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Radio News: House Intelligence Committee on NSA
Jun 19, 2013: 12am- 12:05 am
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Three headlines from Free Speech radio News:
• House Intelligence Committee holds hearing on NSA operations
• Lawsuit challenges surveillance of Muslims in NYC
• Scores detained and hundreds missing in Turkey as Justice Ministry mull social media censorship House Intelligence Committee holds hearing on NSA operations National intelligence officials appeared before the House Intelligence Committee today to speak about the formerly secret programs used to gather telephone metadata and online communications. NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander called the programs "critical" to the Intelligence community's ability to protect the nation. One of the operations Gen. Alexander discussed was the gathering of online data under the 702 program, also known via leaks to the Guardian as PRISM. "Under the 702 program, the U.S. government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. companies. Rather, the U.S. companies are compelled to provide these records by U.S. law, using methods that are in strict compliance with that law". Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders, which are classified and are supposedly limited to targets believed to be at least 51% foreign. As for the monitoring of calls of US persons, Deputy Attorney General James Cole explained the Fourth Amendment does not apply to telephony metadata. "There was a case quite a number of years ago by the Supreme Court that indicated that tel records, phone records like this that don't include any content, are not covered by the Fourth Amendment because people don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy in who they called and when they called. That's something you show to the phone company. That's something you show to many, many people within the phone company on a regular basis." Officials defended the importance of the programs and emphasized the distinction between U.S. persons with privacy rights and persons who are neither US citizens nor legal permanent residents and are physically located outside of the U.S. Witnesses were limited to Obama administration officials and did not include any privacy rights advocates. Lawsuit challenges surveillance of Muslims in NYC In New York, civil liberties attorneys have filed a lawsuit against the NYPD's Muslim surveillance program arguing it unconstitutionally targets Muslims based on their religion. Salim Rizvi reports from New York City. The lawsuit, which names New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence David Cohen as defendants, calls for an end to the city's Muslim surveillance program. It says the NYPD spying program targeting Muslims is discriminatory and violates the rights of Muslims to freely exercise their religion. The plaintiffs include a young Muslim working for a charity, a cleric, and an Islamic Center. Hamid Hassan Raza is a cleric in a Brooklyn Mosque and a plaintiff in the lawsuit: "Because of our knowledge and fear that the NYPD is spying on us, I have for years taped the sermons I give because I am afraid that an NYPD officer or an informant will misquote me or take a portion of a sermon out of context." In 2011 and 2012, the Associated Press revealed the widespread surveillance program targeting Muslims in the New York area, which included infiltration in mosques, monitoring of sermons, Islamic book shops, restaurants, and other public places. The NYPD admits that the surveillance has not led to any terrorism case, but insists that the progam is legal and required for keeping Americans safe. Salim Rizvi FSRN, New York City. Scores detained and hundreds missing in Turkey as Justice Ministry mull social media censorship In Turkey, anti-terrorism squads swept through major cities and detained about 100 people suspected of involvement in anti-government protests. Meanwhile, the justice ministry is drafting a law to restrict social media in the country. FSRN's Jacob Resneck has the story. Turkey's semi-official news agency says police raided the homes of those suspected of inciting violence in the political unrest that's rocked Turkey for nearly three weeks. Precise numbers were not available but the Istanbul Bar Association says it's received reports that about 450 people now missing and believed to have been swept up in the dragnet. Rights groups have complained of heavy-handed police tactics including the indiscriminate use of tear gas on crowds assembling in public areas. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back today saying police are within their rights to use force and vowed to increase their power to intervene to break up demonstrations. This comes as the Justice Ministry announced it was studying ways to restrict social media in the country. Twitter and Facebook have been widely used by activists and protesters. Demonstrators have complained that Turkish broadcast media practice self-censorship and mislead their audience over the true extent of the political unrest now believed to be the largest challenge to the government during its decade in power. Jacob Resneck, Free Speech Radio News.
• House Intelligence Committee holds hearing on NSA operations
• Lawsuit challenges surveillance of Muslims in NYC
• Scores detained and hundreds missing in Turkey as Justice Ministry mull social media censorship House Intelligence Committee holds hearing on NSA operations National intelligence officials appeared before the House Intelligence Committee today to speak about the formerly secret programs used to gather telephone metadata and online communications. NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander called the programs "critical" to the Intelligence community's ability to protect the nation. One of the operations Gen. Alexander discussed was the gathering of online data under the 702 program, also known via leaks to the Guardian as PRISM. "Under the 702 program, the U.S. government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. companies. Rather, the U.S. companies are compelled to provide these records by U.S. law, using methods that are in strict compliance with that law". Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders, which are classified and are supposedly limited to targets believed to be at least 51% foreign. As for the monitoring of calls of US persons, Deputy Attorney General James Cole explained the Fourth Amendment does not apply to telephony metadata. "There was a case quite a number of years ago by the Supreme Court that indicated that tel records, phone records like this that don't include any content, are not covered by the Fourth Amendment because people don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy in who they called and when they called. That's something you show to the phone company. That's something you show to many, many people within the phone company on a regular basis." Officials defended the importance of the programs and emphasized the distinction between U.S. persons with privacy rights and persons who are neither US citizens nor legal permanent residents and are physically located outside of the U.S. Witnesses were limited to Obama administration officials and did not include any privacy rights advocates. Lawsuit challenges surveillance of Muslims in NYC In New York, civil liberties attorneys have filed a lawsuit against the NYPD's Muslim surveillance program arguing it unconstitutionally targets Muslims based on their religion. Salim Rizvi reports from New York City. The lawsuit, which names New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence David Cohen as defendants, calls for an end to the city's Muslim surveillance program. It says the NYPD spying program targeting Muslims is discriminatory and violates the rights of Muslims to freely exercise their religion. The plaintiffs include a young Muslim working for a charity, a cleric, and an Islamic Center. Hamid Hassan Raza is a cleric in a Brooklyn Mosque and a plaintiff in the lawsuit: "Because of our knowledge and fear that the NYPD is spying on us, I have for years taped the sermons I give because I am afraid that an NYPD officer or an informant will misquote me or take a portion of a sermon out of context." In 2011 and 2012, the Associated Press revealed the widespread surveillance program targeting Muslims in the New York area, which included infiltration in mosques, monitoring of sermons, Islamic book shops, restaurants, and other public places. The NYPD admits that the surveillance has not led to any terrorism case, but insists that the progam is legal and required for keeping Americans safe. Salim Rizvi FSRN, New York City. Scores detained and hundreds missing in Turkey as Justice Ministry mull social media censorship In Turkey, anti-terrorism squads swept through major cities and detained about 100 people suspected of involvement in anti-government protests. Meanwhile, the justice ministry is drafting a law to restrict social media in the country. FSRN's Jacob Resneck has the story. Turkey's semi-official news agency says police raided the homes of those suspected of inciting violence in the political unrest that's rocked Turkey for nearly three weeks. Precise numbers were not available but the Istanbul Bar Association says it's received reports that about 450 people now missing and believed to have been swept up in the dragnet. Rights groups have complained of heavy-handed police tactics including the indiscriminate use of tear gas on crowds assembling in public areas. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back today saying police are within their rights to use force and vowed to increase their power to intervene to break up demonstrations. This comes as the Justice Ministry announced it was studying ways to restrict social media in the country. Twitter and Facebook have been widely used by activists and protesters. Demonstrators have complained that Turkish broadcast media practice self-censorship and mislead their audience over the true extent of the political unrest now believed to be the largest challenge to the government during its decade in power. Jacob Resneck, Free Speech Radio News.