NSA collected US email records for over 2 years under Obama

NSA collected US email records in bulk for more than two years under Obama --Secret program launched by Bush continued 'until 2011' --Fisa court renewed collection order every 90 days --Current NSA programs still mine US internet metadata 27 Jun 2013 The Obama administration for more than two years permitted the National Security Agency to continue collecting vast amounts of records detailing the email and internet usage of Americans, according to secret documents obtained by the Guardian. The documents indicate that under the program, launched in 2001, a federal judge sitting on the secret surveillance panel called the Fisa court would approve a bulk collection order for internet metadata "every 90 days". A senior administration official confirmed the program, stating that it ended in 2011. The collection of these records began under the Bush regime's wide-ranging warrantless surveillance program, collectively known by the NSA codename Stellar Wind. According to a top-secret draft report by the NSA's inspector general - published for the first time today by the Guardian - the agency began "collection of bulk internet metadata" involving "communications with at least one communicant outside the United States or for which no communicant was known to be a citizen of the United States".

Former NSA, CIA director: 'The United States does conduct espionage' 30 Jun 2013 "The United States does conduct espionage," and the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protecting the privacy of American citizens "is not an international treaty," former CIA and National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden said Sunday on "Face the Nation," after a German magazine cited secret intelligence documents to charge U.S. spies of bugging European Union offices. Earlier Sunday, top German official Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger accused the United States of using "Cold War" methods against its allies. Her statement came in response to a report in the German news weekly Der Spiegel, which, citing some of the top-secret documents leaked by former government contractor Edward Snowden, claimed the NSA had eavesdropped on EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels.

Secret-court judges upset at portrayal of 'collaboration' with government 30 Jun 2013 Recent leaks of classified documents have pointed to the role of a special court in enabling the government's secret surveillance programs, but members of the court are chafing at the suggestion that they were collaborating with the executive branch. A classified 2009 draft report by the National Security Agency's inspector general relayed some details about the interaction between the court's judges and the NSA, which sought approval for the Bush regime's top-secret domestic surveillance programs. The report was described in The Washington Post on June 16 and released in full Thursday by The Post and The Guardian. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the former chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, took the highly unusual step Friday of voicing open frustration at the account in the report and court's inability to explain its decisions.

E.U. fury on allegations of U.S. spying 30 Jun 2013 European leaders reacted with fury on Sunday to allegations in a German magazine that the United States had conducted a wide-ranging effort to monitor European Union diplomatic offices and computer networks, with some saying that they expected such surveillance from enemies, not their closest economic partner. It was the latest fallout from National Security Agency information apparently leaked by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor whose detailing of classified information on the agency’s programs has shined a rare light on U.S. surveillance efforts that range far wider than previously understood.

U.S. bugged EU offices, computer networks: Der Spiegel 29 Jun 2013 The United States has bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, according to secret documents cited in a German magazine on Saturday, the latest in a series of exposures of alleged U.S. spy programs. Der Spiegel quoted from a September 2010 "top secret" U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) document that it said fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had taken with him, and the weekly's journalists had seen in part. The document outlines how the NSA bugged offices and spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the United Nations, not only listening to conversations and phone calls but also gaining access to documents and emails. The document explicitly called the EU a "target".

Inner workings of a top-secret spy program 29 Jun 2013 The National Security Agency’s PRISM program, which collects intelligence from Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple and other tech giants, is "targeted" at foreigners. But it also collects the e-mail, voice, text and video chats of an unknown number of Americans -- "inadvertently," "incidentally" or deliberately if an American is conversing with a foreign target overseas. Here are new details on how the program works, from top-secret documents and interviews.

Snowden Seeks Russian Asylum as Putin Says Leaks Must End 01 Jul 2013 President Vladimir Putin said Edward Snowden must quit hurting American interests should he hope to remain in Russia, after an official said the fugitive U.S. leaker applied for asylum there. "If he wants to stay, there’s one condition: He must stop his activity aimed at harming our American partners, as strange as it sounds coming from my lips," Putin, a frequent critic of U.S. policy, told reporters in the Kremlin yesterday. Putin said Snowden is unlikely to accept that restriction.

