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<font size=4 color="#FF0000"><b>T</font>
<a href="http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/8695-the-secret-states-domestic-spying.html">
<font size=4><u>he Secret State's Domestic
</a>
<a href="http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/8695-the-secret-states-domestic-spying.html">
Spying<br><br>
</a></u></b></font><font size=3>written
by<a href="http://www.pacificfreepress.com/component/comprofiler/userprofile/TBurghardt.html">
Tom Burghardt </a><br>
<br>
Secret State's Domestic Spying on the Rise<br>
by Tom Burghardt
l<a href="http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/"><b><i> Antifascist
Calling...</a><br>
<a href="http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/8695-the-secret-states-domestic-spying.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/8695-the-secret-states-domestic-spying.html<br>
<br>
</a></i></b></font><font size=4>D</font><font size=3>espite last week's
"termination" of America's bête noire, Osama bin Laden, the
reputed "emir" and old "new Hitler" of the
Afghan-Arab database of disposable Western intelligence assets known as
al-Qaeda,
<a href="http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/05/2010_fisa.html">Secrecy
News</a> reports an uptick in domestic spying.<br><br>
Never mind that the administration is engaged in an unprecedented
<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/02/25/whistleblowers">
war on whistleblowers</a>, or is systematically targeting antiwar and
solidarity activists with trumped-up charges connected to the
"material support of terrorism," as last Fall's multi-state
<a href="http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2010/09/fbi-raids-activists-homes-in-sinister.html">
raids</a> on anarchists and socialists in Chicago and Minneapolis
attest.<br><br>
In order to do their best to "keep us safe," Team Obama is
busily building upon the criminal legacy bequeathed to the administration
by the Bush regime and even asserts the right to assassinate American
citizens "without a whiff of due process," as
<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/05/07/awlaki/index.html">
Salon's</a> Glenn Greenwald points out.<br><br>
According to a new Justice Department
<a href="http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/2010rept.pdf">report</a>
submitted to Congress we learn that "during calendar year 2010, the
Government made 1,579 applications to the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court (hereinafter 'FISC') for authority to conduct
electronic surveillance and/or physical searches" on what U.S.
security agencies allege are "for foreign intelligence
purposes."<br><br>
</font><font size=4>T</font><font size=3>he April 29 missive, released
under the Freedom of Information Act, documents the persistence of our
internal security apparat's targeting of domestic political opponents,
under color of rooting out "terrorists."<br><br>
Secrecy News analyst Steven Aftergood comments that "this compares
to a reported 1,376 applications in 2009. (In 2008, however, the reported
figure--2,082--was quite a bit higher.)"<br><br>
"In 2010," Aftergood writes, "the government made 96
applications for access to business records (and 'tangible things') for
foreign intelligence purposes, up from 21 applications in
2009."<br><br>
Also last year, America's premier domestic intelligence agency, the FBI,
"made 24,287 'national security letter' requests for information
pertaining to 14,212 different U.S. persons, a substantial increase from
the 2009 level of 14,788 NSL requests concerning 6,114 U.S. persons. (In
2008, the number of NSL requests was 24,744, pertaining to 7,225
persons.)"<br><br>
As I have pointed out many times, national security letters are onerous
lettres de cachet, secretive administrative subpoenas with built-in gag
orders used by the Bureau to seize records from third-parties such as
banks, libraries and telecommunications providers without any judicial
process whatsoever, not to mention the expenditure of scarce tax dollars
to spy on the American people.<br><br>
"Money for Nothing..."<br><br>
With U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's February
<a href="http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/February/11-ag-181.html">
announcement</a> that the Department of Justice will seek $28.2 billion
from Congress in Fiscal Year 2012, a 1.7% increase, the FBI is slated to
reap an $8.1 billion windfall.<br><br>
We're told that the "administration supports critical national
security programs within the department, including the FBI and the
National Security Division (NSD)."<br><br>
"The requested national security resources include $122.5 million in
program increases for the FBI," including "$48.9 million for
the FBI to expand national security related surveillance and enhance its
Data Integration and Visualization System, as well as "$18.6 million
