{"id":17961,"date":"2012-12-06T20:57:39","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T19:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=17961"},"modified":"2012-12-06T20:57:39","modified_gmt":"2012-12-06T19:57:39","slug":"everyone-in-us-under-virtual-surveillance-nsa-whistleblower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/everyone-in-us-under-virtual-surveillance-nsa-whistleblower\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Everyone in US Under Virtual Surveillance’ \u2014 NSA Whistleblower"},"content":{"rendered":"

RT<\/a> |<\/p>\n

The FBI records the emails of nearly all US citizens, including members of congress, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In an interview with RT, he warned that the government can use this information against anyone.<\/p>\n

Binney, one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in the history of the National Security Agency, resigned in 2001. He claimed he no longer wanted to be associated with alleged violations of the Constitution, such as how the FBI engages in widespread and pervasive surveillance through powerful devices called ‘Naris.’<\/p>\n

This year, Binney received the Callaway award, an annual prize that recognizes those who champion constitutional rights and American values at great risk to their personal or professional lives.<\/p>\n

RT:\u00a0<\/strong>In light of the Petraeus\/Allen scandal while the public is so focused on the details of their family drama, one may argue that the real scandal in this whole story is the power, the reach of the surveillance state. I mean if we take General Allen \u2014 thousands of his personal e-mails have been sifted through private correspondence. It\u2019s not like any of those men was planning an attack on America. Does the scandal prove the notion that there is no such thing as privacy in a surveillance state?<\/em><\/p>\n

William Binney:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been basically saying for quite some time, is that the FBI has access to the data collected, which is basically the emails of virtually everybody in the country. And the FBI has access to it. All the congressional members are on the surveillance too, no one is excluded. They are all included. So, yes, this can happen to anyone. If they become a target for whatever reason \u2014 they are targeted by the government, the government can go in, or the FBI, or other agencies of the government, they can go into their database, pull all that data collected on them over the years, and we analyze it all. So, we have to actively analyze everything they\u2019ve done for the last 10 years at least.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0And it\u2019s not just about those, who could be planning, who could be a threat to national security, but also those, who could be just\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s everybody. The Naris device, if it takes in the entire line, so it takes in all the data. In fact they advertised they can process the lines at session rates, which means 10-gigabit lines. I forgot the name of the device (it\u2019s not the Naris) \u2014 the other one does it at 10 gigabits. That\u2019s why they’re building Bluffdale [database facility], because they have to have more storage, because they can\u2019t figure out what\u2019s important, so they are just storing everything there. So, emails are going to be stored there in the future, but right now stored in different places around the country. But it is being collected \u2014 and the FBI has access to it.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0You mean it\u2019s being collected in bulk without even requesting providers?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0Then what about Google, you know, releasing this biannual transparency report and saying that the government\u2019s demands for personal data is at an all-time high and for all of those requesting the US, Google says they complied with the government\u2019s demands 90 percent of the time. But they are still saying that they are making the request, it\u2019s not like it\u2019s all being funneled into that storage. What do you say to that?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0I would assume that it\u2019s just simply another source for the same data they are already collecting. My line is in declarations in a court about the 18-T facility in San Francisco, that documented the NSA room inside that AST&T facility, where they had Naris devices to collect data off the fiber optic lines inside the United States. So, that\u2019s kind of a powerful device, that would collect everything it was being sent. It could collect on the order over of 100 billion 1,000-character emails a day. One device.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0You say they sift through billions of e-mails. I wonder how do they prioritize? How do they filter it?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0I don\u2019t think they are filtering it. They are just storing it. I think it\u2019s just a matter of selecting when they want it. So, if they want to target you, they would take your attributes, go into that database and pull out all your data.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0Were you on the target list?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0Oh, sure! I believe I\u2019ve been on it for quite a few years. So I keep telling them everything I think of them in my email. So that when they want to read it they\u2019ll understand what I think of them.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0Do you think we all should leave messages for the NSA mail box?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0Sure!<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0You blew the whistle on the agency when George W. Bush was the president. With President Obama in office, in your opinion, has anything changed at the agency, in the surveillance program? In what direction is this administration moving?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0The change is it\u2019s getting worse. They are doing more. He is supporting the building of the Bluffdale facility, which is over two billion dollars they are spending on storage room for data. That means that they are collecting a lot more now and need more storage for it. That facility by my calculations that I submitted to the court for the Electronic Frontiers Foundation against NSA would hold on the order of 5 zettabytes of data. Just that current storage capacity is being advertised on the web that you can buy. And that\u2019s not talking about what they have in the near future.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0What are they going to do with all of that? Ok, they are storing something. Why should anybody be concerned?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0If you ever get on the enemies list, like Petraeus did or\u2026 for whatever reason, than you can be drained into that surveillance.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0Do you think they would\u2026 General Petraeus, who was idolized by the same administration? Or General Allen?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0There are certainly some questions, that have to be asked, like why would they target it to begin with? What law were they breaking?<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0In case of General Petraeus one would argue that there could have been security breaches. Something like that. But with General Allen\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 I don\u2019t quite understand, because when they were looking into his private emails to this woman.<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s the whole point. I am not sure what the internal politics is\u2026 That\u2019s part of the program. This government doesn\u2019t want things in the public. It\u2019s not a transparent government. Whatever the reason or the motivation was, I don\u2019t really know, but I certainly think that there was something going on in the background that made them target those fellows. Otherwise why would they be doing it? There is no crime there.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0It seems that the public is divided between those, who think that the government surveillance program violates their civil liberties, and those who say, ‘I\u2019ve nothing to hide. So, why should I care?’ What do you say to those who think that it shouldnt concern them.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0The problem is if they think they are not doing anything that\u2019s wrong, they don\u2019t get to define that. The central government does, the central government defines what is right and wrong and whether or not they target you. So, it\u2019s not up to the individuals. Even if they think they aren’t doing something wrong, if their position on something is against what the administration has, then they could easily become a target.<\/p>\n