Snowden revelations will continue, says Assange 30 Jun 2013 Julian Assange, the founder of the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, said Sunday that even as Edward J. Snowden remained in diplomatic limbo at a Moscow airport, the disclosures from the classified documents he took as a National Security Agency contractor would continue. "Look, there is no stopping the publishing process at this stage," Assange said on the ABC News program "This Week." Assange, speaking from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London where he has been ensconced for more the a year after being granted asylum, praised Snowden's actions and compared his plight with his own. He said Snowden was likely to be indicted by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., that Assange said was "made up of the CIA, Pentagon."

GI's Trial in WikiLeaks Case Enters 5th Week 01 Jul 2013 Prosecutors at the court-martial of an Army private at Fort Meade remain focused on the more than 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables he gave to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. The trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning enters its fifth week Monday at the Army installation near Baltimore. Manning is charged with aiding the enemy and 20 other offenses. He admits leaking the cables while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq but denies stealing them.

Military faults guards in Guantánamo captive's suicide by overdose 28 Jun 2013 A U.S. military investigation found Guantánamo troops didn't follow their own rules, allowing a captive to take a fatal overdose of an anti-psychotic drug a day after he was moved into a disciplinary cell from the detention center's psychiatric ward. A 79-page report, released Friday under the Freedom of Information Act, showed the "standard operating procedures," or SOP, governing the U.S. Army Military Police required soldiers to regularly check on captives kept in solitary cells at Camp 5, Guantánamo's maximum-security lockup. Troops didn't do it for at least two shift changes before Yemeni captive Adnan Latif was discovered dead on the floor of his Camp 5 cell at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba on Sept. 8, 2012.

Egypt's military gives Morsi 48-hour ultimatum, threatens to intervene 01 Jul 2013 Egypt's military on Monday said mass protests calling for the resignation of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi were an "unprecedented" expression of the will of the people and gave the government 48 hours to meet the opposition's demands. In a statement read on state television just hours after the headquarters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement were ransacked, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said if this did not happen the army would intervene. The protesters' main demands are that Morsi announce early elections and step down, allowing a temporary government to take over.

Obama Pledges $7 Billion to Upgrade Power in Africa 30 Jun 2013 U.S. President Barack Obama pledged $7 billion Sunday to help combat frequent power blackouts in sub-Saharan Africa. Funds from the initiative, dubbed Power Africa, will be distributed over the next five years. Obama made the announcement during his trip to South Africa, the continent's biggest economy. The program includes $1.5 billion from the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation and $5 billion from the Export-Import Bank, the White House said. Sub-Saharan Africa will need more than $300 billion to achieve universal electricity access by 2030, it said. [Once again, US taxpayers are spending BILLIONS on another blowjob for US corpora-terrorists to PRETEND to build/upgrade power grids in another country/countries. US taxpayers have spent BILLIONS to 'build' power grids in IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN -- seemingly, EVERY COUNTRY ON EARTH -- EXCEPT the US! US infrastructure is CRUMBLING, but Congress won't appropriate a nickel to fix any of the THOUSANDS of unsafe bridges across America or, God forbid, give a air traffic controller overtime. The reason why the hypocritical Republicans in Congress (except for Rand Paul and a few others) have no objection to pouring billions into 'upgrading' infrastructure in other nations is that they know such projects will NEVER be completed (Iraq, Afghanistan) and the only BENEFACTORS to these pseudo-humanitarian (or 'security') projects are US CORPORA-TERRORISTS, immune from oversight. That's why the GOP wants to spend $50 billion to 'secure the border' while simultaneously voting to cut food stamps and slash aid to the poor. --LRP]

South Africans burn Obama's poster 29 Jun 2013 Anti-U.S. protesters burned posters of U.S. President Barack Obama in the South African city of Johannesburg, ahead of his visit to the city on Saturday. Protesters also burned miniature U.S. flags outside the University of Johannesburg Soweto campus, expressing their anger at the U.S. government's foreign policy. Demonstrators expressed their opposition to Washington's support for the Israeli government, the killing of innocent civilians in U.S. drone strikes, and the continuing operation of the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison. Some protesters compared the Obama administration's support for the Israeli government to apartheid in South Africa.

