News you may have missed #739
May 30, 2012 4 Comments
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
►►US Supreme Court to consider case on secret wiretapping. The Supreme Court has agreed to consider blocking a constitutional challenge to the government’s secret wiretapping of international phone calls and emails. At issue is whether Americans who have regular dealings with overseas clients and co-workers can sue to challenge the sweep of this surveillance if they have a “reasonable fear” their calls will be monitored. The case, to be heard in the fall, will put a spotlight on a secret surveillance program that won congressional approval in the last year of President George W. Bush’s presidency.
►►Analysis: Why is CIA applauding DoD’s intel grab? Last month, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced the creation of a new US espionage agency: the Defense Clandestine Service, or DCS. The new agency is expected to expand the Pentagon’s espionage personnel by several hundred over the next few years, while reportedly leaving budgets largely unchanged. The news nonetheless surprised some observers in Washington because the move appeared, at least initially, to be a direct challenge to the Central Intelligence Agency, whose National Clandestine Service leads the country’s spy work overseas. Then came a second surprise: former CIA officers and other intelligence experts started applauding. The question is why.
►►FBI forms secretive online surveillance unit. On May 22, CNet’s Declan McCullagh revealed that the FBI had quietly formed a new Domestic Communications Assistance Center (DCAC), tasked with developing new electronic surveillance technologies, including intercepting Internet, wireless, and VoIP communications. According to McCullagh, DCAC’s goal is “to invent technology that will […] more readily eavesdrop on Internet and wireless communications”. The Bureau seems to have indirectly responded with an article on CBS on May 23, in which it says its officers are “responding to two threats: the sophisticated computer hacking skills of outside intelligence agencies and the possibility of a trusted insider giving away secrets”. The article points out that the biggest spy threat to the US “comes not from the spy, but from the mouse”. Hence the need for the DCAC, one would imagine.
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does the dcs have to play by the same rules as the cia ?
Because all Intel, Legal, Pub. Safety, Law Enf., Public Health, Govt. Agencies, Quasi Governmental Private Contractor Special Ops, and N.G.O.’s are assimilating FORCES for Global Revolution by BLACK OPS, and OTHER special Secret any means for the National Security / Public Safety/ Public Health SCHEME, RUSE, SCAM. SCHAM!
could you please do an overview of all the various intelligence agencies in the usa that are involved in spying, especially on usa citizens? they seem to be springing up like weeds. how do they avoid stepping on each other’s toes?
has there ever been a time in american history where the usa gov has been more involved in spying on its own citizens while at the same time more determined to keep its own doings a secret from the american people?
@Pickle head: Thanks for the suggestion, but there is no need to replicate what others are already doing: ACLU, EFF, StateWatch (in Europe), CDT, the list is literally endless. [IA]