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NSA Ajit Doval

Roughly twelve hours before people started gathering outside Red Fort, the capitals North Block witnessed a meeting called by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, with Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, Special CPs (law and order), JCPs of two ranges and DCPs of six districts in attendance, it is learnt.

On the agenda was a strategy to maintain law and order the following day. Intelligence agencies had received inputs that some people from Haryanas Mewat would be coming to Delhi in large numbers and could create trouble on the law and order front, a senior officer from Delhi Polices intelligence wing told The Indian Express. And so, barricades were put up on Gurgaon-Delhi border, and cars started being checked.

Speaking about last nights meeting, a police source said: He (Doval) discussed the situation with senior officers and asked for their viewpoints. The police chief suggested that a protest march could be allowed, but the NSA referred to a tweet by one of the DCPs which had earlier mentioned that no permission had been granted for the march. So it was decided that only a designated place like Jantar Mantar can be chosen for the protest.

He is also learnt to have taken a stern view of the failure of local intelligence during the first three days of the protest at Jamia, and for allowing local politicians and anti-social elements to hijack the students protest.

An officer who attended the meeting, which lasted 90 minutes, said it was decided to call all personnel from specialised units, Crime Branch and EOW, and deploy them at sensitive spots with anti-riot gear. Paramilitary force personnel were also called in with advanced gear. It was also decided to coordinate with police counterparts in neighbouring states, following which border with Haryana was sealed, the officer said. Following the meeting, DCP (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah wrote a letter dated December 18 to nodal officers of four telecom service providers, asking them to stop mobile internet, voice and SMS services in certain areas.

Sources said after the meeting with the NSA, senior officers held a meeting among themselves at the New Delhi DCPs office at Parliament Street. This meeting, addressed by Patnaik, ended around 1.15 am. It was decided that they will allow protesters to gather at Jantar Mantar, but those assembling elsewhere will be detained under CrPC Section 144. It was also decided to approach DMRC to shut some Metro stations, an officer said.

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Delhi CAA protests: How late-night meeting with NSA and top cops set the strategy for Thursday - Yahoo India News

The NSA's Upstream surveillance program was exposed by Edward Snowden back in 2013. In 2015, Wikimedia, the parent company of Wikipedia and other non-profit knowledge projects, challenged this program in a lawsuit against the NSA, the DoJ, the ODNI and the heads of those agencies.

While the Upstream surveillance program is similar to PRISM in that it allows the NSA to monitor and collect emails, search terms and other online activity of Americans, it is different in that, instead of relying on the cooperation of ISPs, Upstream bypasses them and instead relies on the cooperation of telecommunications infrastructure. Wikimedia argued that this program violates the first and fourth amendment rights of American citizens, and far exceeds the scope intended by Congress.

According to Data Center Dynamics, the case was dismissed later that year for a lack of evidence supporting the claim that the NSA was using it for bulk collection, rather than the targeted collection of a specific individual's data which meant that the NSA was acting legally.

In 2017, the case was appealed and the decision reversed, based on the understanding that Wikimedia generates so much traffic that it's impossible to be used for monitoring a specific individual meaning that the collection is indeed done in bulk, which is indeed in violation of the first and fourth amendment rights of American citizens.

Two days ago, the case was dismissed again after reaching the conclusion that without specific understanding of the upstream program, Wikimedias case has no leg to stand on. Of course, this is impossible due to the classified nature of the program.

Judge Ellis said:

For Wikimedia to litigate the standing issue further, and for defendants to defend adequately in any further litigation, would require the disclosure of protected state secrets, namely details about the Upstream surveillance program's operations.

For the reasons that follow, therefore, the standing issue cannot be tried, or otherwise further litigated, without risking or requiring harmful disclosures of privileged state secrets, an outcome prohibited under binding Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit precedent. Thus, the case must be dismissed, and judgment must be entered in favor of defendants.

