Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Data mining, the NSA, DOJ corruption and impeachment
In all the controversy over Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' testimony, no-one has noticed a key fact: The latest stories about data mining -- stories based, it is said, on administration leaks intended to aid the embattled Gonzales -- confirm the report of an unfairly tarnished NSA whistleblower.
Remember Russell Tice?
He was a source for the original New York Times reportage on the FISA-free wiretapping program. When he first indicated that he disagreed with the administration's scheme to spy on Americans, the vengeance squads targeted him. First, he was subjected to a bogus psychiatric examination. (This is a familiar tactic in the intelligence community; I have heard of an example going back to the early 60s.) Then he was demoted to the most humiliating jobs in the NSA heirarchy. In essence, he was "axed" to leave.
As soon as the public learned that the the NYT had used Tice as a source, the attack dogs -- Rush, O'Reilly and other feral stalkers of the night -- howled and growled and bared their fangs. I cite this example only because it was written by a hack with the delicious name of Moran.
In an earlier post, I cited this article:
(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)
Tice describes the NSA's activities in vague and "hypothetical" terms here. To put matters simply: The NSA scoops up everything -- all telephone communications, all email, everything -- without a warrant. Data mining programs are used to winnow the information down to manageable size. If you want more technical details, start here.
(Incidentally, this program is at the heart of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. Brown is, of course, notorious for making up what he is pleased to call his "facts." However, he does claim to have had the assistance of NSA insiders in the writing of that work, which seems rather more convincing than do his other fictions.)
But who does the winnowing? Who chooses the targets? According to Tice,
This illegal spying led to threats of resignation at the DOJ -- and it led to that bizarre race-to-the-hospital involving acting AG James Comey. (Michael Collins does the best job of describing the outrageous nature of that incident.)
Two important points:
1. As Josh Marshall has noted, an NYT editorial offhandedly revealed that Cheney himself set the "hospital race" into motion. Data mining was of top concern to the Bush White House.
2. The incident occurred in an election year.
At no point does Tice claim that Bush and Cheney were gathering information on political opponents. But what else could have made this matter so dire in 2004? If the Bushies had foiled a terror plot, they would have bragged about it.
Remember: At this same time, Bush's ultra-politicized Department of Justice was pressuring U.S. Attorneys to prosecute ginned-up "voter registration fraud" cases designed to suppress the Democratic vote.
he political use of NSA data mining falls under the heading of "What We Believe but Cannot Prove." The evidence may not yet be conclusive, but it all points in one direction. I further believe that the Democratic leadership knows that data mining has been used for political purposes.
Such a charge, if proven, could bring about not just impeachment but removal from office. Even the staunchest conservatives in the Senate would not have the belly for such activities.
Thus, I believe that John Conyers should call Russell Tice as a witness.
Remember Russell Tice?
He was a source for the original New York Times reportage on the FISA-free wiretapping program. When he first indicated that he disagreed with the administration's scheme to spy on Americans, the vengeance squads targeted him. First, he was subjected to a bogus psychiatric examination. (This is a familiar tactic in the intelligence community; I have heard of an example going back to the early 60s.) Then he was demoted to the most humiliating jobs in the NSA heirarchy. In essence, he was "axed" to leave.As soon as the public learned that the the NYT had used Tice as a source, the attack dogs -- Rush, O'Reilly and other feral stalkers of the night -- howled and growled and bared their fangs. I cite this example only because it was written by a hack with the delicious name of Moran.
In an earlier post, I cited this article:
Tice is a 20-year veteran of the United States intelligence network, having worked for Naval Intelligence, the Department of Defense and, most recently, the National Security Agency, where he held the position of intelligence analyst and capabilities officer. He has intimate knowledge of the innermost workings of the intelligence community, and wants to tell Congress about an NSA program that, he says, is unconstitutional and possibly criminal.(Emphasis added.)What might this refer to? Data mining.
