FBI Terror Watch List ‘Out of Control’
June 14th, 2007Via: ABC News:
A terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI has apparently swelled to include more than half a million names.
Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.
The bureau says the number of names on its terrorist watch list is classified.
A portion of the FBI’s unclassified 2008 budget request posted to the Department of Justice Web site, however, refers to “the entire watch list of 509,000 names,” which is utilized by its Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force.
A spokesman for the interagency National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which maintains the government’s list of all suspected terrorists with links to international organizations, said they had 465,000 names covering 350,000 individuals. Many names are different versions of the same identity — “Usama bin Laden” and “Osama bin Laden” for the al Qaeda chief, for example.
In addition to the NCTC list, the FBI keeps a list of U.S. persons who are believed to be domestic terrorists — abortion clinic bombers, for example, or firebombing environmental extremists, who have no known tie to an international terrorist group.
Combined, the NCTC and FBI compendia comprise the watch list used by federal security screening personnel on the lookout for terrorists.
While the NCTC has made no secret of its terrorist tally, the FBI has consistently declined to tell the public how many names are on its list. Because the number is classified, an FBI spokesman told the Blotter on ABCNews.com, he was unable to comment for this story.
“It grows seemingly without control or limitation,” said ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani of the terrorism watch list. Sparapani called the 509,000 figure “stunning.”
“If we have 509,000 names on that list, the watch list is virtually useless,” he told ABC News. “You’ll be capturing innocent individuals with no connection to crime or terror.”
NSA, AT&T and the NarusInsight Intercept Suite
June 14th, 2007In the Ugly Truth About Online Anonymity, I wrote:
There are dozens of off the shelf products that you would swear were designed for use by intelligence agencies, but they’re routinely peddled to—and used by—corporations. If corporations have and use these surveillance capabilities, what are the intelligence agencies running on the service providers’ networks? I’ll be buggered if I know, but I know it’s not good.
So:
What are the intelligence agencies running on the service providers’ networks?
Today, EFF released unredacted court documents related to the ATT/NSA intercept case.
I don’t know how to express this in a way that fully conveys my utter astonishment that these documents are publicly available in their entirety. If there is a more riveting and technically revealing account of recent NSA IP intercept operations out there, I’d like to know about it.
This is arcane information. But… For those of you who want names, model numbers, techniques, and locations all related to how, IN FACT, They are watching EVERYTHING we are doing online, this is it.
The only reason this is public is because Mark Klein, an ATT engineer who participated in building the secret NSA infrastructure, outed it. There can be no idiotic commentary about “conspiracy theories” or “paranoia” with this. These are court documents containing information provided under penalty of perjury by an eye witness and participant in the operation. The expert analysis provided by J. Scott Marcus–which was just unsealed today—is shocking. For those of us who just knew this was happening, but couldn’t put our fingers on how, well, now we know.
I’ve followed publicly available information on NSA for about fifteen years and I’ve never seen anything like this. The capabilities of this system are awesome and terrifying.
When you read J. Scott Marcus’ analysis, it will become very clear to you why NSA and ATT wanted that thing sealed.
So, how does NSA do it?
A company called Narus has developed the NarusInsight Intercept Suite: a purpose built network surveillance system that is capable of analyzing (in real time) ALL of the data passing through the largest network nodes in existence. This system is capable of applying sophisticated targeting rules to the traffic, as well as recording entire, individual sessions for later analysis. According to the Narus website:
These capabilities include playback of streaming media (i.e. VoIP), rendering of web pages, examination of e-mail and the ability to analyze the payload/attachments of e-mail or file transfer protocols. Narus partner products offer the ability to quickly analyze information collected by the Directed Analysis or Lawful Intercept modules. When Narus partners’ powerful analytic tools are combined with the surgical targeting and real-time collection capabilities of Directed Analysis and Lawful Intercept modules, analysts or law enforcement agents are provided capabilities that have been unavailable thus far.
How many nodes?
