AMERICA - More on the NSA Surveillance Issue

"Whereabouts of NSA Whistleblower Unknown as Lawmakers Call for His Prosecution" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 6/11/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  U.S. lawmakers are calling for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  Speaker of the House John Boehner called Snowden a "traitor" and says he put Americans at risk by disclosing the information.  But not every member of Congress sees Snowden as the problem.  Gwen Ifill reports.

"How Does the Government Manage Workers With Access to Classified Information" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 6/11/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Edward Snowden's leak of classified NSA documents bring up concerns about the reliance on contractors within the intelligence community.  Gwen Ifill talks to Irving Lachow of Center for a New American Security and Dana Priest of The Washington Post about how the government protects employees' access to sensitive information.

COMMENT:  Do to my background in computers and security (including from my Navy carrier) and a previous civilian job related to phone systems, here are some facts.

■ The internet (aka World Wide Web) has NEVER been private.  The internet is like holding a conversation in the middle of a shopping mall and expecting that it will never be overheard.  To expect privacy on the internet is nieve.

■ As to the phone surveillance, IF what the NSA says they are collecting is true, they are correct.  From my phone related job, I am familiar with the  'meta-data' being collected (calling phone, called phone, duration, country codes, etc).  It is the same data that is collected from a Phone Switch System for your phone billing.  The connection between a phone number and a name is done by a SEPARATE billing system computer, so your name is not collected without getting access to a phone billing computer, which would require a subpoena.