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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRemember whistleblower Thomas Tamm?
Why isn't Thomas Tamm ever mentioned? He exposed Stellar Wind. Here is a WaPo report from a couple of days ago trying to put NSA surveillance into perspective.
STELLARWIND was succeeded by four major lines of intelligence collection in the territorial United States, together capable of spanning the full range of modern telecommunications, according to the interviews and documents.
<...>
Two of the four collection programs, one each for telephony and the Internet, process trillions of metadata records for storage and analysis in systems called MAINWAY and MARINA, respectively. Metadata includes highly revealing information about the times, places, devices and participants in electronic communication, but not its contents. The bulk collection of telephone call records from Verizon Business Services, disclosed this month by the British newspaper the Guardian, is one source of raw intelligence for MAINWAY.
The other two types of collection, which operate on a much smaller scale, are aimed at content. One of them intercepts telephone calls and routes the spoken words to a system called NUCLEON.
For Internet content, the most important source collection is the PRISM project reported on June 6 by The Washington Post and the Guardian. It draws from data held by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other Silicon Valley giants, collectively the richest depositories of personal information in history.
- more -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-surveillance-architecture-includes-collection-of-revealing-internet-phone-metadata/2013/06/15/e9bf004a-d511-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html?hpid=z1
<...>
Two of the four collection programs, one each for telephony and the Internet, process trillions of metadata records for storage and analysis in systems called MAINWAY and MARINA, respectively. Metadata includes highly revealing information about the times, places, devices and participants in electronic communication, but not its contents. The bulk collection of telephone call records from Verizon Business Services, disclosed this month by the British newspaper the Guardian, is one source of raw intelligence for MAINWAY.
The other two types of collection, which operate on a much smaller scale, are aimed at content. One of them intercepts telephone calls and routes the spoken words to a system called NUCLEON.
For Internet content, the most important source collection is the PRISM project reported on June 6 by The Washington Post and the Guardian. It draws from data held by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other Silicon Valley giants, collectively the richest depositories of personal information in history.
- more -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-surveillance-architecture-includes-collection-of-revealing-internet-phone-metadata/2013/06/15/e9bf004a-d511-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html?hpid=z1
Of course, the above story is part of the media's clever attempt to conflate Bush's illegal wiretapping with Obama's policies.
Stellar Wind was part of Bush's illegal wiretapping program.
The program was in fact a wide range of covert surveillance activities authorized by President Bush in the aftermath of 9/11. At that time, White House officials, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, had become convinced that FISA court procedures were too cumbersome and time-consuming to permit U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies to quickly identify possible Qaeda terrorists inside the country. (Cheney's chief counsel, David Addington, referred to the FISA court in one meeting as that "obnoxious court," according to former assistant attorney general Jack Goldsmith.) Under a series of secret orders, Bush authorized the NSA for the first time to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mails between the United States and a foreign country without any court review. The code name for the NSA collection activitiesunknown to all but a tiny number of officials at the White House and in the U.S. intelligence communitywas "Stellar Wind."
http://web.archive.org/web/20081216011008/http://www.newsweek.com/id/174601/output/print
http://web.archive.org/web/20081216011008/http://www.newsweek.com/id/174601/output/print
Tamm never became the story, and I guess that's why he's rarely mentioned.
No charges for man who leaked surveillance program
WASHINGTON The Justice Department has dropped its investigation into a former department attorney who tipped off the media about the Bush administrations warrantless eavesdropping program.
The department informed Thomas Tamms attorneys that he will not be prosecuted for the leak that then-President George W. Bush called a breach of national security.
Tamm has said he called The New York Times about the program because it didnt smell right and he thought the public had a right to know.
The Times won the Pulitzer Prize for its 2005 story exposing the program designed to catch terrorists by eavesdropping on international phone calls and emails of U.S. residents without court warrants.
<...>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/no-charges-for-man-who-leaked-surveillance-program/2011/04/26/AFt9o6rE_story.html
WASHINGTON The Justice Department has dropped its investigation into a former department attorney who tipped off the media about the Bush administrations warrantless eavesdropping program.
The department informed Thomas Tamms attorneys that he will not be prosecuted for the leak that then-President George W. Bush called a breach of national security.
Tamm has said he called The New York Times about the program because it didnt smell right and he thought the public had a right to know.
The Times won the Pulitzer Prize for its 2005 story exposing the program designed to catch terrorists by eavesdropping on international phone calls and emails of U.S. residents without court warrants.
<...>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/no-charges-for-man-who-leaked-surveillance-program/2011/04/26/AFt9o6rE_story.html
Another misleading media report implies that warrantless wiretapping is legal.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023026724
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Remember whistleblower Thomas Tamm? (Original Post)
ProSense
Jun 2013
OP
H2O Man
(73,559 posts)1. Thank you.
Recommended.
cali
(114,904 posts)2. bwahahahahahaha.
if one cutsie emoticon is good, aren't two better?
your are a tireless defender of all things administration. as long as it's a dem admin.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)3. Your response
bwahahahahahaha.
if one cutsie emoticon is good, aren't two better?
your are a tireless defender of all things administration. as long as it's a dem admin.
if one cutsie emoticon is good, aren't two better?
your are a tireless defender of all things administration. as long as it's a dem admin.
...to the OP makes no sense, but it does present a great opportunity
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=152034&sub=trans
ProSense
(116,464 posts)4. Kick! n/t
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)5. K & R
ProSense
(116,464 posts)6. Kick! n/t
think
(11,641 posts)7. Thomas Tamm: “I do think it was courageous” for Snowden to become a fellow NSA whistleblower"
What happens to whistleblowers?
By DAVID NATHER | 6/13/13 2:33 PM EDT Updated: 6/14/13 10:33 AM EDT
~Snip~
I do think it was courageous for Snowden to become a fellow NSA whistleblower, said Tamm. Clearly, his intent was not to help any of our enemies just as Tamm is convinced he didnt help the nations enemies by drawing attention to the surveillance troubles he saw.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/what-happens-to-whistleblowers-92744.html#ixzz2YrQU3yVP
By DAVID NATHER | 6/13/13 2:33 PM EDT Updated: 6/14/13 10:33 AM EDT
~Snip~
I do think it was courageous for Snowden to become a fellow NSA whistleblower, said Tamm. Clearly, his intent was not to help any of our enemies just as Tamm is convinced he didnt help the nations enemies by drawing attention to the surveillance troubles he saw.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/what-happens-to-whistleblowers-92744.html#ixzz2YrQU3yVP