Unknown, but according to Mark Klein in his Declaration in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction:
In the course of my employment, I was required to connect new circuits to the “splitter cabinet” and get them up and running. While working on a particularly difficult one with another AT&T technician, I learned that other such “splitter cabinets” were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.
That, in a nutshell, is the system that’s keeping an eye on us. It sits between the large peering nodes where different carriers’ networks come together. It searches for traffic based on tasking provided by NSA, captures it and phones it home over a private IP based optical carrier link. Where is that data winding up? Yesterday we saw information on the National Security Analysis Center, which might become the repository for the longer term storage of the information that is captured from this and other surveillance operations.
Are They building electronic dossiers on as many of us as they can? I don’t know, but it sure looks that way.
Wouldn’t you love to know what that thing was actually looking for? Which websites get you thrown on a permanent shit list? Which books? Which phrases?
Who devises the tasking orders? That’s got to be the holiest of holies. The family jewels. How many years of dedicated, vetted, zombie-like order following are required before one winds up in a position like that? How many people have access to the full tasking package?
One last point here: Look at the Narus board of directors. At the top we find William P. Crowell. In addition to a long list of black bag related jobs, he was Deputy Director of Operations and Deputy Director of, that’s right, the U.S. National Security Agency.
What other interesting stuff is out there on this matter? That might be a fun project for some of you younger whipper snappers out there to fathom out. If you find something interesting, leave a comment.
Via: EFF:
Whistleblower Declaration and Other Key Documents Released to Public
San Francisco – More documents detailing secret government surveillance of AT&T’s Internet traffic have been released to the public as part of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) class-action lawsuit against the telecom giant.
Some of the unsealed information was previously made public in redacted form. But after negotiations with AT&T, EFF has filed newly unredacted documents describing a secret, secure room in AT&T’s facilities that gave the National Security Agency (NSA) direct access to customers’ emails and other Internet communications. These include several internal AT&T documents that have long been available on media websites, EFF’s legal arguments to the 9th Circuit, and the full declarations of whistleblower Mark Klein and of J. Scott Marcus, the former Senior Advisor for Internet Technology to the Federal Communications Commission, who bolsters and explains EFF’s evidence.
“This is critical evidence supporting our claim that AT&T is cooperating with the NSA in the illegal dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans,” said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. “This surveillance is under debate in Congress and across the nation, as well as in the courts. The public has a right to see these important documents, the declarations from our witnesses, and our legal arguments, and we are very pleased to release them.”
EFF filed the class-action suit against AT&T last year, accusing the telecom giant of illegally assisting in the NSA’s spying on millions of ordinary Americans. The lower court allowed the case to proceed and the government has now asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the case, claiming that the lawsuit could expose state secrets. EFF’s newly released brief in response outlines how the case should go forward respecting both liberty and security.
“The District Court rejected the government’s attempt to sweep this case under the rug,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. “This country has a long tradition of open court proceedings, and we’re pleased that as we present our case to the Court of Appeals, the millions of affected AT&T customers will be able to see our arguments and evidence and judge for themselves.”
Oral arguments in the 9th Circuit appeal are set for the week of August 13.
For the unredacted Klein declaration:
http://eff.org/legal/cases/att/SER_klein_decl.pdf
For the internal documents:
http://eff.org/legal/cases/att/SER_klein_exhibits.pdf
For the unredacted Marcus declaration:
http://eff.org/legal/cases/att/SER_marcus_decl.pdf
For EFF’s 9th Circuit brief:
http://eff.org/legal/cases/att/9thanswerbrief.pdf
For more on the class-action lawsuit against AT&T:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/
One Magic 8 Ball to Rule Them All? Hallelujah, Brother, Praise the Lord
June 13th, 2007Do you notice how this technocratic theocracy is the same old snake handling and sky god worship, but with “science” and computers? Same result, it just doesn’t look like a Pentecostal revival. Instead of people speaking in tongues and waving bibles, technocrats in suits are telling us that the machines will find the terrorists who live amongst us by “pro-actively mining the data.”
