BIG BROTHERNo Longer Fiction

Eisenhower

Jan. 17, 1961 (farewell address): Warned the nation of the potential for “unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

Also said one of the ways this could manifest is through the “danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

The Internet Generation

Pause to consider this: you probably use the internet for several hours each week, if not every day of your life. Fifteen years ago this would not have been the case. Most of us have barely begun to grasp what age we live in. Usually history grants that perspective.

Could Eisenhower have been referring to our time? Are we living in a time where his words are applicable?

?

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

The 4th Amendment

Warrants Probable cause Oath or affirmation supporting

probable cause Particularly describing place to be

searched Particularly describing the persons to

be searched or things to be seized

Edward Snowden

“I don’t want public attention because I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing.”

NSA consultant, leaked doc. to Guardian Another recent piece: “the NSA reportedly

is making a copy of nearly every international email. It then searched that cloned data, keeping all of the emails containing keywords and deleting the rest – all in a matter of seconds.”

William Binney

A Question for William Binney Q: Does this scandal prove that there is

no such thing as privacy in the surveillance state?

“Well yes, that’s what I’ve been basically saying for quite some time, is that the FBI has access to the data collected which is basically the emails of virtually everybody in the country and the FBI has access to it, all the congressional members are under surveillance too. No one’s excluded.”

Mark Klein

Worked for AT&T facility in San Francisco

2003: Discovered a room 641A where NSA was splitting off cables and copying information traffic on the internet.

Russell Tice

Russell Tice: An Introduction Worked for the NSA as satellite

systems specialist. Worked with 2005 NYT piece “Spying

Program Snared U.S. Calls” where it was written that the program was used to spy on only “as many as 500 people at any one time.”

A Question for Russell Tice Q: Can you give us your impression on

what’s been released… what’s being talked about and what’s not being talked about so far?

“Here’s the big thing: NSA collects everything. NSA collects word-for-word content of every phone call communication, of every email, of every Skype message system, of everything. Of all the Facebook and all the Google and all that other information too. They collect everything. It’s all automated by system.”

More from Russell Tice

Went on Keith Olbermann Jan. 21, 2009 (day after Bush presidency ended).

Speaking back on that appearance, said “back then the NSA didn’t have the capability to go after everything” for a couple reasons.

“One was they didn’t have the computer processing capability to go after, to process everything. The second was they didn’t have the electricity. They literally didn’t have the power.”

“For more than a couple years, they were making everyone at analysts – or all the folks at NSA – freeze during the winter and roast during the summer because they were cutting back on heating and air conditioning to pump more electricity into those vast computers that they were setting up…. they didn’t have the electricity to run everything.”

Tice continued

“Hence, they were upgrading facilities at Fort Meade [NSA Headquarters] as best they could. They were going to other places in Texas and in Georgia. And then ultimately, the key was to build this Bluffdale, Utah facility out west.”

Upgrading

What Are They Storing?

Answer: Everything Tice: “They decided they were just going to

collect everything.” “Then later on at some point they wanna go

‘Okay we want to know what Mr. Corbett said in the last seven years’ or whatever for some reason, and they go back and they pull out all your information, all the conversations you’ve had in the last seven years and then they process that information and… have human analysts looking at it.”

Why Privacy Matters

Daniel J. Solove, Associate Professor, GWU Law School: “Commentators often attempt to refute the nothing-to-

hide argument by pointing to things people want to hide. But the problem with the nothing-to-hide argument is the underlying assumption that privacy is about hiding bad things. By accepting this assumption, we concede far too much ground and invite an unproductive discussion about information that people would very likely want to hide. As… Schneier aptly notes, the nothing-to-hide argument stems from a faulty ‘premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong.’ Surveillance, for example, can inhibit such lawful activities as free speech, free association, and other First Amendment rights essential for democracy.”

A Question for Edward Snowden Q: Why should people care about surveillance? “Because even if you’re not doing anything wrong you’re

being watched and recorded, and the storage capabilities of these systems increases every year consistently by orders of magnitude to where it’s getting to the point you don’t even have to have done anything wrong. You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody – even by a wrong call – and then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you’ve ever made, every friend you’ve ever discussed something with, and attack you on that basis to sort of derive suspicion from an innocent life and paint anyone in the context of a wrongdoer.”

Corroborates Tice

What We Know

So, system collects everything. Can then target specific people to

find their information.

Other Dangers

Corbett: “If knowledge is power, then the knowledge that comes with collection of all, interception of all communications in the United States and around the world is just an incredible amount of power that obviously can be used politically. …I think the number one implication of all this is the power that can be used via blackmail.”

Some people targeted by NSA (Tice): Journalists Members of Congress – both houses Federal judges Every member of the Supreme Court (held Alito’s paperwork in

his hand) Scott McClellan, White House Press Secretary Colin Powell – Secretary of State, Generals - Shinsheki &

Petraeus Obama (back in 2004)

Conclusion

The political system of the United States is predicated upon a delicate balance of powers – “checks and balances” – some of which are vested in its citizens. Given the apparent tension between recently leaked government surveillance programs and certain civil liberties, we should pay close attention to what is going on around us.

Outcomes

Be able to state basic purpose and provisions of (familiar with) 4th Amendment (e.g. warrants)

Recognize tensions between 4th Amendment and current (leaked) government surveillance programs

State one danger resulting from granting government these powers (universal warrantless surveillance)

Bibliography

Presidential Farewell Address – Dwight D. EisenhowerAmericanRhetoric.com: http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwightdeisenhowerfarewell.html

United States Constitution, Amendment IVArchives.gov: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

“Meet the Whistleblower Responsible for the Massive NSA Leak”Alternet.org: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/whistleblower

“The NSA is turning the internet into a total surveillance system”The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/11/nsa-internet-surveillance-email

“NSA Whistleblower: Everyone in US under virtual surveillance, all info stored, no matter the post”Youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuET0kpHoyM

“AT&T Whistle-Blower’s Evidence”Wired.com: archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/05/70908

Bibliography cont.

“Interview 685 – Russ Tice Reveals the Truth About NSA Spying”The Corbett Report.com: http://www.corbettreport.com/interview-685-russ-tice-reveals-the-truth-about-nsa-spying/

“Spying Program Snared U.S. Calls”The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/politics/21nsa.html

“The NSA’s New Spy Facilities are 7 Times Bigger Than the Pentagon”DefenseOne.com: http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2013/07/nsas-big-dig/67406/

“Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’”The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-if/127461/

“NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: ‘I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things’”Youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLjuVyIIrs