Details of the warrantless mass surveillance of Americans don't need to be divulged by the federal government, ruled a federal judge recently. The government can keep their secrets hidden from the public by asserting "state secrets privilege" (national security).
A case fought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of 5 Americans since 2008 was to reveal the fulls cope of the mass surveillance program being conducted on Americans. After over 10 years, U.S. District Judge Jeffery White brings an end to this saga by agreeing with the Department of Justice.
This started before the infamous details of the existence of the mass surveillance program was revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden who now resides in Russia in order to avoid US persecution for his leaks. Judge White said revealing data about the government collecting data on the five plaintiffs internet and phone data would threaten national security. That's the tired old excuse that's used to shut down and revelation of government activity.
Evidence exists of the government violating the Wiretap Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, but the judge refused to hear it, as Courthouse News reported:
"The judge refused to consider a letter the government accidentally disclosed to The New York Times in 2015, identifying AT&T, Verizon and Sprint as companies that gave the NSA access to customers’ phone records. Because the government inadvertently disclosed the document and disputes its authenticity, White said he could not rely on it.
White also declined to rely on a 2009 NSA inspector general’s draft report describing another mass surveillance program. Although former NSA contractor and fugitive Edward Snowden vouched for its legitimacy in a sworn declaration, White refused to consider it because the government would not authenticate it."
Since revealing "classified information" is more important to keep secret than the truth of what has been going on, the federal judge is whitewashing the whole case and refusing to do their job. Unless the government admits they did something, they courts can't let anyone sue the government for what they did.
Isn't that just absurd? Imagine someone does something wrong. Then the so-called "justice" system says proof of the wrong can't be admitted as evidence unless the accused admit it happened. No justice would ever be done in society!
This shows the crazy blind obedience to government authority that is imposed upon us in society. We live in a corrupt world where the government can get away with neatly anything, so long as it's denied and "classified" or categorized as "national security".
Judge White also denied evidence from a former AT&T employee who divulged in 2003 that he found a secret room used for monitoring AT&T customers:
“However, the Court confirms its earlier finding that Klein cannot establish the content, function, or purpose of the secure room at the AT&T site based on his own independent knowledge. The limited knowledge that Klein does possess firsthand does not support Plaintiffs’ contention about the actual operation of the data collection process or the alleged agency role of AT&T. Klein can only speculate about what data were actually processed and by whom in the secure room and how and for what purpose, as he was never involved in its operation.”
This is great news for the deep state and their surveillance of all aspects of life. The NSA said last year that they had "stopped" the mass surveillance under PRISM which Edward Snowden blew the lid off of. This is because they law that allowed it's operation terminated. This didn't meant hey didn't have new programs started up that did the same or more surveillance.
But now, the Trump administration, according to officials speaking on condition of anonimity, is likely to renew the mass surveillance law within the Patriot Act (Section 215) to enable NSA to gather and analyze American phone lines. This will simply give them an aura of legal authority to do it, despite likely still having been doing it regardless.
After all, "terrorism" is a national security threat, so this is all "legal", right "justice" system? The terrorism of the government is ignored though, as they persecute those who expose their criminal activity, like Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.
A bunch of authorities for surveillance are set to expire at the end of 2019. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the Senate Intelligence Committee's ranking Democrat, says he's "certainly open to hearing from the intelligence community about all the authorities set to expire near the end of 2019". Section 215 is expected to see opposition for nenewal from both parties and civil liberties advocates. But will that be enough to keep it scrapped? I doubt it.
We now have "reverse warrants" being issued to gather data on anyone in a target area where a crime was committed. Just because you were somewhere near a crime at the time before or after it happened, you become a suspect. At least one person was being falsely pursued by police using this method as he was their #1 suspect. Luckily in his case, they realized their mistake. But how many will be targeted, detained, prosecuted and sentenced based on nothing but phone data...
References:
- Judge Kills Lawsuit Over Mass Surveillance Programs
- Judge Dodges Legality of NSA Mass Spying, Citing Secrecy Claims
- Permanent renewal of NSA law possible
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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Posted from KURE