17 Aug 2013

With new documents, it is now impossible to deny that the NSA has unlawfully spied on Americans

By Madison Ruppert: Despite the best efforts of the US government and some talking heads in the media, it is now officially impossible to deny that the National Security Agency (NSA) has conducted unlawful surveillance of Americans.
With the latest round of documents leaked by Edward Snowden and published by The Washington Post (after they held back the release for quite some time), the public has finally gained a glimpse into the ugly reality of the NSA’s surveillance.
The documents give the public some insight into the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) finding last year which stated that the government’s surveillance breached the Fourth Amendment on at least one occasion.
The new documents released by the Post reveal that even in the agency’s own internal reviews, they found that privacy rules were broken and its legal authority was overstepped thousands of times every year since 2008.
Many of the agency’s infractions involve spying on Americans or foreign targets within the United States without proper authorization.

“They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls,” the Post reported.
The level of detail shown in the document is so thorough that it goes beyond what is “routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance,” according to the Post.

In other words, the agency is keeping this information secret. Glenn Greenwald, the reporter for the Guardian that initially covered Snowden’s leaks and interviewed the leaker in Hong Kong, asked on Twitter, “what possible excuse is there for marking those [documents released by the Post] top secret?”
Greenwald also brought up a point that cannot be overlooked:


Glenn Greenwald         @ggreenwald
One key to the WashPost story: the reports are internal, NSA audits, which means high likelihood of both under-counting & white-washing

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