Asked in 2012 by Fox News about collection on American citizens, NSA Director, Gen. Keith Alexander said
“that the agency does not ‘hold data on U.S. citizens.’”
As recently as last month, Gen. Alexander told the Reuters Cybersecurity Summit, “The great irony is we’re the only ones not spying on the American people.”
But such statements go beyond those made to the media or conference goers by Gen. Alexander. They included similar statements made to Congress.
"In July 2011, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO) sent a letter to the NSA asking for answers about its collection of data on American citizens. The NSA’s response read, in part,
You asked whether communications of Americans have been collected… Section 702 of the FAA [FISA Amendments Act] explicitly prohibits the intentional targeting of persons reasonably believed to be located in the United States or United States persons located abroad. The Intelligence Community has put in place a variety of procedures, which have been approved by the FISA Court as required by law, to ensure that only persons reasonably believed to be located outside the United States are targeted and to prevent the intentional acquisition of any communications as to which the sender and all intended recipients are known to be located in the United States. Guidelines are also required by law to ensure compliance with other limitations on FAA collection, including the requirement that a U.S. person may not be intentionally targeted under section 702. If it is discovered that a target has entered the U.S. or is a U.S. person, he or she is promptly detargeted and reports are made as appropriate to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the FISA Court. Moreover, when communications from persons located in the United States are collected because they are communicating with a lawful target, the privacy and civil liberty rights of U.S. persons are protected through the careful implementation of the procedures required under the FAA to ’minimize the acquisition and retention, and prohibit the dissemination“ of information about U.S. persons.’”
(Emphasis added. A PDF of the letter is available from Sen. Wyden’s Senate website,
http://www.wyden.senate.gov/download/?id=3e2b2b89–83c8–4cca-bc61–7f4c13ae3ac7)"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/seanlawson/ ... ic-spying/
Lies lies and more lies, the DoJ and DHS frantically trying to bury their scandals but this time too much may have gotten out. In a recent Anonymous posting they released a zip of classified NSA documents that outline the plan of PRISM(the US spy tool that was just discovered as well as GIG, the program on steroids and a global scale. It's already spying on 35 different countries and all funneling into one database. They've outdone Orwell this time.
Do some research, get pissed off and write your representatives and Senators and let them know you don't approve of the warrant less 4th Ammendment breaking searches and surveillance you're subjected to.
On the other hand, it is really useful in tracking criminals. That is something extremely hard to balance it seems.
