United States of Spying

[Russell]

US officials fume over Russia granting asylum to Snowden

The White House and U.S. lawmakers fumed Thursday after NSA leaker Edward Snowden entered Russia on temporary refugee status, a decision that threw into question the future of U.S.-Russia ties.

"If these reports are accurate, Americans in Washington should consider this a game changer in our relationship with Russia," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement, calling Russia's decision "provocative" and "a sign of Vladimir Putin's clear lack of respect for President Obama."

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, asked at the daily briefing about the move, said it "undermines" law enforcement cooperation between the U.S. and Russia and reiterated the call for him to be returned to the U.S.

"We are extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step," Carney said. Carney said the White House is re-evaluating whether a planned fall summit at the G-20 in St. Petersburg with President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin should still occur. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., going further, suggested the G-20 summit be moved entirely over this incident.

A U.S. official also told Fox News that scheduled talks with Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and their Russian counterparts, are now "up in the air."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the decision by Russia a "slap in the face of all Americans." Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, D-N.J., called the development a "setback to U.S.-Russia relations."

Earlier Thursday, Snowden's representatives said he had been issued papers that allowed him to leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he was stuck since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. He apparently has been given a one-year temporary asylum.

More

[Coligny]

Nothing like a quick restart of the coldwar with the former bad guys as the new good guys...

Pretty sure Uwe Boll could make a good movie adaptation...

[Russell]

Exclusive: NSA pays £100m in secret funding for GCHQ

The US government has paid at least £100m to the UK spy agency GCHQ over the last three years to secure access to and influence over Britain's intelligence gathering programmes.

The top secret payments are set out in documents which make clear that the Americans expect a return on the investment, and that GCHQ has to work hard to meet their demands. "GCHQ must pull its weight and be seen to pull its weight," a GCHQ strategy briefing said.

The funding underlines the closeness of the relationship between GCHQ and its US equivalent, the National Security Agency. But it will raise fears about the hold Washington has over the UK's biggest and most important intelligence agency, and whether Britain's dependency on the NSA has become too great.

In one revealing document from 2010, GCHQ acknowledged that the US had "raised a number of issues with regards to meeting NSA's minimum expectations". It said GCHQ "still remains short of the full NSA ask".

Ministers have denied that GCHQ does the NSA's "dirty work", but in the documents GCHQ describes Britain's surveillance laws and regulatory regime as a "selling point" for the Americans.

The papers are the latest to emerge from the cache leaked by the American whistleblower Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who has railed at the reach of the US and UK intelligence agencies.

Snowden warned about the relationship between the NSA and GCHQ, saying the organisations have been jointly responsible for developing techniques that allow the mass harvesting and analysis of internet traffic. "It's not just a US problem," he said. "They are worse than the US."

As well as the payments, the documents seen by the Guardian reveal:

• GCHQ is pouring money into efforts to gather personal information from mobile phones and apps, and has said it wants to be able to "exploit any phone, anywhere, any time".

• Some GCHQ staff working on one sensitive programme expressed concern about "the morality and ethics of their operational work, particularly given the level of deception involved".

• The amount of personal data available to GCHQ from internet and mobile traffic has increased by 7,000% in the past five years – but 60% of all Britain's refined intelligence still appears to come from the NSA.

• GCHQ blames China and Russia for the vast majority of cyber-attacks against the UK and is now working with the NSA to provide the British and US militaries with a cyberwarfare capability.

[...]

When GCHQ does supply the US with valuable intelligence, the agency boasts about it. In one review, GCHQ boasted that it had supplied "unique contributions" to the NSA during its investigation of the American citizen responsible for an attempted car bomb attack in Times Square, New York City, in 2010.

No other detail is provided – but it raises the possibility that GCHQ might have been spying on an American living in the US. The NSA is prohibited from doing this by US law.

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[Coligny]

but it raises the possibility that GCHQ might have been spying on an American living in the US. The NSA is prohibited from doing this by US law.

That party trick is older than the dinosaurs...

What's surprising is that they even cared or knew aboot that whole 'law' stuff...

