So much for the 4th and 10 amendments.

They just keep attacking the Constitution don't they?

EXCLUSIVE - U.S. to let spy agencies scour Americans' finances
(Reuters) - The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates

Reuters
To all of you who cheered the dismantling of the 2nd amendment your turn is coming.

And once again the media will ignore it because Obama wants it.

I find it fascinating that when we were screaming to high heaven during the two unnecessary, unpaid-for wars that Bush started with lies and phony intelligence, we kept posting information about the 4th, 5th and 10th Amendments being violated with warrantless wiretaps, warrantless monitoring of emails and web-activity, warrantless "National Security Letters" to go after people's READING LISTS at Libraries; and VIDEO RENTAL HISTORY at the Library, NetFlix, Blockbuster, and all of the other video rental outlets... And you guys not only poo-pooh'ed it, but suggested that it was "unpatriotic" to complain...And that "If we had nothing to hide", then what's the problem?

The NSA, the Telecoms, and Room 641-A

In 2004, veteran AT&T communications technician Mark Klein ran into problems with the Internet circuit he was responsible for maintaining. He believed the problem was emanating from a secret room in the company's San Francisco operations center. So Klein asked for help from the only co-worker cleared to work in the room.

Klein's colleague led him down to the sixth floor to an orange door labeled 641A -- a room within another room -- where he punched a code into a special lock and opened the doors. Klein peered over rows of servers and high-tech equipment; he later went public with his suspicions that the room was operated by the super-secret National Security Agency (NSA) and that AT&T was diverting the whole flow of Internet traffic in several of its operations centers to the NSA.

Klein's job eventually included connecting internet circuits to a splitting cabinet that led to the secret room. During the course of that work, he learned from a co-worker that similar cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.

"While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet (AT&T's internet service) circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal," Klein wrote. The split circuits included traffic from peering links connecting to other internet backbone providers, meaning that AT&T was also diverting traffic routed from its network to or from other domestic and international providers, according to Klein's statement.

Operation Shamrock

As the NSA quietly grew into the world's biggest intelligence agency, the telecoms similarly expanded in strength and breadth with new technologies and increased communications coverage. One NSA operation, code-named "Shamrock," would become known as the largest intercept affair in U.S. history. "For almost 30 years, copies of most international telegrams originating or forwarded through the United States were turned over to the National Security Agency," announced Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho), who spearheaded the investigations that exposed Shamrock. The program, he said, "certainly appears to violate section 605 of the Communications Act of 1934 as well as the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution."

L. Britt Snider was the then-30-year-old Congressional investigator who uncovered Shamrock. In September 1975, after what he described as a series of fruitless and "sometimes comical" efforts to penetrate the goliath NSA, he won a breakthrough interview with Louis Tordella, who had just retired as NSA's deputy director. Tordella unveiled the essence of Operation Shamrock: NSA had a secret room in New York City, obtained with the help of the CIA, where each day it would copy international telegrams sent through the three major communication providers: ITT World Communications, Western Union International, and RCA Global.

"We thought initially it was only New York," Snider explained, "But it turns out to be San Francisco, San Antonio, Washington, New York -- all ... their offices that sent international telegrams."

When FRONTLINE asked how the NSA got the companies to hand over telegrams during Shamrock, Snider replied, "They asked." The companies agreed to hand over communications without warrants.

The Bush Administration's "Terrorist Surveillance Program"

It is still unclear which telecoms have cooperated with the NSA program. On May 11, 2006, USA Today reported that the NSA was collecting Americans' phone calls into a massive database and was getting the data directly from AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth; BellSouth and Verizon both disputed the report. In February 2006, the online publication CNET asked large telecommunications and Internet companies about their involvement in the NSA. Fifteen denied involvement and 12, including AT&T, chose not to reply.

Only one major company, Qwest, announced its refusal to turn over any communications to NSA. The attorney of then-CEO Joseph N. Nacchio issued a statement. "In the fall of 2001 … Qwest was approached to permit the government access to the private telephone records of Qwest customers. Mr. Nacchio made inquiry as to whether a warrant or other legal process had been secured in support of that request. When he learned that no such authority had been granted and that there was a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process, including the special court which had been established to handle such matters, Mr. Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommications Act. Accordingly, Mr. Nacchio issued instructions to refuse to comply with these requests."