for the FBI's Computer Intrusion Initiative to increase coverage in
detecting cyber intrusions."<br><br>
Rather ironic, considering that
<a href="https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/audit-finds-fbi-doing-poor-job-cyber-investigations-042911">
ThreatPost</a> reported last month that a U.S. Department of Justice
<a href="https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/audit-finds-fbi-doing-poor-job-cyber-investigations-042911">
audit</a> found that the FBI's ability to "investigate cyber
intrusions" was less than adequate. The report disclosed that
"fully 36% [of field agents] were found to be
ill-equipped."<br><br>
To make matters worse, "FBI field offices do not have sufficient
analytical and forensic capabilities to support large scale
investigations, the audit revealed." All the more reason then to
shower even more money on the Bureau!<br><br>
And with the FBI demanding new authority to peer into our lives, on- and
offline, the FY 2012 budget would "address the growing technological
gap between law enforcement's electronic surveillance capabilities and
the number and variety of communications devices available to the public,
$17.0 million in program increases are being requested to bolster the
department's electronic surveillance capabilities."<br><br>
One sure sign that things haven't changed under Obama is the FBI's quest
for additional funds for what it is now calling it's Data Integration and
Visualization System (DIVS). According to April congressional
<a href="http://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/fbi-budget-for-fiscal-year-2012">
testimony</a> by FBI Director Robert Mueller, DIVS will "prioritize
and integrate disparate datasets across the Bureau."<br><br>
Another in a long line of taxpayer-funded boondoggles, it appears that
DIVS is the latest iteration of various failed "case
management" and "data integration" programs stood up by
the Bureau.<br><br>
As I
<a href="http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2010/04/managing-data-and-dissent-where-big.html">
reported</a> last year, previous failed efforts by the FBI have included
the Bureau's Virtual Case File (VCF) project. Overseen by the spooky
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), VCF cost taxpayers
some $170 million dollars before it crashed and burned in 2006.<br><br>
And when defense and security giant Lockheed Martin took over the case
management brief, VCF, now rechristened Sentinel, also enjoyed a
similarly expensive and waste-filled fate. A 2009 report by the
Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General
(<a href="http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a1003_redacted.pdf">
OIG</a>) found that despite some $450 million dollars showered on
Lockheed Martin and assorted subcontractors, the Sentinel system
"encountered significant challenges."<br><br>
According to a notice quietly posted in August in the
<a href="http://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2010/08/31/2010-21248/privacy-act-of-1974-system-of-records#p-21">
Federal Register</a>, "DIVS contains replications and extractions of
information maintained by the FBI in other databases. This information is
replicated or extracted into DIVS in order to provide an enhanced and
integrated view of that information."<br><br>
Wait a minute! Isn't that what VCF and Sentinel were supposed to do?
We're told that the "purpose of DIVS is to strengthen and improve
the methods by which the FBI searches for and analyzes information in
support of its multifaceted mission responsibilities to protect the
nation against terrorism and espionage and investigate criminal
matters."<br><br>
(Dirty) Business as Usual<br><br>
While the FBI and the Justice Department have failed to prosecute
corporate criminals responsible for the greatest theft and upward
transfer of wealth in history, not to mention the virtual
get-out-of-jail-free cards handed out to top executives of the drug-money
laundering
<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-07/wachovia-s-drug-habit.html">
Wachovia Bank</a>, they're rather adept at trampling the rights of the
American people.<br><br>
As the <a href="http://www.sfbayguardian.com/2011/04/26/spies-blue">San
Francisco Bay Guardian</a> recently reported, while corporate lawbreakers
get a free pass, "San Francisco cops assigned to the FBI's terrorism
task force can ignore local police orders and California privacy laws to
spy on people without any evidence of a crime."<br><br>
According to a Memorandum of Understanding obtained by the ACLU, "it
effectively puts local officers under the control of the FBI,"
investigative journalist Sarah Phelan disclosed.<br><br>
Civil rights attorney Veena Dubal told the Bay Guardian that during
"the waning months of the Bush administration" the FBI
"changed its policies to allow federal authorities to collect
intelligence on a person even if the subject is not suspected of a crime.
