Saturday, June 8, 2013

BREAKING: Government Issues "Fact Sheet" About PRISM

Here's what the USG Director of National Intelligence says the, until now, secret PRISM program is all about (My comments in blue):

DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
WASHINGTON, DC 20511
June 8, 2013
Facts on the Collection of Intelligence Pursuant to Section 702
of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

 PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program. It is an internal government computer system used to facilitate the government’s statutorily authorized collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision, as authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) (50 U.S.C. § 1881a). This authority was created by the Congress and has been widely known and publicly discussed since its inception in 2008.

 Under Section 702 of FISA, the United States Government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers. All such information is obtained with FISA Court approval and with the knowledge of the provider (This means the providers, Facebook, ATT etc. are aware that the data is being scooped by the NSA)based upon a written directive from the Attorney General and the Director of Nationa lIntelligence. In short, Section 702 facilitates the targeted acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning foreign targets located outside the United States under court oversight. Service providers supply information to the Government when they are lawfully required to do so.

 The Government cannot target anyone under the court-approved procedures for Section 702 collection unless there is an appropriate, and documented, foreign intelligence purpose for the acquisition (such as for the prevention of terrorism, hostile cyber activities, or nuclear proliferation) and the foreign target is reasonably believed to be outside the United States. We cannot target even foreign persons overseas without a valid foreign intelligence purpose.(Once the NSA has the data, there is no court approvals necessary to dig into the data.)
  In addition, Section 702 cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, or any other U.S. person, or to intentionally target any person known to be in the United States.(They need a foreign data link, then they can snoop. Have you ever called or emailed overseas?)  Likewise, Section 702 cannot be used to target a person outside the United States if the purpose is to acquire information from a person inside the United States.

 Finally, the notion that Section 702 activities are not subject to internal and external oversight is similarly incorrect. Collection of intelligence information under Section 702 is subject to an extensive oversight regime, incorporating reviews by the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches.

1 comment:

  1. '....extensive oversight regime, incorporating reviews by the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches."
    That would be the same people that were in charge previous to ,during and after the 2008 economic crash. No worries then.

    ReplyDelete