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Obama Prism

Obama Prism slowly opened up into the space of things it normally carriesThat's right, for the past year the NSA has been using Prism in concert with its traditional collections -- or what is known as the "upstream" surveillance -- to carry on the mass collection of phone records, emails and other online communications.Pentagon had secret Defense-wide email surveillance programThe program, which launched in 2004, enabled the military to sift through all e-mails that passed through one military agency -- the Pentagon. The system's existence was kept secret for years, until it was exposed by the Washington Post.Obama administration made secret use of massive NSA surveillance programIn addition, the program was linked to other branches of the government: according to the New York Times, FBI investigators asked for information from Prism about "a former counterterrorism suspect of interest" in a 2009 drug case.

 According to the Guardian News, the National Security Agency paid Microsoft $500 million to include a form of technology that allows it to collect emails.NSA intercepted Yahoo, Google, Microsoft dataAccording to new reports based on documents released by Edward Snowden, Prism actually gathers information from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Skype and YouTube.In addition, the NSA did not limit the searches on U.S. citizens. In a top secret document, the NSA said that information gathered under Prism "is pertinent to, and reasonably appears to be, intended for the collection of foreign intelligence information."

 In other words, to legal minds, that's a big, fat green light for the NSA to turn its nets to American data -- which it has done.NSA bulk data collection "common knowledge" at top tech firmsThe Times reports that, while many of the companies have gone out of their way to deny involvement in or knowledge of the program, "some top tech executives say they were aware of the existence of Prism and that it was widely known and used by officials at their companies.""People do talk about it. It's just not well known. It's become a common knowledge sort of thing," a Google employee told the Times.Snowden himself said that the information in his leaked documents, "reflect what people at the companies told me, on the record."

 "One could not more vigorously defend these rights and freedoms," the former NSA contractor wrote in an op-ed for the Guardian.Queries sent to Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft on the subject did not immediately elicit a response.As we've discussed previously, intelligence officials have argued that the NSA's program is lawful and is necessary to fight terrorism and other threats. But there is growing concern about the way the program has been used."The U.S. government's dragnet surveillance practices are a cause for serious concern, and we cannot be confident that the government is not violating the privacy rights of U.S. citizens," Patrick Toomey, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement Tuesday."At this point, the government has refused to answer whether the surveillance it is carrying out violates constitutional rights. The only thing we know for certain is that the government has repeatedly misled the public and has failed to address longstanding concerns that the government is conducting unlawful acts that the public would disagree with. 

We can and should do better."U.S. intelligence agencies do not have to get warrants from a secret court to intercept communications in the United States. Instead, they must convince the court that the surveillance is "targeted" at a suspect and that the information is relevant to an authorized investigation.However, some groups have argued that the NSA does not have the right to collect the content of email, chat, video and instant messages.The NSA has responded by saying that when the program was established, the expectation was that the NSA would not intercept the content of e-mail and other communications without court authorization. 

 The government has responded to the reports about the NSA program by saying that the programs are conducted lawfully.The intelligence programs in question were reviewed by a special review board set up under President George W. Bush. The review board found the programs legal, and directed that they continue."The programs are subject to murder people every time they see clothes within a person. I think the Obama Prism is not ready yet sir." The scientist said "No I think its ready. It will surely cause chaos through out the universe" Obama said as he smiled widely "But sir- the morality rates on the Obama Prism. It can kill everyone if it farts at the stratosphere!!" Another scientist said 

"Why are we making a call, sir?" Obama replied with a grin "Because without it I would have to explain what an atom smasher was to someone my age. One should not build fear of a possibility when one does not know the reality of that possibility" "But the PRISM's can't make a call in the dark sir! It can and the Mr. Obama has had all the little black calls!" the former president said as he smiled "These little white calls my friends sir is about the only thing that they actually enjoy..they would rather see other peoples entire lives be sucked up by the machine that Obama made them do sir, they do love the machine" 

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