[matsuki]

Is it just me or are all the headlines of "US officials fuming" and "US Anger" inflating the situation/reaction when others simply say "US Disappointed" ....as it's an actual quote?

LOL, Snowden asylum? He'll be dead before that period it up...in mother Russia, asylum term finishes yoooo!

[Russell]

Seeking to justify NSA, US issues fake terror alert

The United States intercepted electronic communications this week among senior operatives of Al Qaeda, in which the terrorists discussed attacks against American interests in the Middle East and North Africa, American officials said Friday.

The intercepts and a subsequent analysis of them by American intelligence agencies prompted the United States to issue an unusual global travel alert to American citizens on Friday, warning of the potential for terrorist attacks by operatives of Al Qaeda and their associates beginning Sunday through the end of August.

The bulletin to travelers and expatriates, issued by the State Department, came less than a day after the department announced that it was closing nearly two dozen American diplomatic missions in the Middle East and North Africa, including facilities in Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Britain said Friday that it would close its embassy in Yemen on Monday and Tuesday because of “increased security concerns.”

It is unusual for the United States to come across discussions among senior Qaeda operatives about operational planning — through informants, intercepted e-mails or eavesdropping on cellphone calls. So when the high-level intercepts were collected and analyzed this week, senior officials at the C.I.A., State Department and White House immediately seized on their significance. Members of Congress have been provided classified briefings on the matter, officials said Friday.

“This was a lot more than the usual chatter,” said one senior American official who had been briefed on the information but would not provide details. Spokesmen for the State Department and the C.I.A. also declined to comment on the intercepts.

The importance of the intercepts was underscored by a speech that the Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, posted on jihadist forums on Tuesday. In his address, Mr. Zawahri called for attacks on American interests in response to its military actions in the Muslim world and American drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors statements by jihadists.

Security analysts said Friday that in the aftermath of the furor over the Obama administration’s handling of the attack last year on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, the State Department is now more likely to publicize threat warnings when deemed credible, both to alert the public and to help deter any imminent attacks.

“A decision to close this many embassies and issue a global travel warning for a month suggests the threat is real, advanced and imminent but the intelligence is incomplete on where,” said Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A. case officer and a Brookings Institution scholar.

The embassy closings come toward the end of the Ramadan holidays and the approaching first anniversary of the terror attack Sept. 11 on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

“We are particularly concerned about the security situation in the final days of Ramadan and into Eid,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement, referring to the Muslim holy month that ends Wednesday evening.

Obama administration officials publicly declined to discuss what specific information had prompted the increased alarm and alerts, citing a desire to protect classified sources and methods.

But intercepting electronic communications is one the National Security Agency’s main jobs, as the documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, a former N.S.A. contractor, have only underscored. At the request of intelligence officials, The New York Times withheld some details about the intercepted communications.

Some analysts and Congressional officials suggested Friday that emphasizing a terrorist threat now was a good way to divert attention from the uproar over the N.S.A.’s data-collection programs, and that if it showed the intercepts had uncovered a possible plot, even better.

The bulletin by the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs did not advise against travel to any particular country, but it warned Americans to be particularly mindful of their surroundings, especially in tourist areas, and recommended that they register their travel plans with the State Department.

“Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests,” the bulletin said. “U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure. Terrorists have targeted and attacked subway and rail systems, as well as aviation and maritime services.”

Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Friday that the warning was linked to a Qaeda threat focused on the Middle East and Central Asia.

To date, the only Qaeda affiliate that has shown a desire and ability to attack American facilities overseas is Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group based in Yemen.

The Qaeda affiliate announced in July that its second-in-command, Saeed al-Shihri, a former Guantánamo Bay prisoner, had died as a result of injuries sustained in an American missile strike in Yemen last year. But Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the group’s seminal bomb maker, remains at large, and, according to American officials, has trained a cadre of skilled protégés ready to take his place should he be killed.

American drones over the past week have carried out three separate strikes in Yemen, according to Long War Journal, a Web site that tracks drone strikes. There have been 15 American drone strikes in Yemen this year, according to the site.