Alleged Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza was a vegan and 'talented student' who earned mostly As 30 Jun 2013 In September of his eighth-grade year, Adam Lanza was wracked by anxiety, his mother told doctors. So intense were the feelings that Nancy Lanza drove him to the emergency room at Danbury Hospital for an evaluation... But the trouble was not with his performance in the classroom, according to his seventh-grade report cards from Newtown Middle School and St. Rose of Lima. The first three marking periods of his seventh-grade year were spent at Newtown Middle School where he earned mostly A's. Teachers described him as having a "positive attitude," being "fully engaged, respectful" and "eager to succeed." And he was praised not just for academics -- he earned an A in gym class, and his band teacher called him a "talented student." Medical records state that Lanza was vegan, meaning he did not consume any animal products, by the time he was 13. [Exactly. Sandy Hook was a false flag, six ways to Sunday. --LRP]

U.S. justices block generic drug liability lawsuits 24 Jun 2013 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that generic drugmakers cannot be sued under state law for adverse reactions to their products, a decision that consumer advocates called a blow to patient safety. In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled for Mutual Pharmaceutical Co, owned by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, overturning a multimillion-dollar jury award to a badly injured patient in New Hampshire who alleged a generic drug she had taken was unsafe based on its chemical design. The majority opinion, written by Justice [sic] Samuel Alito, said the state's law could not run against federal laws on prescription medicines whose design has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Mega barf alert: TB cattle entering human food chain: report 29 Jun 2013 (UK) Tens of thousands of diseased cattle slaughtered because they have bovine tuberculosis are being sold for human consumption, a report said. The Sunday Times reported that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was selling the carcasses although some experts consider this may be a risk to human health. Raw meat from about 28,000 cows a year with bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is being sold to caterers and food processors, where it may be served in schools, hospitals and the military, the report said.

Meat from cattle infected with bovine tuberculosis is being sold to consumers --Meat from cattle infected with TB is being sold in the UK 30 Jun 2013 The Government has sold more than £35 million worth of meat from cattle infected with bovine TB in the last six years, it can be revealed. Once the meat makes its way into the shops it is undistinguishable from beef from healthy animals. It means that beef available on the high street may have come from cows slaughtered because they were infected with bovine TB.

Grimes will challenge McConnell for U.S. Senate seat in 2014 01 Jul 2013 Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced Monday that she will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2014. Grimes, a Lexington lawyer in her first term as secretary of state, has been conducting "due diligence" about entering the race since late April. "Kentucky is tired of 28 years of obstruction," Grimes said of McConnell during an afternoon news conference in Frankfort.

Ohio governor, flanked by six men, signs stringent abortion restrictions into law 01 Jul 2013 It is a striking image: Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, flanked by six men, signing stringent abortion restrictions into law as part of the state's new budget Sunday night. Karen Kasler, a local reporter for Ohio Public Radio and TV's Statehouse News Bureau, captured the image and shared it on Twitter, where it received a flurry of comments asking: "Where are the women?" While there were female reporters in the room, no female elected officials were present.

Thousands rally against Texas abortion bill on first day of new special session 01 Jul 2013 The Texas Capitol became the center of America's abortion debate again on Monday as thousands of demonstrators were on hand to voice opposition to Republican-backed legislation that would dramatically limit abortion rights in the state. The protests came at the start of a special legislative session called by Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry after a bill that would have essentially ban most abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy was halted last week. The effort was led by Democratic state Senator Wendy Davis, who became a national icon for abortion-rights advocates after standing for hours to filibuster the legislation.

Death Valley hit hottest U.S. June temperature ever recorded Sunday: 129 01 Jul 2013 On Sunday, the National Weather Service reported Death Valley had surged to 128 degrees. But, in an update this morning, it reports the mercury touched 129 degrees at its peak, a new monthly record and a tie for the hottest June temperature ever recorded in the U.S. (assuming it is validated). Confusion arose Sunday about what whether Death Valley had reached 128 or 129. The 128-degree reading reported Sunday was the preliminary high as of 4 p.m. mountain time, said Chris Stachelski, a forecaster at the National Weather Service. But, the National Park Service, which is responsible for measurements using a mercury thermometer, said the high reached 129 in its final report just issued, and provided photographic evidence.

Crew of 19 elite firefighters killed in Arizona wildfire --Only one survivor from hotshot unit trained to venture into remote areas, which was overtaken by rapidly moving blaze 01 Jul 2013 Nineteen firefighters have died in Arizona after being caught in one of the deadliest wildfires in the US for decades, which destroyed scores of homes and forced the evacuation of two small towns north-west of Phoenix. The specially trained "hotshot" firefighters were forced to deploy their fire shelters – tent-like structures meant to shield them from flames and heat – when they were caught near an Arizona town, state forestry spokesman Art Morrison told the Associated Press.

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