Dianne Feinstein Accidentally Confirms That NSA Tapped The Internet Backbone
from the but-of-course dept
It's widely known that the NSA has taps connected to the various telco networks, thanks in large part to AT&T employee Mark Klein who blew the whistle on AT&T's secret NSA room in San Francisco. What was unclear was exactly what kind of access the NSA had. Various groups like the EFF and CDT have both been asking the administration to finally come clean, in the name of transparency, if they're tapping backbone networks to snarf up internet communications like email. So far, the administration has declined to elaborate. Back in August, when the FISA court declassified its ruling about NSA violations, the third footnote, though heavily redacted, did briefly discuss this "upstream" capability:However, as Kevin Bankston notes, during Thursday's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Dianne Feinstein more or less admitted that they get emails via "upstream" collection methods. As you can see in the following clip, Feinstein interrupts a discussion to read a prepared "rebuttal" to a point being made, and in doing so clearly says that the NSA can get emails via upstream collections:
Upstream collection... occurs when NSA obtains internet communications, such as e-mails, from certain US companies that operate the Internet background, i.e., the companies that own and operate the domestic telecommunications lines over which internet traffic flows.She clearly means "backbone" rather than "background." She's discussing this in an attempt to defend the NSA's "accidental" collection of information it shouldn't have had. But that point is not that important. Instead, the important point is that she's now admitted what most people suspected, but which the administration has totally avoided admitting for many, many years since the revelations made by Mark Klein.
So, despite years of trying to deny that the NSA can collect email and other communications directly from the backbone (rather than from the internet companies themselves), Feinstein appears to have finally let the cat out of the bag, perhaps without realizing it.
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Filed Under: 702, backbone, dianne feinstein, nsa, nsa surveillance, surveillance, telcos, transparency, upstream collection
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They clearly need consultants to manage their image since, likely everything else they do apparently, they are incapable of doing it internally.
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Keep them talking
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I'm certain they tap in at large co-location facilities and aggregation points for overseas traffic, but there is not one Universal Backbone which all traffic crosses for them to tap in the first place.
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Its name is LEVEL3
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But the article clearly states "tapping backbone networks", as in several backbones, most likely those of all the major ISPs.
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The SS Parche's mission was exposed by a spy giving the info to Russia. The Parche had to return every few months to pick up the data from the recorder undersea. Only after the mission's exposure, the Russians went and got the recorder and it now resides in one of their museums.
Whether you call the undersea cable a backbone or just an internet pipe does not change this is known, discovered, and happened.
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There is not internet backbone as such, the poster is correct.
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Feinstein is an Aunt Jemima for NSA
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Free Country> LMAO!
Acts of police behaving illegally, with shootings, Tasers, and unwarranted violence now appear almost daily. Rarely are these offenses punished. Most often "an investigation" is claimed, but soon forgotten.
In addition, the USA, with 5% of the world population, has 25% of all of the prisoners in the world. That means the USA has the most people in prison of any nation in history. Even by percentage of residents incarcerated, not just sheer numbers. USA is # 1! Does any of that sound like a free country?
As Dwight D. Eisenhower said about communism, "It's like slicing sausage. First they out off a small slice. That isn't worth fighting over. Then they take another small slice that isn't worth fighting over. Then another and another. Finally, all you have left is the string and that isn't worth fighting over, either.
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Re: Free Country> LMAO!
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DiFi actually leaked useful info
Also, the ECPA, to the extent that the NSA bothers to obey it, strictly limits in-transit wiretapping of email, so it's possible that they can be prosecuted or at least forbidden to use any of the data they've collected in court.
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NOT NEWS
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Re: NOT NEWS
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Re: Re: NOT NEWS
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Re: NOT NEWS
The answer is no. The corporations you mention cannot
see what's encrypted. The fact that the NSA has unrestricted access is news. Or at least confirmation of what many suspected.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/19/joe-biden-bunker-vp-revea_n_205515.html
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The United States government deliberately wiretaps the internet and willfully violates our constitutional rights by purposely collecting our emails and they can wave the "we didn't mean to" flag?
Something don't seem right...
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Re: Google Wifi
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Re: Re: Google Wifi
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All the internet is "upstream"
There is no internet backbone, it's a WEB not a central nervous system.
Someone said "it's the undersea cables' that are the backbone, so how does domestic traffic get around ???
If you visit a web site that is hosted in your own city does it travel on an international undersea cable to get there ??
Background traffic is certainly a more accurate term that 'backbone', I am sure she/he said exactly what they meant to say..
BTW: Masnick, when are you going to take off this STUPD CENSORSHIP on my posts ??
Why wont you let everyone participate in the free speech debates you start ???
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Do I really scare you that much ???
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She should be recalled!
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She should be recalled!
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Loose Lips Sink Ships...
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Riiiiight
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Telecom Scullery!
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CORRUPTION==DIANE FEINSTEIN
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Re: CORRUPTION==DIANE FEINSTEIN
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NSA
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representative inteligence
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Re: representative inteligence
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SEX TRAFFICKING AND DIANNE FEINSTEIN
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