Or not, as some of the TIA alumni were forced to admit:
So far, terrorism researchers “cannot readily distinguish the absolute scale of normal behaviors” for terrorists or ordinary Americans, conceded a 2006 document from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and obtained by National Journal magazine. In other words, no one can figure out how terrorists act differently from normal Americans.
“We had no idea how on God’s earth you would characterize and capture normal behavior,” a former researcher for the ill-fated Total Information Awareness (TIA) program told the magazine last October.
But does it have to work?
In response to my recent zombie consumer post, a Cryptogon reader sent me the following email:
Humans, the majority of humans, are pack animals. The type that I speak of desire cohesion inside of social structures. They have no ambition, no goals, no drive or way of their own, they require society to give them one. Because society is being torn down they are left hollow and purposeless, they are free to destroy their self-dignity with debt and pointless distractions.
But a hope is coming for the world. And that hope will provide them with a purpose; it will bring them judgement and punishment. It will observe them at all times, and it will become their best friend because it can see everything and hear everything. It will even speak to them from time to time. In our socially isolated world, what is easier to relate to than someone who has knowledge of us cradle to grave?
The hope that I speak of is the CCTV camera.
You have your predictions, I have mine. In the future, cults will form worshiping the cameras, the surveillance, as God.
Just look at America, as it is now, do you think the people will allow their freedoms to be compromised? Obviously the answer so far is yes.
It’s a brave new world.
Just as the religions figured out, it doesn’t really have to work.
All that matters is the show. Illuminated manuscripts, or computers that find “the terrorists.” Joe and Jane Six Pack will be dazzled and awed. The governments can integrate their databases with their surveillance networks, target anyone who’s not going along with the program at will and call it “The War on Terror.” Joe and Jane Six Pack will gaze upon the bounty available in the church of Walmart and worship at the feet of the technocrats; those high priests who protect the flock by interpreting the holy Word of the Machine god.
And it will be good.
Hallelujah, Brother, Praise the Lord!
Via: abcnews:
The National Security Analysis Center (NSAC) would bring together nearly 1.5 billion records created or collected by the FBI and other government agencies, a figure the FBI expects to quadruple in coming years, according to an unclassified FBI budget document obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
…
Of further concern to the two congressmen are the FBI’s stated hopes to “pro-actively” mine the data to find terrorists using “predictive” analysis, according to its budget request, an unproven method according to experts and even the U.S. intelligence chief’s office.
In theory, predictive analysis involves mapping a known pattern of terrorist behavior — for instance, the sequence and timing of such mundane activities as bank transactions and travel purchases — against a massive collection of such records like the NSAC databases. If an individual’s actions match the pattern, they can be considered a suspect, even if they have no known ties to any suspected terrorists or known terrorist groups.
Such a method would help identify “sleeper cells,” the FBI claims in its request — secret groups of terrorists living innocuously within the United States, waiting for a signal from a terrorist group leader to assemble and strike.
Africa Command: The American Military’s New Frontier Outpost
June 13th, 2007Via: Esquire:
A few years ago, with little fanfare, the United States opened a base in the horn of Africa to kill or capture Al Qaeda fighters. By 2012, the Pentagon will have two dozen such forts. The story of Africa Command, the American military’s new frontier outpost.
Oil Demand ‘Rising Faster than Expected’
June 13th, 2007Mmmm hmmm. Can they top July 2006, or not? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Via: Financial Times:
World oil demand is rising faster than previously expected while non-Opec supply is growing more slowly, the International Energy Agency has said in its latest monthly assessment of the market.
The rich countries’ energy watchdog warned on Tuesday of growing tightness in oil supplies in the second half of the year, and urged the Organisation of the Petrolem Exporting Countries to raise its output.
David Fyfe, an analyst at the IEA, said: “We would very much hope that Opec production is at its seasonal low at the moment… We definitely do need more crude oil.â€
The IEA now expects demand for oil to rise by 1.7m barrels a day this year compared to last year – an increase of about 2 per cent – and non-Opec oil supply to rise by just 900,000 b/d. That rise in demand is 167,000 b/d more than the IEA had previously estimated, while the rise in non-Opec supply is 97,000 b/d less.
