USA / NSA ..!!! LEAKED ..!!!!!

New NSA leaks show how US is bugging its European allies

US intelligence services are spying on the European Union mission in New York and its embassy in Washington, according to the latest top secret US National Security Agency documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

One document lists 38 embassies and missions, describing them as "targets". It details an extraordinary range of spying methods used against each target, from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps into cables to the collection of transmissions with specialised antennae.

Along with traditional ideological adversaries and sensitive Middle Eastern countries, the list of targets includes the EU missions and the French, Italian and Greek embassies, as well as a number of other American allies, including Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey. The list in the September 2010 document does not mention the UK, Germany or other western European states.

US intelligence targeted Italy and France embassies

LONDON: France, Italy and Greece were among 38 "targets" of spying operations conducted by US intelligence services, according to documents leaked to Guardian newspaper by fugitive former CIA operative Edward Snowden.

One of the leaked US National Security Agency(NSA) files said that intelligence officials targeted embassies and UN missions by implanting bugs in electronic communications gear, tapping into cables and collecting communications using specialised antennae, according to a report on the Guardian's website Sunday.
Attempts were made to eavesdrop on the French, Italian and Greek embassies in Washington while Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey were all named as subjects of operations in a 2010 document.German weekly Der Spiegel earlier revealed that the European Union was one of the "targets" of Washington's huge Internet spy programme, with bugs hidden in EU offices in Brussels and the US.

UK secretly tapping fibre-optic cables |ET| US trying to prosecute whistleblower

UK secretly tapping fibre-optic cables for data

Uk serectly tapping fiber optics cable 

LONDON: UK's spy agencies gained secret access to fibre-optic cables carrying global communications and gathered data larger than the US, a media report said on Saturday, quoting documents leaked by American whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The Guardian newspaper said the revelations were based on leaked documents from the GCHQ - the UK's electronic eavesdropping agency. 


The information, including phone calls, Facebook posts, emails, Internet histories, was stored for up to 30 days to be sifted and analysed, the paper alleged. 
The GCHQ has started processing vast amounts of personal information and is sharing it with its US partner the National Security Agency (NSA), it said. 
 US trying to prosecute whistleblower Snowden


 BRUSSELS: The United States is confident it will bring Edward Snowden to justice for "extremely damaging" leaks about secret internet surveillance programmes, US Attorney General Eric Holder said on Friday. 

Snowden is hiding in Hong Kong and the United States has launched

Google Hits Back At U.S. Snooping | ET | NSA secret data gathering 'transparent': Obama

Google Thinks It's Its First Amendment Right To Publish Info On FISA Requests

Google is taking its fight for transparency and image rehabilitation one step further in the wake of the revelation that the government is collecting people's digital data in a sweeping program called PRISM.

The Washington Post reported late Tuesday that Google is preparing to challenge a clandestine court's long-standing gag order over publishing the number of data requests the National Security Agency makes to collect emails, photos and other files people send over the Internet.

Though Google has published transparency reports since 2009, the company has long thought the current level of transparency doesn't go far enough. Earlier this year, Google won the right to tell the public the number of times it was sent "national security letters," or the federal requests to look at Americans' "metadata" (like who emailed whom) but not the files themselves (what the email said).

Under pressure, the federal government last week gave major Internet companies permission to publish the numbers of requests authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to gather online correspondence, but only if that data was coupled with other requests made by local authorities. At the time, Google sent a letter to the FBI and Attorney General Eric Holder asking for permission to disclose more.

For More 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/18/google-fisa-first-amendment_n_3461572.html

                                           EVEN THOUGH 

NSA secret data gathering 'transparent': Obama

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama
defended top secret National Security Agency spying programs as legal in a lengthy interview, and called them transparent - even though they are authorized in secret.

"It is transparent," Obama told Public Broadcasting Service's Charlie Rose in an interview broadcast late Monday.

Difference between spying and hacking : Barack Obama | ET | NYPD Commissioner Slams NSA Secrecy

Difference between spying and hacking, Barack Obama
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is drawing a distinction between China's alleged     
                 intellectual property theft and what he calls "standard fare" spying on other countries. 

Obama says every country engages in intelligence gathering, which he called an occasional source of tension. But the president says there's a big difference between China trying to find out what he's saying in meetings with the Japanese and a hacker connected with the Chinese government breaking into Apple or other US companies. 

Obama pressed China's president on cyberhacking earlier this month during a meeting in California. Obama said their conversations on the topic were "very blunt." 

Obama spoke in an interview with the Public Broadcasting Service's Charlie Rose. 
For More 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Difference-between-spying-and-hacking-Barack-Obama-says/articleshow/20642673.cms

                                                                EVEN THOUGH

Ray Kelly, NYPD Commissioner, Slams NSA Secrecy About Surveillance

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly slammed the Obama administration for its handling of the National Security Administration scandal -- but not because he thinks the government was overextending its reach.

