General Alexander did not elaborate on what kinds of information the N.S.A. would disclose, beyond saying that it would involve statistics about the programs in question.

while Mueller did claim that the dragnet program would have prevented 9/11 (ignoring that the FBI had authority to get the information in question at the time, and that a number of other bureaucratic failures may have contributed to the intelligence community‘s failure to prevent the attack, too), his favorite justification for gathering all the metadata from all US phone calls amounts to „because we can“.

…

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange says that if elected to the Australian Senate, he and his new political party will press for stronger safeguards for personal privacy against surveillance by security agencies.

The speech will be broadcast on al-Manar TV at 5:00 p.m. (local time), during a ceremony organized by Hezbollah for the occasion of Hezbollah’s Wounded Veterans day.

„The terrorists also looted, burglarized the citizens‘ properties, burned their houses and attacked and sabotaged the worship places… the websites have broadcasted videotapes documenting Jabhat al-Nusra massacre, instigated by one of the sheikhs of salafis in Kuwait called Shafi al-Ajami who is involved in funding and sending thousands of jihadists into Syria,“ the Foreign Ministry said in two identical letters sent to the UN Secretary General and President of the security Council.

U.S. President Barack Obama is deciding whether to take new action to help Syria‘s rebels, the White House said on Thursday

Two names from the Taksim Solidarity Platform, which has been at the centre of the protests since the first day, are included in this second delegation unlike the first group that met Erdoğan yesterday, which was criticized as lacking representation.

Außenminister John Kerry habe mit seinem türkischen Kollegen Ahmet Davutoglu über die Vorgänge gesprochen. Ob es auch zu einem Gespräch von Präsident Barack Obama mit Erdogan kam, ließ Carney unbeantwortet.

• FBI‘s Robert Mueller testifies before Senate committee
• Suggests surveillance programs could have stopped 9/11
• Mueller defends surveillance programs as legal and needed
• Exposure of NSA programs harms national security, he says

Senators Mark Udall and Ron Wyden, who serve on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called on Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, to clarify his statements that the surveillance programs disclosed through leaks over the past week have helped avert „dozens of terrorist attacks“ in recent years.

In an interview on Laura Ingraham’s radio show Wednesday morning, the Republican congressman from Wisconsin reiterated his concerns that the administration and the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court have gone far beyond what the PATRIOT Act intended.

Obama so: Na dann briefen wir sie halt jetzt schnell.

Declan McCullagh, over at News.com, is pointing out a key point: while the tech companies have loudly denied handing over tons of data to the feds, notice that AT&T and Verizon have remained silent.

Auf der anderen Seite schreiben sie auch, dass der holländische Inlandsgeheimdienst AIVD „Dauergast“ bei ihnen ist.

We already mentioned how terrorist supporter Rep. Pete King has said that journalists reporting on government leaks exposing blatant abuse of power should be prosecuted, and rather than admit that he misspoke, he appears to be doubling down… by flat out lying. He went on Fox News to specifically call out Glenn Greenwald and claim that legal action should be taken against him, mainly based on the entirely false claim that Greenwald is threatening to reveal the names of CIA agents and assets. The problem is this is not true. Greenwald has made no such threats or even suggested anything like that. But King bases his entire attack on Greenwald on these false claims.

„There‘s very little trust in the government, and that‘s for good reason,“ said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who sits on the House Intelligence Committee. „We‘re our own worst enemy.“

A senior U.S. intelligence official said there are no plans to scrap the programs that, despite the backlash, continue to receive widespread if cautious support within Congress.

As it turns out, one major program has apparently been enthusiastically supported by Democratic and Republican leaders alike in Congress over the past few years: secret mass surveillance of the American people. We guess there’s nothing like contravening the Fourth Amendment to bring people together.

Poll finds two-thirds of Americans want NSA‘s role reviewed, and 56% find current congressional oversight insufficient

Thousands protesters are currently outside the headquarters of Greek public broadcaster ERT, that was suddenly shut down on June 11/2013 – with an order of prime minister Antonis Samaras. Journalists and technicians who were dismissed and lost their jobs overnight have occupied the ERT HQ and broadcast live on 24-hour basis.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras moved to defuse a political crisis over the government‘s abrupt closure of state broadcaster ERT that prompted a nationwide strike on Thursday and brought thousands into the streets in protest.

Journalists and technicians of public television ERT continue to broadcast program despite the government decision to shut down on Tuesday night and the order to evacuate the building. Panels with journalists, unionists, actors, singers, academics and opposition party politicians fill the program aired on 24-hour basis.

Ixquick und seine Schwestersuchmaschine StartPage haben in ihrer 14-jährigen Geschichte noch kein einziges Byte an Nutzerdaten an die US-Regierung oder eine andere Regierung oder Behörde geliefert. Weder unter PRISM noch unter irgendeinem anderen Programm in den USA, noch unter einem anderen Programm irgendwo in der Welt. Wir sind nicht wie Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Apple, Skype und all die anderen US-Unternehmen, die sich im Netz der PRISM-Überwachung verfangen haben.

Darum sind wir anders:

http://t.co/rdbWueE2xE

The President also announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• Avril D. Haines – Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
• Michael J. Morell – Member, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

As much as I would selfishly like to keep Michael right where he is for as long as possible, he has decided to retire to spend more time with his family and to pursue other professional opportunities.

Jetzt wird es ernst! Und fast niemand nimmt Notiz davon. Morgen bringt die SPD zwei Gesetzesentwürfe zur Lesung in den Bundestag. Ziel ist die Abschaffung des jetzigen Grundgesetzes. Nur so kann Deutschland seine Souveränität an die EU-Kommission abgeben. Nur mit Abschaffung unseres Grundgesetzes ist ein echter DemokratieABBAU möglich. Das kann nicht sein, denken Sie? Die Fakten:

Es gibt aber auch noch eine zweite Möglichkeit, wie die NSA Zugriff auf die Knotenpunkte erlangt: durch gezielt eingebaute Hintertüren in den Backbones durch die Hersteller. Auch das ist keineswegs eine Seltenheit. In den USA scheint ein jeder solcher Knotenpunkte, egal ob für das Internet oder Handynetz, mit einer solchen Hintertür ausgestattet zu sein, damit amerikanische Strafverfolgungsbehörden jederzeit Zugriff auf die gesamte Kommunikation der Bürger haben.

Der BKA-Chef, der sich auf Einladung des österreichischen Bundeskriminalamts und des Kuratoriums Sicheres Österreich in Wien befand, zeigte sich auch davon überzeugt, dass das wahllose Daten Abschöpfen wenig sinnvoll ist: „Wir haben eher das Problem, dass wir die Daten reduzieren müssen.“

„And so the charges of the hysterics are revealed for what they are: castles in the air. Built on misrepresentation. Supported by unfounded fear. Held aloft by hysteria. On this and every other tool provided in the Patriot Act, charges of abuse of power are ghosts unsupported by fact or example.“

Attorney General John Ashcroft, Sept. 18, 2003

When lawmakers approved the Patriot Act as it was understood then, and when they rejected Total Information Awareness, they were fooling themselves into thinking they had a say. Americans were equally deluded when, in 2008, they elected a president who promised a new era of transparency and respect for privacy.

We still have a democracy in America. It‘s just not connected to anything.