NSA Journalist Glenn Greenwald’s Partner Reportedly Detained at Airport for 9 Hours, Questioned Under Terrorism Act

Authorities in London on Sunday reportedly detained and questioned for nine hours the gay partner of Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who has authored a series of recent articles exposing mass surveillance programs by the National Surveillance Agency (NSA).

The Guardian, Greenwald’s employer, reports the journalist’s partner, David Miranda, was held for nearly nine hours and questioned under the Terrorism Act at the UK’s Heathrow airport. Officials also confiscated Miranda’s electronics, including his cell phone, laptop, camera, and memory sticks, according to The Guardian, without saying when they would return the items.

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A Different Amendment Restricting NSA Spying Was Passed Overwhelmingly by the House – But ‘No One Is Talking About It’

While the most talked-about news out of the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday was the defeat of the so-called Amash amendment that would have defunded the NSA’s massive data collection program, another amendment related to NSA spying was quietly passed overwhelmingly by lawmakers.

The Pompeo amendment (championed by Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas) passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 409-12. However, “no one is talking about it,” Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) told TheBlaze on Thursday.

The amendment that passed is reportedly intended to “ensure none of the funds may be used by the NSA to target a U.S. person or acquire and store the content of a U.S. person’s communications, including phone calls and e-mails.”

In contrast, the Amash amendment sought to “end authority for the blanket collection of records under the Patriot Act. It would also bar the NSA and other agencies from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect records, including telephone call records, that pertain to persons who are not subject to an investigation under Section 215.”

Culberson told TheBlaze in a phone interview why he supported the Pompeo amendment over the more sweeping amendment authored by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.).

He argued the amendment properly requires that no funds can be used by the NSA to collect or store the content of American citizens’ communications data. This includes phone calls and emails.

The Amash amendment would have prevented the NSA from using any funds to collect data on persons that are not under investigation.

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Russian Spy Anna Chapman to NSA Leaker: Marry Me

On Wednesday, Anna Chapman, the Russian spy who was exposed in 2010 as part of a sleeper cell in America, asked NSA leaker Edward Snowden to marry her on Twitter.

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New NSA leaks show how US is bugging its European allies

US intelligence services are spying on the European Union mission in New York and its embassy in Washington, according to the latest top secret US National Security Agency documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

One document lists 38 embassies and missions, describing them as “targets”. It details an extraordinary range of spying methods used against each target, from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps into cables to the collection of transmissions with specialised antennae.

Along with traditional ideological adversaries and sensitive Middle Eastern countries, the list of targets includes the EU missions and the French, Italian and Greek embassies, as well as a number of other American allies, including Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey. The list in the September 2010 document does not mention the UK, Germany or other western European states.

One of the bugging methods mentioned is codenamed Dropmire, which, according to a 2007 document, is “implanted on the Cryptofax at the EU embassy, DC” – an apparent reference to a bug placed in a commercially available encrypted fax machine used at the mission. The NSA documents note the machine is used to send cables back to foreign affairs ministries in European capitals.

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‘Obamacare Hub’ to Put NSA Data Mining to Shame?

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday hosted Investor’s Business Daily writer John Merline to discuss a potentially disturbing aspect of “Obamacare.”

Under the Affordable Care Act, a “big data system” will be created to track millions of Americans’ information, including tax and Social Security information, according to Merline.

“Well, the government has to verify all this information because, among other things, they have to make sure you’re eligible for insurance in the exchange. But, more importantly, they have to determine whether you’re eligible for any of these subsidies,” he explained. “So in order to do that, they have to tab into these government databases, the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Defense, Veterans Administration, even the Peace Corps. This data hub is going to tap into all these different databases in order to verify the information you’re providing to the exchange.”

