NSA Chief Keith Alexander stepping down ! Blowback after Snowden disclosures and checkered record of actual success in foiling terror probably forced Alexander's hand - better to leave with dignity rather tan being shoved out the door !

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/10/fisa-amendments-act-concealing/

Feds Sued for Hiding NSA Spying From Terror Defendants

• BY DAVID KRAVETS
• 10.17.13
• 4:34 PM

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. reportedly wants more transparency concerning prosecutions under warrantless spy program. Photo: David Kravets/WIRED

Five years after Congress authorized warrantless electronic spying, the Obama administration has never divulged to a single defendant that they were the target of this type of phone or email surveillance — despite lawmakers’ claims the snooping has stopped terrorist plots and resulted in arrests.

The reason federal prosecutors are keeping mum, and perhaps violating federal rules requiring the government to tell defendants where evidence was obtained, is because such a concession would pave the way for a challenge to the constitutionality of the surveillance tactics, which Congress approved in 2008 and then again in December.

Against that backdrop, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a new lawsuit today in New York federal court against the Justice Department, demanding an accounting of the defendants ensnared under the law, known as the FISA Amendments Act, which codified President George W. Bush’s once-secret spy program adopted in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The suit is in response to the government not answering the civil rights group’s Freedom of Information Act request in March.

The suit (.pdf) said that the Justice Department’s failure to “release responsive records is of particular concern because the request relates to a highly controversial surveillance authority whose wisdom, effectiveness, and legality is a matter of intense and ongoing public debate.”

The suit comes as U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. reportedly is arguing internally that there is “no legal basis” for failing to disclose to defendants if they were a target of the warrantless surveillance. To be sure, there’s been plenty of defendants ensnared under the program.

In Senate hearings in December, just days before the legislation was set to expire. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) successfully urged her fellow lawmakers to do what the House had done:Reauthorize the act for another five years. She described at least nine terror plots that were broken up by the program, and said “There have been 100 arrests to prevent something from happening in the United States, some of these plots have been thwarted because of this program. I think it is a vital program.” (.pdf)

The government’s secrecy on the matter was pivotal in killing a challenge to the legislation before the Supreme Court.

Ruling 5-4 in February the justices set aside the ACLU’s challenge because the plaintiffs — journalists and human rights groups the ACLU was representing — had no evidence they were surveilled under  the authority of the FISA Amendments Act.

But the court’s decision did not foreclose a constitutional challenge. The justices said that, if the government “intends to use” evidence obtained in such a manner, “the government must provide advance notice of its intent, and the affected person may challenge the lawfulness of the acquisition.”

The act generally requires the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to rubberstamp terror-related electronic surveillance requests. The government does not have to identify the target or facility to be monitored. It can begin surveillance a week before making the request, and the surveillance can continue during the appeals process if, in a rare case, the secret FISA court rejects the surveillance application.

The court was adopted in the wake of the President Richard M. Nixon Watergate scandal, and provided authorities a way to conduct authorized surveillance in secret while under the auspices of a court for the purpose of acquiring “foreign intelligence.”

Terror suspects Sheheryar Alam Qazi, left, and brother Raees Alam Qazi. Photo: Broward Sheriff’s Office

The government’s change of heart on whether disclosure was required first became public in the prosecution of brothers accused of plotting to blow up a high-profile target in New York City.

The terrorism case concerns brothers Raees Alam Qazi, 20, and Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30.

Among other things, prosecutors said the younger Pakistani-born brother surfed Al-Qaida internet sites to learn how to build a bomb. The FBI recorded telephone calls allegedly linking him to a plot to blow up a New York landmark last year.

In May, the authorities said doing so would disclose “sensitive national security information.”

But in July, the authorities said it “does not intend to use any information obtained or derived from FAA-authorized surveillance.” The government did not say, however, whether it has such evidence or built a case on it.

But the authorities said that its May filing “is not the government’s position.”

Latest Snowden leak details NSA’s involvement in lethal drone strikes

Published time: October 17, 2013 03:47

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The National Security Agency provided the Central Intelligence Agency with crucial information on an associate of Osama bin Laden, who was killed days later by a US drone strike, according to a report based on documents provided by Edward Snowden.

Hassan Ghul was a known Al-Qaeda operative in Iraq who was captured in 2004 and turned over information regarding bin Laden’s courier network. He was transferred to a secret CIA prison before being released to Pakistan in 2006. Ghul was killed six years later in the country’s tribal belt, eliminated by a drone strike that the US has never publicly acknowledged. 

Now, a new report from The Washington Post has revealed that an email from Ghul’s wife “about her current living conditions” was intercepted by the NSA and provided enough information to determine where the wanted Ghul had gone into hiding. 

The Post did withhold information at the request of US officials who said that full disclosure could hurt national security. 

“This information enabled a capture/kill operation against an individual believed to be Hassan Ghul on October 1,” a document summarizing the mission indicated. 

