WAKE UP, ITS NOT JUST YOUR PHONE CALLS!!
Comment by Calif — July 26, 2007 @ 3:32 am

It was never just your phone calls.
In fact the black boxes in telephone switches aint even new. You can find Madeline Albright trying to explain away a similar program more than a decade ago.

One that was called an assault on the rights of citizens in Russia when they copied the US program.

Some of these guys at the top, ought to start reading digg, and other internet news sites… usually we know sooner than they do.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/interviews/klein.html

(also note, bush recently tried to kill a 420 million dollar funding bill for PBS)

How do you know that it wasn’t just some kind of newfangled AT&T thing that was going beyond what had already been established for its security purposes elsewhere?

First of all, they wouldn’t need the NSA for that purpose, and we would be allowed in by union contract to service the equipment as we always were. So anyway, there’s that question right off the bat: Why NSA?

Now, in October, while I was working and learning the Internet room, I came across these three documents, which were documents that the technicians had that were given to the technicians so they would know how to install things like the splitter cabinet in particular, because it tells how things are wired up. Those documents were left lying around. Some of the technicians still had them. One of them was just left lying on top of a router. I picked it up, and I looked at it, and I brought them back to my desk, and when I started looking at it, I looked at it more, and I looked at it more, and finally it dawned on me sort of all at once, and I almost fell out of my chair, because this showed, first of all, what they had done, that they had taken working circuits, which had nothing to do with a splitter cabinet, and they had taken in particular what are called peering links which connect AT&T’s network with the other networks. It’s how you get the Internet, right? One network connects with another. So they took 16 high-speed peering links which go to places like Qwest [Communications] and Palo Alto Internet Exchange [PAIX] and places like that. … These circuits were working at one point, and the documents indicated in February 2003 they had cut into these circuits so that they could insert the splitter so that they can get the data flow from these circuits to go to the secret room.

So this data flow meant that they were getting not only AT&T customers’ data flow; they were getting everybody else’s data flow, whoever else might happen to be communicating into the AT&T network from other networks. So it was turning out to be like a large chunk of the network, of the Internet.

Did you see that in the documents? Did the documents show that in the designs?

You can see that in the document. … It names the circuit IDs; it names the companies they belong to; and it shows the cut date. And they were all in February, when they were cut into the splitter.

Much later the president comes out and says, you know, we’re just monitoring Al Qaeda communications with America, and we’re following specific calls, and we’re trying to track terrorists. How do you know that it isn’t what they say it is; that the Narus or some other piece of equipment isn’t just targeted in on 50 individuals in this area, and all those billions of pieces of data are just flowing off into the ether?

… The administration’s first presentation of it is disingenuous. They present it as about phone calls. They’re just watching a few bad people who make phone calls to Al Qaeda and the Middle East, and you notice they don’t talk about the Internet hardly at all. That part of it hasn’t been revealed, because if they did, Americans would realize it’s not just a few people; it’s everybody, because the data they’re handing over is not selected out. When you run fiber optics through a splitter and you send all that data to a secret room, there’s no selecting going on there at all. …

WAKE UP, ITS NOT JUST YOUR PHONE CALLS!!

What a mess…

Comment by Kilo ”

Are you talking about Gonzo, Chaney and the other members of the Bush Crime Family?

This is no doubt filed along side the same relevation you came to several months ago when the penny dropped for the first time.

So it’s pretty much just these heads of senate intelligence committees who are alone in not being able to figure this shit out and somehow — motherfker — somehow managed to be in a position where they could Gonzales on the stand and :
(a) assume he’s perjured himself about the one thing he hasn’t to date and pursue that, and
(b) not reveal what other domestic spying programs have been operating without oversight for years.

And you fkn applaud these people as though they are doing something useful as opposed to just floundering like fkn idiots.
Couldn’t conduct oversight on a fkn bake sale.

How could you justify letting people this stupid remain in positions where they have access to national security info ?

Something which even average bloggers picked up on about 4 months ago.

And even when these idiots have had this pointed out to them they’ve done what you say……. ?

Harman and Rockefeller are reporting that they never consented to “other intelligence activities.” Responding to a question about whether he believed Gonzales perjured himself Tuesday, Rockefeller responded, “Based upon what I know about it, I’d have to say yes.”

Missed the point again you say ?
Well fk me this looks promising. Should have this rapped up by 2014.

