By Kimberly Dvorak – This week Elise Jordan, wife of famed journalist Michael Hastings, who recently died under suspicious circumstances, corroborated this reporter’s sources that CIA Director, John Brennan was Hastings next exposé project (CNN clip).

Last month a source provided San Diego 6 News with an alarming email hacked from super secret CIA contractor Stratfor’s President Fred Burton. The email (link here) was posted on WikiLeaks and alleged that then Obama counter-terrorism Czar Brennan, was in charge of the government’s continued crackdown or witch-hunt on investigative journalists.
After providing the Stratfor email to the CIA for comment, the spymaster’s spokesperson responded in lightning speed. (more…)

MOSCOW — National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden left transit zone of a Moscow airport and entered Russia after authorities granted him temporary asylum, his lawyer said Thursday.
Anatoly Kucherena said that Snowden’s whereabouts will be kept secret for security reasons. The former NSA systems analyst was stuck at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23.
The U.S. has demanded that Russia send Snowden home to face prosecution for espionage, but President Vladimir Putin dismissed the request. (more…)

The discussions around the internet are quite extensive around the latest article from the “Snowden files” (my name). XKeyscore is the research/cyber search tool recently disclosed by The Guardian newspaper who have access to the Snowden whistleblower information.
The primary discussions around the article are framed around how the NSA can essentially, without warrant, snoop on any Facebook, email, or cyber chat room, based on a general sub-set of query data. In essence, data strip-mining.
We are still fully digesting the information and working out the “what if’s” that follow from such details being revealed. However, the immediate question pops to mind about “who” actually owns, or controls, such sleuthing cyber software. Is it only the NSA, or is it also used domestically by the FBI?
One can really, really, see how the dynamic of the entire conversation would immediately change if it were discovered the FBI also had use and access of this type of data search capability…. I wonder if anyone is looking into that?
(Here’s The Guardian Story) A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its “widest-reaching” system for developing intelligence from the internet. (more…)

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/statuses/348793179757219843

You mean President Obama and the administration officials lied?   Ya’ don’t say…

(Via The Guardian)  Top secret documents submitted to the court that oversees surveillance by US intelligence agencies show the judges have signed off on broad orders which allow the NSA to make use of information “inadvertently” collected from domestic US communications without a warrant.

The Guardian is publishing in full two documents submitted to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (known as the Fisa court), signed by Attorney General Eric Holder and stamped 29 July 2009. They detail the procedures the NSA is required to follow to target “non-US persons” under its foreign intelligence powers and what the agency does to minimize data collected on US citizens and residents in the course of that surveillance.

The documents show that even under authorities governing the collection of foreign intelligence from foreign targets, US communications can still be collected, retained and used. (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed “simply based on an analyst deciding that.”

If the NSA wants “to listen to the phone,” an analyst’s decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Nadler said he learned. “I was rather startled,” said Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee. (more…)

In response to the NSA leaks, and the bazillions of questions from concerned Americans about their privacy being snooped on by the government, the administration coordinated a Senate Classified Briefing to explain the details of the program.   The intent was to inform the elected Senators so they could answer questions from their state citizenry.

Less than half of them attended.

WASHINGTON DC – Less than half (47) of US Senators attended a classified briefing on Thursday afternoon, instead choosing to head home for the weekend.  The briefing was with “with James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Keith Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA), and other officials.”

Wow. (more…)

(Via Gateway Pundit) NSA leaker Edward Snowden released documents to The South China Morning Post this week that detailed classified NSA data on targeted Chinese IP addresses. Bretibart reported:

NSA leaker Edward Snowden showed a Hong Kong newspaper classified documents that revealed the specific IP addresses in Hong Kong and China the National Security Agency may have hacked.

Snowden gave the information to the South China Morning Post, which reported on Saturday that though the “detailed records” cannot be independently verified, they “show specific dates and the IP addresses of computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland hacked by the National Security Agency over a four-year period” and “also include information indicating whether an attack on a computer was ongoing or had been completed.” (more…)

Treeper Admin Stella has really done a remarkable job sharing articles about this entire NSA leaker issue.    Here are some links she shares which are some of the most engaging considerations and help to frame the various aspects for thought.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m just not up to speed on the various nuance surrounding this intelligence story.   I’m not at all OK with the NSA, or anyone else, collecting or storing information on private communication for *possible* use at another, albeit later, time.   It just strikes my gut as Big Brother with an agenda, not to mention a violation of the 4th amendment.

So back to the information articles that Stella is researching/sharing:

From Legal Insurrection: Edward Snowden, the now-former NSA contractor who leaked secret documents to The Washington Post and the Guardian, said he didn’t want to become the story.  “I don’t want public attention because I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing,” he told The Guardian.

But Edward Snowden dumped a bunch of documents, made a lot of claims, and then fled.  He’s the only one who can clarify or confirm the statements he’s made, or demonstrate his comprehension for what’s in the documents he leaked, and he’s made himself unavailable to do so. The public is trying to collect and digest all the facts, and some still have questions. (more…)