memeorandum: Stop Freaking Out About the NSA (William Saletan/Slate)

1:05 PM ET, June 7, 2013

Top Items:

U.S. intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program — The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs …

Guardian:

NSA PRISM program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others — • Top secret PRISM program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Skype and Yahoo — • Companies deny any knowledge of program in operation since 2007 — The National Security Agency …

Wall Street Journal:

Thank You for Data-Mining — The NSA's ‘metadata’ surveillance is legal and necessary. — Well, another day, another Washington furor. This one is over a National Security Agency phone data monitoring program, but unlike the other White House scandals there seems to be little here that is scandalous.

Discussion: Althouse, National Review, The Week, Outside the Beltway, Right Turn, Guardian and The Hill

New York Times:

Anti-Surveillance Activist Is at Center of New Leak — After writing intensely, even obsessively, for years about government surveillance and the prosecution of journalists, Glenn Greenwald has suddenly put himself directly at the intersection of those two issues, and perhaps in the cross hairs of federal prosecutors.

Discussion: Guardian, naked capitalism, Towleroad News #gay, The Daily Caller, Pressing Issues, Althouse, