NSA Wiretapping and Snowden on the run
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Glenn Greenwald's partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours
David Miranda, partner of Guardian interviewer of whistleblower Edward Snowden, questioned under Terrorism Act
Glenn Greenwald: a failed attempt at intimidation
Glenn Greenwald (right) and his partner David Miranda, who was held by UK authorities at Heathrow airport. Photograph: Janine Gibson
The partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National SecurityAgency was held for almost nine hours on Sunday by UK authorities as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro.
David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.05am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The controversial law, which applies only at airports, ports and border areas, allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals.
The 28-year-old was held for nine hours, the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual. Accordingto official figures, most examinations under schedule 7 – over 97% – last under an hour, and only one in 2,000 people detained are kept for more than six hours.
Miranda was released, but officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles.
Since 5 June, Greenwald has written a series of stories revealing theNSA's electronic surveillance programmes, detailed in thousands of files passed to him by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Guardian has also published a number of stories about blanket electronic surveillance by Britain's GCHQ, also based on documents from Snowden.
While in Berlin, Miranda had visited Laura Poitras, the US film-maker who has also been working on the Snowden files with Greenwald and the Guardian. The Guardian paid for Miranda's flights.
"This is a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process," Greenwald said. "To detain my partner for a full nine hours while denying him a lawyer, and then seize large amounts of his possessions, is clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ. The actions of the UK pose a serious threat to journalists everywhere.
"But the last thing it will do is intimidate or deter us in any way from doing our job as journalists. Quite the contrary: it will only embolden us more to continue to report aggressively."
A spokesperson for the Guardian said: "We were dismayed that the partner of a Guardian journalist who has been writing about the security services was detained for nearly nine hours while passing through Heathrow airport. We are urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities."
A spokesperson for Scotland Yard said: "At 08:05 on Sunday, 18 August a 28-year-old man was detained at Heathrow airport under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He was not arrested. He was subsequently released at 17:00."
Scotland Yard refused to be drawn on why Miranda was stopped using powers which enable police officers to stop and question travellers at UK ports and airports.
There was no comment from the Home Office in relation to the detention. However, there was surprise in political circles and elsewhere. Labour MP Tom Watson said that he was shocked at the news and called for it to be made clear if any ministers were involved in authorising the detention.
He said: "It's almost impossible, even without full knowledge of the case, to conclude that Glenn Greenwald's partner was a terrorist suspect.
"I think that we need to know if any ministers knew about this decision, and exactly who authorised it."
"The clause in this act is not meant to be used as a catch-all that can be used in this way."
Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act has been widely criticised for giving police broad powers under the guise of anti-terror legislation to stop and search individuals without prior authorisation or reasonable suspicion – setting it apart from other police powers.
Those stopped have no automatic right to legal advice and it is a criminal offence to refuse to co-operate with questioning under schedule 7, which critics say is a curtailment of the right to silence.
Last month the UK government said it would reduce the maximum period of detention to six hours and promised a review of the operation on schedule 7 amid concerns it unfairly targets minority groups and gives individuals fewer legal protections than they would have if detained at a police station.
David Miranda, partner of Guardian interviewer of whistleblower Edward Snowden, questioned under Terrorism Act
Glenn Greenwald: a failed attempt at intimidation
Email- Guardian staff
- The Guardian, Sunday 18 August 2013 17.28 EDT
Glenn Greenwald (right) and his partner David Miranda, who was held by UK authorities at Heathrow airport. Photograph: Janine Gibson
The partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National SecurityAgency was held for almost nine hours on Sunday by UK authorities as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro.
David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.05am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The controversial law, which applies only at airports, ports and border areas, allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals.
The 28-year-old was held for nine hours, the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual. Accordingto official figures, most examinations under schedule 7 – over 97% – last under an hour, and only one in 2,000 people detained are kept for more than six hours.
Miranda was released, but officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles.
Since 5 June, Greenwald has written a series of stories revealing theNSA's electronic surveillance programmes, detailed in thousands of files passed to him by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Guardian has also published a number of stories about blanket electronic surveillance by Britain's GCHQ, also based on documents from Snowden.
While in Berlin, Miranda had visited Laura Poitras, the US film-maker who has also been working on the Snowden files with Greenwald and the Guardian. The Guardian paid for Miranda's flights.
"This is a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process," Greenwald said. "To detain my partner for a full nine hours while denying him a lawyer, and then seize large amounts of his possessions, is clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ. The actions of the UK pose a serious threat to journalists everywhere.
"But the last thing it will do is intimidate or deter us in any way from doing our job as journalists. Quite the contrary: it will only embolden us more to continue to report aggressively."
A spokesperson for the Guardian said: "We were dismayed that the partner of a Guardian journalist who has been writing about the security services was detained for nearly nine hours while passing through Heathrow airport. We are urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities."
A spokesperson for Scotland Yard said: "At 08:05 on Sunday, 18 August a 28-year-old man was detained at Heathrow airport under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He was not arrested. He was subsequently released at 17:00."
Scotland Yard refused to be drawn on why Miranda was stopped using powers which enable police officers to stop and question travellers at UK ports and airports.
There was no comment from the Home Office in relation to the detention. However, there was surprise in political circles and elsewhere. Labour MP Tom Watson said that he was shocked at the news and called for it to be made clear if any ministers were involved in authorising the detention.
He said: "It's almost impossible, even without full knowledge of the case, to conclude that Glenn Greenwald's partner was a terrorist suspect.
"I think that we need to know if any ministers knew about this decision, and exactly who authorised it."
"The clause in this act is not meant to be used as a catch-all that can be used in this way."
Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act has been widely criticised for giving police broad powers under the guise of anti-terror legislation to stop and search individuals without prior authorisation or reasonable suspicion – setting it apart from other police powers.
Those stopped have no automatic right to legal advice and it is a criminal offence to refuse to co-operate with questioning under schedule 7, which critics say is a curtailment of the right to silence.
Last month the UK government said it would reduce the maximum period of detention to six hours and promised a review of the operation on schedule 7 amid concerns it unfairly targets minority groups and gives individuals fewer legal protections than they would have if detained at a police station.
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_...-be-arrested-for-resisting-surveillance-order
The owner of an encrypted email service used by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden said he has been threatened with criminal charges for refusing to comply with a secret surveillance order to turn over information about his customers.
I could be arrested for this action," Ladar Levison told NBC News about his decision to shut down his company, Lavabit LLC, in protest over a secret court order he had received from a federal court that is overseeing the investigation into Snowden.
Lavabit said he was barred by federal law from elaborating on the order or any of his communications with federal prosecutors. But a source familiar with the matter told NBC News that James Trump, a senior litigation counsel in the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria, Va., sent an email to Levison's lawyer last Thursday – the day Lavabit was shuttered -- stating that Levison may have "violated the court order," a statement that was interpreted as a possible threat to charge Levison with contempt of court.
The owner of an encrypted email service used by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden said he has been threatened with criminal charges for refusing to comply with a secret surveillance order to turn over information about his customers.
I could be arrested for this action," Ladar Levison told NBC News about his decision to shut down his company, Lavabit LLC, in protest over a secret court order he had received from a federal court that is overseeing the investigation into Snowden.
Lavabit said he was barred by federal law from elaborating on the order or any of his communications with federal prosecutors. But a source familiar with the matter told NBC News that James Trump, a senior litigation counsel in the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria, Va., sent an email to Levison's lawyer last Thursday – the day Lavabit was shuttered -- stating that Levison may have "violated the court order," a statement that was interpreted as a possible threat to charge Levison with contempt of court.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...6480047114814.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
Anyone can figure out how to copy and paste it, be my guest. Couldn't do it. Just click the link. The image explains it in simple terms.
Anyone can figure out how to copy and paste it, be my guest. Couldn't do it. Just click the link. The image explains it in simple terms.
-DMP-
Mr. Somebody
Friend Of A Friend
Thats a pretty intelligent system. Now technosorcery is thought policing, cool.
I see have to start downloading my documentaries from now on....
This probably one of the better films which gives insight on how the NSA works..
They've been using this system for almost a decade now. Surprised the outlash has only sparked public opinion as of recently...\y
"Spying on the HomeFront" by PBS Frontline: also gives a dope background the of the NSA's reach:
25min
I see have to start downloading my documentaries from now on....
This probably one of the better films which gives insight on how the NSA works..
They've been using this system for almost a decade now. Surprised the outlash has only sparked public opinion as of recently...\y
"Spying on the HomeFront" by PBS Frontline: also gives a dope background the of the NSA's reach:
25min
Well that's why Obama was full of BS when he implied this type of info could possibly have come to light or that the government would be releasing the information that they're releasing now without what Snowden did, however you feel about him.
To be honest I never fully looked into all the info Snowden leaked, per se, but most of matters people seem to be concerned with are issues that a simple google search would reveal...
