U.S. intelligence program secretly probes Internet servers (4th amendment? We don't need no stinkin bill of rights!)

James Clapper Plays More Word Games In The Official Denial Of French Phone Data Collection Leak

Recent articles published in the French newspaper Le Monde contain inaccurate and misleading information regarding U.S. foreign intelligence activities. The allegation that the National Security Agency collected more than 70 million “recordings of French citizens’ telephone data” is false.

While we are not going to discuss the details of our activities, we have repeatedly made it clear that the United States gathers intelligence of the type gathered by all nations. The U.S. collects intelligence to protect the nation, its interests, and its allies from, among other things, threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Could I have more doublespeak, please?

Stop Watching Us: The Video

NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

Guardian editor tells Parliament Snowden data is secure

Britain's Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has told Parliament that less than 1% of information leaked by Edward Snowden has been published.

Britain's Guardian newspaper has published less than 1% of the information leaked by US whistle-blower Edward Snowden and kept the rest secure, editor Alan Rusbridger told a parliamentary committee on Monday.

Summoned by Parliament's home affairs select committee as part of its counter-terrorism inquiry, Rusbridger defended his decision to publish the leaks as some lawmakers suggested he had helped terrorists by making top secret information public and by transmitting it to other news organisations.

"We have published I think 26 documents so far out of the 58 000 we've seen, or 58 000 plus. So we have made very selective judgments about what to print," he said.

"We have published no names and we have lost control of no names."

The Guardian was among several newspapers that published leaks from US spy agency contractor Snowden about mass surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain's eavesdropping agency GCHQ.

Guardian articles over the last six months have shown that the United States and some of its allies, including Britain, were monitoring phone, email and social media communications on a previously unimagined scale.

Diplomatic rows
The revelations provoked diplomatic rows and stirred an international debate on civil liberties. Britain's security chiefs have said the leaked data had put lives at risk and the country's enemies were "rubbing their hands with glee".

Snowden, who is believed to have downloaded between 50 000 and 200 000 classified NSA and British government documents, is living in Russia under temporary asylum. He has been charged in the United States under the Espionage Act.

Countering criticism by some lawmakers and security experts, Rusbridger said more emphasis was being given to the Guardian's decision to publish the information than to the fact it had been so easily obtained in the first place.

"We were told that 850 000 people ... had access to the information that a 29-year-old in Hawaii who wasn't even employed by the American government had access," he said.

Some on the committee suggested Rusbridger had committed terrorism offences, and asked if he loved his country. "We are patriots and one of the things we are patriotic about is the nature of the democracy and the nature of a free press and the fact that one can in this country discuss and report these things," Rusbridger said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Guardian published a letter of support from Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein. Bernstein (69) said Rusbridger's appearance before the committee was a "dangerously pernicious" attempt by British authorities to shift the focus of the surveillance debate from excessive government secrecy to the conduct of the press.

During Rusbridger's testimony, Keith Vaz, the committee's chairperson, announced it wanted to publicly question Andrew Parker, head of the domestic intelligence service MI5. – Reuters

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-12-03-guardian-editor-tells-parliament-snowden-data-is-secure

I wonder if the "best (worst..." came out first or still is coming.......

Obama Outlines Calibrated Curbs on Phone Spying

And the power of new technologies means that there are fewer and fewer technical constraints on what we can do.

has this guy ever heard of the constitution?

new technology doesn't mean the constitution goes away... technical constraints are not the issue here; some of these statements seem pretty shocking.