The report estimated that world oil stocks could drop by 1m-1.5m barrels a day in the third quarter, which it said “would push forward stock cover down towards the low levels seen when prices accelerated higher in 2004. That is, by itself, a concern.â€
Opec officials have played down the possibility of any increase in production before the next ministerial meeting in Vienna on September 11.
Cryptogon Readers Contribute $100 and $30
June 13th, 2007DE sent $100 and CW sent $30. Thanks guys!
Becky and I are looking at cloth nappy options… Oh my. HA
Passport Problems Trap Citizens in U.S.
June 13th, 2007I can’t imagine that anyone reading Cryptogon for any length of time wouldn’t have their passport situation sorted out, but just in case you don’t know what’s happening…
Via: MSNBC:
With so much fighting going on about people who want to get into the country, we didn’t realize how hard it is to get out. Chaos at the U.S. Passport office has left thousands of travelers stranded stateside, many of them holding useless airplane and cruise tickets — a situation one critic calls “reverse Ellis Island.”
Tony Blair Calls for Media Regulation to Contain Pernicious Conspiracy Theories
June 13th, 2007Ahhh, poor Tony needs Soviet style censors to hide his grave and despicable crimes.
Via: Telegraph:
Tony Blair hinted today at new restrictions on internet journalism, saying online news coverage had become “more pernicious and less balanced” than traditional political reporting.
In a farewell lecture on public life, he said that much of the British media behaved like a “feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits”.
But he had particularly harsh words for non-traditional media outlets, particularly the internet.
“It used to be thought – and I include myself in this – that help was on the horizon,” he said.
“New forms of communication would provide new outlets to by-pass the increasingly shrill tenor of the traditional media.
“In fact, the new forms can be even more pernicious, less balanced, more intent on the latest conspiracy theory multiplied by five.”
The emergence of internet-based news and 24-hour television news channels meant reports were “driven by impact”. He said that there was a need for the distinction between news and comment to be reasserted.
With newspapers increasingly moving online, he said the regulatory systems for papers and TV needed to be revised.
ABN Fears World Housing Crash; UK Housing Overvalued by 50%
June 13th, 2007Via: This is Money UK:
Soaring borrowing costs could spark a housing slump on a ‘global scale’, investment bank ABN Amro has warned.
Families have taken on ‘unsustainably large’ mortgages, leaving them vulnerable to the sharp increases in bond yields and official interest rates seen in recent weeks, wrote economist Dominic White.
Britain is one of the most exposed markets thanks to rampant speculation over the past decade, though it is by no means alone.
Claims that shortfalls in the supply of new homes will lead to an inexorable rise in UK property prices in coming decades have ‘as much credibility as Britney Spears’ latest comeback,’ he wrote.
‘The decline in global interest rates has now been largely reversed,’ White said. ‘Rising real interest rates could result in greater economic volatility. I believe this leaves housing markets vulnerable to a correction on a global scale.’
…
Central banks have raised interest rates to the highest level since 2001 across the 30 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Meanwhile yields on government bonds – a key measure for the cost of borrowing – have increased in recent days, sending shockwaves through financial markets.
Although fears for the health of the US housing market have captured headlines, the degree of over-valuation is more ‘severe’ in Britain, Australia, Spain and Ireland, ABN Amro calculates.
A note by the bank in April found that UK residential property is 50% overvalued, whereas US houses are 25% too expensive.
Thousand Dollar Fine for Driving Vegetable Oil Car
June 13th, 2007Wow! The snarling, fascist stage of collapse is turning out to be more absurd than even I anticipated. Unhook the vampire state’s fangs from your neck, even a little, and you’re going to get a ticket or a gun shoved in your face.
Gentle hint to greasers: Cops are the only people who notice your bumper stickers and your grease freak themed license plates.
Oh yeah, are the wind turbines banned yet?
Via: charlotte.com:
Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30 percent more than diesel would cost.
His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes.
He’s been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal government.
And to legally use veggie oil, state officials told him, he would have to first post a $2,500 bond.
