NSA privacy violations 'tip of the iceberg'

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Former Member

NSA privacy violations 'tip of the iceberg'

The NSA in Fort Meade, Md.

The NSA in Fort Meade, Md.

New revelations that the US National Security Agency had broken its own privacy rules thousands of times since 2008 were “just the tip of a larger iceberg,” two American senators said.

In a joint statement on Friday, Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said that the new leak vindicated past claims that “violations of [privacy] laws and rules were more serious than had been acknowledged.”

An audit by American whistleblower Edward Snowden shows the NSA has conducted unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the US, both restricted by law and executive order.

The documents include details that are normally not shared with American lawmakers or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court which oversees surveillance.

One of the documents seen by the Washington Post shows NSA agents are instructed to remove details and include general information in reports to the Department of Justice and the Office of Director of National Intelligence.

“While Senate rules prohibit us from confirming or denying some of the details in today’s press reports, the American people have a right to know more details about the scope and severity of these violations,” Udall and Wyden said.

The senators also urged the Obama administration to release additional information about the nature of government surveillance and possible violations of the law.

On Friday, the White House said the Obama administration was committed to ensuring intelligence programs do not violate Americans' privacy.

"This Administration is committed to ensuring that privacy protections are carefully adhered to, and to continually reviewing ways to effectively enhance privacy procedures," the White House said in a statement.

Former Member

US officials ‘conspire’ to violate Americans constitutional rights

Massive spying run by the US National Security Agency is in violation of Americans’ constitutional rights, and all US officials have conspired to do that, says former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

“The Congress people who are supposed to be supervising the intelligence agencies have not been doing so and the courts, the judicial part of our government, has not been doing its job,” said McGovern in a phone interview with Press TV on Monday.

Thus, there has been “the equivalence of a conspiracy between the three branches of our government, the executive which has arrogated all power to itself, the Congress which has acquiesced in that, and the judiciary which has given blanket approval to gross violations of our Fourth Amendment [of the US Constitution]”, McGovern added.

Last month, American whistleblower Edward Snowden blew the lid on massive surveillance by the NSA including two major spying programs, one for gathering US phone records and another, codenamed PRISM, for tracking the use of US-based web servers by American citizens and other nationals.

“Just now, thanks to Mr. Snowden, we have documents proving this. We had earlier reports but now we have documents from the National Security Agency itself showing the extent of this intrusive surveillance,” McGovern said.

US Senator Ron Wyden has also warned American citizens that their smart phone use, text messages, web surfing and phone calls can be logged by the government.

Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald, a prominent American journalist working with Britain’s Guardian newspaper who published leaks about the NSA’s spying programs, also said on Sunday that he would soon reveal new information on how low-level NSA contractors access Americans’ phone and email communications.

8/16/138:47 PM

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