I could have taken $10000 off every reader here betting them that if Gonzales testified before the heads of senate intelligence committees about domestic surveillence that he’d be the one leaving that hearing looking the most qualified to keep his job.

Why fkn go to work, honestly. Just get your cat to dictate some questions and fax it in you retards.

Schumer: Has the government searched someone’s home, an American citizen, or office without a warrant, uh, since 911, let’s say?
Gonzales: Sir to my knowledge that has not happened under the tererorist surveillance program, and I’m not going to go beyond that.
Schumer: Wait, I don’t know what that, what does that mean, under the terrorist surveillance program? The terrorist surveillance program is about wire tapping.

At this point, Gonzales starts refusing to amplify for national security reasons.

Or how about McCain campaign Co-chair for Fla. offering $20 for oral sex in a public bathroom? Oh and he’s a state Congressman? Salacious. Imagine the experts they could have on CNN. But alas he’s a Republican…and not a blogger for a Democratic Presidential candidate, so where’s the fun in that?

No, there’s money and ratings to be had for CNN in these never ending Republican sex scandals, and illegal activities, but that would not serve their purpose.

CONSPIRACY TO COMMUNICATE CLASSIFIED INFORMATION TO AGENT OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENT

1. Defendant LAWRENCE ANTHONY FRANKLIN was employed by the United States government at the Department of Defense (DoD) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), International Security Affairs (ISA), Office of Near East and South Asia, Office of Northern Gulf Affairs, Iran desk, and held a Top Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI). FRANKLIN’S office was located within the Pentagon, in the Eastern District of Virginia. FRANKLIN was also a Colonel in the United States Air Force Reserve (USAFR).

2. Throughout his employment with the United States government, FRANKLIN repeatedly signed written agreements acknowledging his duty to safeguard classified information

3. At no time was FRANKLIN authorized to release classified information to ROSEN and WEISMANN except with respect to Overt Acts 43 and 44 in count one.

4. Defendant STEVEN J. ROSEN was employed as the Director of Foreign Policy Issues for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, D.C. ROSEN was hired by AIPAC in or about July 1982. AIPAC, according to its website, is ” America’s ProIsrael Lobby.” AIPAC lobbies the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch agencies on various issues related to Israel and U.S. Foreign policy in the Middle East. As the Director of Foreign Policy Issues, ROSEN lobbied on behalf of AIPAC, primarily with officials within the Executive Branch of the U.S. government. During the time period of this indictment, ROSEN did not have a U.S. government security clearance and was not authorized to receive or possess U.S. government classified information.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/reports/2005/franklin_indictment_04aug2005.htm

WAYS, MANNER AND MEANS OF THE CONSPIRACY

A. It was part of the conspiracy that, in an effort to influence persons within and outside the United States government, ROSEN and WEISSMAN would cultivate relationships with FRANKLIN and others and would use their contacts within the U.S. government and elsewhere to gather sensitive U.S. government information, including classified information relating to the national defense, for subsequent unlawful communication, delivery and transmission to persons not entitled to receive it.

B. It was further part of the conspiracy that FRANKLIN would use his position as a desk officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense to gather information relating to the national defense, for subsequent unlawful communication, delivery and transmission to ROSEN and WEISSMAN and others not entitled to receive it.

C. It was further part of the conspiracy that FRANKLIN, ROSEN and WEISSMAN would meet at locations in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, to exchange information, including classified information relating to the national defense.

D. It was further part of the conspiracy that FRANKLIN would unlawfully deliver, communicate and transmit classified national defense information in an effort to advance his own personal foreign policy agenda and influence persons within and outside the United States government.

E. It was further part of the conspiracy that ROSEN and WEISSMAN, without lawful authority, would communicate to persons not entitled to receive it, classified information relating to the national defense.

On or about June 11, 1999, WEISSMAN had a conversation with FO-1 and told FO-1 that a “Secret FBI, classified FBI report” on the Khobar Towers bombing had been prepared and that he (WEISSMAN) had gotten this information from three different sources, including United States government officials.

On or about March 13, 2003 , WEISSMAN had a separate conversation with FO-1. WEISSMAN asked FO-1, “Have you talked to Steve about Iran lately?” WEISSMAN related that “we” had heard from a “friend of ours in the Pentagon” about a national intelligence document. WEISSMAN discussed specifics about the classified draft internal policy document and the internal deliberations of United States government officials.

On or about March 18, 2003 , in a conversation with a member of the media about the classified draft internal policy document, ROSEN stated, “I’m not supposed to know this,” and that it was a “considerable story.” He encouraged the member of the media to pursue the story.