“What [the American people] know about is Hiroshima,” he says. “What I’m going to tell you about is Nagasaki. I’m going to tell you about three Nagasakis.” He is gagged, however, by the non-disclosure agreement he signed before becoming privy to top-secret government activities.
(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)
Tice describes the NSA's activities in vague and "hypothetical" terms here. To put matters simply: The NSA scoops up everything -- all telephone communications, all email, everything -- without a warrant. Data mining programs are used to winnow the information down to manageable size. If you want more technical details, start here.
(Incidentally, this program is at the heart of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. Brown is, of course, notorious for making up what he is pleased to call his "facts." However, he does claim to have had the assistance of NSA insiders in the writing of that work, which seems rather more convincing than do his other fictions.)
But who does the winnowing? Who chooses the targets? According to Tice,
...when a problem arose and I raised concerns, the total lack of concern that anyone could be held accountable for any illegality involved. And then these things are so deep black, the extremely sensitive programs that I was a specialist in, these things are so deep black that only a minute few people are cleared for these things. So even if you have a concern, it's things in many cases your own supervisor isn't cleared for.And:
Fear rules the day right now. For the most part, people know, NSA employees know, that this is wrong, that this is illegal. In many cases they feel betrayed by their own leadership, by [former NSA Director Gen. Michael] Hayden, [NSA Director Lt. Gen. Keith] Alexander, and by [Deputy Director] Bill Black.Here's what Tice told Amy Goodman about data mining:
But it's basically a way of searching all of the data that exists, and that’s things like credit card records and driver's license, anything that you can get your hands on and try to associate it with some activity. I think if we were doing that overseas with known information, it would be a good thing if we’re pinning them down. But ultimately, when we're using that on -- if we’re using that with U.S. databases, then ultimately, once again, the American people are -- their civil rights are being violated.Just last year, the Republican attack machine attempted to make people believe that these were the ravings of a "certified kook." Now we have this story, planted (some say) by the administration itself:
A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former officials briefed on the program.Confirmation! The administration was using the NSA's data mining capabilities to compile information about certain Americans, and it did so without a warrant. The lack of a warrant tells us that these Americans were not suspected of involvement with criminal activity.
It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate. But such databases contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans, and their examination by the government would raise privacy issues.
This illegal spying led to threats of resignation at the DOJ -- and it led to that bizarre race-to-the-hospital involving acting AG James Comey. (Michael Collins does the best job of describing the outrageous nature of that incident.)
Two important points:
1. As Josh Marshall has noted, an NYT editorial offhandedly revealed that Cheney himself set the "hospital race" into motion. Data mining was of top concern to the Bush White House.
2. The incident occurred in an election year.
At no point does Tice claim that Bush and Cheney were gathering information on political opponents. But what else could have made this matter so dire in 2004? If the Bushies had foiled a terror plot, they would have bragged about it.
Remember: At this same time, Bush's ultra-politicized Department of Justice was pressuring U.S. Attorneys to prosecute ginned-up "voter registration fraud" cases designed to suppress the Democratic vote.
he political use of NSA data mining falls under the heading of "What We Believe but Cannot Prove." The evidence may not yet be conclusive, but it all points in one direction. I further believe that the Democratic leadership knows that data mining has been used for political purposes.
Such a charge, if proven, could bring about not just impeachment but removal from office. Even the staunchest conservatives in the Senate would not have the belly for such activities.
Thus, I believe that John Conyers should call Russell Tice as a witness.
Why do I doubt that either Russel Tice or Sibel Edmonds will ever be called to testify? Are the Democrats afraid of being called soft on national security?
Once you conclude the government has actually been doing data-mining on a TIA scale, and not just faunching for it, a number of things appear in a different light.
For example, there was the strange street theater involving Crazy Curt Weldon and his claims about Able Danger. None of that story ever added up -- not the timeline, not the supposed witnesses, not the stories about the government covering it up -- so it always seemed most plausible to view it as a propaganda effort to convince the American people that Data Mining Is Your Friend.
