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27 Edward Snowden Quotes About U.S. Government Spying That Should Send A Chill Up Your Spine

They are intent on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world known to them. To do that, the NSA specifically targets the communications of everyone. It ingests them by default. It collects them in its system and it filters them and it analyzes them and it measures them and it stores them for periods of time simply because that's the easiest, most efficient and most valuable way to achieve these ends. So while they may be intending to target someone associated with a foreign government, or someone that they suspect of terrorism, they are collecting YOUR communications to do so. Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector, anywhere... I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President..."

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/27-edward-snowden-quotes-a
bout-u-s-government-spying-that-should-send-a-chill-up-your-spine

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Twenty TRILLION Phone Calls: “They’ve Been Collecting Data About ALL Domestic Calls Since October 2001?

Binney explained that the government is taking the position that it can gather and use any informationabout American citizens living on U.S. soil if it comes from:

Any service provider … any third party … any commercial company – like a telecom or internet service provider, libraries, medical companies – holding data about anyone, any U.S. citizen or anyone else.

The National Security Agency’s collection of phone data from all of Verizon’s U.S. customers is just the “tip of the iceberg,” says a former NSA official who estimates the agency has data on as many as 20 trillion phone calls and emails by U.S. citizens.

William Binney, an award-winning mathematician and noted NSAwhistleblower, says the collection dates back to when the super-secret agency began domestic surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I believe they’ve been collecting data about all domestic calls since October 2001,” said Mr. Binney, who worked at NSA for more than 30 years. “That’s more than a billion calls a day.”

The data were collected under a highly classified NSA program code-named “Stellar Wind,” which was part of the warrantless domestic wiretapping effort — the Terrorist Surveillance Program.

Binney explained that the government is taking the position that it can gather and use any informationabout American citizens living on U.S. soil if it comes from:

Any service provider … any third party … any commercial company – like a telecom or internet service provider, libraries, medical companies – holding data about anyone, any U.S. citizen or anyone else.

I then asked the NSA veteran if the government’s claim that it is only spying on metadata – and not content – was correct. We have extensively documented that the government is likely recording contentas well. (And the government has previously admitted to “accidentally” collecting more information on Americans than was legal, and then gagged the judges so they couldn’t disclose the nature or extent of the violations.)

Binney said that was not true; the government is gathering everything, including content.

Binney explained – as he has many times before – that the government is storing everything, and creating a searchable database … to be used whenever it wants, for any purpose it wants (even just going after someone it doesn’t like).

Binney said that former FBI counter-terrorism agent Tim Clemente is correct when he says that nodigital data is safe (Clemente says that all digital communications are being recorded).

Binney gave me an idea of how powerful Narus recording systems are. There are probably 18 of them around the country, and they can each record 10 gigabytes of data – the equivalent of a million and a quarter emails with 1,000 characters each – per second.

At an estimated $80 billion this production employs nearly one million people.

Moreover, anyone who uses a machine to send information – of any kind – over the internet, is indirectly employed by these agencies, as well.

The net is expansive – and it’s growing.

Realistically, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the government simply puts an end to the spying, lays off these one million people, and calls it a day.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/twenty-trillion-phone-calls-they
ve-been-collecting-data-about-all-domestic-calls-since-october-2001_06102013

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

BTW- on the one hand, you think that Obama is a traitor for continuing and expanding what Bush started.

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On the other hamd you just labelled Snowden a traitor. In your book, one cannot be either for against this program because either way, one is a traitoer. You're confused, son. You don't know what's going on, or what you want.

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Apparently, you have an extremely detailed list of what "does" and "doesn't matter" which allows you to excuse or blame anyone for anything. Marvelous! And no wonder nobody takes you seriously- there's not a shred of logic in there!

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

Cheesy photoshopped image is the level at which you can reply ? No surprise at all.

O-care poses far more a threat to America than does Prism. It's not even close.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

O-care poses far more a threat to America than does Prism. It's not even close.

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Originally posted by m52nickerson:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

Cheesy photoshopped image is the level at which you can reply ? No surprise at all.

O-care poses far more a threat to America than does Prism. It's not even close.

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Neither is a threat to America...that is what makes watching you two fight funny.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Interesting perspective. I agree that Prism strengthens the American government, and as such is not a threat to the American government.

Also your comments and breathtaking lack of cynicism continue to amuse me. Carry on.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
So far, companies don't have the same degree of police forces they send to your house to confiscate servers and with some notable exceptions it's generally the government that tries to arrest you/ jail you/ try you for crimes/ TORTURE you/ detain you indefinitely / predator drone you into a barbequed grease smear crater.

