| NSA Supercenters to Store Americans' Private Data Permanently | | Print | |
| Written by Thomas R. Eddlem | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 28 October 2009 08:30 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The NSA has been keeping permanent records of all American's telephone call habits and Internet traffic since shortly after September 11, 2001, according to major news reports, without the constitutionally required warrants from a court. No longer able to store all the intercepted phone calls and e-mail in its Ft. Meade, Maryland, headquarters, the NSA is engaging in its own housing boom. How much data will these giant, multibillion dollar new facilities hold? According to James Bamford of the New York Review of Books, the facility in Utah alone could hold data that will be measured in Yottabytes. Never heard of Yottabytes? You're not alone. Most computers sold at stores still measure their storage at gigabytes, or billions of bits of data. A few store a terrabyte of information, or one trillion bits of information. That's 1,000,000,000,000 pieces of information. Yottabytes is the highest number that has yet been named in computer information. The number is septillions of billions of bits of data, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits of data. In his review of Matthew M. Aid's new book on the NSA, The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency, Bamford noted that the NSA assault on the Constitution's Fourth Amendment has taken place without public opposition or even public debate. “Unlike the British government, which, to its great credit, allowed public debate on the idea of a central data bank,” Bamford wrote, “the NSA obtained the full cooperation of much of the American telecom industry in utmost secrecy after September 11.” And when the British government held that debate, the people rose up against such a “big brother”-style plan: When the plans were released by the UK government, there was an immediate outcry from both the press and the public, leading to the scrapping of the "big brother database," as it was called. In its place, however, the government came up with a new plan. Instead of one vast, centralized database, the telecom companies and Internet service providers would be required to maintain records of all details about people's phone, e-mail, and Web-browsing habits for a year and to permit the government access to them when asked. That has led again to public anger and to a protest by the London Internet Exchange, which represents more than 330 telecommunications firms. Not so in America, where economically challenged communities are welcoming the multibillion dollar construction work to create the facilities. Freedom can be traded for temporary prosperity, according to local officials in Utah, as reported by a news segment on KSL, Salt Lake City's NBC affiliate. “The data center is estimated to be 1 million square feet, sitting on 200-acres, and it couldn't come at a better time for Utah's economy,” KSL reported, and will cost taxpayers nearly $2 billion. The report went on to enthuse that “even Congressman Jason Chaffetz is excited. From Washington he told KSL News: 'It's a benefit to our economy and our national security.'" In San Antonio, the NSA is dramatically expanding an existing facility rather than creating a new one. San Antonio Current writer Greg M. Schwartz explained how the expanded facility would be 470,000 square feet, almost the size of the Alamodome. Schwartz revealed that San Antonio officials actually courted the NSA, sending trade delegations to Ft. Meade to win the expansion. “The new facility is a potential boon to the local economy since it’s reportedly going to employ around 1,500 people,” Schwartz noted, “but questions remain about whether there will be adequate oversight to prevent civil-rights violations like Uncle Sam’s recent notorious warrantless wiretapping program.” Actually, there's no honest question about that. Schwartz is just politely saying in journalistic kant that, like Salt Lake City, San Antonio expects to profit from the destruction of the Constitution's Bill of Rights. Temporarily, anyway. Schwartz got a personal dose of the destruction of the Bill of Rights while preparing his story for the San Antonio Current. “Readers are advised not to take any photos unless you care to be detained for at least a 45-minute interrogation by the National Security Agency, as this reporter was,” Schwartz wrote. The security guards asked, but did not demand, that Schwartz destroy photos he had taken of the facility. They didn't take his camera — this time, that is. Of course, if the NSA is free to ignore one part of the Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment prohibition on searches without court warrants and probable cause, what security can Americans have in preventing the NSA from ignoring the other parts of the Constitution … such as freedom of the press under the First Amendment?
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Comments (17)
Bonnie
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The National Security Agency is building huge new storage facilities to store the unconstitutionally gained data on the American people's telephone calls and Internet traffic permanently, including new buildings in suburban Salt Lake City, Utah, and San Antonio, Texas.
