The President‘s Review Group today recognized the severe risks caused by the government‘s mass spying on Americans and people around the world, joining the global consensus that the NSA has gone too far. The group‘s report included over 40 recommendations for promoting transparency, protecting online security tools, and making organizational reforms to the NSA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the civil liberties oversight bodies. However, the report left open the door for future mass surveillance and failed to address the constitutionality of the NSA‘s mass spying, recently questioned by the D.C. federal court and raised by EFF in its multiple lawsuits.

Über den offenen Brief des NSA-Whistleblowers Edward Snowden wurde heute in den Medien recht häufig berichtet, aber während Snowden in seinem Brief seine Unterstützung für Brasiliens Untersuchungen über die NSA ausdrückte und deren Bedeutung betonte, stellten die Medien das anders hin.

• Taskforce to release 46 recommendations for reform
• Judge ruled this week that programs ‚likely‘ unconstitutional
• Obama ‚extremely grateful‘ for NSA panel findings

By now you probably know the name Michael Hayden. Former NSA and CIA Director Hayden now seems to focus all his time on pimping the security state to the American public. He steadfastly claims that all negative impact and lawlessness on the part of the spy agencies is fiction, and that state secrets and your privacy are ironically equal. He also enjoys the occasional wistful guffaw at the notion of assassinating Edward Snowden. When it comes to dealing honestly about the spying state of our nation, he‘s the kind of man you could fit into briefcase if you gave him an enema.

Egypt‘s public prosecutor charged former President Mohamed Mursi and 35 other top Islamists on Wednesday with conspiring with foreign groups to commit terrorist acts in Egypt, in a case that could result in their execution.

LS: The population around the world is more or less completely left in the dark when it comes to espionage by means of electromagnetic radiation and seeing through walls from the outside by means of mobile stationary and air- or space-based systems. Are such things not only technically possible, but are rather common practice nowadays?

TD: Technically possible is an understatement. Yes, I’m certainly aware even from the time I was in NSA there were systems that would allow you to penetrate extraordinary types of surveillance that go far beyond what I call traditional, even in the electronic space, but when you’re talking about magnetic scanning systems yes, there’s a lot that can be detected. There are specialized vans that do that.

Is it persistent, meaning is it everywhere? No. This technology is still kind of expensive, but where it’s employed, yes I can effectively see through walls. It’s sort of [like] radar – you have radar, ground penetrating radar; this is the electromagnetic version of that that allows you to basically – I’m familiar with technology that basically when it’s directed it can scan for any and all electronic devices.

Let me give you one small example to illustrate what’s possible. When I used to live in England, you had to pay, when I used to fly in RC-135s [a large reconnaissance aircraft] – you had to pay [for a license] to listen to a radio [this was abolished in 1971] and watch television. They used to have vans that would drive around to detect whether or not the [TV] antenna was active, meaning it was actively receiving a signal, not transmitting actively receiving a signal and it could do geo-location. … if it detected an antenna that was actively receiving a signal then they would triangulate, they would find out did you have a license and if you did not have a license then you would be fined. Well take that to a much larger level, where I was aware in the military about equipment that would basically scan systems and it would pick up all, every signature it could find, both passive and active. So, yes it’s not just possible, it’s actual.

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The transcript of the following interview was exclusively arranged for Asia Times Online. An audio file of the interview is published at the German financial web site „Die Metallwoche“ here.

Thomas Drake, born 1957, is a former senior executive at the US National Security Agency who blew the whistle on a multi-billion dollar program fraud and cover up as well as the NSA‘s secret unlawful surveillance program. (..)

LS: Well, again, some kind of crack version. Is PRISM & Co. just the tip of the iceberg for example in comparison to the DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] project Total Information Awareness, respectively Trusted Information Environment?

TD: Well, let‘s be reasonable. The Total Information Awareness environment never disappeared. There was a lot of push back, but it was, it went deeper into the shadows, and unfortunately this is typically the way it happens. When a secret program is exposed, particularly that kind of a program, post-9/11 it just goes deeper, and so Prism is one aspect of total information awareness.

Iran will continue technical talks with world powers in Geneva on Thursday and Friday, a vital step in implementing a nuclear deal signed last month which suspends key elements of Tehran‘s nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

Back in October, we introduced the term „corporate sovereignty“ as an alternative to the standard but misleading phrase „investor-state dispute settlement“ (ISDS) that is generally used. We noted that perhaps the worst manifestation of corporate sovereignty so far can be seen in Ecuador, where one of the secret tribunals used in these cases had ordered the Ecuadorean government to place Chevron above the country‘s constitution.

The High Representative is worried by the shooting incidents across the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon, which reportedly led to the killing of an Israeli soldier and later the shooting of two Lebanese soldiers.

She urges Israel and Lebanon to act with utmost restraint and calls on all parties to actively help defuse tensions.

The High Representative underlines the EU support to the role of UNIFIL in supporting peace and stability in South Lebanon. She welcomes and supports the ongoing UNIFIL investigation to establish facts on the ground.

The High Representative reiterates the importance for both Israel and Lebanon to abide by and fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, with a view to a long-term solution
leading to restoring peace in the region.

• Executives say programs have undermined user trust
• White House had tried to gear meeting towards healthcare site
• Pressure mounts on day after judge‘s ruling against NSA