March 25, 2006 — The Pentagon’s role as a source of media disinformation. First it was the Office of Northern Gulf Affairs, which morphed into the Office of Special Plans. Both served as conduits for neo-con propaganda spewed forth by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Heritage Foundation, Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), the Hudson Institute, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), among others prior to the invasion of Iraq.

Now the Pentagon has issued an “unclassified report” stating that in the lead up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Russia obtained war plans and planned U.S. troop movements from “inside the American Central Command.” The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) denied the charge, stating that “similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once.”

The Pentagon cited as its source two captured Iraqi documents that describe Russian penetration of the US Central Command in Qatar. However, the Pentagon’s story later changed. The revised story stated the Russian obtained the war plans from signals intelligence intercepts of pre-war U.S. military communications. In either case, the citing of “captured” Iraqi documents has been used in the past to falsely implicate various anti-war international politicians with being in league with Saddam’s “Oil for Food” program. Many of these “captured” documents were forgeries emanating from notorious Iraqi con man Ahmad Chalabi. Bogus Niger government documents were forged by a neo-con cabal based in Rome, Washington, and Jerusalem to justify an attack on Iraq based on non-existent weapons of mass destruction. The information contained in the two “secret” Iraqi documents could have been obtained from any number of open sources, including Jane’s Defence Weekly. The “sic” appearing next to “special forces unit ‘Papa’” in the purported Iraqi documents is a clue to a forgery. The standard NATO/DoD phonetic code for the letter “P” is “Papa.” Why the authors would indicate a possible misspelling of Papa in the document is curious unless its because the real authors include some of our most noted neo-con draft dodgers who are unfamiliar with U.S. and NATO military nomenclatures. The two secret Iraqi documents are handwritten and contain no official government seal or stamps, another clear indication of a forgery. Update: The memo dated March 25, 2003 is also a likely forgery because of the use of the Western calendar and not the lunar Muslim Hijri calendar used in many Arab and other predominantly Muslim countries. The Muslim date would have been 16 Muharram 1424.

The neo-con stranglehold on the Pentagon continues to permit this cabal of provocateurs and dual loyalists to pump out false charges in an attempt to damage relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin as Russia continues to push for negotiations with Iran and lay the possible groundwork for Russian casualties at Iranian nuclear facilities in the event of war with Iran. Neo-cons would argue that such casualties were legitimate considering previous Russian support for Saddam against the United States.

In fact, the Pentagon neo-cons now have more power than ever considering the current presence of anti-Russian neo-con-influenced governments in Poland, Ukraine, and Georgia. Polish Defense Minister Radek Sikorski, an AEI alum and colleague of Richard Perle and Michael Ledeen, is married to the Washington Post’s Anne Applebaum. All four are virulently anti-Putin, especially since Putin began cracking down on the Russian oligarchs who looted the USSR’s treasury and resources and made themselves instant billionaires, at the expense of the peoples of the former Soviet Union.

Over 70 percent of Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs carry Israeli passports. Ukraine President Viktor Yuschenko’s wife, Kateryna Chumachenko Yushchenko, is an American citizen and held positions in the Reagan White House that were directed against “the evil empire.” She was, and remains, close to the leading neo-con war hawks of the Reagan years, including Perle, Ledeen, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, and Ken Adelman. Georgia’s President, Mikhail Saakashvili, in an anti-Putin U.S.-trained lawyer who ousted his predecessor in a U.S.-financed and supported coup backed by oil companies like Halliburton and Exxon Mobil. In addition to the offices of AEI, AIPAC, Hudson, WINEP, and Heritage, in addition to the Pentagon, the embassies of Poland, Ukraine, and Georgia in Washington have become virtual neo-con nesting places, working overtime to formulate all sorts of anti-Russian propaganda aimed at destabilizing Russia and toppling Putin. They are assisted in these efforts by the US Mission to the United Nations, which under arch neo-con John Bolton, has become a favorite off-site meeting place for Washington-based neo-cons right in the middle of Manhattan.

My grandmother used to tell me that telling the truth is so much easier than lying, since when you lie, you need to remember your lie. If you are telling the truth, there is no need to remember what you said before.

I was waiting for the “gang of eight” to speak up. The one thing that was missing from their comments, though, was whether or not they actually asked Gonzo to go see Ashcroft. Also, I’m waiting to hear from the Republicans who were in the gang of eight.