U.S. Surveillance: China Asks USA | ET | UK Spies Hacked Diplomats Phones & Emails

U.S. Surveillance: China Asks Washington To Explain Monitoring Programmes

BEIJING, June 17 (Reuters) - China made its first substantive comments on Monday to reports of U.S. surveillance of the Internet, demanding that Washington explain its monitoring programmes to the international community.
Several nations, including U.S. allies, have reacted angrily to revelations by an ex-CIA employee over a week ago that U.S. authorities had tapped the servers of internet companies for personal data.
"We believe the United States should pay attention to the international community's concerns and demands and give the international community the necessary explanation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily briefing.
The Chinese government has previously not commented directly on the case, simply repeating the government's standard line that China is one of the world's biggest victims of hacking attacks.
A senior source with ties to the Communist Party leadership said Beijing was reluctant to jeopardise recently improved ties with Washington.

                                       EVEN THOUGH

UK Spies Hacked Diplomats' Phones, Emails, Guardian Report Claims

LONDON — A newspaper report that British eavesdropping agency GCHQ repeatedly hacked into foreign diplomats' phones and emails has prompted an angry response from traditional rival Russia and provoked demands for an investigation from Turkey and South Africa.

Apple: How Authorities Nibbled Customers' Private Information | ET | Yahoo Forced To Join Secret Program

Apple Reveals How Authorities Nibbled Into Customers' Private Information

NEW YORK — Apple says it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data for the six months ended in May.

The company, like some other businesses, had asked the U.S government to be able to share how many requests it received related to national security and how it handled them. Those requests were made as part of Prism, the recently revealed highly classified National Security Agency program that seizes records from Internet companies.

Prism appears to do what its name suggests. Like a triangular piece of glass, Prism takes large beams of data and helps the government find discrete, manageable strands of information.

Prism was revealed this month by The Washington Post and Guardian newspapers, and has touched off the latest round in a decade-long debate over what limits to impose on government eavesdropping, which the Obama administration says is essential to keep the nation safe.

Apple Inc. said that between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in data requests between Dec. 1, 2012, and May 31 from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters.

For More 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/apple-nsa_n_3453183.html

Yahoo Was Reportedly Forced To Join PRISM By A Secret Court

Yahoo fought PRISM, and PRISM won.

Fewer than 300 phones under lens in 2012: US | ET | Obama Thinks It Violates Customer Privacy

Fewer than 300 phones under lens in 2012: US

300 Phones under lens

WASHINGTON: The US government only searched for detailed information on calls involving fewer than 300 specific phone numbers among the millions of raw phone records collected by the National Security Agency in 2012, according to a government paper obtained by Reuters on Saturday.

The unclassified paper was circulated on Saturday within the government by US intelligence agencies and apparently is an attempt by spy agencies and the Obama administration to rebut accusations that it overreached in investigating potential militant plots.

The administration has said that even though the NSA, according to top-secret documents made public by former agency contractor Edward Snowden, collects massive amounts of data on message traffic from both US based telephone and internet companies, such data collection is legal, subject to tight controls and does not intrude on the privacy of ordinary Americans.

The paper circulated on Saturday said that data from the NSA phone and email collections programmes not only led US investigators to the ringleader of a plot to attack New York's subway system in 2009, but also to one of his co-conspirators in the United States.

For More

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Fewer-than-300-phones-under-lens-in-2012-US/articleshow/20624174.cms

NSA Surveillance Violates Constitution | ET | Facebook and Microsoft Release Numbers on Government Information Requests

Al Gore: NSA Surveillance Violates The Constitution

Former Vice President Al Gore broke with many of his fellow Democrats Friday and said that the NSA surveillance programs violate the constitution.

"This in my view violates the constitution. The fourth amendment and the first amendment – and the fourth amendment language is crystal clear," he told The Guardian, which revealed the agency's phone surveillance and reported on its Internet data-mining. "It is not acceptable to have a secret interpretation of a law that goes far beyond any reasonable reading of either the law or the constitution and then classify as top secret what the actual law is."

"I quite understand the viewpoint that many have expressed that they are fine with it and they just want to be safe but that is not really the American way," he added.

Gore called "blanket" surveillance "obscenely outrageous" in a tweet on June 5. Nevertheless, he has mostly criticized Obama over climate change, an issue where the 2000 presidential nominee won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in 2007.

For More

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/14/al-gore-nsa_n_3443646.html

                               EVEN THOUGH

Facebook and Microsoft Release Numbers on Government Information Requests

Facebook has disclosed that it has received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests from “government entities in the U.S.” in the six month period ending December 31, 2012.  These requests are “from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests),” according to a blog post written by Facebook general counsel Ted Ullyot.

