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NSA, FirstFruits, surveillance of reporters, bloggers

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Go to Bush warrantless surveillance of American Journalists...program: FirstFruits at NFU Domestic Surveillance research page

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Related topics:  Communications Industry              Privacy               Internet           Children
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  • Wayne Madsen report August 18, 2008 -- NSA continues surveillance of journalists; WMR editor subject of espionage investigation  ...   On May 10, 2005, WMR reported on the existence of a highly-classified database at the National Security Agency (NSA), formerly code-named "FIRSTFRUITS," that monitored journalists who reported on the activities of the eavesdropping agency, as well as other intelligence matters. A few weeks later, according to an executive-level source at the NSA, and confirmed by a related source within NSA's "Q" Directorate, the Directorate for Security and Counterintelligence, this editor has been a subject of a national security investigation since June 2005 that remains ongoing. The investigation of this editor is classified at the level SECRET/COMINT (NOFORN). COMINT is "Communications Intelligence" and NOFORN denotes "Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals/Governments/Non-US Citizens."     ...    According to National Security Agency/Central Security Service Policy 1-27, dated March 20, 2006 and signed by NSA Chief of Staff Deborah Bonanni, the investigation of the public disclosure of the unconstitutional and illegal FIRSTFRUITS surveillance system would be coordinated by the NSA, Department of Defense, Director of National Intelligence, and the Department of Justice.

     

  • Wayne Madsen report Journalists and bloggers under assault by Bush Gestapo publication date: Aug 19, 2008   ...   Yesterday, WMR reported that the editor was the subject of a national security investigation launched by the National Security Agency (NSA), possibly in concert with other federal agencies.    ...    Yesterday, we learned that two agents of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Connecticut wants to question one of our contributing writers, Maher Osseiran. It is not known what the subject is but anytime a journalist or writer is the subject of any kind of questioning by law enforcement, except in very narrow and limited circumstances, First Amendment alarms should be ringing across the nation. The two agents in Connecticut are FBI Special Agent Judy Eide, billed as a "Training Coordinator," and Detective Steven Roy of the Connecticut State Police.    ...   Meanwhile, our colleague Joe Lauria, who wrote a series of exposes for the Sunday Times of London, is also the subject of an FBI probe. This editor assisted The Times with its story on Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI Turkish translator, and her story about a Turkish-Israeli intelligence and influence-peddling ring that involved drug and nuclear smuggling activities.   ....    We also learned yesterday that national security correspondent Bill Gertz of The Washington Times is still not out of the woods yet on a federal probe over the leak of grand jury information on a Chinese espionage case. In addition, the FBI is continuing to investigate New York Times national security reporter Jim Risen over his exposes of the FBI's and NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. A federal grand jury subpoenaed Risen to reveal his anonymous sources but he has refused to appear. It is this editor's oft-stated policy that he will neither appear before nor answer questions posed by any grand jury about confidential sources or any methods used to obtain information for stories.   ...   We have learned from an executive level NSA source linked to NSA Security that when NSA's Security Directorate first began investigating the disclosure of the agency's FIRSTFRUITS journalist surveillance database, an NSA security officer said of the journalists contained in the database, "We should just kill them all." The journalists who were then the subject of the database were, in addition to this editor, Bill Gertz, James Bamford, Vernon Loeb, Jim Risen, Dr. John C. K. Daly, and Seymour Hersh.   
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  • Cnet Tech News First
  • Jurist University of Pittsburg, School of Law,   Primary sources. Global perspective 
  • AP Yahoo story below
  • notes: WMR has learned from additional National Security Agency (NSA) sources that this editor's (Madsen) communications -- cell phone, e-mail, text messages, and faxes -- are under a full digital interception order by the NSA. Previously, I was informed by NSA sources that a "full digital" surveillance package was authorized on all my communications.  ...   It is becoming apparent that the "Eyes Only"/compartmented code word program authorized by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the wake of the 9/11 attacks included warrantless surveillance of American journalists and their sources. WMR exposed the existence of a database containing journalist surveillance data that was code-named "FIRSTFRUITS" before the code name was changed after our disclosure.
  • FBI
  • New York Times NSA executive order authorizing data mining of phone calls and file.
  • Whitehouse  Bush
  • Republicans opposed to Bush Warrantless wiretapping are irrelevant and impotent. 
  • UPI  file  In order that the database did not violate United States Signals Intelligence Directive (USSID) 18, which specifies that the names of "U.S. persons" are to be deleted through a process known as minimization, the names of subject journalists were blanked out. However, in a violation of USSID 18, certain high level users could unlock the database field through a super-user status and view the "phantom names" of the journalists in question. Some of the "source" information in FIRSTFRUITS was classified—an indication that some of the articles in database were not obtained through open source means. In fact, NSA insiders report that the communications monitoring tasking system known as ECHELON is being used more frequently for purely political eavesdropping having nothing to do with national security or counter terrorism.
  • WMR  Higher Than Top Secret  "One of the most classified surveillance programs in the Bush administration was so limited in access only very few individuals, including President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney Chief of Staff David Addington, CIA director Michael Hayden, FBI director Robert Mueller, then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and three successive Attorneys General -- John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, and Michael Mukasey -- know of its existence.  ...   Known by a code word, sometimes abbreviated, following the classification TOP SECRET - EYES ONLY and which was contained on some files that Gonzales took home with him and kept in an unsecured manner against Justice Department regulations, the warrantless National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program was so beyond legality that acting Attorney General James Comey refused to re-certify it upon its expiration in March 2004. There is a strong possibility that the code word program was connected to the NSA surveillance program aimed at tracking down leaks of classified information to the media from government sources. The leak tracking program was code named FIRSTFRUITS. Due the program's revelations by WMR, NSA has renamed the operation with a new code word. Previously, WMR learned from an informed source that part of the domestic surveillance system may have also involved a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) database of suspect Americans. The database is called Main Core. "
  • DailyKOS "Apparently, they've also been spying on other members of the government who may have been potential whistleblowers, journalists and even members of Congress. ... NSA spied on its own employees, other U.S. intelligence personnel, and their journalist and congressional contacts. WMR has learned that the National Security Agency (NSA), on the orders of the Bush administration, eavesdropped on the private conversations and e-mail of its own employees, employees of other U.S. intelligence agencies -- including the CIA and DIA -- and their contacts in the media, Congress, and oversight agencies and offices. ... The journalist surveillance program, code named "Firstfruits," was part of a Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) program that was maintained at least until October 2004 and was authorized by then-DCI Porter Goss. Firstfruits was authorized as part of a DCI "Countering Denial and Deception" program responsible to an entity known as the Foreign Denial and Deception Committee (FDDC). Since the intelligence community's reorganization, the DCI has been replaced by the Director of National Intelligence headed by John Negroponte and his deputy, former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden."
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Liberal vs Conservative media labels    top
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Media Consolidation    top            boycott Sinclair
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  • Fox Network  Conservative, Pro-Bush, pro-war,  pro-violence, pro military industrial congressional complex. eating worms and excrement.  fear factor.
Media Technology Convergence    top
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  • Microsoft  Windows Media Center,  see campaign contributions. 
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