Senators To Investigate NSA Role In GCHQ 'Optic Nerve' Webcam Spying - Guardian

[WillyT]

Senators to investigate NSA role in GCHQ 'Optic Nerve' webcam spying
Three senators condemn UK spy agency’s ‘breathtaking lack of respect’ over interception of Yahoo users’ webcam images
Spencer Ackerman in Washington
theguardian.com, Friday 28 February 2014 12.14 EST


US navy admiral Cecil Haney, left, and NSA director Keith Alexander testify before the Senate on Thursday. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters

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Reacting to the Guardian’s revelation on Thursday that UK surveillance agency GCHQ swept up millions of Yahoo users’ webcam chats, senators Ron Wyden, Mark Udall and Martin Heinrich said in a joint statement that “any involvement of US agencies in the alleged activities reported today will need to be closely scrutinized”.

The senators described the interception as a “breathtaking lack of respect for privacy and civil liberties”.

On Friday, the Internet Association – a trade body representing internet giants including Google, Amazon, eBay, Netflix, AOL and Twitter – joined the chorus of condemnation, issuing a statement expressing alarm at the latest GCHQ revelations, and calling for reform.

According to documents provided to the Guardian by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the GCHQ program codenamed Optic Nerve fed screengrabs of webcam chats and associated metadata into NSA tools such as Xkeyscore.

NSA research, the documents indicate, also contributed to the creation of Optic Nerve, which attempted to use facial recognition technology to identify intelligence targets, particularly those using multiple anonymous internet IDs.

Neither NSA nor GCHQ addressed the Guardian’s questions about US access to the images themselves. Outgoing NSA director Keith Alexander walked away from a reporter on Thursday who asked the army four-star general about the NSA’s role in Optic Nerve.

Wyden, Udall and Heinrich are all members of the Senate intelligence committee. They said they were “extremely troubled” by Optic Nerve and planned to investigate it during the committee’s announced omnibus inquiry into the scope of US surveillance activities revealed over the nine months since the Guardian and other news outlets began reporting the Snowden disclosures.

“We are extremely troubled by today’s press report...

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More: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/28/nsa-gchq-webcam-spy-program-senate-investigation

[rgbecker]

1. Apparently Senate Intelligence Committee's only source of info about US intelligence is

Ed Snowden and the foreign press.

Turns my stomach.

[WillyT]

2. Great Point !!!

[RC]

3. That should put a knot in all of ours.

[grasswire]

4. Is that it?

OR is it that they know, but may not talk about it unless it breaks in the news. Then they can go after it.

Stupid system, that.

[Aerows]

7. They can't reveal things that they know

because they are top secret, until they get leaked to the press. Then the head of the NSA lies about it before Congress and the American people, something new comes out that proves that he lied, and then Congress does nothing about it. Because national security.

Like lying to Congress isn't an issue of national security.

[WillyT]

5. Kick !!!

[Aerows]

6. Alexander lied before Congress before

So did Clapper. Just a matter of time until whatever he says today is revealed to also be a lie. In fact, I expect it.