Wall Street Journal- NSA’s Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data
An exerpt from NSA’s Domestic Spying Grows
As Agency Sweeps Up Data
The NSA
now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records. The NSA receives this so-called “transactional” data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs across the U.S. government, such as the NSA’s own Terrorist Surveillance Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and overseas without a judge’s approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected.
The NSA’s enterprise involves a cluster of powerful intelligence-gathering programs, all of which sparked civil-liberties complaints when they came to light. They include a Federal Bureau of Investigation program to track telecommunications data once known as Carnivore, now called the Digital Collection System, and a U.S. arrangement with the world’s main international banking clearinghouse to track money movements.
The effort also ties into data from an ad-hoc collection of so-called “black programs” whose existence is undisclosed, the current and former officials say. Many of the programs in various agencies began years before the 9/11 attacks but have since been given greater reach. Among them, current and former intelligence officials say, is a longstanding Treasury Department program to collect individual financial data including wire transfers and credit-card transactions.
I vaguely wonder if the NSA might have played a role in the Eliot Spitzer “hidden financial transactions” story. Not that I doubt there are other organizations and agencies which can monitor financial transactions like that… also, I wonder how deep the iceberg is in a case like this one. After all, we do read allegations of “hooking points” lists for “potential moles from Pentagon-related institutions” on occassion (at least in the foreign press). So, one might guess that someone in a prominent position such as Governor or Congressman might also find their name on a “hooking points list”. Purely speculation on my part, of course…
H/T to Thought Police
Tags: data mining, Eliot Spitzer, financial data, hooking points, NSA, privacy, surveillance
March 11, 2008 at 5:27 pm
There are always multiples layers to the story. Spitzer’s case is intriguing since he was so closely connected to the key government and Wall Street players. His role as AG was to eliminate competition for his favored corporations by indicting them. He did the same with the vice busts in the city. Maybe he has become too big of a liability with the driver’s license for illegal fiasco, Trooper-gate scandal, and questionable financial dealings. We will probably never know the full story. Also, we should expect one or more individuals to end up dead or missing in the weeks to come.
As far as the NSA, I have resigned myself to know they are watching. I pay for purchases in cash and intentionally engage in disinfo, arguments followed by counter-arguments, and intentional self-defamation. That way when I am prosecuted for the new thought crime, I have defense evidence showing that I did not really believe what I said. I know it sounds convoluted, but I deem it necessary.
March 12, 2008 at 2:53 am
According to the article linked below, Spitzer’s “smurfing activities” were reported by banks to the IRS and then assigned to the “public corruption unit of the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/spitzer_the_money_trail
more info than I expected to see in print about it, but I can’t easily verify or refute it…
March 12, 2008 at 3:37 am
“Spitzer might have tried to keep his transfers below the $10,000 threshold, underestimating the scrutiny that banks give to lesser amounts.”
That is like the stupid tax dodger that makes 2 deposits of $5,000 thinking he will avoid raising the ire of the bank, the feds, and the IRS. What a dolt.
March 12, 2008 at 6:29 am
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/10/spitzer/index.html
“The investigation into the Emperor’s Club, which began in October 2007, included evidence from a confidential source identified in court papers as a prostitute who worked at the club in 2006 and was given immunity.
It also included statements from an undercover officer who posed as a customer, more than 5,000 intercepted phone calls and text messages, more than 6,000 e-mails recovered with search warrants, bank records, travel and hotel records and physical surveillance.”
Here’s a link where one can apparently see a redacted copy of the complete Criminal Complaint (which runs to 47 pages- quite a few of them redacted, especially towards the end) against the Emperor’s club.
Client-9 information (allegedly Spitzer) appears between the bottom of page 26 and the top of page 31.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2253740/NY-Governor-Spitzer-Criminal-Complaint
March 13, 2008 at 2:03 am
[...] We want the next Britney or Paris. We want spectacle and scandal and MySpace privacy invasion and the text of text messages on a victimless crime. Give us more surveillance, invade our privacy, data mine us, we don’t give a sh*t. We want [...]
May 6, 2008 at 4:18 am
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