A Look At NSA Director Keith Alexander And The Agency That He Heads

The Secret War -- Threat Level/Wired

INFILTRATION. SABOTAGE. MAYHEM. FOR YEARS FOUR-STAR GENERAL KEITH ALEXANDER HAS BEEN BUILDING A SECRET ARMY CAPABLE OF LAUNCHING DEVASTATING CYBERATTACKS. NOW IT’S READY TO UNLEASH HELL.

Inside Fort Meade, Maryland, a top-secret city bustles. Tens of thousands of people move through more than 50 buildings—the city has its own post office, fire department, and police force. But as if designed by Kafka, it sits among a forest of trees, surrounded by electrified fences and heavily armed guards, protected by antitank barriers, monitored by sensitive motion detectors, and watched by rotating cameras. To block any telltale electromagnetic signals from escaping, the inner walls of the buildings are wrapped in protective copper shielding and the one-way windows are embedded with a fine copper mesh.

This is the undisputed domain of General Keith Alexander, a man few even in Washington would likely recognize. Never before has anyone in America’s intelligence sphere come close to his degree of power, the number of people under his command, the expanse of his rule, the length of his reign, or the depth of his secrecy. A four-star Army general, his authority extends across three domains: He is director of the world’s largest intelligence service, the National Security Agency; chief of the Central Security Service; and commander of the US Cyber Command. As such, he has his own secret military, presiding over the Navy’s 10th Fleet, the 24th Air Force, and the Second Army.

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My Comment: My must read post for today.

10 Things To Know About The NSA

10 Things To Know About The NSA -- Politico

The National Security Agency is in the spotlight after Edward Snowden leaked to the media information about a secret surveillance program. Gen. Keith Alexander, chief of both the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command has briefed members of Congress and is testifying on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. But what is the NSA and what does it do? Here are 10 things to know about this secretive agency:

1. Established on Nov. 4, 1952 by then-President Harry Truman, the “creation of of NSA allowed the the Defense Department to consolidate cryptologic support to military operations, and to meet challenges that the nation would face in the Cold War.”

2. The agency’s mission is to prevent “foreign adversaries from gaining access to sensitive or classified national security information,” as well as collecting “intelligence information from foreign signals for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes and to support military operations.”

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WNU Editor: The above documentary on the NSA is done by National Geographic.

NSA Director Testifies To The U.S. Senate -- News Roundup

NSA Chief Defends Dual Cyber, Intel Roles -- Politico

Controversial surveillance practices that spilled into public view through a series of dramatic leaks last week have helped to avert “dozens of terrorist events” in recent years, National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander told a Senate committee Wednesday.

However, the longer the NSA director spoke before the Senate Appropriations Committee, the less clear it became just which surveillance programs he was crediting for those successes.

His answer came in response to a question from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) about call-tracking surveillance conducted under Patriot Act Section 215.

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More News On Today's Senate Testimony By NSA Director Alexander

Live Updates: Cybersecurity hearing -- Washington Post
Live coverage.-- Reuters

NSA director: Programs disrupted dozens of attacks -- AP
NSA Chief: Surveillance Has Stopped Dozens Of Potential Attacks -- Reuters
NSA chief: Surveillance helped stop "dozens" of threats -- CBS
NSA chief says data disrupted 'dozens' of plots -- BBC
NSA chief says surveillance programs have blocked 'dozens' of terror attacks against the U.S. -- Daily Mail
Surveillance Thwarted Dozens of Attacks, NSA Chief Says -- Bloomberg Businessweek
NSA General: Surveillance Has Disrupted 'Dozens' Of Terror Plots -- Huffington Post
NSA chief: Surveillance programs foiled ‘dozens’ of terrorist plots -- Washington Examiner
NSA says data mining helped thwart terror -- CNN
Senators grill NSA chief on surveillance -- USA Today
NSA director vows to explain surveillance programs, says they protect America, civil liberties -- FOX News
NSA chief: ‘We’re trying to be transparent here’ -- MSNBC
NSA chief: Surveillance programs protect Americans -- USA Today
'False': NSA Disputes Snowden Claim to Be Able to Tap Into Any Phone Call, Email -- Weekly Standard
NSA under 'rigorous' oversight, chief says -- Global Post/AFP
NSA ‘Committed’ to Privacy Rights, Director Says -- Wall Street Journal
NSA chief doesn’t know legal basis for surveillance program -- Washington Examiner
The Senate Presses the NSA's Buttons on the Record, Even While Trying Not To -- Atlantic Wire

