The New Yorker's Damning Dissection of "Leak" Prosecution of Thomas Drake

[Slimprofits]

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...3fa_fact_mayer

...Drake says that, in the fall of 2001, he told Baginski he feared that the agency was breaking the law. He says that to some extent she shared his views, and later told him she feared that the agency would be “haunted” by the surveillance program. In 2003, she left the agency for the F.B.I., in part because of her discomfort with the surveillance program. Drake says that, at one point, Baginski told him that if he had concerns he should talk to the N.S.A.’s general counsel. Drake claims that he did, and that the agency’s top lawyer, Vito Potenza, told him, “Don’t worry about it. We’re the executive agent for the White House. It’s all been scrubbed. It’s legal.” When he pressed further, Potenza told him, “It’s none of your business.” (Potenza, who is now retired, declined to comment.)...

well worth reading the entire thing

[Slimprofits]

Re: New Yorker on NSA domestic spying, upcoming leak trial

yet another devastating, ho-hum article that will probably change nothing

Binney, for his part, believes that the agency now stores copies of all e-mails transmitted in America, in case the government wants to retrieve the details later. In the past few years, the N.S.A. has built enormous electronic-storage facilities in Texas and Utah. Binney says that an N.S.A. e-mail database can be searched with “dictionary selection,” in the manner of Google. After 9/11, he says, “General Hayden reassured everyone that the N.S.A. didn’t put out dragnets, and that was true. It had no need—it was getting every fish in the sea.”

Binney considers himself a conservative, and, as an opponent of big government, he worries that the N.S.A.’s data-mining program is so extensive that it could help “create an Orwellian state.” Whereas wiretap surveillance requires trained human operators, data mining is automated, meaning that the entire country can be watched. Conceivably, U.S. officials could “monitor the Tea Party, or reporters, whatever group or organization you want to target,” he says. “It’s exactly what the Founding Fathers never wanted.”

On October 31, 2001, soon after Binney concluded that the N.S.A. was headed in an unethical direction, he retired. He had served for thirty-six years. His wife worked there, too. Wiebe, the analyst, and Ed Loomis, a computer scientist at SARC, also left. Binney said of his decision, “I couldn’t be an accessory to subverting the Constitution.”

[Thailandnotes]

Re: New Yorker on NSA domestic spying, upcoming leak trial

babbittd, thanks for the link. greenwald is quoting mayer's article heavily over at salon. so it turns out the world biggest hacker is the US government.

along the same line is this court decision.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/gl...10/09/08/obama

_______________

ruling in november on drake' case...trial starting may 21 (the day the world ends)


Setback in case against accused NSA leaker (Washington Post)

By Ellen Nakashima

Prosecutors failed Monday to persuade a federal judge in Baltimore to order the disclosure of the names of two expert witnesses who might be called in defense of a former National Security Agency official accused of leaking classified information to a newspaper reporter in 2006 and 2007.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett denied the request by prosecutors who are seeking to put behind bars Thomas A. Drake. The former NSA official is accused of sharing with a Baltimore Sun reporter information about waste and mismanagement of expensive technical intelligence analysis systems deployed by the NSA after the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

"We're pleased with the ruling, but this is an early victory in what's unfortunately a long process for Mr. Drake," said Jim Wyda, Drake's attorney.

Wyda said he saw the request by prosecutor William M. Welch II as an effort to control the process. "This is about keeping the playing field level," he said.

Drake's prosecution is one in a string of recent cases in what appears to be an aggressive effort by the Obama administration to punish accused leakers.

In the court hearing and in documents submitted to the court, the government argued it needed the names of the two computer forensics experts to gauge their "trustworthiness" to handle classified information.

"The United States has every right to be concerned about who the two proposed defense experts may be," Welch said in a brief this month..."

[srivatsan]

Re: New Yorker on NSA domestic spying, upcoming leak trial

Latest Update:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...rc=al_national

Setback for Obama administration ?

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...3fa_fact_mayer

...Drake says that, in the fall of 2001, he told Baginski he feared that the agency was breaking the law. He says that to some extent she shared his views, and later told him she feared that the agency would be “haunted” by the surveillance program. In 2003, she left the agency for the F.B.I., in part because of her discomfort with the surveillance program. Drake says that, at one point, Baginski told him that if he had concerns he should talk to the N.S.A.’s general counsel. Drake claims that he did, and that the agency’s top lawyer, Vito Potenza, told him, “Don’t worry about it. We’re the executive agent for the White House. It’s all been scrubbed. It’s legal.” When he pressed further, Potenza told him, “It’s none of your business.” (Potenza, who is now retired, declined to comment.)...

well worth reading the entire thing

[don]

Re: New Yorker on NSA domestic spying, upcoming leak trial

Haven't read this classic since high school. Reading it now is more illuminating. Any sound familiar?


How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted. You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.



The Ministry of Love (which maintained law and order) was the really frightening one. There were no windows at all. It was a place impossible to enter except on official business .... Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with truncheons.



The pen was an archaic instrument .... actually he was not used to writing by hand. Apart from very short notes, it was usual to dictate everything into the speakwrite.



The program of the Two Minute hate varied from day to day, but there was none in which Goldstein was not the principal figure. Somewhere he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies .... A day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police. He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State. The Brotherhood, its name was supposed to be.



Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for awhile, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.



from the opening pages of 1984

[KGW]

Feds drop all felony charges; pleads guilty to a misdemeanor

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/06/10...l-strikes.html