Former NSA Director: Agency Spies on Interesting Not Bad People
Michael Hayden, former NSA Director, former Director of National Intelligence, and former Director of CIA has just bragged about how he #39;s wasn #39;t part of law enforcement and the focus of...
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Former NSA Director: Agency Spies on Interesting Not Bad People - Video
NSA - Edward Snowden Edit 1
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NSA - Edward Snowden Edit 1 - Video
Becky Mackintosh NSA Speaker, Heal Hearts - Save Lives
Becky Mackintosh enlightens minds, strengthens families and heals hearts. With an emphasis on issues surrounding homosexuality, Becky shares a universal message of love. Judge less - love...
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Becky Mackintosh NSA Speaker, Heal Hearts - Save Lives - Video
A British tribunal has ruled that data sharing between the NSA and the UK spy group known as GCHQ was illegal for years. Why? Because it was done in secret.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal in the UK ruled today (.pdf) that British intelligence services acted unlawfully when they accessed the private communications of millions of people that had been collected by the NSA under its mass-surveillance programs known as PRISM and Upstream. The PRISM program, which began in 2007, allowed the NSA to collect data in bulk from U.S. companies like Yahoo and Google. The Upstream program involved the collection of data from taps placed on undersea cables outside the U.S.
The UKs use of the NSA data was illegal, the Tribunal found, because it violated the European Convention on Human Rights, which requires that activity that infringes on an individuals privacy be done both in accordance with the law and only when necessary and proportionate. The law requires that there be a detailed and publicly accessible legal framework in place that explains any privacy safeguards that are in place to help regulate programs that interfere with privacy. This was not the case until December 2014, after documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed the data-sharing programs and a legal challenge to the data-sharing forced the government to disclose the safeguards it was using.
The legal challenge was brought in July 2013 by Privacy International, Liberty, and other human rights and civil liberties groups. These groups argued in their complaint that by obtaining data about UK citizens from the NSA, UK spy agencies had done an end-run around privacy protections that UK citizens have under domestic laws. This forced the UK intelligence community to explain the safeguards it had put in place to govern use of the data.
We now know that, by keeping the public in the dark about their secret dealings with the NSA, GCHQ acted unlawfully and violated our rights, said James Welch, legal director for Liberty, in a statement. That their activities are now deemed lawful is thanks only to the degree of disclosure Liberty and the other claimants were able to force from our secrecy-obsessed government.
The Guardian notes that this is the first time since the Tribunal was established in 2000 that it has upheld a complaint relating to the UKs intelligence agencies.
But civil liberties groups say the Tribunal didnt go far enough. They are appealing an earlier decision by the Tribunal in December of last year, which found that now that the safeguards are public, the program is legal.
The IPT ruled that, because the government was forced to disclosed these previous secret policies during the case, that the sharing of intelligence between GCHQ and NSA is lawful post December 2014. We obviously disagree with that, Mike Rispoli, spokesman for Privacy International told WIRED.
He said the groups are also still waiting on a ruling from the Tribunal regarding the proportionality of the data collection and sharing. That ruling is expected within a few months.
The rest is here:
UK Tribunal Declares NSAs Data-Sharing with British Intel Illegal
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled today that the UK intelligence services acted unlawfully in their sharing of intelligence with the NSA prior to December 2014.
The case was brought to the Tribunal, which rules on intelligence matters, by the organisations Privacy International, Bytes for All, Liberty and Amnesty International.
The basis of the ruling is that the way in which intelligence sharing between GCHQ and the US intelligence services was kept secret prior to that date contravenes human rights. That includes the Tempora programme, by which the UK intercepts data passing through the transatlantic fibre-optic cables that carry much of the world's internet traffic, and warrantless access to data harvested by the NSA's Prism and Upstream programmes.
However, those same activities are now deemed to be legal. Following a limited disclosure by UK intelligence about its methodology with respect to information sharing with the US, on December 5th the IPT ruled that the cooperation between GCHQ and the NSA could continue.
Privacy International welcomed today's ruling, but said it does not go far enough since the activities are continuing as before.
"For far too long, intelligence agencies like GCHQ and NSA have acted like they are above the law. Today's decision confirms to the public what many have said all along - over the past decade, GCHQ and the NSA have been engaged in an illegal mass surveillance sharing program that has affected millions of people around the world," said deputy director Eric King in a statement.
"We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance programmes using secret interpretations of secret laws. The world owes Edward Snowden a great debt for blowing the whistle, and today's decision is a vindication of his actions," he said, adding that more now needs to be done to put pressure on the authorities.
"The only reason why the NSA-GCHQ sharing relationship is still legal today is because of a last-minute clean-up effort by Government to release previously secret 'arrangements'. That is plainly not enough to fix what remains a massive loophole in the law, and we hope that the European Court decides to rule in favour of privacy rather than unchecked state power."
James Welch, legal director for Liberty, said his organisation will continue the battle through the European courts.
"We now know that, by keeping the public in the dark about their secret dealings with the National Security Agency, GCHQ acted unlawfully and violated our rights. That their activities are now deemed lawful is thanks only to the degree of disclosure Liberty and the other claimants were able to force from our secrecy-obsessed Government." Welch said.
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NSA-GCHQ data sharing was illegal - but they are free to carry on doing it