The files seen by the Post did not detail how the message was monitored. 

While the CIA was given a budget of $14.7 billion in 2012, the NSA was designated $10.8 billion. An important function of the latter agency became monitoring the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the remote part of northwest Pakistan where Al-Qaeda brass is known to have taken refuge. 

“The NSA threw the kitchen sink at the FATA,” one former intelligence official told the Post. “But if you wanted huge coverage of the FATA, NSA had 10 times the manpower, 20 times the budget, and 100 times the brainpower” of smaller intelligence units.  

The NSA used signals intelligence (SIGINT) methods to catch Ghul by secretly monitoring laptops and obtaining audio files and other messages. The agency is also thought to have levied similar efforts on other drone targets. 

Ghul became one of the most interesting characters in the hunt for Al-Qaeda because, upon being captured in 2004, he inadvertently revealed that the fugitive bin Laden relied on a courier network to communicate with the outside world. In doing so, he disclosed the identity of the trusted courier known as al-Kuwaiti, whom US officials would eventually follow to bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout.

During his detention at a CIA black site, Ghul was subjected to stress positions and sleep deprivation. When the Bush administration decided to close the black site in 2006, he was not among the high-value detainees selected for transfer to Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Instead he was transferred to a Pakistani intelligence agency and freed without US authorization. 

The agency’s role in coordinating the strike went past providing Ghul’s location. It was also charged with making sure the drone strike eliminated the correct target. The NSA document indicated that “through SIGNIT, it was confirmed that Hassan Ghul was in fact killed.” 

In a statement to the Post, the NSA only said it was “focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets, such as terrorists, human traffickers and drug smugglers. Our activities are directed against valid foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements from US leaders in order to protect the nation and its interests from threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-16/keith-alexander-nsa-head-stepping-down

Keith Alexander, NSA Head, Stepping Down

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/16/2013 18:10 -0400

• Reuters
 
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After eight years at the helm of "America's secret cyber army", NSA head Keith Alexander, has decided to spend more time with his family and less time with yours, and is stepping down. According to US officials, the director of the NSA and his deputy are expected to depart in coming months, in a move that almost certainly would not have happened without the involvement of America's most infamous whistleblower currently self-exiled in Russia, Edward Snowden in a development which according to Reuters, "could give Obama a chance to reshape the eavesdropping agency."

It is unclear what he would "reshape" it into: at last check the Stasi headquarters in Berlin did not have quite the capacity to house the Cray supercomputers needed to make sure that anyone and everyone caught selling stocks gets a lifetime audit guarantee from the IRS.

We are confident, however, that with the surge in government-employed architects coming back to "work" from their 17 days paid vacation, someone will have an idea or two.

From Reuters:

Army General Keith Alexander's eight-year tenure was rocked this year by revelations contained in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the agency's widespread scooping up of telephone, e-mail and social media data.

Alexander has formalized plans to leave by next March or April, while his civilian deputy, John "Chris" Inglis, is due to retire by year's end, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It also wasn't clear who would replace the man who once upon a time made his office into a replica of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, although there certainly are candidates.

One leading candidate to replace Alexander is Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, currently commander of the U.S. Navy's 10th Fleet and U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, officials told Reuters. The 10th Fleet and Fleet Cyber Command both have their headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland, between Washington and Baltimore. The NSA is also headquartered at Fort Meade.

There has been no final decision on selecting Rogers to succeed Alexander, and other candidates may be considered, the officials said.

More importantly, the question is whether with America's domestic espionage and email address book collection efforts exposed for the entire world to see, courtesy of Edward Snowden, will Obama decide to engage in a strategic shift in policy, or merely double down and install RFID chips into every newborn American.

While both men are leaving voluntarily, the dual vacancies give Obama an opportunity both to install new leadership following Snowden's revelations and to decide whether the NSA and Cyber Command should have separate leaders.

Cyber Command, which has grown significantly in recent years, has the authority to engage in both defensive and offensive operations in cyberspace. Many NSA veterans argue that having the same person lead the spy agency and Cyber Command diminishes the emphasis on the NSA's work and its unique capabilities.

Rogers has been the Navy's top cyber commander since September 2011. Prior to that, he was director of intelligence for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and for the U.S. Pacific Command.

Rogers is "a good leader, very insightful and well thought of within the community," said a U.S. defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Rogers has worked hard to ensure that the Navy has sufficient sailors trained to take on added cyber responsibilities for U.S. Cyber Command, the official said.

Sorry, we forgot to add "rhetorical" before question.