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Judge dismisses Wikimedia case against the NSA - Reclaim The Net

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the normally-secretive federal court based in Washington, D.C. that oversees much of the nations foreign intelligence surveillance programs, took an unusual step yesterday: it issued a public order chastising the FBI for its handling of the applications submitted to conduct surveillance of Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump Campaign.

The FISC gave the FBI less than a month to report what it has done, and plans to do, to ensure that future surveillance applications accurately and completely reflect[] the facts the FISC needs to evaluate whether surveillance should be authorized. The FISCs unusual public filing comes on the heels of the Department of Justices Inspector General report, released earlier this month, which reported a number of significant problems with the Page surveillance applications. The IG found that there were omissions and misstatements in the FBI's applications to conduct surveillanceinaccuracies that went uncorrected, despite three subsequent renewals of the FBIs surveillance order. In light of the problems with the Page application, the IG indicated it would conduct a more comprehensive review of FBI applications to the FISC.

Of course, the fact that a federal agency provided the FISC with incomplete, incorrect, or affirmatively misleading information about federal surveillance practices should come as no surpriseto the FISC, or to anyone else. Over the past twenty years, federal agencies have repeatedly misled the FISC about the nature and scope of FISA surveillance. For example, in one opinion from 2009, a FISC judge recounted how the NSA had repeatedly submitt[ed] inaccurate descriptions of the way the NSA was conducting surveillance. In another opinion from 2011, another FISC judge wrote that he was troubled by the governments substantial misrepresentations regarding the scope of a major collection program the third instance in less than three years of the government misleading the FISC about a significant aspect of the governments surveillance programs.

We've long complained about one-sided and secretive FISA surveillance. For too long, the process trafficked in secrecy and the misguided belief that the government would be forthcoming with the federal judges that sit on the surveillance court. Weve been successful in enacting some incremental reform to make the process more transparent and to counterbalance the government's monopoly on the views presented to the FISC. But, no matter your view of the current politically charged debate about the propriety of the surveillance of Carter Page, its clear from the IG report that the FISA process remains broken and in need of serious reform.

Another point about the Page-FISA application is worth emphasizing: no FISA application has ever received the amount of public scrutiny this application has received. In fact, in the statutes forty-year history and the tens of thousands of applications the FISC has approved, only a handful have ever previously been released (and those applications typically related to the authorization of some type of bulk surveillance). Yet, over the past forty years, countless numbers of people have been deprived of their libertyand sentenced to lengthy prison sentenceswithout the benefit of reviewing the FBI's application to the FISC to conduct the surveillance that ultimately led them to prison. As weve argued in court before, that type of secrecy turns the rights of a criminal defendant and fundamental notions of due process upside down.

Its time to fix FISA. The Carter Page surveillance has brought new attention to an old problem. But it's up to Congress now to fix it. We join our friends at the ACLU in calling on Congress to enact serious meaningful reform to the statutereforms that will benefit the entire public, not just those politically fortunate to capture Congress's attention.

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Surveillance Court to the FBI: You Have Some Explaining to Do - EFF

Shannon Kent(Photo: Courtesy of the NSA)

A Dutchess County native who died in service to the country will be honored at a post office in Pine Plains.

U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon M. Kent was one of four Americans killed in Syria in a January suicide bombing.

The 35-year-old graduate of Stissing Mountain High School was in her fifth tour of duty.

A post office at 7722 South Main St. will be named in her honor after a bill introducing the measure was signed into law by President Donald Trump, according to a release from Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, who introduced the bill in April.

The bipartisan bill passed the Senate in November after being passed in the House of Representatives in October.

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"The courage and devotion to our nation shown by Senior Chief Petty Officer Kent should continue to serve as an inspiration to us all, and I am elated Dutchess County will be home to this permanent fixture honoring her life, service, and legacy," Delgado said in a statement.

Kent, who grew up in Pine Plains,enlisted in the Navy on Dec. 11, 2003 and then graduated from boot camp and Recruit Training Command in Illinois in February, 2004, according to the Navy.

