NSA director admits agency trawls Twitter/Facebook but insists they are NOT building personal files-

[Indi Guy]

Source: Daily Mail


[font size="4"]NSA director admits agency trawls Twitter and Facebook… but insists they are NOT building personal files on Americans...[/font]

The director of the National Security Agency admitted today that the agency collects data from social networks and other private databases to hunt terror suspects but is not using the information to build dossiers, or personal files, on Americans.

NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander testified during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday that not all social network searches are authorized by a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, but the agency's actions are proper and audited internally.

Alexander called a recent New York Times report on the searches 'inaccurate and wrong.' 'We don't have the Facebook and other stuff on those people here in the US. It would have to come from the foreign side,' he said.

Asked whether they would continue to investigate social networks if the suspect turned out to be an American, Alexander said that the investigation would be handed over to the FBI. However, General Alexander did admit during the hearing that the National Security Agency once tested whether it could track Americans' cellphone locations, but he says the NSA does not use that capability...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2442080/NSA-director-Gen-Keith-Alexander-admits-agency-trawls-Twitter-Facebook.html

[Mnemosyne]

1. Too much power for one person, much less for a liar. nt

[Indi Guy]

21. Well, this isn't the first time he's made such denials...

[font size="4"]NSA Chief Tells Hackers His Agency Doesn’t Create Dossiers on All Americans...


07.27.12[/font]

LAS VEGAS — NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander, appearing for the first time at the DefCon hacker conference, told the crowd of hackers and security professionals that his agency “absolutely” does not maintain files on Americans.

Responding to a question from DefCon founder Jeff Moss asking “does the NSA really keep a file on everyone?,” Alexander replied, “No, we don’t. Absolutely no. And anybody who would tell you that we’re keeping files or dossiers on the American people knows that’s not true.”

Alexander went on to say that the NSA’s job was foreign intelligence, not domestic and that the agency is constantly monitored in everything it does.

“We get oversight by Congress, both intel committees and their congressional members and their staffs,” he continued, “so everything we do is auditable by them, by the FISA court … and by the administration. And everything we do is accountable to them…. We are overseen by everybody. And I will tell you that those who would want to weave the story that we have millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people is absolutely false.”...

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/nsa-chief-denies-dossiers

[Mnemosyne]

25. The guy shouldn't be in charge of a men's room, much less where he landed. nt

[leveymg]

2. No, they don't keep dossier files or file cabinets,anymore. Everyone gets scored,and that's just a

matter of running the data through an algorithm if one becomes interesting to NSA or another alphabet agency.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. Do you trust this man

to tell the truth?

[rhett o rick]

5. I dont trust any Republican. nm

[Hubert Flottz]

23. I don't either.

Not a single one, or a married one either!

[Pholus]

4. Same old word games.

Ho, hum. Of course there no are "personal files" or "dossiers" being kept! They only save "happy fun citizen safety profiles" containing pretty much every datum that could be hoovered.

Besides they have to "state" a foreign intelligence connection like "ordered French fries last night" so that the international angle is covered.

[Indi Guy]

22. Oh my!..

I called in a Turkey & Swiss on Jewish rye for lunch. Oman, I'm toast.

[rhett o rick]

6. Where are the DU posters that were soooo adamant that the NSA wasnt spying on Americans. nm

[Hydra]

11. I asked the same thing this morning!

I'm sure they'd say this is public records, but I'm seeing a pattern here- they are sucking up every byte of the internet and sorting/compiling and profiling all of us.

Hi Agent Mike!

[rhett o rick]

13. What bothers me is that they arent interested in finding out the truth.

Which is not appropriate for "politically liberal" people.

[Hydra]

14. They aren't politically liberal

And as the country lurches to the right, they keep lurching with it.

I keep standing still and I'm considered to be lurching towards Loonsville.

I keep wondering how that works?

[rhett o rick]

19. I agree. It's like bazarro world. Conservative Democrats claiming to be liberals.

You are not liberal if you support the NSA, the TPP, fracking, nuclear power, the XL Pipeline, indefinite detention, and you are not liberal if you attack the left. Duh!

[Indi Guy]

24. ...conspicuously absent I'd say.

Maybe some of them are beginning to wise up.

[Nihil]

27. No, they're just hoping that the thread will sink out of sight ...

... so that's a good reason to give it a K&R to keep it visible!

[Indi Guy]

28. Well...

...I can't rec my own thread; but we can call this a kick

[kestrel91316]

7. Right........ok, then WTF ARE you doing there????

Posting on Grumpy Cat's timeline??????

[KG]

8. well, if the NSA director says it, that's good enough for me!

[On the Road]

9. Of Course They Don't Keep Individual Files

The only reason people think that is that it is being insinuated without being directly said.

The aggregate picture of NSA presented on DU is much more dishonest and inaccurate than the one presented by NSA itself to Congress.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Why keep individual files when you can hoover up everything in to a giant data retaining system?

Furthermore if the NSA is so warm, fuzzy and misunderstood by D.U. why is this such an important secret?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2442080/NSA-director-Gen-Keith-Alexander-admits-agency-trawls-Twitter-Facebook.html


NSA officials declined to say how many Americans have been caught up in the effort, including people involved in no wrongdoing, the Times reported.

[BadgerKid]

15. Why reinvent the wheel?

I though those security letters could be used to obtain pre-built profiles?

[Uncle Joe]

16. And apparently a whole lot more.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2442080/NSA-director-Gen-Keith-Alexander-admits-agency-trawls-Twitter-Facebook.html


NSA officials declined to say how many Americans have been caught up in the effort, including people involved in no wrongdoing, the Times reported.

[rhett o rick]

20. It all hinges on the definition of "keep". nm

[blkmusclmachine]

12. NSA liars lie.

[winter is coming]

17. Suuuuure. n/t

[NoodleyAppendage]

18. All Hail Overlord General Keith Alexander!

It's clear from what I've seen publicly over the past few months that this guy is the REAL seat of power in America. Hello fascism...you were probably always there, but now you have a name.

[gopiscrap]

26. Bullshit, the guy's a motherfucking liar.