RT:\u00a0<\/strong>Tell me about the most outrageous thing that you came across during your work at the NSA.<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0The violations of the constitution and any number of laws that existed at the time. That was the part that I could not be associated with. That\u2019s why I left. They were building social networks on who is communicating and with whom inside this country. So that the entire social network of everybody, of every US citizen was being compiled overtime. So, they are taking from one company alone roughly 320 million records a day. That\u2019s probably accumulated probably close to 20 trillion over the years.<\/p>\n

The original program that we put together to handle this to be able to identify terrorists anywhere in the world and alert anyone that they were in jeopardy. We would have been able to do that by encrypting everybody\u2019s communications except those who were targets. So, in essence you would protect their identities and the information about them until you could develop probable cause, and once you showed your probable cause, then you could do a decrypt and target them. And we could do that and isolate those people all alone. It wasn\u2019t a problem at all. There was no difficulty in that.<\/p>\n

RT:\u00a0<\/strong>It sounds very difficult and very complicated. Easier to take everything in and\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0No. It\u2019s easier to use the graphing techniques, if you will, for the relationships for the world to filter out data, so that you don\u2019t have to handle all that data. And it doesn\u2019t burden you with a lot more information to look at, than you really need to solve the problem.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0Do you think that the agency doesn\u2019t have the filters now?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0No.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0Y<\/em>ou have received the Callaway award for civic courage. Congratulations! On the website and in the press release it says: \u201cIt is awarded to those, who stand out for constitutional rights and American values at great risk to their personal or professional lives.\u201d Under the code of spy ethics\u00a0<\/em>\u2014\u00a0I don\u2019t k<\/em>now if there is such a thing\u00a0<\/em>\u2014\u00a0your former colleagues, they probably look upon you as a traitor. How do you look back at them?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s pretty easy. They are violating the foundation of this entire country. Why this entire government was formed? It\u2019s founded with the Constitution and the rights were given to the people in the country under that Constitution. They are in violation of that. And under executive order 13526, section 1.7 \u2014 you can not classify information to just cover up a crime, which this is, and that was signed by President Obama. Also President Bush signed it earlier as an executive order, a very similar one. If any of this comes into Supreme Court and they rule it unconstitutional, then the entire house of cards of the government falls.<\/p>\n

RT:<\/strong>\u00a0What are the chances of that? What are the odds?<\/em><\/p>\n

WB:<\/strong>\u00a0The government is doing the best they can to try to keep it out of court. And, of course, we are trying to do the best we can to get into court. So, we decided it deserves a ruling from the Supreme Court. Ultimately the court is supposed to protect the Constitution. All these people in the government take an oath to defend the Constitution. And they are not living up to the oath of office.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RT | The FBI records the emails of nearly all US citizens, including members of congress, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In an interview with RT, he warned that the government can use this information against anyone. Binney, one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in the history of the National Security Agency, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1616],"tags":[49],"class_list":{"0":"post-17961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-latest-news","7":"category-usa-news","8":"tag-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}