Achief cryptologic technician in the Navy, Kent's name was added to the National Security Agency's National Cryptological Memorial,located inside the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.

Kent, a wife and mother of twochildren, was a recipient of several honors, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, twojoint service commendation medals, the Navy and Marine Corps commendation medal, the Army commendation medal and the Joint Service Achievement medal. She also survived thyroid cancer in 2016 and returned to active duty.

Geoffrey Wilson: gwilson@poughkeepsiejournal.com; 845-437-4882; Twitter:@GeoffWilson_

Read or Share this story: https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2019/12/20/bill-name-pine-plains-post-office-after-shannon-kent-signed-into-law/2715215001/

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Pine Plains Post Office to be named after Shannon Kent - Poughkeepsie Journal

Among Florida Republicans, the song remains the same on immigration. Like his predecessor did for years, Gov. Ron DeSantis is once again calling for the Florida Legislature to require private businesses to use the E-Verify program to check the immigration status of new employees. Once again, Republican lawmakers are unlikely to do it because the states economy cannot function without the cheap labor of undocumented immigrants. The posturing reflects the Republicans hypocrisy on immigration, touting punitive approaches while quietly acknowledging the need for workers but refusing to embrace comprehensive reforms.

For a decade , former Gov. Rick Scott and now DeSantis campaigned on requiring the E-Verify system to identify undocumented immigrants and then pushed the Legislature to approve it. Scott, now a U.S. senator, signed an executive order shortly after taking office in 2011 requiring state agencies that report to the governor to use E-Verify to determine the immigration status of all new employees, a practice now used by about 20 other states. But the Republican-controlled Legislature consistently has ignored the governors calls to extend the practice to private employers, and for good reason.

First, the E-Verify system is cumbersome to use and imperfect. Critics point out that undocumented immigrants have figured out ways to avoid detection through the use of forged documents, stolen Social Security numbers and other techniques. More importantly, large segments of the states economy depend on cheap labor supplied by undocumented immigrants. These are often the workers picking crops in the fields, cleaning hotel rooms, building apartment buildings and working in restaurants for little pay and under conditions few American citizens with better options would accept. Who would fill those jobs?

The reality is the consequences of denying any employment to undocumented immigrants in Florida would be sweeping. There are an estimated 850,000 undocumented immigrants in the state. Thats roughly 20 percent of the immigrant population, and about 1 in 14 children in Florida is a U.S. citizen living with at least one undocumented family member. Imagine the ripple effect in public schools, social service programs and neighborhoods throughout Florida if suddenly thousands of families had no income and no way to find work.

Against that backdrop, Republican lawmakers apparently cut a deal this year. They passed legislation that DeSantis sought to ban sanctuary cities. Those dont actually exist in Florida but it was a nice public relations stunt that had the side benefit of serving as another attack on home rule. In exchange, legislation that would have required use of the E-Verify system quietly died.

But E-Verify never really goes away. DeSantis has again made it a priority, raising the typical unsubstantiated claims that it would help reduce crime by undocumented immigrants. Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, made clear this week that he opposes requiring E-Verify as an additional burden on private businesses. And dozens of Florida business leaders -- including executives from the cruise lines, the construction industry and health care companies -- have warned that "mandating a flawed and costly system will devastate our economy.'' Get ready to watch a familiar re-run of rhetoric when the Legislature convenes in January.

This is a snapshot of the hypocrisy of Republicans on immigration. They want to sound tough about cracking down on undocumented immigrants to respond to the fears of voters who worry about crime or losing their own jobs. But they dont want to lose the cheap labor and harm the Florida economy. The real solution is not requiring E-Verify. It is national immigration reform that fixes a broken system, recognizes the need for legal workers and provides a reasonable path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants who are already here.

Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Times Chairman and CEO Paul Tash, Editor of Editorials Tim Nickens, and editorial writers Elizabeth Djinis, John Hill and Jim Verhulst. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for more opinion news

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The Republican hypocrisy on immigration | Editorial - Tampa Bay Times