The National Security Agency is building a
data center in San Antonio that’s the size of the Alamodome. Microsoft has opened an
11-acre data center a few miles away. Coincidence? Not according to author
James Bamford, who probably knows more about the NSA than any outsider. Bamford's
new book reports that the biggest U.S. spy agency wanted assurances that Microsoft would be in San Antonio before it moved ahead with the
Texas Cryptology Center. Bamford notes that under current law, the NSA could legally tap into Microsoft’s data without a court order. Whatever you do, don't take pictures of it the spy building unless you
want to be taken in for questioning.
posted by up in the old hotel
on Dec 8, 2008 -
42 comments
"Ever since President Bush confirmed the existence of a National Security Administration wiretapping program in late 2005, he has insisted it is aimed only at terrorists’ calls and protects Americans’ civil liberties ("
This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America — and I repeat: limited.")....However,
ABC News reports [
text with embedded video] that the NSA frequently listened to and transcribed the private phone calls of Americans abroad....These conversations included those of American soldiers stationed in Iraq and American aid workers abroad, such as Doctors Without Borders."
* [more inside]
posted by ericb
on Oct 9, 2008 -
75 comments
The New Hows and Whys of Global Eavesdropping [
book review: for access: "legion" "legion"] Remember chatter? After 9/11, it was all over the news. For months, snatches of cellphone conversations in Karachi or Tora Bora routinely made the front page. Television newscasters could chill the blood instantly by reporting on "increased levels of chatter" somewhere in the ether. But what exactly was it? Who was picking it up, and how were they making sense of it?
Patrick Radden Keefe does his best to answer these questions and demystify a very mysterious subject in "Chatter," a beginner's guide to the world of electronic espionage and the work of the National Security Agency, responsible for communications security and signals intelligence, or "sigint." In a series of semiautonomous chapters, he describes Echelon, the vast electronic intelligence-gathering system operated by the United States and its English-speaking allies; surveys the current technology of global eavesdropping; and tries to sort out the vexed issue of privacy rights versus security demands in a world at war with terrorism.
posted by Postroad
on Mar 2, 2005 -
16 comments
A third-rate bugging? Did Pennsylvania Republicans plant listening devices to gain an advantage in the next Philadelphia mayoral election? I think they did and in
his words, that's the truth!
posted by Bag Man
on Oct 8, 2003 -
16 comments
Everyone eavesdrops but few people catalog the fragments of conversation that they overhear.
This guy travels on the
London Underground regularly...and posts some of those one sided exchanges that make you wonder
what the hell people are talking about. (its my first FPP - play nice...)
posted by mattr
on Aug 25, 2003 -
45 comments
Bug Bug Buggy - Electronic bugging devices have been found at offices used by French and German delegations at European Union headquarters in Brussels.
I think I can guess where fingers will get pointed....
posted by tomcosgrave
on Mar 19, 2003 -
11 comments
The ACLU wants to protect your privacy from government electronic surveillance programs like Echelon and Carnivore. Their
full page ad in today's NYT claims
4th amendment rights are being violated by the US government, which is overstepping their bounds, and nearly free of up-to-date laws. Is it to late or can anything be done to protect civilian electronic communication?
posted by mathowie
on Apr 15, 2001 -
7 comments
An eaves dropping 'blog - for example:
"I looked over, and I noticed that she's stepped out of her Kia, and is talking on her Nokia cell phone... in the parking lot of Ikea."
"And...?"
--Two guys in line for the ATM
posted by TuxHeDoh
on Oct 5, 2000 -
4 comments
