New York Times: NSA Agent Was Reading Bill Clinton's Personal Emails
By Susie Madrak Thursday Jun 18, 2009 5:45am
Who ever could have guessed that an NSA analyst would look at someone's personal emails for their own purposes? (And of course, how certain are we that they weren't working for someone else?) I guess we should assume that there's an audience for anything we say or do!
A secret NSA surveillance database containing millions of intercepted foreign and domestic e-mails includes the personal correspondence of former President Bill Clinton, according to the New York Times.
An NSA intelligence analyst was apparently investigated after accessing Clinton’s personal correspondence in the database, the paper reports, though it didn’t say how many of Clinton’s e-mails were captured or when the interception occurred.
The database, codenamed Pinwale, allows NSA analysts to search through and read large volumes of e-mail messages, including correspondence to and from Americans. Pinwale is likely the end point for data sucked from internet backbones into NSA-run surveillance rooms at AT&T facilities around the country.
Those rooms were set up by the Bush administration following 9/11, and were finally legalized last year when Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act. The law gives the telecoms immunity for cooperating with the administration; it also opens the way for the NSA to lawfully spy on large groups of phone numbers and e-mail addresses in bulk, instead of having to obtain a warrant for each target.
The NSA can collect the correspondence of Americans with a court order, or without one if the interception occurs incidentally while the agency is targeting people “reasonably believed” to be overseas. But in 2005, the agency “routinely examined large volumes of Americans’ e-mail messages without court warrants,” according to the Times, through this loophole. The paper reports today that the NSA is continuing to over-collect e-mail because of difficulties in filtering and distinguishing between foreign and domestic correspondence.
If an American’s correspondence pops up in search results when analysts sift through the database, the analyst is allowed to read it, provided such messages account for no more than 30 percent of a search result, the paper reported.
The NSA has claimed that the over-collection was inadvertent and corrected it each time the problem was discovered. But Rep. Rush Holt (D-New Jersey), chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, disputed this. “Some actions are so flagrant that they can’t be accidental,” he told the Times.
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Explains how GWB and Rove got to push through all their crap, they'd call a congressman in and show them their emails...
Might help explain why they can still push Obama around. The "trunk line" still connects to GWB and Rove
Funny how they can read Clinton's emails and our emails, but Rove "lost" literally millions of emails.
One of the internet tubes came loose and Rove's emails fell out.
the very technical term for this is "Phi Zappa Crappa" or stuff happens.
I used to have that poster!
You know. :)
the Rove hard drives were not only degaussed, but were then shredded (yes - you can shred a hard drive) You can turn the entire HD into tiny pieces of metal. These people make me spew!
if they were. The dragnet they through over the whole internet surely grabbed Rove's emails. If not the ones to him, then the ones he sent out. Someone somewhere out there has Rove's EMails intheir entirety in a "forward" from a colleague. Seriously these guys scrwe up twittering, they definitely mucked up forwarding and replying back and forth. I'd go after Grassly's HDD first. Not that he got the emails, but that he is the one most likely to be the biggest idiot in handling his email! I bet his deleted folder, and sent folders have never been purged! I can hear him now "yeah, I deleted those emails....."
to get rid of the emails. Emails are amazingly persistent. They live on the server machines. Even when you delete them copies are still around and even if you purge the server there are still copies on other servers used to store and forward messages. There was a court case a while back involving some white collar fraud and evidence was used from emails that the guy trying to cover it up had deleted. That's why I always found the "oh we lost those emails" excuse to be such total BS. Its almost impossible to loose emails you have to do a LOT of work to delete all the copies. If only we could talk to the guy who was in charge of the Information Technology for Bush. Too bad he died a while back, forget if it was suicide or a plane crash but I remember it seemed very convenient.
Bill Hicks was on the right track after all ...
(only he used the JFK assasination instead of private emails ...)
"...any questions Mr.President?..."
I'll bet that was some spicy reading. Bill was a lady catcher.
That's how Bush got the corporate fix. Georgie promised never to get a BJ or embarass his Southern Confederate Christofascist pals.
...what John Ensign promised?
Sanctity of marriage, and all that?
Said nothing like that would ever happen. Are you suggesting that two such freedom loving Americans were WRONG?!?
Those rooms were set up by the Bush administration following 9/11
It should actually read like this:
Those rooms were set up by the Bush administration PRIOR TO 9/11...
Just ask the CEO of Qwest
That the tradmed still harps on the myth that everything Bush did was a "reasonable" response to the events of September 11, 2001. When the evidence shows that Bush wanted a war with Iraq long before then, (not to suggest that Iraq had anything to do with those events), and had begun the policy of domestic spying almost immediately after taking office.
I have to also point out that even if it had been in response to the attacks of that day and the ones that followed, it was far from "reasonable".
...that, is that Obama is content to do nothing to even investigate the crimes of the Bush Crime family. Just shows that we are on the decline and few of our politicians give a damn.
But I always knew that Obama had more in common with Republicans than he does with honest progressives. I think that says much more about how screwed up and corrupt our system has become and how apathetic most voters have become than it does about the man himself.
...is who really determines who the ultimate "realistic" candidates will be by trotting out their "experts" and such. As a result, the best candidate for the country, Dennis Kucinich, never had a chance.
The voter turnout in 2008 really proves my point of our decline. It was called the best turnout since '64 (I think), but what was the percentage? 65-70%? How many millions of people didn't think it important enough, or refused to vote for the lesser of two evils?
How many more will refuse to vote next time now that Obama has betrayed their trust?
I'm not convinced that Qwest is innocent. I think they got the letter saying it was OK to lie about involvement before Verizon and AT&T did. I think QWest gave up our data, they just had permission to lie.......
Naccio's lawyer's said no, the request did not pass legal muster.
Naccio said no to the NSA
naccio was in process of rolling over his stock portfolio including shares of Qwest
NSA publicly dropped a whole shiat load of Qwest contracts causing stock to tank.
Naccio was arrested and convicted shortly thereafter for insider trading.
Naccio was set up by NSA for not cooperating.
he's no saint, in fact Naccio is complete douchebag, but in this instance, he was played like a cheap violin
TYT - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF2IoIqgBtE (11:14)
**Re: Started prior too 911, listen @ (2:10)
some job...
...to Union of Soviet Socialist United States of Amerika.
It does sound very Sovietish, spying on people not loyal to The Party(R)
but in socialist regimes capitalists don't run around collecting money from the government for poor business acumen.
Also I thought Bill was one of those guys that bragged about not having email?
"But Rep. Rush Holt (D-New Jersey), chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, disputed this. “Some actions are so flagrant that they can’t be accidental,” he told the Times."
How dare he attack our fighters of terrorism! Rights to privacy, we don't need no stinking rights.
Congress enlarged these powers AND gave retroactive immunity by passing the FISA Amendment of 2008, Eric Holder refuses to label these action "illegal" (partly based on Congress's passage of that amendment!) and Obama has expressed his opinion that we need to look "forward". So...no matter what horrific illegalities come out NOTHING WILL BE DONE TO INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE THOSE WHO BROKE THE LAW!
Welcome to New America. No Better Than Any Other Country In The World.
I have no doubt that Cheney and Rove were trying to get the goods on ol' Willie. A solid Mafia tactic. (watch Godfather 2 and note the murdered prostitute "All that remains is our friendship...")
NSA can obtain the telephone exchanges between Scott Roeder and Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue with a warrant?
Might as well use this program to verify what one or the other of these dangerous people said to each other.
This is what happens when a tom-fool Congress passes a law giving the telecoms immunity for allowing their customers' phones and emails to be surveilled without warrants. It may burn them worse than the rest of us since nobody's likely to hunt up John Doe to see what his emails are saying, but a big political name is something else! The temptation may be overwhelming.
What I don't understand is why an agent of NSA would have the right to look at any of the communications that are swept up. The data collection is mindless, just a continual electronic sweep. NSA doesn't need an "agent" poking around in what's collected. If he has time to do that, he isn't needed in government service and needs to lose his job and spend time in jail. He has broken several laws and regulations.
"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face
with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.''
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...
TIA - Total Information Awareness.
I'm not handicapped by coming face-to-face with the monstrousness of the 'conspiracies' enabled by the Powers that Be - but I am sometimes censored
Nixon lost his job and faced "criminal prosecution" for listening in on the DNC.
Bush listened in on every American.
has anyone feel the need to make shit up when talking on the phone, just to pretend their lives were not as boring and pedestrian... when being listened on by the NSA?
Just ansawer the phone, "Hello, NSA, can I help you.." Or work into the conversation "The "package" is in the blue malbox on Lexinton Ave, boy I don't want to be there when they collect it wink wink....."
I'd fake a Russian accent.
there's Zero accountability now.
In 1996, I sent an e-mail to Sen. Bill Frist, from my boss's computer, advocating the legalization of medical marijuana manufacturing in Tennessee as a means of employing rural labor and providing this class of people with a legal path to make money off something they were already doing, while keeping their children out of foster care and its attendant ills when their parents were jailed. Rural Tennessee counties routinely lie about their unemployment rate, which often is a factual 25% or more.
The day after the e-mail, I logged on and Netscape Navigator ran a ribbon across the bottom of the computer informing me that NSA would be surveilling the machine for 48? 72? hours--I can't recall the exact time period.
Hope they enjoyed the Joke of the Day and the recipe sites.
The Big Dawg looks pissed........and old.
http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/watchdog/bl...
I saw myself on a web cam yesterday, I'm an old fart!! No worries, I can live without the hair, deal with the wrinkles and the aches and pains. At least for now everything still works, my mind is sharp and I can do pretty much everything I want to.
That would be my wish for all of us.
then most kids three decades younger then me.
Hell, I'm tougher than most kids FOUR decades younger than me! (I'm 50.)
The Bush administration and AT&T started their surveillance programs before 9/11.
the Watergate break in...
Why are any of us surprised at this. We are not safe in our papers and in our persons anymore. If we ever were, and now with electronic media, it's a wonder anyone has any privacy left.
This is tooooooo funny - in a very sad and digusting sort of way.
Now we know the republicrats are being blackmailed as well as bribed.
Guess the corporate fascists had "insurance" on their employees.
How in the hell did this country get soooo f**ked up? And the only option available to us, is to vote the republicans back in.
Hopefully, this will be the beginning of the end of our two party system.
maybe by 2099 Politics will change for the better, if humanity doesn't kill itself off first.
Utopia? Hell, I would like to see the democrats pass just one damn thing for the good of the people. If they cannot deliver on healthcare, then WTF?
2009: Dems House Majority 260 - 175. Senate Majority 60 - 40. President elected in landslide victory.
2001: Repukes House Majority 222 - 213. Senate Majority 50 - 50 evil Dick breaks tie.
President selected by SCOTUS after losing popular vote.
Yet chimpy the psycopathic idiot got through everyone of his horrible, destructive, catastrophic policies.
I wish Obama would give up the bi-partisan kumbaiya and kick some congressional ass like his idiot predecessor did.
But with the bribery and blackmail taken to new heights, I don't think any politician is going to upset the great american corporate god.
ALL of the politicians are the same - R & D - and are Owned by the Powers that Be (PtB). The Big Money Guys - the ones who control the international financial cabal and most of the global corporations, the WTO, IMF, World Bank, and most nations.
We've had Repugs and Dems running things alternately for decades and nothing has changed. We just get the same crap - an inexorable slide into oblivion: no more middle class, fraud and theft on a global scale, and more NWO crap. No one gets to high office - especially the office of President - unless they kowtow to the PtB. We are so-o-ooo-oo screwed.