Of course that is likely to CHANGE, and there might also be some degree of cooperation there BETWEEN governments and corporations on these activities, and surely governments aren't the only entities that commit ground forces for a war (conflict diamonds come to mind). I'll even agree that both governments AND corporations are evil beyond anything most of us would/could comprehend or care to. But government entities still tend to do those kinds of things quite a bit more often.

These corporations might try spam bombing your email account with advertisements, and what about hackers and identity theft, how terrible compared to being arrested/ shot at/ legal fees/ imprisonment.

My amusement continues unabated.

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When was the last time the government tried to arrest you/ jail you/ try you for crimes/ TORTURE you/ detain you indefinitely / predator drone you into a barbequed grease smear crater?

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Main Core is the code name of a database maintained since the 1980s by the federal government of the United States. Main Core contains personal and financial data of millions of U.S. citizens believed to be threats to national security.[1] The data, which comes from the NSA, FBI, CIA, and other sources,[1] is collected and stored without warrants or court orders.[1] The database's name derives from the fact that it contains "copies of the 'main core' or essence of each item of intelligence information on Americans produced by the FBI and the other agencies of the U.S. intelligence community."[1]

The Main Core database is believed to have originated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1982, following Ronald Reagan's Continuity of Operations plan outlined in the National Security Directive (NSD) 69 / National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 55, entitled "Enduring National Leadership," implemented on September 14, 1982.[1][2]

As of 2008 there were reportedly eight million Americans listed in the database as possible threats, often for trivial reasons, whom the government may choose to track, question, or detain in a time of crisis.[3]

The existence of the database was first reported on in May 2008 by Christopher Ketcham and in July 2008 by Tim Shorrock.[2]

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I would rather someone look into data about people to stop people who want to kill others than just to spam me.

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Your problems is that you find any organization that has any power over you evil.

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Originally posted by m52nickerson:

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Interesting perspective. I agree that Prism strengthens the American government, and as such is not a threat to the American government.

Also your comments and breathtaking lack of cynicism continue to amuse me. Carry on.

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Please tell me how the government having some of this data is more of a threat to anyone than all these companies having it. It seems people expect the government to be the only one that does not get to look at this. We know companies use this data everyday. We know they sell it to whomever can pony up the money. We know someone with a little bit of computer knowledge can get it and use it.

I do not fear God, I fear the ignorance of man.

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Originally posted by m52nickerson:

When was the last time the government tried to arrest you/ jail you/ try you for crimes/ TORTURE you/ detain you indefinitely / predator drone you into a barbequed grease smear crater?

Your problems is that you find any organization that has any power over you evil.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Have you ever seen those commercials for the insurance companies where they have the little "driver's snapshot" device that you plug into your car so it can track your driving habits, and they all but promise it can reduce your insurance rates?

How would you feel about the government mandating such a device be placed in your car? Only you're not allowed to know about it, ask about it, talk about it, tell anyone else about it if you by some chance find out about it - oh, and if at any point the government doesn't like what it sees, the goon squad just gets to kick in your door and take you away. Or zap you with a Hellfire missile while you're driving down the 405.

Sound like fun? That's just ONE difference between a company doing it and the government doing it. If I don't want to participate in that company's "experiment", I just don't do it. I refuse, or I move on to a different company.

What happens if I don't want to play the government's game?

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

And your problem is that as long as it's not happening to you personally, you can't see that it's happening at all. Or maybe you just can't bring yourself to care, just as long as it's only happening to various brown people. I get it; when they came for the brown people, you didn't speak up, because you're not brown.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
I imagine they're building their case. And if they haven't found me yet, well, they're building a super-spy center here in Salt Lake City that'll be finished in October.

Supposedly they have a list of about 8 million "discontents" who are monitored in detail and who they consider a threat enough to the country that they'd have to be detained in the case that martial law has to be declared. All it takes to get on that list is an expression of political dissent or purchases that are red flagged.As of 2008 there were reportedly eight million Americans listed in the database as possible threats, often for trivial reasons, whom the government may choose to track, question, or detain in a time of crisis.[3]

The existence of the database was first reported on in May 2008 by Christopher Ketcham and in July 2008 by Tim Shorrock.[2]

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
You know what groups kill more people than terrorists or school shooters?

Corporations.

You know what groups kill more people than corporations?

Governments after a declaration of war.

Heh.

Although if you're proposing counter-COUNTER-intelligence hacktivism against the US and Corporations, I could sign off on that. :P

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
...because they are? At a large enough sampling size I can pretty much guarantee that a concentration of power correlates with increased abuse of power and an alteration of normal behaviour towards greater amorality, greed, and self-interest, even temporary narcissism or sociopathic tendencies. There's psychological studies that have been done on this phenomena.