The FBI is now allowed to spy on Americans who have done nothing
wrong--and who may be engaged in activities protected by the First
Amendment."<br><br>
"It's the latest sign of a dangerous trend: San Francisco cops are
working closely with the feds, often in ways that run counter to city
policy," Phelan writes. "And it raises a far-reaching question:
With a district attorney who used to be police chief, a civilian
commission that isn't getting a straight story from the cops, and a
climate of secrecy over San Francisco's intimate relations with outside
agencies, who is watching the cops?"<br><br>
Apparently, no one; and in such a repressive climate the federal
government has encouraged the FBI to target anyone deemed a threat to the
new corporate order. <br><br>
Earlier this year, an Electronic Frontier Foundation
<a href="https://www.eff.org/pages/patterns-misconduct-fbi-intelligence-violations">
report</a> revealed that the Bureau continues to systematically violate
the constitutional guarantees of American citizens and legal residents,
and does so with complete impunity.<br><br>
As I
<a href="http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2011/02/american-police-state-fbi-abuses.html">
wrote</a> at the time, this was rather ironic considering the free passes
handed out by U.S. securocrats to actual terrorists who killed thousands
of Americans on 9/11, as both
<a href="http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2010/02/10DOHA60.html">
WikiLeaks</a> and FBI whistleblower
<a href="http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2011/02/01/the-fbi-%E2%80%9Ckamikaze-pilots%E2%80%9D-case/">
Sibel Edmonds</a> disclosed.<br><br>
According to EFF, more than 2,500 documents obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act revealed that:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>* From 2001 to 2008, the FBI reported to the IOB approximately 800
violations of laws, Executive Orders, or other regulations governing
intelligence investigations, although this number likely significantly
under-represents the number of violations that actually occurred.<br>
<dd>* From 2001 to 2008, the FBI investigated, at minimum, 7000 potential
violations of laws, Executive Orders, or other regulations governing
intelligence investigations.<br>
<dd>* Based on the proportion of violations reported to the IOB and the
FBI's own statements regarding the number of NSL violations that
occurred, the actual number of violations that may have occurred from
2001 to 2008 could approach 40,000 possible violations of law, Executive
Order, or other regulations governing intelligence investigations.
(Electronic Frontier Foundation, Patterns of Misconduct: FBI Intelligence
Violations from 2001-2008, January 30, 2011)<br><br>
<br><br>
</dl>But FBI lawbreaking didn't stop there. Citing internal documents,
EFF revealed that the Bureau also "engaged in a number of flagrant
legal violations" that included, "submitting false or
inaccurate declarations to courts," "using improper evidence to
obtain federal grand jury subpoenas" and "accessing password
protected documents without a warrant."<br><br>
And just last week the civil liberties' watchdogs
<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/05/fbi-chastised-court-lying-about-existence">
reported</a> that "the U.S. District Court for the Central District
of California has revealed the FBI lied to the court about the existence
of records requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), taking
the position that FOIA allows it to withhold information from the court
whenever it thinks this is in the interest of national
security."<br><br>
The court sharply disagreed and
<a href="http://www.mainjustice.com/files/2011/04/Cormac-Carney-Order.pdf">
asserted</a> that "the Government cannot, under any circumstance,
affirmatively mislead the Court."<br><br>
The Court held, following settled case law that goes all the way back to
Marbury v. Madison (1803) that "Numerous statutes, rules, and cases
reflect the understanding that the Judiciary cannot carry out its
essential function if lawyers, parties, or witnesses obscure the
facts."<br><br>
Skewering the FBI, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney wrote that while
"The Government contends that the FOIA permits it to provide the
Court with the same misinformation it provided to Plaintiffs regarding
the existence of other responsive information or else the Government
would compromise national security ... that argument is
indefensible."<br><br>