With that said, the way technology is ingrained in contemporary society, I don't see a slight chance of these programs being reversed any time soon...
Is the Coli in that filtering system? 
Is the Coli in that filtering system?
"Some National Security Agency analysts deliberately ignored restrictions on their authority to spy on Americans multiple times in the past decade, contradicting Obama administration officials’ and lawmakers’ statements that no willful violations occurred."
and
"The president conceded the NSA had “inadvertently, accidentally, pulled the emails” of some Americans."
and
"The president conceded the NSA had “inadvertently, accidentally, pulled the emails” of some Americans."
Company Behind Snowden Check Also Vetted D.C. Shooter
By Danielle Ivory and Kathleen Miller - Sep 20, 2013
The same federal contractor that vetted Edward Snowden, who leaked information about classified U.S. spying programs, also performed a background check that let the Washington Navy Yard shooter obtain a security clearance.
Now the contractor, USIS, is drawing fire from a U.S. senator asking how Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis slipped through the cracks. The vetting process has also been included in an inquiry by law enforcement agencies into Alexis’s activities before his deadly rampage this week.
No company does more U.S. government background checks for clearances than USIS, which was awarded $253 million by the Office of Personnel Management last year. The company did about two-thirds of background investigations done by contractors, and more than half of all those performed by the U.S. personnel office, according to Senator Claire McCaskill’s office.
“What’s emerging is a pattern of failure on the part of this company, and a failure of this entire system, that risks nothing less than our national security and the lives of Americans,” McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said in a statement. “We clearly need a top-to-bottom overhaul of how we vet those who have access to our country’s secrets and to our secure facilities.”
Alexis, 34, obtained a secret-level clearance from the Navy in March 2008 that would have enabled him to get the access card he used to get on the base. After leaving the Navy in January 2011, Alexis kept the clearance even with three arrests, a history of mental illness and a record of military misconduct. His clearance was good for 10 years and wasn’t subject to reinvestigation, according to a defense official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified.
Clearance Surge
Security specialists say USIS, a unit of Falls Church, Virginia-based Altegrity Inc., owned by Providence Equity Partners LLC, is a beneficiary of a system where the number of people with security clearances surged to almost 5 million as of last year. Investigators are overworked and underpaid, security specialists say, and the government has become increasingly reliant on outside contractors to do background checks.
USIS did Aaron Alexis’s background investigation in 2007, Ray Howell, a USIS spokesman, said yesterday in an e-mail. “Today we were informed that in 2007, USIS conducted a background check of Aaron Alexis” for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Howell said.
OPM Review
Just the day before, Howell said that USIS hadn’t vetted Alexis, who killed 12 people at the Navy Yard on Sept. 16 and then died in a shootout with police. The company can’t comment further because it’s prohibited contractually from retaining information gathered during its background checks for the personnel office, he said.
Merton Miller, associate director for federal investigative services at the Office of Personnel Management, said that the agency “has reviewed the 2007 background investigation file for Aaron Alexis, and the agency believes that the file was complete and in compliance with all investigative standards.”
Once an investigation is complete, Miller said, it is submitted to the “adjudicating agency” -- in this case, the Defense Department -- for review. The personnel office’s involvement with Alexis’s security clearance ended when it submitted the case to the Defense Department.
‘Inadequate Oversight’
The Pentagon “did not ask OPM for any additional investigative actions after it received the completed background investigation,” Miller said.
Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, said there is “inadequate oversight of the background check process” that must be fixed through legislation.
“If this doesn’t make it even more clear that this has to be fixed, I don’t know what will,” he said in a statement.
Patrick McFarland, inspector general of the personnel office, has said there may have been shortcomings in USIS’s vetting of Snowden, a former Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (BAH) employee who worked for the National Security Agency.
Snowden, who leaked information about U.S. electronic surveillance programs, faces federal charges of theft and espionage and is in Russiaunder temporary asylum.
‘Cutting Corners’
Federal authorities are looking into the security-check process as part of a broader investigation into Alexis’s activities, said a law enforcement official, who would only speak on condition of anonymity.
“In light of recent events, we plan to step up our efforts to investigate and prosecute the individuals and companies who risk our security by cutting corners and falsifying information in background checks,” Matthew Jones, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen in Washington, said in a statement.
During a June congressional hearing on background checks, which are required for security clearances, McCaskill said USIS was under criminal investigation.