Giant NSA Data Center Will Probably Hold a Bunch of Spam

NSA Saw It Was Collecting Too Much Data in Contact List Harvesting

NSA Surveillance Hasn’t Foiled a Single Plot Something else to ponder...... If Intelligence workers are non essential , why are they employed ? http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/16/experts-shocked-baffled-that-thousands-of-intelligence-workers-were-furloughed-as-part-of-shutdown/ Experts shocked, baffled that thousands of intelligence workers were furloughed as part of shutdown POSTED AT 6:01 PM ON OCTOBER 16, 2013 BY ALLAHPUNDIT The stories about the Park Service barricading memorials are irresistible as examples of petty harassment of the public to build opposition to the shutdown, but this McClatchy piece about intel furloughs is far more consequential. Take five minutes to read it all. It’s a true scandal, either a case of shocking incompetence by Clapper or the most sinister form of shutdown theater that the feds have engaged in. Darrell Issa’s House committee spent the morning grilling the head of the Park Service about the Barrycading of federal parks but this is what they should really be holding hearings on. And Clapper’s job, which should have been taken from him long ago after he lied to Congress about the extent of NSA snooping, should be taken now. One simple question: Did the Director of National Intelligence decide to send thousands of his employees home despite believing that American lives depended upon them staying put? Note that it isn’t Republican congressmen who find this mystifying. It’s industry experts, at least one of whom has a name you’ll recognize. A review by McClatchy finds that lawmakers, former intelligence officials and national security experts say they were shocked that the administration furloughed the bulk of federal workers at 16 intelligence agencies, many of them tasked with the most important job in the government: safeguarding lives. “It’s difficult for me to understand,” said Leon Panetta, who served as the director of the CIA and the secretary of defense under President Barack Obama. “People that are involved in our intelligence are critical. You can’t possibly put 70 percent on furlough and not harm national security.”… [Some] say the process was surprisingly haphazard – a moving target based on public pressure, differing legal opinions, a new law passed to ensure that the military got paid, even a change of heart. J. David Cox Sr., the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 670,000 federal workers, said some managers had changed their minds after being criticized by the public or lawmakers. “There’s absolutely no rhyme or reason to it,” he said. “They keep changing the rules. As the pressure is on, they’re saying, ‘Just come back to work.’”… Todd Harrison, a senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said a “simple reading” of [OMB/DOJ shutdown guideline] documents should have persuaded officials at intelligence agencies that civilian employees shouldn’t have been sent home. “They should never have been furloughed if there was a risk to loss of life,” he said. You’re supposed to furlough “nonessential” employees. When asked whether he thought employees who help prevent American citizens from being killed are “nonessential,” Clapper said no but that he was forced to make “painful choices.” His defenders argue that not until Congress passed a law during the shutdown reinstating pay for federal employees who provide direct support to the military was he legally authorized to bring civilians back from furlough. But that’s belied not only by Harrison’s point in the excerpt but the fact that Clapper himself reinstated some employees at agencies like the National Counterterrorism Center just a day after he appeared before Congress on October 2. Even if you accept the good-faith explanation that his lawyers told him he didn’t have statutory authority to bring people back right away, this makes twice that the defense/intelligence wings of the government decided to read the law bizarrely narrowly rather than expansively. The first time was when the Pentagon decided it couldn’t pay death benefits to the families of fallen troops; that came as a surprise to House Armed Services Committee chair Buck McKeon, who thought the bill Congress passed reinstating pay for the military was broad enough to cover that. McKeon was surprised at the intel furloughs too, saying, “Though I do not believe the law required these hundreds of thousands of workers to be furloughed in the first place, it is welcome news” that they were reinstated. So why were they furloughed to begin with? While you ponder that, via the Free Beacon here’s NPS chief Jon Jarvis at today’s hearing admitting that he discussed the closures with the White House — but that they were all his idea, don’tcha know. Blowback from Asia - Pac and BRIC nations against Tech Companies possibly compromised by NSA ? IBM Craters To 2 Year Low On Massive Revenue Miss, Asia-Pac, BRIC Sales Both Plunge 15% Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/16/2013 - 16:19 Judging by the plunge in IBM stock after hours (accounting for a major portion of the Dow Jones Non-industrial Average Index), the CFO can't pay shareholders with hopium and rumors. The reason: while IBM beat EPS modestly with avery adjusted bottom line of $3.99, beating estimates of $3.96, driven mostly by this: "IBM’s tax rate was 16.0 percent, down 8.6 points year over year" (assuming a flat tax rate Y/Y, GAAP EPS would plunge from $3.68 to $3.30), it was revenues - that ongoing 2013 horror story for the "stawk" and economic "recovery" - that was the problem, because instead of printing at $24.74 billion where it was expected, sales missed by a whopping $1 billion, or $23.72 billion. Of note: while America revenues of $10.3 billion dropped just 1%, and Europe was actually up 1%, it was the all important China and Japan, i.e. Asia-Pacific, where revenues cratered by an unprecedented 15%! So much for both Abenomics and the Chinese "recovery." And what's worse, the Emerging Market calamity of Q3 finally took a big bite: "Revenues in the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — were down 15 percent." Time to push the global recovery myth to the 4th half of 2013 (the third half is where the government shutdown will be squeezed).