#fisa – @diegueno on Tumblr

There is no controversy except in the mind of Donald Trump. Susan Rice was NOT spying on Trump and his transition team. It appears that a FISA warrant had possibly been issued to monitor the Russians that the Trump team was in contact with. The existence of a FISA warrant is classified, by the way, so by Tweeting about it, Donald Trump revealed sensitive classified material, and so did Devin Nunes when he held his infamous hallway press conference. What was the reason for this potential FISA warrant? If it existed, it was undoubtedly part of the investigation into Russian interference with our election, a very serious matter. If the Russians indeed affected the outcome of our election, it would be the most serious offense - our very democracy would be threatened by something like this. If the Trump campaign team had colluded with them it could possibly border on treason. What then of the claim that Susan Rice committed a crime by "unmasking" the Trump team that were incidentally surveilled via the FISA warrant? Nonsense! If it not illegal to unmask US citizens involved in such surveillance, particularly if the nature of the communications indicates there may be a crime being committed. By revealing that they may have been surveilled, and that they were unmasked by the National Security Advisor at the time, they may have unwittingly revealed that they were, indeed, colluding with Russian government officials in some way, against the interests of national security.

I'm not going to give any dignity to FB post that elicited this grounded response, but these are representative articles about this non-issue.

Like anything that comes from the White House these days, it's oxygen deprived.

#susan rice #russia #trump #FISA #surveillance

diegueno

Congress now faces a stark choice on the NSA and civil liberties.

A bill sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein -- the FISA Improvements Act -- would make matters worse.

In sharp contrast, a bill sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative James Sensenbrenner -- the USA FREEDOM Act – would take major strides toward ending NSA abuses.

Learn more and take action.

#civil liberties #surveilance #NSA #FISA #telecommunications #privacy #Dianne Feinstein

diegueno

Groklaw, the 11-year-old website devoted to covering legal disputes related to open source software, has announced it will shut down rather than risk the government reading its e-mail.Groklaw founder Pamela Jones (commonly known as "PJ") wrote today that she is not confident the government won't someday be able to crack her encrypted e-mails. "There is no way to do Groklaw without e-mail," she wrote. "So this is the last Groklaw article.

Groklaw shuts down rather than risk feds snooping through e-mail | Ars Technica

Source: Ars Technica

#news #privacy #NSA #FISA #security #Groklaw #open source #law #wikileaks #journalism #surveillance

diegueno

The FISA court has granted the Justice Department its fourth extension to respond to the requests by Google and Microsoft to lift the gag order preventing them from revealing details of their surveillance work with the government.The extension means the Justice Department will have until August 13 to file their response.Reggie Walton, the presiding judge of the FISA court, allowed the two tech monoliths to publicly discuss their petition to the court in June. Both companies are asserting that in light of recent revelations regarding government surveillance programs, they have a first amendment right to reveal how they work with the government and comply with requests for information.

FISA Court Gives Justice Department Yet Another Extension to Respond to Google and Microsoft Transparency Petitions | Bytegeist

#secrecy #surveillance #civil liberties #FISA #transperency #NSA #Obama

diegueno

ssl.capwiz.com

(via Tell Your Representative: Vote YES On The Amash Amendment)

This is BIG NEWS: Tomorrow, July 24, a bipartisan amendment sponsored by Rep. Amash (R-MI) that restricts the NSA's ability to collect data on our phone calls will be up for a vote in the the House of Representatives.

This is our first real chance to get a congressional vote to roll back the NSA's grossly broad spying program—and we need to let our representatives know right away that we expect them to vote for it.

The Amash Amendment would prevent the NSA from indiscriminately collecting the phone records of most Americans, including who we talk to, for how long, and how often.

Instead, it will limit the NSA's ability to collect these records to people who are actually under investigation under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (a pretty reasonable limitation!).

Source: ssl.capwiz.com

#privacy #telecommunication #legislation #NSA #Edward Snowden #surveillance #tumblrbomb #activism #congress #FISA #civil liberties #Fourth Amendment

diegueno

The government will only authorize us to communicate about these numbers in aggregate and as a range,” Ullyot said. “This is progress, but we’re continuing to push for even more transparency.” In a statement, a Google spokesman said the deal that Facebook struck with the government was not sufficient. “We have always believed that it’s important to differentiate between different types of government requests. We already publish criminal requests separately from National Security Letters. Lumping the two categories together would be a step back for users,” he wrote. “Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately.” Google has gone to greater lengths than any other Web company to disclose the nature and number of government requests for information about its users through its semiannual “transparency report.”Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other technology giants have been pressing the Obama administration to allow them to publicly disclose more information about the national security requests they get under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA

- Facebook turns user data over to NSA

Source: q13fox.com

#privacy #Social media #FISA #NSA #surveilance #$FB