NSA Director to Testify About It's Surveillance Programs

General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command speaks to reporters during the Reuters Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, May 14, 2013.

NSA Director to Testify About Surveillance Program -- Voice of America

The head of the U.S. National Security Agency will likely face tough questioning about the government's controversial surveillance program when he appears before a congressional panel Wednesday.

General Keith Alexander's appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee comes amid revelations his agency has collected e-mails other data from Internet companies through a program called PRISM.

Three of the world's biggest technology companies, U.S.-based Google, Facebook and Microsoft, are asking the Obama administration to let them reveal details of federal court orders to turn over information about their users to U.S. spy agencies. The companies say they want everything transparent and out in the open.

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WNU Editor: I do not know if this will be a closed session. But if it is open, we will cover it live.

Inside The NSA’s Soon To Be Built Utah Data Center

Inside The NSA’s Secret Utah Data Center -- FOX News

As Americans demand answers about the government's wholesale electronic snooping on its citizens, the primary snooper -- the National Security Agency (NSA) -- is building a monstrous digital datacenter in a remote corner of Utah capable of sorting through and storing every e-mail, voicemail, and social media communication it can get its hands on.

This top-secret data warehouse could hold as many as 1.25 million 4-terabyte hard drives, built into some 5,000 servers to store the trillions upon trillions of ones and zeroes that make up your digital fingerprint.

But that's just one way to catalog people, said Charles King, principal analyst at data center consulting firm Pund-IT

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More News On The NSA’s Utah Data Center

Behold the NSA’s Dark Star: the Utah Data Center -- Daily Beast
Amid Data Controversy, NSA Builds Its Biggest Data Farm -- NPR
New NSA data centers will store decades’ worth of electronic communication -- Triblive
Here's The $2 Billion Facility Where The NSA Will Store And Analyze Your Communications -- Business Insider

Inside The NSA: America's Cyber Secrets (Discovery Documentary)

A Look At The NSA's Team Of Hackers And Spies Targeting America's Enemies Abroad.

(ABC News)

Inside The NSA's Ultra-Secret China Hacking Group -- Matthew M. Aid, Foreign Policy

Deep within the National Security Agency, an elite, rarely discussed team of hackers and spies is targeting America's enemies abroad.

This weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama sat down for a series of meetings with China's newly appointed leader, Xi Jinping. We know that the two leaders spoke at length about the topic du jour -- cyber-espionage -- a subject that has long frustrated officials in Washington and is now front and center with the revelations of sweeping U.S. data mining. The media has focused at length on China's aggressive attempts to electronically steal U.S. military and commercial secrets, but Xi pushed back at the "shirt-sleeves" summit, noting that China, too, was the recipient of cyber-espionage. But what Obama probably neglected to mention is that he has his own hacker army, and it has burrowed its way deep, deep into China's networks.

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Update #1: The NSA Has A Secret Group Called 'TAO' That's Been Hacking China For 15 Years -- Business Insider
Update #2: Secret NSA hackers from TAO Office have been pwning China for nearly 15 years -- Computer World

My Comment: I like to quote Buddha in situations like this one .... if you point a finger at someone, you are actually pointing three at your self. The U.S. has pointed a finger at China over cyber hacking and cyber warfare ....  but as we have learned in the past week with Edward Snowden's NSA revelations .... the U.S. was actually pointing three fingers at themselves.

A Look At The NSA Utah Data Center Located In Bluffdale, Utah.

