NSA Whistleblower: Wiretaps Were Combined with Credit Card Records of U.S. Citizens

[sabra]

Source: WIRED News

NSA whistleblower Russell Tice was back on Keith Olbermann's MSNBC program Thursday evening to expand on his Wednesday revelations that the National Security Agency spied on individual U.S. journalists, entire U.S. news agencies as well as "tens of thousands" of other Americans.

Tice said on Wednesday that the NSA had vacuumed in all domestic communications of Americans, including, faxes, phone calls and network traffic.

Today Tice said that the spy agency also combined information from phone wiretaps with data that was mined from credit card and other financial records. He said information of tens of thousands of U.S. citizens is now in digital databases warehoused at the NSA.

"This {information} could sit there for ten years and then potentially it marries up with something else and ten years from now they get put on a no-fly list and they, of course, won't have a clue why," Tice said.

...

"This is garnered from algorithms that have been put together to try to just dream-up scenarios that might be information that is associated with how a terrorist could operate," Tice said. "And once that information gets to the NSA, and they start to put it through the filters there . . . and they start looking for word-recognition, if someone just talked about the daily news and mentioned something about the Middle East they could easily be brought to the forefront of having that little flag put by their name that says 'potential terrorist'."

Read more: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/nsa-whistlebl-1.html

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. I guess we don't need the

:tinfoilhat: for this one.

[nc4bo]

6. Nope, not now but it was definitely the "in" thing to put on at one time.

The gwb dyke is beginning to crack AND crumble.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

8. I can only hope it bursts like a pimple on Karl Roves fat ass.

Sorry, was that too much? :evilgrin:

[aquart]

2. I want every single American's name on the No Fly list.

That's easier than getting a name off it. Or finding out who's on it.

[hunter]

4. It would reduce our oil imports too!

:patriot:

[Mrs. Overall]

3. I'm curious how they data-mined Internet message boards like DU.

This site must have been monitored in some way.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. You thought all those Agen Mike references were jokes, huh?

[Mrs. Overall]

9. I gave plenty of shout-outs to Agent Mike over the years, but I seriously wonder

how they evaluated liberal sites like DU, where some posts could be construed as sympathetic toward the "evil doers". Many of us were highly critical of the ridiculously dubbed "war on terror" and the demonization of Islam.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. I expect I've been in their files since about 1966.

I'm sure all of us have been noticed in some degree.

[Hugin]

13. I've heard that storing the data on me was the prime reason Terabyte HDDs were developed.

So, as you're storing the latest Pr0n... You have me to thank for it! :rofl:

[Jambalaya]

23. t error bytes

Mmmh...460 terrabytes is TWICE the storage capacity to contain ALL of the info on the Internet.

[Jackpine Radical]

29. Do you have a brother named Munin?

[Hugin]

30. Munin is a cousin actually.

But, he's more favored by Odin. ;)

[Jackpine Radical]

31. Yeah, deities are like that.

[kestrel91316]

22. Well, I have been IRS audited half to death over the past 5 years,

all for naught, lol. But I know damned well my posts here had to have something to do with it. Bastards.

The only consolation is how much time, money, and energy they wasted going after me. At the last audit, the IRS guy (a very NICE young man) was asking ME why the heck they were auditing a particular year (they didn't tell HIM why) and I laughed and said I had no clue. He was apologizing to me for the inconvenience by the end of the process.

[stillcool]

7. I think it's all by key words...

like doing a search

[Mrs. Overall]

11. I'm really haunted by something I heard Tice say on KO's show last night--

that people were put on lists if they even talked about current events on the phone. Similar to what you are saying about a key word search. If someone talked about a news story on the phone to a friend and mentioned Iraq or terrorism, that person could have been "tagged" and then he/she would become a target of more in depth information gathering.

I find that very disturbing.

[stillcool]

14. the first thing I thought of..

after I saw that was Teddy Kennedy on the no-fly list.

