NewsTrust - Domestic Spying - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Exposed: Inside the NSA's Largest and Most Expansive Secret Domestic Spy Center in Bluffdale, Utah

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 21 (News Report) - A new exposé in Wired Magazine reveals details about how the National Security Agency is quietly building the largest spy center in the country in Bluffdale, Utah, as part of a secret NSA surveillance program codenamed "Stellar Wind." We speak with investigative reporter James Bamford, who says the NSA has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas.

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Military Launches Spy Operation Using Fake Online Identities

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By The Huffington Post, Amy Lee - Mar. 17 (News Report) - The U.S. Military has purchased software designed to create and control false online personas in an attempt to use social media and other websites to...

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Listening to you at last: EU plans to tap cell phones

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wikinews - By Brian McNeil et al - Oct. 19 (News Report) - A report accidentally published on the Internet provides insight into a secretive European Union surveillance project designed to monitor its citizens, as reported by Wikileaks earlier this month. Project INDECT aims to mine data from television, internet traffic, cellphone conversations, p2p file sharing and a range of other sources for crime prevention and threat prediction. The €14.68 million project began in January, 2009, and is scheduled to continue for five years under its current mandate. INDECT produced the accidentally published report as part of their "Extraction of Information for Crime Prevention by Combining Web Derived Knowledge and Unstructured Data" project, but do not enumerate all potential applications of the search and surveillance technology. Police are discussed as a prime example of users, with Polish and British forces detailed as active project participants. INDECT is funded under the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and includes participation from Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

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Declassified Docs Reveal Military Operative Spied on WA Peace Groups, Activist Friends Stunned

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By ANJALI KAMAT, Amy Goodman, - Jul. 28 (News Report) - Newly declassified documents reveal that an active member of Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance in Washington state was actually an informant for the US military. The man everyone knew as “John Jacob” was in fact John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Service at Fort Lewis. The military’s role in the spying raises questions about possibly illegal activity. The Posse Comitatus law bars the use of the armed forces for law enforcement inside the United States.

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Obama’s Military Is Spying on U.S. Peace Groups

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthDig - By Amy Goodman - Jul. 28 (News Report) - Anti-war activists in Olympia, Wash., have exposed Army spying and infiltration of their groups, as well as intelligence gathering by the Air Force, the federal Capitol Police and the Coast Guard. The infiltration appears to be in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act preventing U.S. military deployment for domestic law enforcement and may strengthen congressional demands for a full-scale investigation of U.S. intelligence activities, like the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s.

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Total Information Awareness

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By James Grimmelmann - Dec. 11 (News Analysis) - Barack Obama deployed a campaign database that made the GOP's data-gathering efforts look like the work of amateurs.

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New FBI Guidelines: More COINTELPRO?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Sep. 04 (Special Report) - [Disclosure: author is a NewsTrust staff member. The portion quoting Jeanne Roberts was added after her review and hence there is no reference to her relationship to the piece in her review.] At 9:30 a.m. on September 17, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be hearing from Robert S. Mueller, III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the wake of complaints. I wait, wondering, what, if anything, will come out of this hearing--how much further will we erode our Constitution and how much further will we descend from our proclamation in our national anthem that we live in the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave."

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Why CIA Veterans Are Scared of McCain

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Laura Rozen - Aug. 30 (Special Report) - Many current and former US spies expect a McCain administration guided by neoconservatives to treat them with hostility and mistrust. They also say McCain would likely weaken the CIA by giving broad new spying authorities to the Pentagon, which CIA officials believe is more amenable to giving policymakers the intelligence they want, while being subject to less congressional oversight.

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FBI Seeks Sweeping New Powers

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Aziz Huq - Aug. 23 (Special Report) - In June, the bureau issued guidance to local law enforcement agencies about "suspicious activity" to be recorded and shared with federal authorities. The list includes First Amendment-protected activities, such as expressing "extremist views" and "affiliation" with "extremist organizations." Proposed new regulations would loosen limits on federal-state information sharing by eliminating the requirement that agencies state a reason to know information.

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Don't Tase Me, GOP

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Jacob Wheeler - Aug. 05 (News Report) - The St. Paul Police Department is arming itself with Tasers. Local activists and media say that the department ordered 230 stun guns in late February -- adding to the 140 already in its possession -- in preparation for protests at the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC), which St. Paul will host from Sept. 1 to Sept. 4. Police spokesman Tom Walsh denies any connection between the arrival of the Tasers and the upcoming RNC.

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Exposing Bush's historic abuse of power

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Tim Shorrock - Jul. 23 (Special Report) - The last several years have brought a parade of dark revelations about the George W. Bush administration, from the manipulation of intelligence to torture to extrajudicial spying inside the United States. But there are growing indications that these known abuses of power may only be the tip of the iceberg. Now, in the twilight of the Bush presidency, a movement is stirring in Washington for a sweeping new inquiry into White House malfeasance that would be modeled after the famous Church Committee congressional investigation of the 1970s.

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The Al-Haramain ruling and the current Congress - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - Jul. 03 (News Analysis) - A Bush-41-appointed Federal District Judge yesterday became the third judge -- out of three who have ruled on the issue -- to reject the Bush administration's claim that Article II entitles the President to override or ignore the provisions of FISA. Yesterday's decision by Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of California also guts the central claims for telecom immunity and gives the lie to the excuses coming from Congress as to why the new FISA bill is some sort of important "concession."