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... You can bet your life these supercenters WILL be hackable! And, what would be the point of storing all this data if there were not some intent to later use it? |
Thomas Paine
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George Orwell here we come They are building the secret government. They won't come out and say we lost our freedoms, it will just happen quietly. If you speak out against their illegal policies in the future, you may be visited by some China man in a black suit in the middle of the night. |
Flu-Bird
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1984 late It might be some years later but were geting 1984 and BIG BROTHER to watch over us all |
X
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Just a G.D. piece of paper... I guess the Bill of Rights means nothing to these guys either. Too bad there's going to be a revolution. |
SurvivalTime
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Time to go off grid I do believe that the only defense against this form of spying is to go completely off grid. It all boils down to predictions that have been made, biblical passages which ring true. Thankfully, off-grid living is something I am familiar with and when the need arises capable of doing, without sacrificing who I am. TRACK THAT! |
constitutionlady
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Get on the phone; Send emails; Write letters If we want our civil liberties back we need to make our feelings known. Send emails to your representatives regularly at www.Congress.org. Make phone calls to your representatives. Write letters. Tell the mainstream media you want coverage of the state of our civil liberties. If we are silent, we will bear the fruit of our own lack of participation in the democratic process. |
Fedge
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Be Sure to Upload Lots of pictures of homeless and starving people so that these guys get cancer when they start going through the data  Click my name for some interesting related documents too. |
obvious
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obviously The problem with the logic that there is some sort of secret government, is that, even if there was, which there probably is, especially considering that there are 700,000 people working in the intelligence community, is that with that many people, good and justice triumphs, with only a few evil sons of bitches who have weaseled there way into power. America is still great because even these evil bastards only get close to there way for only a short time before the American people have had enough. Taking freedom and our rights away would be like taking our blood away, no one would stand for it. Anyone of them that believes otherwise is sadly mistaken and lives in a bubble, probably compares what our potential reactions would be by comparing US to some foreign country...big mistake...they think that being an empire with bases and corrupt influence in far away places, or taking advantage of cheap labor is what makes us prosperous, when it is actually US getting up everyday and going to work, it is our religion, we work and we innovate, we see justice and forbid trespass, if only our politicians, bankers, and military would have some common sense...as some of the special ones do...just not enough of them...or at least the ones that matter... |
Austin, TX
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If it was secret govt, then we wouldn't be reading this story. I think a likely result will be data-mining-based marketing sold to corporations to help pay for the facility & its operations. All those surveys you take on myspace or facebook, your interests & hobbies that you list, music you like, medicines you need for whatever health issues you have, etc. will be collected, analyzed, and targeted to you directly. Just remember, EVERYTHING you do online is basically there forever. (says the guy posting a comment on the web!) |
Thomas Paine
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This is why the dark side must be confronted For those of you that don't think there is a growing "secret government", which is probably 90% of the naive population, you must investigate 911 on the internet. Start with Steven Jone's science journal publication on Nano Thermite in dust from Trade centers, then go to Arhitects and Engineers for 911 truth, then 911 truth. org. Although this type of conspiracy sucks, and is too evil to digest, if we don't confront how evil it is, and that it is real, we will walk blindly into 1984. Where 2 plus 2 equals 5 if that is what the party wants. |
Pat Henry
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Its not secret Its not a secret government you fool. Its the real government doing this right before your own eyes and in public view. Its the real government that you already know about it putting out open contracts up for bids that these cities bid to get. There's nothing secret about any of this. That doesn't mean its not dangerous. The problem is, while the nuts run around worried about some 'secret government', its the real government that's putting a steel collar on people's necks. Study Germany to see how its done. Hitler never broke a law, and did what he did in full public view. The Aushchitz death camp went out for public bid for its design and construction. |
femtobeam
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HDTV: The Third World War The only Governments who own networks are in Asia, the rest have unregulated subcontractors and networks. The manufacturing of all the equipment and therefore access to it, is in Asia. They will have access to it wherever it is located because spyware is built in to the hardware. Asia will control your mind and body soon as a peripheral of their network. As for me, I hope there is a truthful and complete record of my life in the NSA database to prove my existence as an individual and which can be used to defend me from thieves, rapists, kidnappers, murderers and China in real time. "In the future, we will all die from hearsay". Robin Lynn Ore |
STAND AND BE COUNTED
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RESURRECT THE CONSTITUTION TO ALL OF THOSE IN THE INTELLIGENCE FIELD THAT ARE TRUE PATRIOTS THAT BELIEVE IN OUR CONSTITUTION: THERE ARE TRULLY TOUGH TIMES AHEAD FOR OUR COUNTRY. TO RESTORE LIBERTY AND PROMOTE A FUTURE DEMOCRACY IN THE UNITED STATES WE WILL NEED YOUR HELP. PEACEFUL CHANGE IS POSSIBLE. THE PEOPLE NEED TO STAND UP TO THE MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS THAT ARE PUTTING THEIR PROFITS AHEAD OF OUR FREEDOMS AND SECURITY. WE NEED AT LEAST SOME SUPPORT FROM THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY AND MILITARY. I ASK YOU TO DO WHAT YOU CAN TO EFFECT POSITIVE CHANGE IN AMERICA. THROUGH YOUR ACCESS TO INFORMATION YOU HAVE POWER. POWER WHICH CAN TIP THE BALANCE IN FAVOR OF SAVING OUR WAY OF LIFE. RSTORE THE CONSTITUTION NOW!!! |
JDM
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... Stop it already with "septillion", just obfuscation. If you want to convey this information rather than just waving your hands, then please tell us how many zeros: giga- means 9 zeros, tera- means 12 zeros, yotta- means 24 zeros. Thank you. |
anarchist
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This is the so-called democracy? You know,its funny.They told us that the state of complete state control was called fascism,not democracy.Well,I guess they were wrong,didn't they? |
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