However, I've been assuming it was on behalf of future data mining, and now it seems more likely to have been an attempt to prepare the public for the eventual revelation of past data-mining.
For those who want to try to make correlations with other events, Weldon was pushing the claims about Able Danger -- though without using that name -- as early as May 2002. There was some sort of mention made to the 9/11 Commission in the spring or early summer of 2004. And Weldon went public on June 27, 2005.
Some of the more prominent data-mining firms -- such as Seisint, Rudy Giuliani's client as of 2002-03 -- might also be worth a fresh examination.
For example, there was the strange street theater involving Crazy Curt Weldon and his claims about Able Danger. None of that story ever added up -- not the timeline, not the supposed witnesses, not the stories about the government covering it up -- so it always seemed most plausible to view it as a propaganda effort to convince the American people that Data Mining Is Your Friend.
However, I've been assuming it was on behalf of future data mining, and now it seems more likely to have been an attempt to prepare the public for the eventual revelation of past data-mining.
For those who want to try to make correlations with other events, Weldon was pushing the claims about Able Danger -- though without using that name -- as early as May 2002. There was some sort of mention made to the 9/11 Commission in the spring or early summer of 2004. And Weldon went public on June 27, 2005.
Some of the more prominent data-mining firms -- such as Seisint, Rudy Giuliani's client as of 2002-03 -- might also be worth a fresh examination.
Tice would mysteriously die of a heart attack or car accident or get "suicided" before he ever got a chance to testify.
He's fortunate he's still alive.
There is a war being waged but it's being wage covertly by the current administration against anyone who disagrees with their "agenda". they needed the database mining so they could dig up any info they may have needed to blackmail opponents into silence/submission.
These folks are going full steamhead against whatever is left of our democratic traditions and the average citizen doesn't have a clue.
Tice mentions the "deep black" ops in which so much is classified. No one is in any position to protest unless they want to get fired. The situation is out of control and will only get worse.
He's fortunate he's still alive.
There is a war being waged but it's being wage covertly by the current administration against anyone who disagrees with their "agenda". they needed the database mining so they could dig up any info they may have needed to blackmail opponents into silence/submission.
These folks are going full steamhead against whatever is left of our democratic traditions and the average citizen doesn't have a clue.
Tice mentions the "deep black" ops in which so much is classified. No one is in any position to protest unless they want to get fired. The situation is out of control and will only get worse.
joe, there is another reason why this was such an incredibly hot potato. as emptywheel points out (see my links to her below), the big bugger in the spying soup was the fact that (a) the data mining process is driven not by evidence or, er oh what's that called? PROBABLE CAUSE. but instead it's driven by some preconceived pattern of data that is then applied like an algorithm to the huge 'mother lode' of data to pull out questionable 'types'. it's not a huge leap at all to see how this just violates all sorts of civil rights. so that's one objection.
the other rather large objection was the fact that proceeding with the program was in DIRECT VIOLATION OF CONGRESS. again, shades of iran-contra.
to my mind, sure it's true it was an election year, adding to the panic, but no matter when that pinless grenade were to become public, everyone involved would be toast, precisely because they were directly confronted by congress with the limits placed on those activities on the front end.
the other rather large objection was the fact that proceeding with the program was in DIRECT VIOLATION OF CONGRESS. again, shades of iran-contra.
to my mind, sure it's true it was an election year, adding to the panic, but no matter when that pinless grenade were to become public, everyone involved would be toast, precisely because they were directly confronted by congress with the limits placed on those activities on the front end.
I'm going to totally disagree with this conclusion at the end of the post: Even the staunchest conservatives in the Senate would not have the belly for such activities.
If the "staunch conservative" is a Rethuglican, they will vote to support the Administration, no matter what they have done. Violate the Constitution? It's OK, they are my party. Commit federal crimes? No problem, they are MY PARTY.
