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<div class="entry-date"><font size="-1">[And concerns about <font
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govt</font></font></font>) in mu<font size="-1">ltistakeholder
processes i<font size="-1">s not a problem? Af<font
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<h1><a
href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/06/10/2133201/blarney-online-surveillance/">The
Massive Online Surveillance Program No One Is Talking About</a></h1>
<p class="byline">
By <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/author/apeterson/">Andrea
Peterson</a> on Jun 10, 2013 at 8:25 pm</p>
<div id="attachment_2133421" class="wp-caption alignright"
style="width: 310px"><a
href="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/new-prism-slide-0011.jpg"><img
src="cid:part3.02070208.07010805@gmail.com" alt=""
title="new prism slide" class="size-medium
wp-image-2133421" width="300" height="225"></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">Slide referencing BLARNEY as an
upstream data collection option (Credit: The Guardian)</p>
</div>
Much of the initial coverage of last week’s leaks about the
National Security Agency (NSA) online snooping focused on a
content gathering program called PRISM. But buried in the
Washington Post’s original coverage were a few tantalizing
details about another program code-named BLARNEY that bears a
striking resemblance to the one alleged in a prominent court
case over the existence of a dragnet online surveillance
program.
<p>The details of the BLARNEY program revealed so far appear to
closely match the testimony and documents of former AT&T
employee and whistleblower Mark Klein. Klein worked at
AT&T for twenty-two years, retiring in 2004. During that
time, he has <a href="https://www.eff.org/node/55051">testified</a>
he witnessed the installation of a fiber-optic splitting
device in the San Francisco office where he worked, with a
copy of all data being <a
href="https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/att/presskit/ATT_onepager.pdf">diverted</a>
to a room controlled by the NSA. In that room was “powerful
computer equipment connecting to separate networks” and with
the capability to “analyze communications at high speed.” As
part of his testimony, he also provided AT&T documents
that included diagrams of the splitter technology used. </p>
<p>In a conversation with ThinkProgress, Cindy Cohn, Legal
Director with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which
is litigating the <em>Jewel v. NSA</em> case, agreed BLARNEY
“appears to be what we’ve been saying, and what Mark Klein’s
evidence shows.” </p>
<p>According the <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_print.html">Washington
Post</a>, BLARNEY gathers up metadata from choke points
along the backbone of the Internet as part of “an ongoing
collection program that leverages IC [intelligence community]
and commercial partnerships to gain access and exploit foreign
intelligence obtained from global networks.” A <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-prism-server-collection-facebook-google">slide</a>
later revealed by The Guardian lists the program as an
upstream option for data collection, which relies on sucking
up information “on fiber cables and infrastructure as it flows
past.” From those descriptions, it sounds somewhat analogous
to an internet version of the broad telephone metadata
collection authorized in the <a
href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/06/06/2111741/what-you-should-know-about-the-governments-massive-domestic-surveillance-program/">Verizon</a>
order revealed last week, which some electronic privacy
advocates believes <a
href="http://epic.org/FISC-NSA-domestic-surveillance.pdf">oversteps
the authority</a> of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA) courts. </p>
<p>Klein’s testimony and documents form the basis of the ongoing
<a href="https://www.eff.org/cases/jewel"><em>Jewel v. NSA</em>
</a>court case originally filed in 2008, which <a
href="https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/jewel/jewel.complaint.pdf">alleges</a>
“an illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet
communications surveillance conducted by the National Security
Agency (the ‘N.S.A.’) and other defendants in concert with
major telecommunications companies.” A similar case against
the telecommunications company, <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepting_vs._AT%26T#cite_note-eff-1">Hepting
v. AT&T</a>, was dismissed following the passage of
retroactive immunity for telecom companies in the 2008 renewal
of the FISA.</p>
<p>Three former NSA intelligence analysts, William E. Binney,
Thomas A. Drake and J. Kirk Wiebe have <a
href="https://www.eff.org/press/releases/three-nsa-whistleblowers-back-effs-lawsuit-over-governments-massive-spying-program">also
backed the <em>Jewel</em> case</a>, saying the NSA either
has, or is in the process of obtaining, the ability to seize
and store most electronic communications passing through its
U.S. intercept centers like “secret room” described by Klein.</p>
<p>The Obama administration moved to dismiss the <em>Jewel </em>case
in 2009, invoking the “state secrets” privilege and saying
that it was immune from the suit. It was instead dismissed on
standing grounds, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that it could proceed to district court in December
2011. In September 2012 the government again renewed it’s
state secret argument. Last Friday the government <a
href="http://ia700508.us.archive.org/10/items/gov.uscourts.cand.207206/gov.uscourts.cand.207206.142.0.pdf">responded
to the NSA leaks</a> by requesting delay on any decisions on
pending motions until it can file a new status report taking
newly public information into account. </p>
<br>
<br>
June 13, 2013
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<div class="subheadlinestyle">In Search of Real Liberty</div>
<h1 class="article-title">The NSA and the Infrastructure of the
Surveillance State</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by ERIC DRAITSER</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p>It has long been known that cyberspace is one of the main
battlegrounds in the 21<sup>st</sup> century. However, last
week’s shocking revelations about the NSA’s surveillance and
data-gathering activities illustrate the extent to which US
intelligence seeks “full-spectrum dominance” in cyberspace.</p>
<p>Although there have been myriad articles in recent days about
the various aspects of the NSA surveillance story, none seem
to focus on the fact that US intelligence effectively has
access to all data transmitted, not just that on Verizon or
Google servers. Essentially, the intelligence community – a
convenient euphemism for that complex that includes private
contractors and government agencies – acts much like a filter,
sifting and straining all information through its various
systems. However, it is important to realize that the system
that the government has established is an all-encompassing
one, including access to data in company servers in addition
to access to the cable and fiber-optic infrastructure that
actually transmits the data.</p>
<p>On the one hand, there is the PRISM system which, as the
Washington Post <a
href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-06/news/39784046_1_prism-nsa-u-s-servers"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://articles.washingtonpost.com']);">reported</a>,
allows “The National Security Agency and the FBI [to tap]
directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S.