The State Department has issued similar alerts and warnings in the past, American officials said Friday. The last time the department issued a global travel alert was after the death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

On Feb. 19 this year, the State Department issued a “caution” notice — less severe than a “warning” or “alert” — to Americans that “current information suggests that Al Qaeda, its affiliated organizations and other terrorist organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in multiple regions.”

Pentagon officials said Friday that there had been no movements of troops or other forces in response to the embassy closings.

After the attack in Benghazi, the military’s Africa Command bolstered its quick-reaction forces in Djibouti and created new Marine Corps reaction forces in Morón, Spain, and at the naval air station in Sigonella in Italy that can respond to a crisis within a few hours.

[Coligny]

Because after all the monitoring activity of the nsa revealed these days alquaeda surely still use facebook to coordinate their parties..,

Sure...

The only remaining mystery is how this house of morons still manage to secure their fundings... Can't wait for them to have a garage sale of predator drones to pay for their electric bill...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Diplomatic Rift With Putin Grows as Obama Cancels

President Barack Obama's decision to pull out of a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month punctuates a steady decline in relations and represents an unusually sharp rebuke for an administration pledged to engaging adversaries.

President Barack Obama's decision to pull out of a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month punctuates a steady decline in relations and represents an unusually sharp rebuke for an administration pledged to engaging adversaries.

The decision comes after Russia decided to grant asylum, over White House objections, to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information. Administration officials said Wednesday that canceling the meeting was under discussion in the White House well before then, as the two governments made no headway since Mr. Obama's meeting with Mr. Putin in June in discussions over nuclear arms control, missile defense and the civil war in Syria.

"This was something that was evolving over time, and clearly the Snowden situation helped precipitate a decision," said Ben Rhodes, a U.S. deputy national security adviser.

Mr. Rhodes said the relationship wasn't "broken," but it also wasn't at a point where a presidential summit made sense. "We're just not poised for any real progress with the Russians," he said.

In Moscow, Kremlin officials said the cancellation was clearly in retaliation for their refusal to give up Mr. Snowden.

Yuri Ushakov, a top aide to Mr. Putin, told Russia's Interfax news agency that the cancellation was a sign Washington "is still not ready to build relations on an equal basis."

[GomiGirl]

Putin is getting is from all sides at the moment.

An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC

An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential. Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillehammer, anywhere you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world.

He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it. I

This has everything - Nazi's, gay marriage, Hitler and sport.

[wagyl]

This has everything - Nazi's, gay marriage, Hitler and sport.

Grocers' apostrophes too!

[Yokohammer]

This has everything - Nazi's, gay marriage, Hitler and sport.

Grocers' apostrophes too!

Pedant!

Actually I'm just pissed that you beat me to it.

Stephen Fry ... eloquent as ever.

[GomiGirl]

Am tempted to use my mod powers for personal gain to remove all traces of my embarrassing error in apostrophe placement - clearly a crime against humanity - oh my, who will think of the children?

[Yokohammer]

Phme ... I've done much worse meself.

[Coligny]

:oops:

Am tempted to use my mod powers for personal gain to remove all traces of my embarrassing error in apostrophe placement - clearly a crime against humanity - oh my, who will think of the children?

Try the edit button pumpkin... Works like a charm...

[Coligny]

Putin is getting is from all sides at the moment.

An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC

An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential. Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillehammer, anywhere you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world.

He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it. I

This has everything - Nazi's, gay marriage, Hitler and sport.

He forgot polonium... So I hope he makes his own cup of brown joy...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

While I agree with Mr. Fry's stance, I think it's a bit far -- even for a Chosen person -- to equate Hitler and his other purer German cohorts fatally gassing millions of Jews with the Russians throwing only a figurative faggot on the fire, so to speak. He should remember the world went to Berlin for the 1936 Olympics despite the Nuremberg Laws (effectively making Jews legal subhumans in Germany) having passed the previous year. And the year before they went to war, the Roasbifs were essentially French impressionists when they took on ze (Greater) Germans on the footy field as the photo below shows...
Gays are deserving of equality, but perhaps we should keep things in perspective; they're not being Zyklon B-ed at the moment.

