The officials quoted by The Wall Street Journal said it was understandable that Obama did not know about the phone tapping of Merkel and other leaders for nearly five years of his presidency. Because the NSA has so many eavesdropping programs, it would not have listed all of them for the president, according to the officials.

"The president doesn't sign off on this stuff," one official was quoted as saying. But the official said that policy was under review, the Journal reported.

Via: CNN News

World’s anger at Obama policies goes beyond Europe and the NSA Published: October 25, 2013

WASHINGTON — Whether miffed over spying revelations or feeling sold out by U.S. moves in the Middle East, some of the United States’ closest allies are so upset that the Obama administration has gone into damage-control mode to ensure the rifts don’t widen and threaten critical partnerships.

The quarrels differ in their causes and degrees of seriousness. As a whole, however, they pose a new foreign policy headache for an administration whose overseas track record is seen in many quarters at home and abroad as reactive and lacking direction.

In Europe and the Middle East, rifts that once would’ve been quietly smoothed over have exploded into headlines and public remonstrations.

The uproar in Europe over revelations from fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the United States spied on as many as 35 government leaders, including Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, has become so great that early Friday 28 European leaders said Merkel and French President Francois Hollande would open negotiations with the United States over a “no-spying agreement.”

Via: McClatchy.com

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/25/206552/worlds-anger-at-obama-policies.html#storylink=cpy

Woodward: "Secret" Government Under Obama Administration Needs To Be Reviewed

BOB SCHIEFFER: What is so interesting, Bob Woodward, and you know, you and I have seen a lot of these things. 

BOB WOODWARD: Too much.

SCHIEFFER: The first thing that agencies tend to do is try to make sure they can't be blamed for something. And, clearly, that is why the FBI and the CIA did not come clean with the Warren commission, and why maybe they didn't even tell the agents in Dallas what was going on.

WOODWARD: Well, initially, in the Watergate cover-up, part of the argument was, 'Oh, you'll expose convert operations in Mexico,' because they were laundering $89,000 of money that helped finance Watergate. I think there's a theme here in all of this that you have laid out that connects somewhat to what's going on now. And that is the power of this secret world -- CIA, FBI -- particularly in what you've looked at, Phil, the assassination plots against Castro. I mean, it's stunning, and this information really didn't get to the Warren commission. And it's not saying that Castro did it, but that there's all this secrecy and the people at the top or the people investigating the commission does not get the evidence.

We look now at what's going on with all the NSA wiretapping and people saying, 'Well, they didn't know, or they did know.' It clearly is much more extensive than people expected. You connect this with the drone strikes in Pakistan, and Yemen, which is our government conducting regular assassinations by air. You know, what's -- what's going on here? Who is in control of it? And who can find out? You know, I think -- it's in the New York Times this morning that there is a review that Susan Rice, the National Security Adviser for Obama, has done on Mid-East policy. They need to review this secret world and its power in their government because you run into this rats nest of concealment and lies time and time again, then and now.

Via: Real Clear Politics

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