internet companies, extracting audio and video chats,
photographs, emails, documents, and connection logs.” Aside
from being a blatant violation of the 4<sup>th</sup> Amendment
of the US Constitution, Article 8 of the European Convention
on Human Rights, and countless other international standards,
the program has been vigorously defended by Obama
Administration officials who, like their predecessors in the
Bush Administration, invoke the always convenient “National
Security” trump card to justify their illegal actions.</p>
<p>The PRISM system should be understood as a collusion between
the NSA and major internet companies against the interests of
ordinary Americans. Because the PRISM system is justified as
being used solely to “target and track foreign targets,”
somehow American citizens are supposed to feel at ease. It is
important to note that PRISM makes use of obviously illegal
tactics which “circumvent formal legal processes…to seek
personal material such as emails, photos and videos.” This is
the crux of the PRISM aspect of this scandal: it is blatantly
illegal.</p>
<p>If PRISM were the only system being used by the government
agencies, then the story would not be nearly as frightening as
it is. Instead, we must also examine the so-called BLARNEY
system which “Gathers up metadata from choke points along the
backbone of the internet as part of an ongoing collection
program the leverages IC (intelligence community) and
commercial partnerships to gain access and exploit foreign
intelligence obtained from global networks.” This system
allows the NSA (and likely other government agencies) to
control the flow of all information transmitted via
fiber-optic cables.</p>
<p>As the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in its <a
href="https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/att/presskit/ATT_onepager.pdf"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','download','http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/att/presskit/ATT_onepager.pdf']);">summary</a>
of the testimonies of former AT&T technician Mark Klein
and former Senior Advisor for Internet Technology at the FCC
Scott Marcus, “Using a device called a ‘splitter’ a complete
copy of the internet traffic that AT&T receives…is
diverted onto a separate fiber-optic cable which is connected
to a room which is controlled by the NSA.” Therefore, unlike
PRISM, which the government and its apologists attempt to
justify as being used to target key individuals, BLARNEY has
no such capacity. Rather, it is designed solely to collect
data, all internet data, to be used and likely stored.</p>
<p>Naturally, the revelations about the BLARNEY system shed
light on the possible motivations of the NSA for the
construction of enormous data storage facilities such as the
Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah. As reported in <a
href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.wired.com']);">Wired</a>
magazine:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior
intelligence official who until recently was involved with
the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another
important and far more secret role that until now has gone
unrevealed… According to another top official also involved
with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough
several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break,
unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only
governments around the world but also many average computer
users in the US. The upshot, according to this official:
“Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a
target.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This facility, along with others that likely exist but remain
secret, is an integral part of the surveillance state system.
It is not enough to simply capture all the communications
data, it must be stored and readily available. What the NSA
primarily, and other agencies secondarily, are doing is
developing a cyber-infrastructure that both incorporates, and
is independent of, internet companies and service providers.
While relying on corporations’ for access to data and
networks, the NSA simultaneously has developed a parallel
structure for information gathering and storage that is not
only outside the control of private companies, it is outside
the law.</p>
<p>Of course, there are many political and economic factors that
play into this issue. The legal framework developed in the
post-9/11 era including draconian legislation such as the
PATRIOT Act, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),
and many others, laid the foundation for the systemic and
systematic stripping away of civil liberties and human rights.
The technical infrastructure has been steadily evolving since
9/11 as technology continues to improve, providing the
intelligence agencies with ever more tools for surveillance
and intelligence gathering. The continued, unrestrained
neoliberal policy of privatization has created a complex
network of companies, contractors, and subcontractors, usually
working independently of each other, all in the service of the
security state. Finally, the political landscape in the United
States has so thoroughly devolved that elected officials are
more concerned about stopping the whistleblowers and leakers,
than about addressing America’s continued descent into a
fascist police state.</p>
<p>Despite all of this, Americans continue to be told that this
is the “sweet land of liberty”. We may be able to buy Nike
sneakers and flat screen TVs, but that’s not liberty. We may
be able to tweet with our iPhones and download our favorite
movies, but that’s not liberty either. Rather, as George
Orwell famously wrote, “If liberty means anything at all, it
means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
So yes, tell the people what they don’t want to hear. Just
know this…someone will be listening.</p>
<p><i><strong>Eric Draitser</strong> is the founder of <a
href="http://www.StopImperialism.com"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.StopImperialism.com']);">StopImperialism.com</a>.
He is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York
City. You can reach him at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ericdraitser@gmail.com">ericdraitser@gmail.com</a>.</i></p>
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