[formercia]

19. This might give you a clue:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8126326&mesg_id=8132518

[Mrs. Overall]

25. Thanks for pointing me to your post. Interesting!

[Hugin]

10. Ha! No way is it... "in digital databases warehoused at the NSA."

I'm sure it has been entrusted to some Contractor who then proceeded to outsource the data to some far-away
and politically unstable land.

It's just the way things were done in the Duhbullya Reich.

[Jambalaya]

18. "Black Ops Jack"

Daily Kos: Abramoff's NSA and Domestic Spying Scandal File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Abramoff served as a conduit between the NSA and. private companies that have become the focus of multiple criminal prosecutions and national security ...
www.nogw.com/download/2006_abramoff_nsa.pdf - Similar pages____________________________________________


You GOTTA read this article. Names names of contractors hired by NSA.Also, Abramoff Israeli clienet awarded NSA contract for IT inside WH, despite secuity objections.

[Jambalaya]

15. Financial oversight

Hmm....any chance those intercepts might give us some insight into where Madoff made off to with those $$$$$$$$$$$ Billions?

How's about some tap,tap,tapping of the bankers and rating agencies in the Wall Street Heist aka Financial meltdown? The SEC?

Was that tapping or tap dancing that the NSA has been doing regarding Wall Street?

[robinlynne]

16. now there's an idea. I would still like to know everything said in the first cheney

energy meeting too...

[grannie4peace]

17. wonder why--kill all the little people?

[Jambalaya]

20. Credit where credit is due

This is intriguing to me the use of credit card and financial records.

Is this why the credit card companies have had very little clampdown by the Federal Government regarding exorbitant late fees, interest rates,and in general ,their usurious practices?

Could there have been an implied quid pro quo,as with the compliant IT companies-remember the secret phone room for listening in ?-that you give us access to your info and we'll look the other way about your loansharking?

[Jambalaya]

24. Capital Gains

Interstingly,one of the MAIN actors in the military industrial complex is GE.

GE Capital is the financial arm that handles the credit instruments - billings and collections for MANY of the leading retailers -like QVC,HSN,WalMart. GE Capital is worldwide and also has earned a dubious reputation internationally re: subprime loans and "loansharking",usurious practice.

GE Capital is a negative on the overall worth of GE stock.

[kestrel91316]

21. This oh-so-patriotic data mining was used to blackmail Dem higher-ups

into ignoring Bush's crimes for the past two years. I GUARANTEE YOU.

Pelosi had a real deer-in-the-headlights look for a while there. I think they told her they had info sufficient to ruin her and/or her loved ones, and she folded.

[Jambalaya]

28. Blogging Blago

How about some info on Blagoevich?

Or maybe some answers on who IT expert Mike Connell was meeting with just prior to his plane crash at Christmas time?

Or where Norm Coleman keeps getting big bucks $$ to continue his crusade in Mionnesota against Franken?

Or Sarah Palin's wardrobe purchases. Her in-laws clandestine drug deals?

Or Caylee Anthony's mom's phone calls and communications and purchases?

[4_TN_TITANS]

26. I'm sure there's a special file for DU correspondence. n/t

[Ian David]

27. That's how they could find the good phone sex to listen to. n/t

[OneBlueSky]

32. they know EVERYTHING about you . . . where you bank, what you buy . . .

what library books you read, what size underwear you order, and all about that skanky website you accidentally clicked on one day in 2005 . . . what they can do with this information is anyone's guess, but they shouldn't have it . . .

where I shop and what I buy and what's in my bank account and on my credit cards is nobody's business but mine -- and certainly not the government's . . . even in the area of spying, they seem to cling to the old American adage that "more is better" -- though they can give absolutely no cogent reason as to why . . .

Obama needs to shut down all this domestic spying crap and return to the days of probable cause and search warrants and such . . . without strict regulation, the spooks are just like the corporations and the banks and the brokerages -- completely out of control . . .