Nevertheless, that court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals still
held that despite the Bureau's obvious attempt to bamboozle the federal
judiciary, thus subverting the separation of powers amongst the three
co-equal branches of government as stipulated in the U.S. Constitution
(Article III), "disclosing the number and nature of the documents
the Government possesses could reasonably be expected to compromise
national security." (see:
<a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/03/30/09-56035.pdf">
Islamic Shura Council of S. California v. FBI</a>.)<br><br>
In other words, while the Bureau was chastised for withholding relevant
documents from the court that might demonstrate their illegal
surveillance of organizations and individuals who have never been
indicted, or even charged, with so-called "terrorism offenses,"
the "national security" card trumps everything.<br><br>
Electronic Surveillance<br><br>
Late last month, EFF staff attorney Jennifer Lynch
<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/04/CIPAV_Post">reported</a>
the group had "recently received documents from the FBI that reveal
details about the depth of the agency's electronic surveillance
capabilities and call into question the FBI's controversial effort to
push Congress to expand the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement
Act (CALEA) for greater access to communications data."<br><br>
The documents were obtained under a FOIA request by EFF after a 2007
report published by
<a href="http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/07/fbi_spyware?currentPage=all">
Wired</a> disclosed that the FBI had deployed "secret spyware"
to track domestic targets.<br><br>
According to Wired, "FBI agent Norman Sanders describes the software
as a 'computer and internet protocol address verifier,' or
CIPAV."<br><br>
In a follow-up
<a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/08/fbis-wiretap-ne/">
piece</a>, investigative journalist Ryan Singel revealed that the FBI
"has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance
system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications
device."<br><br>
That surveillance system known as DCSNet, or Digital Collection System
Network, formerly known as Carnivore, "connects FBI wiretapping
rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators,
internet-telephony providers and cellular companies," Wired
reported.<br><br>
"It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom
infrastructure than observers suspected," Singel wrote at the time,
a point underscored a year later when whistleblower
<a href="http://www.themediaconsortium.com/reporting/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/affidavit-bp-final.pdf">
Babak Pasdar</a> blew the lid off the close relations amongst America's
telecoms and the Bureau's illegal surveillance programs.<br><br>
As
<a href="http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2008/04/fbis-quantico-circuit-still-spying.html">
Antifascist Calling</a> reported at the time, a telecom carrier Pasdar
worked for as a security consultant, subsequently named as Verizon by
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702364.html">
The Washington Post</a>, said the company maintained a high-speed DS-3
digital line that allowed the Bureau and other security agencies
"unfettered" access to the carrier's wireless network,
including billing records and customer data "transmitted
wirelessly."<br><br>
While Verizon denied the report that the FBI has open access to its
network, their mendacious claims were demolished when the
secrecy-shredding web site <a href="http://cryptome.org/">Cryptome</a>
published the firm's
<a href="http://cryptome.org/isp-spy/verizon-spy.pdf">"Law
Enforcement Legal Compliance Guide"</a> in 2010.<br><br>
Amongst the "helpful hints" provided to law enforcement by the
carrier, Verizon urges state spies to "be specific."<br><br>
"Do not include wording such as 'any and all records'", we
read. "The courts have traditionally ruled that this wording is
considered overly broad and burdensome. Request only what is
required." On and on it goes...<br><br>
According to documents obtained by EFF, the technologies discussed by
Bureau snoops, when installed on a target's computer, allows the FBI to
collect the following:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>* IP Address<br>
<dd>* Media Access Control (MAC) address<br>
<dd>* "Browser environment variables"<br>
<dd>* Open communication ports<br>
<dd>* List of the programs running<br>
<dd>* Operating system type, version, and serial number<br>
