Dec 25 NSA releases 12 years of damaging oversight reports on Christmas Eve By Travis Daub Compelled by an ACLU FOIA request, the agency published twelve years of quarterly reports that were created for the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board between 2001 and mid 2013. The reports are heavily redacted, but include details of intentional and unintentional… Continue reading
Nov 20 NSA dissenters warned of possible privacy backlash in 2009 By Ken Dilanian, Associated Press Dissenters within the National Security Agency, led by a senior agency executive, warned in 2009 that the program to secretly collect American phone records wasn't providing enough intelligence to justify the backlash it would cause if revealed, current and former… Continue reading
Nov 19 Watch As bill to rein in phone data collection fails, what's next for NSA reform? By PBS News Hour A bill to limit the National Security Agency's domestic metadata collection effectively died on the Senate floor. The USA Freedom Act would have forced the NSA to get court orders for specific data from telecom companies. Gwen Ifill gets reaction… Continue watching
Nov 04 Federal appeals court struggles on NSA surveillance case By Pete Yost, Associated Press Three federal appeals court judges struggle to decide if National Security Agency's phone data surveillance program is a necessary intelligence-gathering tool or an intrusion of privacy. Continue reading
Oct 13 Watch Are the costs of security at 'any price' too high? By PBS News Hour The ongoing war on terror has driven a dramatic rise in spending in the name of security. In his new book, “Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War,” New York Times investigative journalist James Risen examines the cost --… Continue watching
Sep 12 U.S. threatened Yahoo with daily fine if it did not comply with data handover By Pete Yost, Associated Press WASHINGTON — Yahoo's free email service could have cost the company an extra quarter of a million dollars a day. The government called for the huge fine in 2008 if Yahoo didn't go along with an expansion of U.S. surveillance… Continue reading
Aug 25 Google-like NSA search engine implemented to learn about civilians By Charles Pulliam-Moore Over 1,000 data analysts at 23 U.S. governmental agencies, including the DEA, FBI, and CIA, were given access to ICREACH -- a Google-like search engine populated with hundreds of millions of records detailing e-mails, phone calls, instant messages, and phone… Continue reading
Jul 29 U.S. accuses Russia of violating arms control treaty by testing cruise missile By Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press WASHINGTON — In an escalation of tensions, the Obama administration accused Russia on Monday of conducting tests in violation of a 1987 nuclear missile treaty, calling the breach "a very serious matter" and going public with allegations that have simmered… Continue reading
Jul 14 U.S. reputation survives spying revelations, poll finds By Matthew Pennington, Associated Press WASHINGTON — Widespread global opposition to U.S. electronic surveillance since the revelations by onetime National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has not badly tarnished the overall image of the United States, and it remains far more popular around the world… Continue reading
Jul 02 Watch News Wrap: Israeli police clash with Palestinians over murder of teenager By PBS News Hour In our news wrap Wednesday, Israeli police and Palestinian youths fought in the streets of Jerusalem after the death overnight of a Palestinian teenager. There was speculation that the killing was revenge for the deaths of three Israeli youths. Also,… Continue watching