Just how much more does President Obama need to see the crimes of the bush admin need to bee heald accountable for the crimes these guys did to this country and other countries. WTF. hell they put people in prison for a JOINT!!!!!
When hell freezes over most likely. Which with Sun Spot activity now at zero for the past 128 days and counting could be sooner then we expected.
but what about 2012 when the solar maximum will be returning??
Maybe the Mayans were right? Now we're getting all wet and frozen, soon we'll be defrosted and toasted...mmm-mm good.
PLEASE, parents tell your children all about America, so they can tell theirs. Maybe there will be a new America someday.
start having enough babies who then grow up and rebel against their parents values. . twitter, cellphones, and all the other electronic leashes and mech tech distractions.
And go back to books and literacy.
Was he reading them one-handedly?
Is Sun Spot Old Sol's pet?
Maybe someone should bring this up at the June 24th "town hall" meeting with Barack.
"Mr. President, could you explain to the American people why you've implicitly decided to not to reinstate the FISA legislature that the previous administration blatantly violated in order to achieve political goals?"
Didn't he vote to extend FISA a few months ago?
Boink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li9ZFauUFr0&fe...
I was expecting a link about Calderon De La Barca's writings about the conflict between free-will and fate.
They better not go after the lone wolf, clearly operating on his own analyst who did this. Think of how depressed all the other analysts would get. They'd almost certainly stop doing their jobs and then the terr'rists would win!
I think I saw an expression like that once
On a piranha.
Why they heck should I give a rat's patooot what the code name for this database is?
Ooooooh! It's got a "code name"! And guess what! I know what it is!
Don't tell anybody, 'cuz this is all hush-hush, y'know, but the code name is "Pinwale".
If you tell anybody I told you this, you're a dead man. Or woman, as the case may be.
Sheesh.
Anyone here think Chimpy and Cheney were not more interested in collecting data on political foes more than terrorists ? Its a known Bush was wiretapping Americans long before his false flag 911 op. Just like the Patriot Act was half written prior to Sept 11th too. Its almost as if they knew it was gonna happen. Another DUH
The NSA can collect the correspondence of Americans with a court order, or without one if the interception occurs incidentally while the agency is targeting people “reasonably believed” to be overseas.
________________________________________________________________
I was recently in London
Does that mean I'm a Red-Coat?
Who needs the court order? The Americans or the NSA?
Illegal was Dumbya's middle name.
Lone Wolf:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrhRsZ56b4g
Bubba gets bitten by the Carnivore he ordered. I wonder if this will get these douchey politicians to reconsider their stance on spying on the rest of us, naaaaaah, not gonna happen.
..legislation.
"Those rooms were set up by the Bush administration following 9/11, and were finally legalized last year when Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act. The law gives the telecoms immunity for cooperating with the administration; it also opens the way for the NSA to lawfully spy on large groups of phone numbers and e-mail addresses in bulk, instead of having to obtain a warrant for each target."
We heard about the abuse of FISA last year when we learned that the NSA was listening to private conversations between soldiers in Iraq and their wives. FISA was set up and while I'm not keen on the policy, I understand the "why and wherefores" of it. There was at least some measure of legitimacy with the approval of the courts but they just went over the line. I thought what they did last year to our soldiers was bad enough. Now this.
Remember the "good old days" when Repubs bent on learning secrets kept by Dems just broke into their campaign headquarters in D.C.? Obviously, they've gone high tech. They don't have to risk arrest by a night watchman at the Watergate. They can just tap the phones and snoop the emails. A right of privacy? What right of privacy? Oh, yeah, the one the Supremes found in the 1st Amendment. What 1st Amendment? Oh, yeah, the one Dubya and the Cheney Gang dismantled. It's a sad, sad day for America.
Gee. There's a surprise. I suspect this is only the tip of the iceburg.
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