[Coligny]

Bayer don't make Zyklon-B anymore... I had me Julie getting rid of a boring Bayer j-commercial last years by asking her how much was the Z-B and for which quantity. The girl was stupid enough to ask upper stratum aboot this.
Seems she was never seen again after that... (Might have reached high enough in krautistan to trigger some re-affectaction, or getting peeps fired...)

[Samurai_Jerk]

While I agree with Mr. Fry's stance, I think it's a bit far -- even for a Chosen person -- to equate Hitler and his other purer German cohorts fatally gassing millions of Jews with the Russians throwing only a figurative faggot on the fire, so to speak. He should remember the world went to Berlin for the 1936 Olympics despite the Nuremberg Laws (effectively making Jews legal subhumans in Germany) having passed the previous year. And the year before they went to war, the Roasbifs were essentially French impressionists when they took on ze (Greater) Germans on the footy field as the photo below shows...
Gays are deserving of equality, but perhaps we should keep things in perspective; they're not being Zyklon B-ed at the moment.

Did you even click on the link and read what was written before commenting?

First paragraph:

I write in the earnest hope that all those with a love of sport and the Olympic spirit will consider the stain on the Five Rings that occurred when the 1936 Berlin Olympics proceeded under the exultant aegis of a tyrant who had passed into law, two years earlier, an act which singled out for special persecution a minority whose only crime was the accident of their birth. In his case he banned Jews from academic tenure or public office, he made sure that the police turned a blind eye to any beatings, thefts or humiliations afflicted on them, he burned and banned books written by them. He claimed they “polluted” the purity and tradition of what it was to be German, that they were a threat to the state, to the children and the future of the Reich.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

While I agree with Mr. Fry's stance, I think it's a bit far -- even for a Chosen person -- to equate Hitler and his other purer German cohorts fatally gassing millions of Jews with the Russians throwing only a figurative faggot on the fire, so to speak. He should remember the world went to Berlin for the 1936 Olympics despite the Nuremberg Laws (effectively making Jews legal subhumans in Germany) having passed the previous year. And the year before they went to war, the Roasbifs were essentially French impressionists when they took on ze (Greater) Germans on the footy field as the photo below shows...
Gays are deserving of equality, but perhaps we should keep things in perspective; they're not being Zyklon B-ed at the moment.

Did you even click on the link and read what was written before commenting?

First paragraph:

I write in the earnest hope that all those with a love of sport and the Olympic spirit will consider the stain on the Five Rings that occurred when the 1936 Berlin Olympics proceeded under the exultant aegis of a tyrant who had passed into law, two years earlier, an act which singled out for special persecution a minority whose only crime was the accident of their birth. In his case he banned Jews from academic tenure or public office, he made sure that the police turned a blind eye to any beatings, thefts or humiliations afflicted on them, he burned and banned books written by them. He claimed they “polluted” the purity and tradition of what it was to be German, that they were a threat to the state, to the children and the future of the Reich.

I stand by what I wrote. I don't condone Putin's actions. I don't support them in any way. I tried to make two points, albeit clumsily: 1. Contemporary Russian treatment of LGBT people is not equivalent to the way the German people treated Jews under Nazism; and, 2. Appealing to Mr. Cameron is unlikely to result in action based on the fawning manner the Brutish adopted toward the Germans until they were felt compelled to fight, to which can be added that it would be fruitless to expect positive action from an Olympic movement that has a notorious track record of utter disregard for moral and ethical behavior.
Mr. Fry is being a little sneaky. It's an issue that means a lot to him and I can understand his emotional appeal. But it detracts from the LGBT case and denigrates what the Germans did to Jews (and others including Slavic Russians). Fry blames Hitler for making the Jews a scapegoat and turning a blind eye toward prejudicial acts carried out against them. Actually, it was worse than that. Far more systematic and much deeper-reaching, involving nearly the entire German-speaking people and their Allies. What the Germans did weren't just a tyrant's acts. The Nuremberg Laws were legal and legitimized German laws in which Germans beating, stealing from or humiliating Jews were not illegal acts. That's the big difference. Putin is undoubtedly turning a blind eye to mistreatment of LGBTs, but Russian law is not set up to comprehensively dehumanize such people the way the Nuremberg Laws targeted Jews (and other minorities).
The Brutish government and Olympic movement may, indeed, be more inclusive than Putin's Russia, but I think the political power of the world's largest oil exporter is going to have more influence over them than the LGBT community. It's wrong, it shouldn't happen. I adore Stephen Fry. I'd like to see him happy. But I think he'd be better put aiming for a more realistic approach...perhaps organizing an LBGT boycott of the Russian Games or goods? I don't know. Sorry, this explanation is clumsy again...I guess I don't like seeing the millions of lives the German people, their collaborators and Allies willfully destroyed being treated so basely. And, as of this moment, that's where the facts stand.

