PRISM: NSA/FBI Internet data mining project

Fri Jun 7 21:09:44 UTC 2013

I've been trying to find details to the contrary but as far as I see,
there's no indication that the constitutional (or otherwise) rights of
any US citizens (or anyone, anywhere, for that matter) are being
overtly (or otherwise) trampled which would seem to be the pertinent
objection.

The somewhat obvious ...

- the NSA are authorized by congress (i.e. the American people) under
the National Security Act of 1947 to deal with "foreign" signals
intelligence and they've been doing this for some time.
http://www.nsa.gov/about/mission/index.shtml

- specifically the NSA has powers under the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act and amendments.
http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/laws/pl110261.pdf

- co-operating parties are under direction to follow NSA guidelines
about disclosure.
http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/laws/pl95-511.pdf

The NSA are collecting SIGINT from commercial enterprise without
disclosing specifics. This is "lawful" and to be expected. Your
government is doing it too and has been for probably most of your
nation's existence by whatever means available.

Pertinent things we know here ...

- there's a program called PRISM under NSA auspices.
- the slides specifically reference extra-territorial communications.
- there's discussion of "providers" and what type of information can
be retrieved.
- the infrastructure or procedures are established and have been for some time.

Taking the few slides and relevant quotes (i.e. factual points)
provided by the Washington Post and the Guardian and others and
drawing a straight line on those, i.e. ignoring supposition and
whatever, I don't see any news here other than somebody from NSA has
leaked a powerpoint presentation that seemingly is an internal,
hyperbolic, morale-boosting show.
"The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document ... which
was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the
capabilities of the program."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data

Here's the result of an ACLU FOI request dated 10/2/2009 ...
http://www.aclu.org/files/pdfs/natsec/faafoia20101129/FAAFBI0536.pdf

I don't see anything surprising or new.

Is .gov is overstepping it's mandate and abusing any of this?
History tells us there should be concerns.
Is there any evidence to support such an assertion here?
No.

Later, I noticed this:
http://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/191-press-releases-2013/869-dni-statement-on-activities-authorized-under-section-702-of-fisa

"They contain numerous inaccuracies."
James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence

I've skimmed this:
http://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/191-press-releases-2013/868-dni-statement-on-recent-unauthorized-disclosures-of-classified-information
I might read it carefully later but it looks to describe sensible
paradigms for understanding this leak.

If there's an abuse of process going on can somebody point it out to me?

If there is something un-constitutional going on, it's not PRISM per
se, but the Act (FISA) which authorizes it. Right?
If that's the case it doesn't require evidence of a program to point
to the problem.