Susan Ruge, associate counsel to the Office of Personnel Management inspector general, yesterday declined to answer questions about whether her office was conducting a criminal investigation of USIS.
There’s no simple answer for who’s at fault for letting Alexis and Snowden slip through, according to Mark Amtower, who runs a government-contract consulting firm in Clarksville, Maryland. That the two passed the vetting process may be tied to the number of investigations that USIS handles, Amtower said.
Added Cost
“You may say these checks should be more thorough,” he said in an interview, asking who would pay the added cost of tougher investigations as U.S. agencies look for spending cuts.
Federal clearances and background checks by the personnel office cost taxpayers about $1 billion last year, an expense that’s expected to rise to $1.2 billion by 2014, according to McCaskill’s office.
The surge in clearances has led “invariably to corners being cut and contractors performing poorly,” said Neil Gordon, an investigator at the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight.
Coupled with Snowden’s vetting, the Alexis case “is definitely going to hurt their reputation,” Gordon said of USIS. The contractor competes with CACI International Inc. (CACI) and KeyPoint Government Solutions Inc., a unit of Veritas Capital, a New York-based private equity firm.
‘Reinvent’ Government
USIS has gained market share since news broke about Snowden’s leaks, according to data compiled by Brian Friel, a Bloomberg Industries analyst. USIS won 75 percent of background-investigation contract orders from the personnel office since June, compared with CACI’s 19 percent and KeyPoint’s 6 percent.
Friel said it’s been a “reversal of fortune” for USIS, which had been losing share since 2007.
USIS’s prominence as a background-check contractor is due to its origin as the Federal Investigations Division of Office of Personnel Management. The unit, originally known as U.S. Investigations Services Inc., was privatized in 1996 as part of then-Vice President Al Gore’s effort to “reinvent” government by reducing the size of the civil service, according to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service.
Contracting out security reviews was designed to save the government money and secure new work for about 700 investigators who would no longer be needed because of a declining clearance workload due to the end of the Cold War. Instead, demand for security clearances would surge after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Criminal Cases
USIS was given a non-competitive, three-year contract for investigative work with the government personnel office and granted free access to federal computer databases that weren’t available to other firms.
The Carlyle Group LP (CG), a Washington-based private equity firm, and New York-based Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe LP invested in USIS. They agreed in 2007 to sell USIS to Providence, Rhode Island-based Providence Equity Partners for about $1.5 billion.
At least ten background-check workers employed by contractors who have been convicted or pleaded guilty to falsifying records since 2006, according to the personnel office’s inspector general. Eight of them worked for USIS.
Hire USIS to perform your backgrounds checks brehs
By Danielle Ivory and Kathleen Miller - Sep 20, 2013
The same federal contractor that vetted Edward Snowden, who leaked information about classified U.S. spying programs, also performed a background check that let the Washington Navy Yard shooter obtain a security clearance.
Now the contractor, USIS, is drawing fire from a U.S. senator asking how Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis slipped through the cracks. The vetting process has also been included in an inquiry by law enforcement agencies into Alexis’s activities before his deadly rampage this week.
No company does more U.S. government background checks for clearances than USIS, which was awarded $253 million by the Office of Personnel Management last year. The company did about two-thirds of background investigations done by contractors, and more than half of all those performed by the U.S. personnel office, according to Senator Claire McCaskill’s office.
“What’s emerging is a pattern of failure on the part of this company, and a failure of this entire system, that risks nothing less than our national security and the lives of Americans,” McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said in a statement. “We clearly need a top-to-bottom overhaul of how we vet those who have access to our country’s secrets and to our secure facilities.”
Alexis, 34, obtained a secret-level clearance from the Navy in March 2008 that would have enabled him to get the access card he used to get on the base. After leaving the Navy in January 2011, Alexis kept the clearance even with three arrests, a history of mental illness and a record of military misconduct. His clearance was good for 10 years and wasn’t subject to reinvestigation, according to a defense official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified.
Clearance Surge
Security specialists say USIS, a unit of Falls Church, Virginia-based Altegrity Inc., owned by Providence Equity Partners LLC, is a beneficiary of a system where the number of people with security clearances surged to almost 5 million as of last year. Investigators are overworked and underpaid, security specialists say, and the government has become increasingly reliant on outside contractors to do background checks.
USIS did Aaron Alexis’s background investigation in 2007, Ray Howell, a USIS spokesman, said yesterday in an e-mail. “Today we were informed that in 2007, USIS conducted a background check of Aaron Alexis” for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Howell said.