[Russell]

Snowden's email provider gives new hints on abrupt shutdown

Last week, the privacy-focused email provider used by NSA leaker Edward Snowden abruptly closed down, issuing a cryptically-worded statement about government interference. Now, the provider’s founder has offered some more insight into the decision.

In an interview with CNET on Friday, Lavabit’s Ladar Levison answered a series of questions about why he took the extraordinary step of suddenly shutting down email access for its more than 410,000 users. Levison, who appears to be under some sort of secret surveillance gag order, is unable to reveal specific details. However, he told CNET that the shutdown “wasn't about protecting a single user, but protecting the privacy of all my users.” And he also added that it had “become clear” that there were “no protections in our current body of law to keep the government from compelling us to provide the information necessary to decrypt” communications.

Lavabit had offered its users the ability to store their emails using strong encryption, and before the closure, the Texas-based company had boasted on its website that “once a message is stored on our servers in this [encrypted] fashion, it can’t be recovered without knowing a user's password.” It appears likely that, as Levison hints in the CNET interview, Lavabit was served with some sort of secret order demanding that it make encrypted emails accessible to the government. And it seems clear that the order had sweeping ramifications for Lavabit as a service, as opposed to being about fighting surveillance of a single user, like Snowden. Levison says in the interview that Lavabit had received “a couple of dozen court orders served to us over the past 10 years, but they've never crossed the line.” He added that “crossing the line” would mean “to violate the privacy of all of my users,” saying that he would “rather shut down my service and my primary source of income than be complicit in crimes against the American people."

More

[Russell]

Kim Dotcom Building A Super-Secure Encrypted Email Service

Last week, U.S. government pressure shut down three encrypted email services -- including one supposedly used by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden -- and created an opportunity for onetime U.S. government gadfly Kim Dotcom.

In February 2013, Dotcom, creator of online storage locker Mega and its ill-fated predecessor MegaUpload, announced that his company was going to launch an encrypted email service. Then the declaration had the weight of history behind it: Dotcom himself was arrested in 2012 on piracy charges in New Zealand based on information gathered illegally by the New Zealand government at the behest of U.S. authorities. (A New Zealand judge later ruled the search warrants invalid.)

Now, in the wake of yet more government spying revelations and the loss of other encrypted options, Mega CEO Vikram Kumar reminded ZDNet's Rob O'Neill that Mega is still committed to building an encrypted email service. According to Kumar, Mega is "doing some hugely cutting-edge stuff."

Kumar's statement has generated a lot of attention on tech blogs across the web -- not all of it complimentary. Evan Dashevsky of TechHive called the rumored email service just the latest resume padding in Dotcom's "history of troublemaking." But Lauren Hockenson of Gigaom remarked that Dotcom was really going all-in on privacy. In addition to filling the void left by other shutdown services, she wrote, he's also "creating a VC [venture capital] firm that brings up encryption-focused companies."

Admittedly, the news seems far more exciting in the current context than it was when Dotcom first announced he was building encrypted email in February. Back then, the world was awash in encrypted email services: Tormail; Silent Mail; Lavabit, Snowden's reported service. Now those services are gone, and Lavabit's webpage bears a warning from Ladar Levinson, its founder: "Without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States."

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[Coligny]

Kim Dotcom Building A Super-Secure Encrypted Email Service

Hard to believe we reached the point where this Mega d00sh is a quasi de-facto hero...