 (Click on Image to Enlarge)

The NSA Utah Data Center located in Bluffdale, Utah. Wikipedia

Inside America's $1.9 Billion Data Mine: How All Your Private Details Will Soon Be Stored In This Vast NSA Nerve Center In Utah Valley -- Daily Mail

* Government will complete its data storing facility in Utah this October
* Concerns about what personal information will be stored there as it emerged the government has been extracting data from big companies

The personal data and private online conversations that the National Security Administration is accused of mining could be stashed in a one million square-foot, $1.9 billion facility in the Utah Valley.

Concerns over what the government will store at the Utah Data Center have been reinvigorated by the revelation that U.S. intelligence agencies have been extracting audio, video, photos, e-mails, documents and other information to track people's movements and contacts.

Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Skype, AOL and the lesser known Internet company PalTalk are all involved with the PRISM program, which the government insists is for national security.

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My Comment: And I thought that Google's server farms were big. For an idea on what an NSA data center looks like from the inside .... the pictures from Google on it's server farms give an indication.

Is President Obama Or Congress To Blame For The NSA Surveilance Program?

NSA Surveillance Program: Is Obama Or Congress To Blame? -- International Business Times

The revelation of mass surveillance programs with access to phone records data and online communications has some lawmakers and editorial boards up in arms against President Obama. He is, they say, guilty of George W. Bush-style overreach.

On Friday, the president deflected these allegations of overreach by placing liability on Congress. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Obama’s defense of mass collection of data from tech and telecommunications companies is that the program is checked by Congress, as well as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts. “Every member of Congress has been briefed on these programs,” Obama said, referring to the phone data collection by NSA. “These are programs that have been authorized by broad, bipartisan majorities repeatedly since 2006. And so I think at the outset it’s important to understand that your duly elected representatives have been consistently informed on what we are doing.”

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My Comment: Both Democrats and Republicans are disputing President Obama's claims that they were notified. What's my take .... this is a lose - lose situation for the President. Republicans appear to be split on the NSA program .... but for Democrats .... specifically the base .... this is sore point .... and for hard-core progressives .... inexcusable. As to who is to blame .... in my 'book' I am blaming both parties.

President Obama Speaks For First Time About The NSA's Surveillance Programs (Updated)

Obama Calls Surveillance Programs Legal and Limited -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday offered a robust defense of the government surveillance programs revealed this week, and sought to reassure the public that his administration has not become a Big Brother with eyes and ears throughout the world of online communications.

“Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,” Mr. Obama said, delivering a 14-minute answer to two questions about the surveillance programs at an event that was initially supposed to be devoted to the health care law. “That’s not what this program is about.”

The president’s remarks, during a four-day trip to the West Coast, were his first since the revelations this week of programs to collect information about phone calls and Internet traffic. Mr. Obama said the programs help prevent terrorist attacks and they are kept in check by rigorous judicial and Congressional oversight.

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More News On President Obama's Remarks On The NSA Leaks

Transcript: Obama’s Remarks on NSA Controversy -- Wall Street Journal
Obama: 'Nobody is listening to your telephone calls' – live updates -- The Guardian
Obama defends phone surveillance program, calls it critical to counterterrorism efforts -- Washington Post
Obama defends NSA surveillance programs as 'right balance' -- The Hill
Obama: ‘Nobody Is Listening to Your Telephone Calls’ -- Wall Street Journal
President Obama Defends NSA Surveillance Programs As “Right Balance” -- Time
Obama on NSA surveillance scandal: nobody is listening to your phone calls -- The Telegraph
Barack Obama defends US surveillance tactics -- BBC
Obama Defends US Surveillance Programs -- Voice of America
‘Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,’ Obama says -- MSNBC
Obama: No one listening to your calls -- CNN
Obama: Phone, Internet data collection not 'Big Brother' -- FOX News
Obama Defends Sweeping NSA Surveillance Program -- US News and World Report
Obama: "Nobody is listening to your telephone calls" -- CBS

Top U.S. Intelligence Chief Condemns The NSA Leaks

President Barack Obama greets James Clapper, his nominee for director of national intelligence, in the Oval Office, Saturday, June 5, 2010. Photo credit: Pete Souza

Intelligence Chief Calls Leaks on U.S. Data Collection ‘Reprehensible’ -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — The top intelligence official in the United States condemned as “reprehensible” leaks revealing a secret program to collect information from leading Internet companies and said a separate disclosure about an effort to sweep up records of telephone calls threatens “irreversible harm” to the nation’s national security.

