PRISM: Has Tyranny Triumphed in America?

The NY Times editorial board, after the revelation of the NSA's collection of phone data from millions of Verizon customers daily, slammed the Obama Administration as having "lost all credibility."

The NY Times' withering assault on Obama was apparently before the revelation that all the cellular and telecom companies were having to provide such data to the government, and it was certainly before this evening's screaming internet headlines about PRISM, the top-top-secret government internet server harvesting program implicating nine or more major internet companies including Microsoft, Google, Apple and AOL (many of whom are already denying that the government has direct access to their servers — much more to play out yet here).

According to the Washington Post article which broke the story, two senators whose clearance gave them classified knowledge of the system, were unable to speak of it openly:

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), who had classified knowledge of the program as members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, were unable to speak of it when they warned in a Dec. 27, 2012, floor debate that the FISA Amendments Act had what both of them called a “back-door search loophole” for the content of innocent Americans who were swept up in a search for someone else.

Is this not one of everyone's worst fears about our ever more intrusive, powerful, bullying and sinister government? The past several weeks have seen wave after wave of shocking scandals crash upon the generally accepting American public, to the point where we can glimpse the monster of tyranny behind the slipping mask of Uncle Sam.

• Benghazi Cover-up
• IRS intimidation of Conservative groups
• AP phone records scandal
• James Rosen of Fox News treated as a conspirator for doing his job as a reporter
• Wiretapping of members of Congress - Holder refuses to deny
• NSA harvesting data on billions of U.S. citizens' phone calls every day
• PRISM: total surveillance of all Americans who are in any way on the grid

Even the author of the Patriot Act Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis, stated the NSA collection of phone data was never the intent of the law. But with the temptation of power in government, this is what happens. And the law will never be repealed, it will only be expanded as technology for surveillance improves. This is the future. This is our future.

Late last night, in an extraordinary statement, the Director of National Intelligence condemned the disclosure of data harvesting procedures, not the procedures themselves:

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called the disclosure of an Internet surveillance program "reprehensible" and said it risks Americans' security... "The unauthorized disclosure of a top secret U.S. court document threatens potentially long-lasting and irreversible harm to our ability to identify and respond to the many threats facing our nation," Clapper said in an unusual late-night statement.

This is precisely the "newspeak" of a 1984-style, Orwellian totalitarian regime which is applying Soviet control principles to a pacified populace sedated and distracted by comforts, gadgets, and a sham pop culture that rots the brain.

Ominous: Obama Administration Seizes Millions of Phone Records on Daily Basis

The Obama Administration is the biggest supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Obama Administration is collecting phone records. The practice started under the Bush Administration during the height of the War on Terror. 

"It is not known whether Verizon is the only cell-phone provider to be targeted with such an order, although previous reporting has suggested the NSA has collected cell records from all major mobile networks."

Is this a test? Is the Administration preparing for something?

NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily

Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama

Glenn Greenwald - UK Guardian - 5 June 2013

• Read the Verizon court order in full here

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

The disclosure is likely to reignite longstanding debates in the US over the proper extent of the government's domestic spying powers.

Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets.

The Guardian approached the National Security Agency, the White House and the Department of Justice for comment in advance of publication on Wednesday. All declined. The agencies were also offered the opportunity to raise specific security concerns regarding the publication of the court order.

The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself.