http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-security-agencys-domestic-spying-program.html?_r=0
The Program: The filmmaker Laura Poitras profiles William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency who helped design a top-secret program he says is broadly collecting Americans’ personal data.
It took me a few days to work up the nerve to phone William Binney. As someone already a “target” of the United States government, I found it difficult not to worry about the chain of unintended consequences I might unleash by calling Mr. Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency turned whistle-blower. He picked up. I nervously explained I was a documentary filmmaker and wanted to speak to him. To my surprise he replied: “I’m tired of my government harassing me and violating the Constitution. Yes, I’ll talk to you.”
Two weeks later, driving past the headquarters of the N.S.A. in
Maryland, outside Washington, Mr. Binney described details about Stellar
Wind, the N.S.A.’s top-secret domestic spying program begun after 9/11,
which was so controversial that it nearly caused top Justice Department
officials to resign in protest, in 2004.
“The decision must have been made in September 2001,” Mr. Binney told me
and the cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. “That’s when the equipment
started coming in.” In this Op-Doc, Mr. Binney explains how the program
he created for foreign intelligence gathering was turned inward on this
country. He resigned over this in 2001 and began speaking out publicly
in the last year. He is among a group of N.S.A. whistle-blowers,
including Thomas A. Drake, who have each risked everything — their
freedom, livelihoods and personal relationships — to warn Americans
about the dangers of N.S.A. domestic spying.
To those who understand state surveillance as an abstraction, I will try
to describe a little about how it has affected me. The United States
apparently placed me on a “watch-list” in 2006
after I completed a film about the Iraq war. I have been detained at
the border more than 40 times. Once, in 2011, when I was stopped at John
F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and asserted my First
Amendment right not to answer questions about my work, the border agent
replied, “If you don’t answer our questions, we’ll find our answers on
your electronics.”’ As a filmmaker and journalist entrusted to protect
the people who share information with me, it is becoming increasingly
difficult for me to work in the United States. Although I take every
effort to secure my material, I know the N.S.A. has technical abilities
that are nearly impossible to defend against if you are targeted.
The 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,
which oversees the N.S.A. activities, are up for renewal in December.
Two members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats, are trying to revise the amendments to insure greater privacy protections. They have been warning about “secret interpretations” of laws and backdoor “loopholes” that allow the government to collect our private communications. Thirteen senators have signed a letter
expressing concern about a “loophole” in the law that permits the
collection of United States data. The A.C.L.U. and other groups have
also challenged the constitutionality of the law, and the Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case on Oct. 29.
This video is part of a series by independent filmmakers who have received grants from the BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute.
Utah Data Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia :
It is alleged to capture "all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Internet searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital 'pocket litter'," though its precise purpose is secret.[1] The US Senate has voted to approve the FAA Sunsets Extension Act of 2012, which will authorize warrantless surveillance of Americans for counter-terrorism purposes for another five years. The bill extends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which granted retroactive immunity for wiretaps and email monitoring under the Bush Administration.[3]
The planned structure is 1 million or 1.5 million square feet[2][4][5] and it is projected to cost from $1.5 billion[6][7][8] to $2 billion when finished in September 2013.[1][2] One report suggested that it will cost another $2 billion for hardware, software, and maintenance.[2] The completed facility is expected to have a power demand of 65 megawatts, costing about $40 million per year.[1][2] It is located on Camp Williams, near Bluffdale, Utah.
Possible purpose
On August 22, 2012, The New York Times published an Op-doc in a forum of short documentaries produced by independent filmmakers that was produced by Laura Poitras and entitled, The Program.[9] It is a preliminary work that will be part of a documentary planned for release in 2013. The documentary is based on interviews with William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the United States National Security Agency, who became a whistleblower and described the details of the Stellar Wind project that he helped to design. The program he worked on had been designed for foreign espionage but, in 2001, was converted to spying on citizens in the United States, prompting disclosures by him and others concerned that the actions were illegal and unconstitutional. The subject implies that the facility being built at Bluffdale is a facility that is part of that domestic surveillance, intended for storage of massive amounts of data collected from a broad range of communications that may be mined readily for intelligence without warrants.[10] The author reports that on October 29, 2012, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding the constitutionality of the amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that were used to authorize the creation of such facilities and justify such actions.http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter
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