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Hot Mic Catches NSA Boss Praising FBI Chiefs For Supportive Testimony

Dem rep: We were “astounded” by what we heard in our new classified briefing about surveillance

A simple case of a liberal trying to impress the lefty base with her innocence about the surveillance state or proof that O and the NSA really are up to more than anyone thought? Well, she’s specific in saying that there are things happening that go beyond what’s been publicly revealed. (Although maybe not for long: Remember, Glenn Greenwald’s promised further leaks.) Read Ed’s post this morning about other members of Congress sounding grim and you’ll see she’s not the only one on whom the classified briefings made an impression. Nor is she the only person lately to refer to data-mining of phone records and Internet communications as the “tip of the iceberg.” Former NSA official turned whistleblower William Binney has used that phrase too in describing what he suspects is the full scope of federal record-harvesting. I think that’s what Sanchez is probably getting at here — it’s the sheer scope of what they’re vacuuming up that would blow our minds if we knew, not necessarily that they’re using technologies we weren’t aware of. Marc Ambinder wrote the other day that it’s 50 companies that are being trawled for data by the feds, not just the big nine identified on the PRISM Powerpoint. Having that fact confirmed probably wouldn’t change the public’s opinion of NSA surveillance much, I suspect, but if some of the companies involved turned out to be, say, insurers with access to people’s medical records — hoo boy.

Here’s the clip via the Hill. Michael Hayden told TPM yesterday that the NSA probably knows by now exactly what data Snowden has in his possession and therefore what leaks are still to come. Maybe that forced the agency to reveal more than they initially wanted to in their briefings this week with Congress: If they withheld something and then the world found out thanks to Snowden,, a lot of angry senators and representatives would want to know why they were kept in the dark. Exit question: How is that we can bug virtually the entire Internet but Clapper’s going around saying things like this about our cyberdefenses?

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NSA slapped with $20 billion class-action suit

The National Security Agency surveillance scandal could now cost the federal government and its corporate cronies a cool $20 billion or more.

The NSA, Department of Justice, President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and the 12 companies allegedly collaborating with the government to conduct warrantless surveillance of American citizens are all named defendants in a class action lawsuit brought by former Justice Department prosecutor Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch.

“Government dishonesty and tyranny against the people have reached historic proportions,” Klayman said in a statement. “The time has come for ‘We the People’ to rise up and reclaim control of our nation.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks $20 billion in damages, a “cease and desist” order, expunction of all phone and communication records collected by the government through its PRISM surveillance program and “full disclosure and complete accounting” of what the named companies have allowed the DOJ and NSA to do.

The companies named in the suit include the following: Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Skype, YouTube, Apple, PalTalk, AOL and Yahoo. Combined with Verizon, which has been named in a separate class action lawsuit, the users and subscribers of these companies reportedly comprise a majority of the U.S. citizenry, thus positioning the lawsuit to pit the American people against their government and its corporate collaborators.

“This and the Verizon class action will serve to unify all political and social persuasions in our great nation to wage a second American revolution, one that is peaceful and legal – but pursued with great resolve and force,” Klayman asserted. “If not, the government will control us, and this will mark the end of individual liberties.

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Glenn Greenwald: There Are “Dozens of Stories” to Be Released on NSA Surveillance

America Wake Up: ‘We are in the midst of a coup’

This week’s revelations about the federal government collecting massive amounts of communication data on American citizens has the country’s most-listened-to radio voice saying President Barack Obama is leading a coup against the nation.

“What everybody knows and what nobody wants to come to grips with is we are in the midst of a coup taking place,” talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said Friday afternoon. “It’s almost on a par with [when I said] ‘I hope he fails.’ How does that sound now, by the way?”

“What’s wrong with calling this a coup?” he continued. “There’s a lot here to be concerned about.”

“This is the guy, don’t forget, convincing people that this kind of stuff was never going to happen here. … This is the guy who got elected president by telling us that what is happening now was never going to happen when he was president. … He got elected warning us that what was happening now was happening in 2008. … [Now] it’s more sweeping than it’s ever been.”

He pointed out that information gathering has already been used to target political supporters of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election cycle.

“This is clearly an administration that wants to identify its enemies and then take action against them … take them out, whatever,” Limbaugh said.

A caller reminded Limbaugh that even though massive data collection has been employed by the federal government in recent years, it has hardly been used to help protect Americans, as in the case of the Boston Marathon bombing April 15. The U.S. had been warned in advance about the bombing suspects by the Russian government, but took no action against them.

“What good does having all this data do when you’re not going to use it?” Limbaugh asked.

“So why is it really being collected?”

“I dont wan’t to come across as a conspiratorialist. I’m not,” Limbaugh said.

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