The comments by James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, late Thursday night about the newly revealed government surveillance programs came as President Obama was set to travel to Southern California on Friday for a two-day summit with President Xi Jinping of China. The revelations appeared certain to overshadow discussions between the two leaders.

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More News On The Director Of National Intelligence Condemning The NSA Leaks

U.S. intel chief blasts leaks on web, phone use tracking -- CBS/AP
US intelligence chief denounces 'reprehensible' release of information -- The Guardian
Obama Administration Declassifies Phone Records Seizures, Condemns Leaks -- Time
James Clapper defends ‘important and entirely legal’ surveillance -- Politico
INTELLIGENCE CHIEF: WaPo And Guardian Reports On 'PRISM' Program Have 'Numerous Inaccuracies' -- Business Insider
US Spy Chief James Clapper Brands Prism Leaks ‘Reprehensible’ -- International Business Times
Intelligence Chief Says Massive Data Collection Is No Big Deal, But Reporting It Is -- Forbes

The U.K. Intelligence Services Are Also Involved In The NSA Prism Spy Program

GCHQ in Cheltenham (Image: GCHQ via CNET)

UK Gathering Secret Intelligence Via Covert NSA Operation -- The Guardian

Exclusive: UK security agency GCHQ gaining information from world's biggest internet firms through US-run Prism programme

The UK's electronic eavesdropping and security agency, GCHQ, has been secretly gathering intelligence from the world's biggest internet companies through a covertly run operation set up by America's top spy agency, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.

The documents show that GCHQ, based in Cheltenham, has had access to the system since at least June 2010, and generated 197 intelligence reports from it last year.

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More News On The U.K. Government's Involvement In The NSA Prism Spy Program

Britain 'secretly gathering intelligence through internet firms' -- The Telegraph
Britons ARE being spied on by surveillance agencies: GCHQ using phone records and online data gleaned by US government to snoop on citizens -- Daily Mail
Britain's GCHQ 'used NSA spy programme Prism to covertly gather information from leading internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and Skype' -- The Independent
UK Government Gathering Data Using Top Secret Prism Programme -- International Business Times
GCHQ gets US spy data from Google and Facebook -- London Evening Standard
UK government allegedly is involved in PRISM snooping programme -- The Inquirer
Verizon giving US government information about British companies -- The Telegraph
U.K. government 'complicit' in NSA's PRISM spy program -- ZDNet
UK enters NSA PRISM accusations with GCHQ snooping -- Slash Gear

Why America's Tech Giants Are Scared Of The NSA Prism Program

Why The NSA Prism Program Could Kill U.S. Tech Companies -- Popular Mechanics

Spying on foreigners could create a terrible blowback to the U.S. economy. Has it really come to this?

Within 24 hours, the leak of two documents has revealed a vast network of National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance operations that were authorized by FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) courts with the oversight of the U.S. Congress. The first document, which Popular Mechanics detailed yesterday, was a FISA court order demanding all telephony metadata from Verizon Business Network Services over a three-month period, though it hinted at a much broader program of call log data mining. The second document referred to a different—and apparently much larger—program aimed at real-time analysis of web traffic from nine large technology firms, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Apple, and ("coming soon") Dropbox. Details are still murky, but it's clear that this was not some clandestine sniffing effort—it was done with the full cooperation of the companies involved (though many of the companies have denied that this represents an automatic backdoor into their servers).