The issue is being brought to a head by the EFF's lawsuit against AT&T, which is the first of its kind. In response to the suit, AT&T issued a statement saying "the law does not permit" comment on the NSA allegations. In July 2006, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker denied motions from the government and AT&T to dismiss the case. "AT&T cannot seriously contend that a reasonable entity in its position could have believed that the alleged domestic dragnet was legal," Walker wrote. The case is now on appeal before the 9th Circuit.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... ecoms.html

My...How the worm turns when the same thing happens to your financial records.... Where was your outrage then?

Well, "poo-pooh"...."If you have nothing to hide....", What's your problem? etc.....

Hey, Fred...How's THAT for a "They did it too"....?

Slandering us again LJ? Conservative, Libertarians, and the Far Right were all worried bout the Patriot Act. Check the votes, Republicans and Dem's voted against it. And Dems and Republicans voted for it.

Of course if one actually read the linked article, you would realize that this outrage has already been pretty much in effect since 2001. FINCEN was authorized in 2001 under the Bank Secrecy Act to monitor suspicious financial activities (large monetary transactions, suspected money laundering, suspected counterfeiting) as part of defense against terrorism. Banks send suspicious activity reports to FINCEN which then analyzes those activities for national security threats. Other agencies such as the FBI had access to this information. In 2010, FINCEN was ordered to modernize the coordination this information sharing to streamline operations against terrorism. This is the "outrage". All of this was authorized in 2001 under the BSA and Patriot Act. Only now since there is a Democratic President is it an outrage and an attack on the Constitution.

Something the Dog Said wrote: Only now since there is a Democratic President is it an outrage and an attack on the Constitution.

Please tell me you aren't surprised by this dog, since Obama was first elected he has been responsible for everything going back to the first years of Bush, except of course for killing Bin Laden, of that he has been absolved of any responsibility.

archer wrote:

Something the Dog Said wrote: Only now since there is a Democratic President is it an outrage and an attack on the Constitution.

Please tell me you aren't surprised by this dog, since Obama was first elected he has been responsible for everything going back to the first years of Bush, except of course for killing Bin Laden, of that he has been absolved of any responsibility.

Thanks.

archer wrote:

Something the Dog Said wrote: Only now since there is a Democratic President is it an outrage and an attack on the Constitution.

Please tell me you aren't surprised by this dog, since Obama was first elected he has been responsible for everything going back to the first years of Bush, except of course for killing Bin Laden, of that he has been absolved of any responsibility.

If Obama can't undo anything Dubya did what good is he? For being the chief executive he is pretty weak. And we didn't. Say BHO was responsible for what the GOP and Dems passed together but to only blame the Republicans for the wars and the Patriot Act you are just lying to yourself and others.

OK...so simply convert your wealth to non accountable currencies, offshore accounts, and tangables......GOLD is good. MANY Bilionaires have done this effectively. IF you have a snarley, tiny account......better watch what you do........

A brokered account with equities really is safe (FAILED American Bankers poo poo this......these accounts are stripping trillions from the Banksters) , especially if in Eastern Europe or Asia....ALL very legal BTW and large banks and corporations do this routinely......BTW this is not a political issue. BTW if needed use 28bit encryption for transactions.....can be cracked with supercomputers running overtime for weeks......FYI.

:

Something the Dog Said wrote: Of course if one actually read the linked article, you would realize that this outrage has already been pretty much in effect since 2001. FINCEN was authorized in 2001 under the Bank Secrecy Act to monitor suspicious financial activities (large monetary transactions, suspected money laundering, suspected counterfeiting) as part of defense against terrorism. Banks send suspicious activity reports to FINCEN which then analyzes those activities for national security threats. Other agencies such as the FBI had access to this information. In 2010, FINCEN was ordered to modernize the coordination this information sharing to streamline operations against terrorism. This is the "outrage". All of this was authorized in 2001 under the BSA and Patriot Act. Only now since there is a Democratic President is it an outrage and an attack on the Constitution.

You are wrong, the Obama admin is bringing this to a whole new level.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation already has full access to the database. However, intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, currently have to make case-by-case requests for information to FinCEN.

The Treasury plan would give spy agencies the ability to analyze more raw financial data than they have ever had before, helping them look for patterns that could reveal attack plots or criminal schemes.

The Treasury document outlines a proposal to link the FinCEN database with a computer network used by U.S. defense and law enforcement agencies to share classified information called the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System.

So the government is now creating it's own secret network to capture financial data on all Americans.