OPM Review
Just the day before, Howell said that USIS hadn’t vetted Alexis, who killed 12 people at the Navy Yard on Sept. 16 and then died in a shootout with police. The company can’t comment further because it’s prohibited contractually from retaining information gathered during its background checks for the personnel office, he said.
Merton Miller, associate director for federal investigative services at the Office of Personnel Management, said that the agency “has reviewed the 2007 background investigation file for Aaron Alexis, and the agency believes that the file was complete and in compliance with all investigative standards.”
Once an investigation is complete, Miller said, it is submitted to the “adjudicating agency” -- in this case, the Defense Department -- for review. The personnel office’s involvement with Alexis’s security clearance ended when it submitted the case to the Defense Department.
‘Inadequate Oversight’
The Pentagon “did not ask OPM for any additional investigative actions after it received the completed background investigation,” Miller said.
Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, said there is “inadequate oversight of the background check process” that must be fixed through legislation.
“If this doesn’t make it even more clear that this has to be fixed, I don’t know what will,” he said in a statement.
Patrick McFarland, inspector general of the personnel office, has said there may have been shortcomings in USIS’s vetting of Snowden, a former Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (BAH) employee who worked for the National Security Agency.
Snowden, who leaked information about U.S. electronic surveillance programs, faces federal charges of theft and espionage and is in Russiaunder temporary asylum.
‘Cutting Corners’
Federal authorities are looking into the security-check process as part of a broader investigation into Alexis’s activities, said a law enforcement official, who would only speak on condition of anonymity.
“In light of recent events, we plan to step up our efforts to investigate and prosecute the individuals and companies who risk our security by cutting corners and falsifying information in background checks,” Matthew Jones, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen in Washington, said in a statement.
During a June congressional hearing on background checks, which are required for security clearances, McCaskill said USIS was under criminal investigation.
Susan Ruge, associate counsel to the Office of Personnel Management inspector general, yesterday declined to answer questions about whether her office was conducting a criminal investigation of USIS.
There’s no simple answer for who’s at fault for letting Alexis and Snowden slip through, according to Mark Amtower, who runs a government-contract consulting firm in Clarksville, Maryland. That the two passed the vetting process may be tied to the number of investigations that USIS handles, Amtower said.
Added Cost
“You may say these checks should be more thorough,” he said in an interview, asking who would pay the added cost of tougher investigations as U.S. agencies look for spending cuts.
Federal clearances and background checks by the personnel office cost taxpayers about $1 billion last year, an expense that’s expected to rise to $1.2 billion by 2014, according to McCaskill’s office.
The surge in clearances has led “invariably to corners being cut and contractors performing poorly,” said Neil Gordon, an investigator at the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight.
Coupled with Snowden’s vetting, the Alexis case “is definitely going to hurt their reputation,” Gordon said of USIS. The contractor competes with CACI International Inc. (CACI) and KeyPoint Government Solutions Inc., a unit of Veritas Capital, a New York-based private equity firm.
‘Reinvent’ Government
USIS has gained market share since news broke about Snowden’s leaks, according to data compiled by Brian Friel, a Bloomberg Industries analyst. USIS won 75 percent of background-investigation contract orders from the personnel office since June, compared with CACI’s 19 percent and KeyPoint’s 6 percent.
Friel said it’s been a “reversal of fortune” for USIS, which had been losing share since 2007.
USIS’s prominence as a background-check contractor is due to its origin as the Federal Investigations Division of Office of Personnel Management. The unit, originally known as U.S. Investigations Services Inc., was privatized in 1996 as part of then-Vice President Al Gore’s effort to “reinvent” government by reducing the size of the civil service, according to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service.
Contracting out security reviews was designed to save the government money and secure new work for about 700 investigators who would no longer be needed because of a declining clearance workload due to the end of the Cold War. Instead, demand for security clearances would surge after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Criminal Cases
USIS was given a non-competitive, three-year contract for investigative work with the government personnel office and granted free access to federal computer databases that weren’t available to other firms.
The Carlyle Group LP (CG), a Washington-based private equity firm, and New York-based Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe LP invested in USIS. They agreed in 2007 to sell USIS to Providence, Rhode Island-based Providence Equity Partners for about $1.5 billion.
At least ten background-check workers employed by contractors who have been convicted or pleaded guilty to falsifying records since 2006, according to the personnel office’s inspector general. Eight of them worked for USIS.
Hire USIS to perform your backgrounds checks brehs