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My Comment: There is a lot of truth to this Popular Mechanics article. In my spare time I do this blog .... in my professional/work life I do other things, and one of them is being a participant in web projects and web start-ups. Last year we did a survey of teenage web users (in Canada) and what struck me was that their number one concern when they were on the web was their privacy .... in short .... if they felt that their privacy was being violated, they would simply go elsewhere. The NSA Prism program is already raising a chill on social media ..... and knowing how quick social media can send a message .... the tech companies are getting justifiably worried. Customers use their services because of reliability and also because they trust them .... lose this you will lose your clients.  But as bad as this .... and it is .... what is raising concerns in the tech world is how will this impact 'Cloud'. The tech giants are banking on this as the next big thing .... but if they cannot guarantee one's security and privacy .... who will want to use it.

Major Tech Firms Are Denying That They Gave The NSA And The FBI Access To Their Servers

Documents: U.S. Mining Data From 9 Leading Internet Firms; Companies Deny Knowledge -- Washington Post

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.

The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley.

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More News On Major Tech Firms Denying That They Gave The NSA And The FBI Access To Their Servers

NSA taps in to user data of Facebook, Google and others, secret files reveal -- The Guardian
Tech firms deny giving NSA, FBI 'direct access' to servers -- Mercury News/Reuters
Apple, Google, Microsoft, And Facebook Deny Involvement In Massive Government Spying Program (AAPL) -- SFGate
Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook Deny Involvement in Government Spying Program -- Entrepeneur
Facebook denies providing government 'direct access' to servers -- Reuters
Facebook: No Government Organization Was Provided With Direct Access To Our Servers -- AllFacebook
Microsoft says not part of broad government online monitoring -- Reuters
Apple denies giving government 'direct access' to servers -- Reuters
Apple denies feeding customer secrets to a U.S. spy agency -- CNN
Apple, Google, Facebook: Does NSA Have Access To Their Data? -- Value Walk
NSA scandal: what data is being monitored and how does it work? -- The Guardian
Here are the tech companies denying involvement with the NSA's PRISM program -- The Week

My Comment: What's my take .... there is a lot happening here, and the denials from these tech companies is not satisfying those who are paying attention.

U.S. Government To Declassify Some Phone Surveillance Program Details

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called the surveillance limited and said leaking details hurts America's security. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Top Intelligence Official Declassifies Some Phone Surveillance Program Details -- NBC News/Reuters

The United States’ top intelligence official declassified details of a top secret surveillance program after it and another secret program were revealed on Thursday -- while also blasting the leak.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper took the step in a statement issued on Thursday night, after media reports revealed the programs that have been used to collect the phone records of Americans and monitor Internet use.

Referencing a report that first appeared in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Clapper said that the “unauthorized disclosure of a top secret U.S. court document threatens potentially long-lasting and irreversible harm to our ability to identify and respond to the many threats facing our nation.”

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More News On The U.S. Government Declassifies Some Of It's Phone Surveillance Program Details

US to declassify secret surveillance documents after uproar -- The Telegraph
Obama Administration Declassifies Phone Records Seizures, Condemns Leaks -- Time
US declassifies phone program details after uproar -- Bloomberg Businessweek/AP
US declassifies phone programme -- Independent.ie/Press Association
Top intelligence official declassifies some phone surveillance program details -- NBC

The Case For Keeping The NSA Data Mining Program Secret And Running

(Image: Screenshot by ZDNet via The Guardian)

“Top Secret” Should Mean Just That -- Max Boot, Commentary

TOP SECRET//SI//NO FORN

That’s the heading on the first page of the court order obtained the Guardian. Top Secret is one of the highest levels of security classification in the U.S. government; the other initials indicate that this is “signals intelligence,” one of the most closely guarded capabilities of the U.S. intelligence community, and that it should not shown to any foreigners. Ironically and disturbingly, a British newspaper obtained this document.

Now it seems to be open season on the secret intelligence-gathering programs of the U.S. government. Following the Guardian’s exposure of this data-mining program that collects phone logs, the Washington Post has decided to reveal the existence of a program code-named PRISM which allows the National Security Agency to tap “into the central servers of nine leading U.S. U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.”

