NSA chief admits the NSA (gov't) lied about the number of terror plots in the U.S.

The Obama administration’s credibility on intelligence suffered another blow Wednesday as the chief of the National Security Agency admitted that officials put out numbers that vastly overstated the counterterrorism successes of the government’s warrantless bulk collection of all Americans’ phone records.

Pressed by the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at an oversight hearing, Gen. Keith B. Alexander admitted that the number of terrorist plots foiled by the NSA’s huge database of every phone call made in or to America was only one or perhaps two — far smaller than the 54 originally claimed by the administration.

Gen. Alexander and other intelligence chiefs have pleaded with lawmakers not to shut down the bulk collection of U.S. phone records despite growing unease about government overreach in the program, which was revealed in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

“There is no evidence that [bulk] phone records collection helped to thwart dozens or even several terrorist plots,” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and committee chairman, told Gen. Alexander of the 54 cases that administration officials — including the general himself — have cited as the fruit of the NSA’s domestic snooping.

“These weren’t all plots and they weren’t all foiled,” he said.

Mr. Leahy, who has been a chief critic of the NSA, asked Gen. Alexander to admit that only 13 of the 54 cases had any connection at all to the U.S., “Would you agree with that, yes or no?”

“Yes,” Gen. Alexander replied in a departure from normal practice.

“The American people are getting left with an inaccurate impression of the effectiveness of NSA programs,” Mr. Leahy said.

The following are recent examples of the government lying about terrorism:

National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in September 2012 that the attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Libya had grown spontaneously out of a demonstration against a U.S.-made anti-Islam video, despite intelligence reports that the attackers were heavily armed terrorists. That line was repeated by other administration officials.

⦁ Mr. Clapper told Congress under oath this year that U.S. intelligence agencies did not collect any kind of data about millions of Americans, before Mr. Snowden’s stolen documents revealed the metadata program.

⦁ In rulings declassified by the administration last month, the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court chastised the NSA for repeatedly, if inadvertently, misrepresenting how it was following court-imposed restrictions on the use of the metadata in 2009.

⦁ The Washington Times reported last month that during his 2012 re-election campaign, President Obama was being briefed that al Qaeda had metastasized, while he was telling voters it had been decimated.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/2/nsa-chief-figures-foiled-terror-plots-misleading/


NSA admits it collects data from social networks wants the public to believe it doesn't keep dossiers on everyone:

The director of the National Security Agency says the agency collects data from social networks and other private databases to hunt terror suspects but is not using the information to build dossiers, or personal files, on Americans.

NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander testified during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday that not all social network searches are authorized by a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, but the agency's actions are proper and audited internally.

Alexander revealed the NSA once tested whether it could track Americans' cellphone locations, in addition to its practice of sweeping broad information about calls made.
Alexander called a recent New York Times report on the searches "inaccurate and wrong." The Times report did not specifically cite dossiers, but said the NSA was exploiting huge collections of personal data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans' social connections. The Times said the private data includes bank, flight, GPS location and voting records.

Alexander also said Americans are only directly targeted by such searches when they are under investigation for possible terror ties or they are the targets of terror activities. He added that suspected terrorists operating inside the U.S. could also be targeted under those private data searches.

Senator Ron Wyden was not satisfied with Alexander's answer.

"After years of stonewalling on whether the government has ever tracked or planned to track the location of law abiding Americans through their cellphones, once again, the intelligence leadership has decided to leave most of the real story secret — even when the truth would not compromise national security," he said.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NSA_SURVEILLANCE_SOCIAL_NETWORKS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-10-02-11-33-15
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/02/nsa-cellphone-tracking_n_4034040.html 

Government claims Americans can't challenge the NSA spying on their phone calls only companies can:

The government is arguing in the terrorism case that serves as the National Security Agency's primary public justification for its bulk collection of telephone records that criminal defendants have no constitutional right to challenge the agency's sweeping surveillance program.

In a filing made Sept. 30, U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy of the Southern District of California contends that only the telephone companies have a Fourth Amendment interest in their call records -- and therefore that Basaaly Moalin cannot challenge his conviction for providing material support to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab.

Moalin is a Somali immigrant and San Diego cab driver convicted in February with three other defendants of sending $8,500 to al-Shabaab. His case constitutes the only time the government has admitted using bulk phone records surveillance as the crucial step in a domestic terrorism investigation, and thus it has taken on an outsized significance in the debate over the NSA's program.

"Nneither Moalin nor his co-defendants have standing to challenge the United States' collection of the telephony metadata from the service provider, regardless of the collection's expanse," the government's filing asserts.

The government also contends there is "no suppression remedy" for a violation under the statute underpinning the sweeping records collection, meaning Moalin cannot have the evidence against him thrown out even if the NSA broke the law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/02/nsa-phone-records-collection_n_4032985.html 

Court dismissed EPIC's lawsuit to keep student records private:

A federal court dismissed EPIC's lawsuit against the Education Department. EPIC has challenged the agency's 2011 changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) which allow the release of student records for non-academic purposes and undercut parental and student consent provisions.

The court held that neither EPIC nor any of its Board of Director co-plaintiffs "have standing to bring the claims asserted in the complaint." The judge did not reach EPIC's substantive claims asserted in the complaint. EPIC argued that the Education Department exceeded its authority with the changes and that the revised regulations violate the federal student privacy law.

Before initiating the lawsuit, EPIC submitted extensive comments to the Education Department, opposing the unlawful regulations. EPIC intends to take further steps to safeguard student privacy.
http://epic.org/2013/10/judge-rules-that-epic-lacks-st.html