In the same video, Debra Alfarone (WUSA9) explains, "In one day, the NSA collected more than 400,000 e-mail address books from Yahoo [444,743], more than 100,000 from Hotmail [105,069], more than 80,000 from Facebook [82,857], almost 34,000 from Gmail [33,697] and 20,000-plus from other sources [22881]."
Yes, another scandal. Another time when American learn they've been lied to by President Barack Obama yet again. Another day where the Bill of Rights gets battered by an out of control executive branch. The latest NSA scandal emerges, again thanks to the efforts of whistle-blower Ed Snowden. And only the BBC (so far) has the courage to point out this scandal again contradicts what Barack has told the American people:
Because American web communications can flow outside of the country, the contact lists of US citizens also cross the international collection points, known as Sigads (Signals Intelligence Activity Designators).
This is particularly significant because President Obama has previously said that US citizens were not targeted by the surveillance, which he said struck "the right balance" between security and privacy.
Everyone's pretty much working from last night's Washington Post report by Barton Gellman, Ashkan Soltani and Julie Tate which notes:
The picture can also be misleading, creating false “associations” with ex-spouses or people with whom an account holder has had no contact in many years.
The NSA has not been authorized by Congress or the special intelligence court that oversees foreign surveillance to collect contact lists in bulk, and senior intelligence officials said it would be illegal to do so from facilities in the United States. The agency avoids the restrictions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by intercepting contact lists from access points “all over the world,” one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the classified program. “None of those are on U.S. territory.”
Brandon, I saw your e-mail. We'll note what you found in today's snapshot since it's regarding in yesterday's. I'm already several e-mail pages past yours so I'll just note the reply here so you don't wonder if your e-mail has been read yet or not.
We'll close with this from David Swanson's "If Hitler Didn't Exist, The Pentagon Would Have To Invent Him" (War Is A Crime):
When video of the October 14th edition of Thom Hartmann's TV show appears online (here) it will include him asking me to justify not attacking Hitler. Thom has asked me this repeatedly during multiple appearances on his show, each time a little differently, and each time provocatively. He's right to ask it, and he's been right in some of the answers he's helped provide in the asking.
Without Hitler, the U.S. military would collapse.
For 68 years, wars on poor countries have been justified by the pretended discovery of Hitler's reincarnation. Each time it has turned out to be a false alarm. Every post-WWII war looks disastrous or at least dubious in retrospect to most people. And yet, the justification of the next war is always ready to hand, because the real, original Hitler remains alive in our memories, and he just might come back -- who's to say?
Actually, I think anyone vaguely aware of basic facts about the current world ought to be able to say that Hitler is gone for good.
How do I justify not going to war with Hitler, beyond explaining that Assad isn't Hitler, Gadaffi isn't Hitler, Hussein isn't Hitler, and so on?
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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