And, according to Reuters, Microsoft disclosed Friday that it has received between 6,000 and 7,000 government requests during the last six months of 2012 that affected between 31,000 and 32,000 users.

For More

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2013/06/14/facebook-and-others-release-numbers-on-govt-information-requests/

Controversial spying programme helped nab Headley \ET\ US secret surveillance programme failed to track Headley

US secret surveillance programme failed to track Headley: Report

Headley 

WASHINGTON: Questioning the effectiveness of America's secret surveillance programme, a top investigative publication here has said the US intelligence failed to track Mumbai attack convict David Headley and he was arrested only after a tip off was provided by the British intelligence.


The US officials have repeatedly mentioned Headley's case to defend the controversial spying programme, saying the surveillance had been critical in thwarting potential terror attacks and also to track the 2008 Mumbai attack convict. 

"The government surveillance only caught up with Headley after the US had been tipped by British intelligence. And even that victory came after seven years in which US intelligence failed to stop Headley as he roamed the globe on missions for Islamic terror networks and Pakistan's spy agency," said ProPublica, an investigative publication. 

                                   EVEN THOUGH

Controversial spying programme helped nab Headley: Top American lawmaker

WASHINGTON: Defending the controversial phone and internet surveillance programmes of the US, a top American lawmaker backed the stand of the country's leaders and said it had prevented several terrorists' attacks and helped in nabbing David Headley, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks convict. 

Congressman Peter King, chairman of the counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee, said yesterday during a Congressional hearing. 

"The Director of National Intelligence (DNI), General (James) Clapper, has revealed that Headley's terror ties were discovered through the same National Security Agency programs that have come under criticism in past days," King said during the hearing which debated the threat being posed by LeT for a Mumbai type attack on the US. 

Discoveries ..!! Inside The NSA's Ultra-Secret China Hacking Group & Scientist Discovers New Structure Inside Human Body

Layer Of Human Eye,'Dua's Layer,' Discovered Behind Cornea

Harminder Dua

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown layer lurking in the human eye.

The newfound body part, dubbed Dua's layer, is a skinny but tough structure measuring just 15 microns thick, where one micron is one-millionth of a meter and more than 25,000 microns equal an inch. It sits at the back of the cornea, the sensitive, transparent tissue at the very front of the human eye that helps to focus incoming light, researchers say.

The feature is named for its discoverer, Harminder Dua, a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Nottingham. Dua said in a statement that the finding will not only change what ophthalmologists know about human eye anatomy, but it will also make operations safer and simpler for patients with an injury in this layer.

For More 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/layer-human-eye-duas-layer-cornea_n_3427580.html

Inside the NSA's Ultra-Secret China Hacking Group

NSA

For  More

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/06/10/inside_the_nsa_s_ultra_secret_china_hacking_group

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Why Sue Obama ..!! ACLU Suing Obama \ET\ U.S. intelligence Fed’s surveillance foiled 2009 NYC terror plot

ACLU Suing Obama Administration Over Phone Records Gathering

ACLU Suing Obama 

The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Obama administration, challenging the constitutionality of the phone surveillance program revealed by The Guardian.

The suit alleges that the program violates the First and Fourth amendments.

The suit takes issue with the so-called metadata that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court compelled Verizon Wireless to hand over to the National Security Agency under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

"The practice is akin to snatching every American’s address book—with annotations detailing whom we spoke to, when we talked, for how long, and from where," said the ACLU in the complaint. "It gives the government a comprehensive record of our associations and public movements, revealing a wealth of detail about our familial, political, professional, religious, and intimate associations."

The organization challenged the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments Act in 2008, and the Supreme Court dismissed it by a 5-4 vote.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/aclu-obama_n_3423378.html?ir=Politics

                                               EVEN THOUGH

U.S. intelligence official: Fed’s surveillance foiled 2009 NYC terror plot, amid calls to curb programs

FBI Stops Terrotrist attacks

As calls on Capitol Hill and across the country intensify to rein in surveillance programs, a senior U.S. intelligence official says the federal government's tracking of phone calls and Internet activity helped foil a 2009 terror plot on the New York City subways, the Associated Press reported.

The official's remark follows Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, saying Thursday the programs thwarted a terrorism plot.

However, civil libertarians and some members of Congress say the National Security Agency surveillance programs to hunt terrorists were too broad and collected too much information about innocent Americans.

News of the programs -- first about the phone calls, then about the Internet activities -- was revealed late Wednesday and Friday.

In one program, the NSA collected daily records of millions of phone calls made and received by U.S. citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing.

The senior U.S. intelligence official who asserted Friday that the phone records program together with other technical intercepts thwarted the subway plot would not provide other details. The official was not authorized to discuss the plot publicly and requested anonymity.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/08/us-intelligence-official-feds-surveillance-foiled-200-nyc-terror-plot-amid/#ixzz2W0Lzn9Lu