I want my coldwar back... With hot Borsh and Ксения Сергеевна Онатопп in underwear... or at least 林慧 from Tomorrow Nevur Dies... Michelle Yeoh is like totally hot in vinyl bodysuit...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Not exactly news but at least they admit it now.

CIA admits role in 1953 Iranian coup

The CIA has publicly admitted for the first time that it was behind the notorious 1953 coup against Iran's democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, in documents that also show how the British government tried to block the release of information about its own involvement in his overthrow.

On the 60th anniversary of an event often invoked by Iranians as evidence of western meddling, the US national security archive at George Washington University published a series of declassified CIA documents.

"The military coup that overthrew Mosaddeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government," reads a previously excised section of an internal CIA history titled The Battle for Iran.

The documents, published on the archive's website under freedom of information laws, describe in detail how the US – with British help – engineered the coup, codenamed TPAJAX by the CIA and Operation Boot by Britain's MI6.

[Russell]

That was actually the CIA's first operation of this kind. They were drawn into it by the Brits, who even nowadays refuse to acknowledge their role.

[Coligny]

Maybe because before 1947 it was called the Office of Strategic Services... OSS...

Same Shit, different name...

(same as the air force who was the US Army Air Force before the split USAF... explaining weird shit like tha A10 warthog being USAF and the AH64 being Army... even if they mostly have the same tasks, nearly killed the A10 before the Gulf War show it to be a priceless asset)

[yanpa]

[IparryU]

Apparently the NSA is quite far behind AT&T...

Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.’s
By SCOTT SHANE and COLIN MOYNIHAN

For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans’ phone calls — parallel to but covering a far longer time than the National Security Agency’s hotly disputed collection of phone call logs.
Enlarge This Image

A New York training site for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, which includes federal and local investigators. AT&T employees are embedded in the program in three states.

The Hemisphere Project, a partnership between federal and local drug officials and AT&T that has not previously been reported, involves an extremely close association between the government and the telecommunications giant.

The government pays AT&T to place its employees in drug-fighting units around the country. Those employees sit alongside Drug Enforcement Administration agents and local detectives and supply them with the phone data from as far back as 1987.

The project comes to light at a time of vigorous public debate over the proper limits on government surveillance and on the relationship between government agencies and communications companies. It offers the most significant look to date at the use of such large-scale data for law enforcement, rather than for national security.

The scale and longevity of the data storage appears to be unmatched by other government programs, including the N.S.A.’s gathering of phone call logs under the Patriot Act. The N.S.A. stores the data for nearly all calls in the United States, including phone numbers and time and duration of calls, for five years.

Hemisphere covers every call that passes through an AT&T switch — not just those made by AT&T customers — and includes calls dating back 26 years, according to Hemisphere training slides bearing the logo of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Some four billion call records are added to the database every day, the slides say; technical specialists say a single call may generate more than one record. Unlike the N.S.A. data, the Hemisphere data includes information on the locations of callers.

The slides were given to The New York Times by Drew Hendricks, a peace activist in Port Hadlock, Wash. He said he had received the PowerPoint presentation, which is unclassified but marked “Law enforcement sensitive,” in response to a series of public information requests to West Coast police agencies.

The program was started in 2007, according to the slides, and has been carried out in great secrecy.

“All requestors are instructed to never refer to Hemisphere in any official document,” one slide says. A search of the Nexis database found no reference to the program in news reports or Congressional hearings.

The Obama administration acknowledged the extraordinary scale of the Hemisphere database and the unusual embedding of AT&T employees in government drug units in three states.

Read more from the source: [url]http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/us/drug-agents-use-vast-phone-trove-eclipsing-nsas.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=1&#h[][/url]

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

That was actually the CIA's first operation of this kind...

Bullshit.

[Coligny]

Read my post just after... The CIA was 5yo at that time... By standard gov procurement efficiency they just received their desk and typewriters... Still waiting for toilet paper and waterboarding kits...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Read my post just after... The CIA was 5yo at that time... By standard gov procurement efficiency they just received their desk and typewriters... Still waiting for toilet paper and waterboarding kits...

Funny because I was going to give the same answer to Russell as you before I saw what you posted.