<dd>* Browser type and version<br>
<dd>* Language encoding<br>
<dd>* The URL that the target computer was previously connected to<br>
<dd>* Registered computer name<br>
<dd>* Registered company name<br>
<dd>* Currently logged in user name<br>
<dd>* Other information that would assist with "identifying computer
users, computer software installed, [and] computer hardware
installed" (Electronic Frontier Foundation, New FBI Documents
Provide Details on Government's Surveillance Spyware, April 29,
2011)<br><br>
<br><br>
</dl>According to initial reporting by Wired, the FBI may have
infiltrated the malicious program onto a target's computer by
"pointing to code that would install the spyware by exploiting a
vulnerability in the user's browser."<br><br>
Lynch comments that "although the documents discuss some problems
with installing the tool in some cases, other documents note that the
agency's Crypto Unit only needs 24-48 hours to prepare
deployment."<br><br>
Once the tool is installed, Bureau snoops aver "it stay[s]
persistent on the compromised computer and ... every time the computer
connects to the Internet, [FBI] will capture the information associated
with the PRTT [<a href="https://ssd.eff.org/wire/govt/pen-registers">Pen
Register/Trap & Trace Order</a>]."<br><br>
The privacy watchdogs write that the Bureau "has been using the tool
in domestic criminal investigations as well as in
<a href="https://www.eff.org/files/FBI_CIPAV-07-p45.pdf">FISA cases</a>,
and the FISA Court appears to have questioned the
<a href="https://www.eff.org/files/FBI_CIPAV-14-p52.pdf">propriety</a> of
the tool."<br><br>
This is particularly relevant, and troubling, considering that the FBI
and other secret state agencies such as the CIA and NSA already possess
formidable surveillance tools in their arsenals and that private security
outfits such as HBGary and Palantir--as well as hundreds of other
firms--are busily concocting ever-more intrusive spyware for their state
and private partners, as the massive disclosure of internal HBGary emails
and documents by the cyber-guerrilla group
<a href="http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/">Anonymous</a>revealed.<br><br>
With all the hot air from Washington surrounding claims by the FBI and
other secret state satrapies that they'll "go dark" unless
Congress grants them authority to build secret backdoors into America's
communications networks, EFF revealed that documents "show the FBI
already has numerous tools available to surveil suspects directly, rather
than through each of their communications service
providers."<br><br>
"One heavily redacted
<a href="https://www.eff.org/files/FBI_CIPAV-08-p168.pdf">email</a> notes
that the FBI has other tools that 'provide the functionality of the CIPAV
[text redacted] as well as provide other useful info that could help
further the case'."<br><br>
What is clear from the latest document release is that it isn't the FBI
that's "going dark" but the right of the American people to
free speech and political organizing without the threat that
government-sanctioned malware which remains "persistent" on a
"compromised computer" becomes one more tool for building
"national security" dossiers on dissidents. <br>
<br><br>
Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay
Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly</i> and
<a href="http://globalresearch.ca/">Global Research</a></i></b>, an
independent research and media group of writers, scholars, journalists
and activists based in Montreal, he is a Contributing Editor with
<a href="http://www.cjournal.info/">Cyrano's Journal Today</a></i></b>.
His articles can be read on
<a href="http://www.dissidentvoice.org/">Dissident Voice</a></i></b>,
<a href="http://www.inteldaily.com/">The Intelligence Daily</a></i></b>,
<a href="http://www.pacificfreepress.com/">Pacific Free
Press</a></i></b>,
<a href="http://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/">Uncommon Thought
Journal</a></i></b>, and the whistleblowing website
<a href="http://wikileaks.ch/">WikiLeaks</a></i></b>. He is the editor of
Police State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance"
Planning</i>, distributed by
<a href="http://www.akpress.org/2002/items/policestateamerica">AK
Press</a></b> and has contributed to the new book from
<a href="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20425">
Global Research</a></i></b>, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great
Depression of the XXI Century</i>.<br><br>
<br><br>
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