The Rethuglicans in the house and senate will support the Rethuglicans in the White House because IT IS ALL ABOUT PARTY AND NOT ABOUT MORALITY, ETHICS, THE RULE OF LAW OR WHAT IS RIGHT FOR AMERICA -- IT IS ALL ABOUT PARTY!
So, it's up to the whimpcrats (I mean the Democrats) to do something, which means that it's just about over, since they are scared out of their wits and just trying to protect their power and wealth and not caring much about AMERICA or AMERICANS either.
If the "staunch conservative" is a Rethuglican, they will vote to support the Administration, no matter what they have done. Violate the Constitution? It's OK, they are my party. Commit federal crimes? No problem, they are MY PARTY.
The Rethuglicans in the house and senate will support the Rethuglicans in the White House because IT IS ALL ABOUT PARTY AND NOT ABOUT MORALITY, ETHICS, THE RULE OF LAW OR WHAT IS RIGHT FOR AMERICA -- IT IS ALL ABOUT PARTY!
So, it's up to the whimpcrats (I mean the Democrats) to do something, which means that it's just about over, since they are scared out of their wits and just trying to protect their power and wealth and not caring much about AMERICA or AMERICANS either.
"I further believe that the Democratic leadership knows that data mining has been used for political purposes."
Maybe that explains why democrats can't seem to do what the people ask them to... they're being black mailed by the Rethugs who have the records of those chix-with-dicks web sites some of them have been checking out. Ok maybe that's not the full story but its a thought.
Maybe that explains why democrats can't seem to do what the people ask them to... they're being black mailed by the Rethugs who have the records of those chix-with-dicks web sites some of them have been checking out. Ok maybe that's not the full story but its a thought.
Sure Democrats are afraid. They know the Wellstone plane crash was no accident. They know the deadly anthrax attack on the Democratic leadership of the Senate in 2001 which shut down their offices, cut them off from files and correspondence and paralyzed their ability to hold hearings on the Patriot Act was a "government" operation. They know that the former governor of Alabama is in prison for 7 1/2 years for a bribery where he never received any money or benefit and where the supposed briber never benefitted either. Rove's pals pulled off that one. You better believe it's scary.
It truly is Bush's blackmail gift to the people who elected or appointed him, to data mine and make assumptions. All of this in lieu of a real program to weed out real terrorists. It makes me want to puke
I wonder whether the many instances of data theft (credit info, public records, etc. from stolen computers and hacked systems) being reported across the nation (and the globe) every week is connected in some way with BushCo's illegal eavesdropping.
Wayne Madsen claims that this data theft is an attempt to populate the outlawed Total Information Awareness database proposed by former admiral and convicted felon Poindexter, and that claim seems cedible to me, but with little evidence yet to support it other than Madsen's claimed NSA "inside" source. Could these data thefts be secretly part of the Bush administration's illegal spying effort, too? Perhaps the "deep black" activities that Tice alludes to?
Wayne Madsen claims that this data theft is an attempt to populate the outlawed Total Information Awareness database proposed by former admiral and convicted felon Poindexter, and that claim seems cedible to me, but with little evidence yet to support it other than Madsen's claimed NSA "inside" source. Could these data thefts be secretly part of the Bush administration's illegal spying effort, too? Perhaps the "deep black" activities that Tice alludes to?
I converted a bunch of widely scattered pdfs to web pages with links a while back, all relating to these issues.
The collection is here:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/nsa.html
The downloadable collection is here:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/012006_HouseDemJudBriefing.zip
EFF v. ATT Complaint (initial filing):
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/att-complaint.html
ACLU v. NSA :
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/aclu-nsa-complaint.html
- dcm
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The collection is here:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/nsa.html
The downloadable collection is here:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/012006_HouseDemJudBriefing.zip
EFF v. ATT Complaint (initial filing):
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/att-complaint.html
ACLU v. NSA :
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/aclu-nsa-complaint.html
- dcm