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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Ari Melber - Jun. 30 (News Analysis) - Obama's official events obviously beat the MyBo protests by several orders of magnitude, and the campaign deserves credit for hosting the very technology people are using to organize and pressure the candidate. Obama won the nomination by blending the practical and the ideal -- riding the financial juggernaut of Internet politics and promising a new, interactive civil society along the way. He made people feel good, and connected, and they showered his long-shot campaign with money, energy and adulation. Their votes are already in the bag, in general election calculus, but their work, enthusiasm and contributions to any larger "movement" are not guaranteed. Just as the campaign worked to mobilize so many supporters this weekend, it may have to reengage supporters concerned about Obama's recent drift.

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Moles Wanted

Mon, 26 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

City Pages - By Matt Snyders - May. 26 (Special Report) - What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant--someone to show up at "vegan potlucks" throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort's primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division's website, is to "investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines."

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Invasions of Privacy

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Greg Kaufmann, Katrina vanden Heuvel - May. 12 (Special Report) - Two weeks ago, I asked a Burger King spokeswoman whether the company had hired a private investigative firm to infiltrate the non-violent Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) or Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). She declined to comment. I asked whether the company was aware of any executives making "libelous" comments against CIW via online posts and e-mails. Again, no comment.

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Three States Subjected To "Martial Law Sweeps"

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

infowars.net - By Steve Watson - Apr. 23 (Special Report) - Federal law enforcement agencies co-opted sheriffs offices as well state and local police forces in three states last weekend for a vast round up operation that one sheriff's deputy has described as "martial law training".

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Tomato pickers feeling spied on

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

News Press - By Amy Bennett Williams - Apr. 12 (News Report) - Who would spy on a couple of nonprofit human rights groups? Who would hire a professional infiltrator to sit in on the organizations' planning sessions? Who would attack them on the Web for their efforts to improve the lives of workers who pick produce for the world's largest fast food chains? That's something the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student/Farmworker Alliance would like to know. In recent months, they've been vilified online and in e-mails that can be traced to the Miami headquarters of Burger King, a company that's opposed the groups' efforts.

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NSA Shifts to E-mail, Web, Data-Mining Dragnet

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Declan McCullagh - Mar. 12 (News Report) - Recent evidence suggests that the NSA has been focusing on widespread monitoring of e-mail messages and text messages, recording of Web browsing, and other forms of electronic data-mining, all done without court supervision. Taken together, those activities raise unique privacy and oversight concerns greater than those posed by large-scale monitoring of voice communications. Documents released last week by a security consultant (PDF) indicate that an unnamed major wireless provider has opened its network to the U.S. government, allowing customers' e-mail, text messaging, and Web use to be monitored. And Assistant Attorney General for National Security Kenneth Wainstein said last week that surveillance of e-mail was the real concern raised by the debate over amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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House Democrats Reject Telecom Immunity

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Associated Press - Mar. 11 (News Report) - Locked in a standoff with the White House, House Democrats on Tuesday maintained their refusal to shield from civil lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without a secret court's permission.

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Blue Dog Democrats May Give Bush Victory on Spying

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Matt Renner - Mar. 07 (News Report) - If the bill is split into two pieces, conservative Blue Dog Democrats in the House could join with Republicans to pass the immunity provision, handing the Bush administration a victory while providing political cover for progressive Democrats and the Democratic leadership. Bush has warned repeatedly that he will veto any FISA update that does not include retroactive immunity for telecoms.

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Who has access to your personal data? Everyone -- except you

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Scholars & Rogues - By Martin Bosworth - Mar. 02 (News Analysis) - Big banks, telecoms, and utilities hoard private data on customers and citizens, yet can't protect the data from snooping employees and identity thieves. What do you do when everyone has access to you?

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The Privacy vs. Security Conundrum

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Council on Foreign Relations - Feb. 27 (News Analysis) - The dispute over the government's wiretapping program hinges on whether to give telecom firms immunity from prosecution. Congressional Republicans have generally sought to extend immunity and legalize the wiretapping program, while Democrats favor holding telecoms accountable. A recent attempt at a bipartisan compromise was boycotted by GOP lawmakers (Wired); a trio of party leaders outlined the importance of the immunity issue in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on February 26. Yet some observers say the bickering is beside the point. As the Economist notes, "the statute's demise has done little practical harm." Current investigations can continue, the magazine says, and surveillance that needs a judge's signature can be obtained retroactively.

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This Week in Congress (Feb. 9 - 15, 2008)

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

PR Watch - By Conor Kenny - Feb. 12 (News Analysis) - (Congresspedia Preview) With the Senate approving an economic package last week, it looks like Congress can now return to some issues that were put on hold while the stimulus plan was crafted...the farm bill...FISA...[and] the president's proposed FY 2009 federal budget..., which expanded military spending at the expense of domestic programs. ...the administration has a likely ally in House ...John Murtha (D-Pa.)...[who] will probably champion defense spending above and beyond that proposed by the administration. Specifically, Murtha will call for the construction of more cargo planes and Navy ships. Here are the committee hearings scheduled for this week in Congress...:

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Creeping Fascism: From Nazi Germany to Post 9/11 America

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - Dec. 29 (News Report) - Americans today are seeing the same sheepish submissiveness that characterized Germany after the burning of the Reichstag.

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Senate Set for Tough FISA Debate

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Congressional Quarterly - By Tim Starks, Keith Perine - Dec. 17 (News Analysis) - Although staff aides for both committees have been working to incorporate some of the Judiciary amendment's spying provisions into the Intelligence bill, the differences over immunity have been too steep to overcome in negotiations. So the Judiciary amendment to the bill will automatically be the pending amendment to the Intelligence bill. That means the Senate could vote at least once on language that would not grant immunity, although such votes are likely to fail because the White House, Senate Republicans and many Democrats support immunity.

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