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My Comment: Max Boot makes a convincing case .... but the focus will not be on the merits or secrecy of the program .... it will be on the politics .... and the ones who will be really outraged will be the President's own liberal base who feel that they have been lied to (which duh!! .... they have been).

Meet The NSA Whistleblower Who Predicted Today's Domestic Spying And Data Revelations 6 Months Ago

The NSA Whistleblower Who Guessed Exactly What Was Going On, Six Months Ago -- Quartz

Last December in an interview with Russia Today (video above), former NSA crypto-mathematician William Binney disclosed the extent to which he believed the US government was not only capable of, but actively engages in spying on internet data and web activity across the country. Binney said that the FBI has access to the emails of everyone in the US, holds a target list and monitors every email to and from those contained on the list.

If the interview was alarming in its suggestion then, it’s downright scary considering this evening’s report from the Washington Post and the Guardian that the US government has allegedly been mining data from eight of the world’s largest internet companies, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and others. (The report mentions nine companies; one of them, YouTube, is part of Google.)

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Update #1: NSA Spying: Whistleblowers Claim Vindication On Surveillance State Warnings -- Huffington Post
Update #2: NSA whistleblowers say agency casts wide net -- Wall Street Journal

My Comment: The above video was done months ago .... and I am in awe on how much he is on the money (it is a must see for those who are concerned with today's NSA revelations). I have been aware of William Binney for the past few years .... but I was always skeptical of his claims. After today's revelations .... I am definitely not.

Is NSA Domestic Spying Only The Tip Of The Iceberg?

The Guardian's Bombshell Revelation About NSA Domestic Spying Is Only The Tip Of The Iceberg -- Michael Kelley, Business Insider

Last night Glenn Greenwald revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) is using the so-called "business records" provision of the Patriot Act to secretly collect telephone records of millions of Americans.

Although the revelation doesn't surprise privacy advocates, the fact that Greenwald obtained a top secret court order compelling Verizon to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems is the first concrete piece of evidence exposing dragnet domestic surveillance.

But, unfortunately for U.S. citizens who don't want their government routinely spying on them, that's just the beginning.

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My Comment: A sobering analysis from those who should know.

A Look At The NSA's Data Center In Utah

Artist's rendition of the National Security Agency's Utah Data Center at Camp Williams, Thursday, January 6, 2011. The cybersecurity facility is expected be completed and open October 2013.

Phone Records Could End Up At NSA’s Utah Data Center -- Salt Lake Tribune

Washington » Phone records of millions of Americans could end up flowing into the National Security Agency’s Utah Data Center this fall, though outraged members of Congress are already calling for the government to halt such a broad seizure of private information.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein acknowledged Thursday that the NSA had obtained secret court orders for seven years to collect records of calls placed or received on Verizon phones, and defended the practice as vital to national security efforts.

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Update #1: Modern Data Centers Fuel NSA’s Verizon Phone Spying -- Wall Street Journal
Update #2: 10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Agency That's Spying On You -- Business Insider

My Comment: And the Utah center is just one center among many.

The NSA's Super-Secret Spy Program, PRISM (The Details)

By The Numbers: The NSA's Super-Secret Spy Program, PRISM -- Foreign Policy

In a bombshell scoop, the Washington Post is reporting that the National Security Agency (NSA) has gained direct access to the servers of nine prominent Internet companies, enabling the spy agency to track e-mails, photographs, and video, among other forms of digital communciation.

The highly classified program, known as PRISM, has emerged as a central tool in the NSA's arsenal and, according to documents detailing the program's operation, is run with the assistance of the Silicon Valley tech companies it targets. The exposure of the program -- which was also reported by the Guardian -- is the latest in a string of reports detailing government snooping that have reignited the debate in Washington over the proper balance between privacy and national security.

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My Comment: Looking at the numbers .... and if they are accurate .... this is a high priority NSA program.