Here's an example dealing with celebrities - which is a condition I imagine also applies to basically all politicians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_%28psychology%29#Acquired_situ
ational_narcissism

And then don't even get me started on the "Just Following Orders" syndrome that happens among the non-celebrity and more anonymous members of the population.

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and none of it has to do w/ skin color of the President, OR party affiliation. It has to do w/ the ACTIONS , you know the character of those involved

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Cite for me where I called Obama a 'traitor' on THIS matter, if ya can

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Only it was the MEDIA, telling us that, not so much Bush. [qbout WMD

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It's not happening to the vaste majority of people, no matter there color. The whole point of gathering data is so you don't indesciminatly kill.

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So are they tracked in detail, or maybe tracked?

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I'm sure there is an increase in amorality. Thing is an increase does not mean everyone is evil.

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Only by stretching the definition of "terrorism" to include Occupy protests, hacking, DDOSs, copyright violations, Tea Party organizing, failure to pay taxes, and zombie PCs spewing spam, is this even remotely possible. And that, for sure, is what is being targeted - political activism and internet activity.

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This is what in fact was done to the RNC Welcoming Committee at the 2008 RNC convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Authorities carried out pre-emptive raids upon peaceful protesters prior to their even peacefully demonstrating and charged them with “domestic terrorism.” In the course of this, at least one of the arrested US citizen activists was brutalized in a fashion that comes very close to torture.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
So... What you're saying is... Without this data, the government's response to security threats on its own soil and from its own citizens would be INDISCRIMINATE KILLING. Instead of the traditional practice of arrest and trial under English Law that has existed since before America was AMERICAN. And either way, killing or monitoring, it wouldn't matter because it's not a vast majority of Americans, only 8 million.

You're really making a case in favour here.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Tracked in detail, no maybes about it. Their purchases, the contents of their emails, posts on twitter or facebook. Otherwise the NSA and the other agencies and contractors would be collecting pretty vague and useless information.

Hydrogen peroxide can be used to make bombs, so if you buy enough of it, yes, it flips some flags.

Also 8 million is not a small number.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
No, it just means that the individuals who are good are swallowed up by the flood of assholes and greed and people who just don't care, because to get anything done, you have to play ball with the people with the amoral self-interests. So all efforts to improve things or stop the degenerative spiral within the system itself are just pissing in the ocean, undermined right from the beginning.

As such, individuals can be good, but organizations with any power or ideology or ambition are pretty much always evil. Even charities. (Side note: most Middle Eastern countries consider Al Qaeda a humanitarian aid group)

That's why I believe in dismantling/hobbling such structures.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, this program prevented "dozens" of "terrorist" attcks.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Everything they're about to say on this program is a lie. Do they think that actual foreign terrorists are so stupid that they call their buds on an open line, and that we're so stupid we believe that??? Do they think that I really believe that monitoring tens of millions of average Americans - who wouldn't know a terrorist even by six degrees of Kevin Bacon-is really going to (somehow) stop terrorist attacks???

Only by stretching the definition of "terrorism" to include Occupy protests, hacking, DDOSs, copyright violations, Tea Party organizing, failure to pay taxes, and zombie PCs spewing spam, is this even remotely possible. And that, for sure, is what is being targeted - political activism and internet activity.

This is a yet another watershed moment for Congress: will our Congresspeople think about the good of the nation and our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, and do what's right, irrespective of party affiliation and political career?

This is also another watershed moment for "we the people": will we sacrifice our civil liberties to gain some vague promise of "safety"? Yanno, in the late 1700's Americans had just gone thru a WAR on their very own soil, and yet the politicians were ballsy enough to write up a whole lng list of rights designed to preserve our freedoms. They werem't thinking about safety, although they had every right to. Each time this comes up- and it's come up enough in the past 13 years that only the very young can claim not to know what's going on (means NOT YOU, rappy) - the quote from Franklin is brought up. I will bring it up again

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Let's see whether we deserve our freedom or not.

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I was speaking about overseas activities. We still do arrest people here and make them stand trial.

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Who you email and call is not vague and useless information. This is the very data the government is getting and using.

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First thing you need to know is that data being used is not a violation of your rights. In fact that data is not yours. It is owned by the companies that have collected it. Which by the way you are freely giving those companies by using there services.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Only by stretching the definition of "terrorism" to include Occupy protests, hacking, DDOSs, copyright violations, Tea Party organizing, failure to pay taxes, and zombie PCs spewing spam, is this even remotely possible. And that, for sure, is what is being targeted - political activism and internet activity.

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First thing you need to know is that data being used is not a violation of your rights. In fact that data is not yours. It is owned by the companies that have collected it. Which by the way you are freely giving those companies by using there services.

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Cite for me where I called Obama a 'traitor' on THIS matter, if ya can-rappy

Okay, so he's NOT a traitor on this? -signy

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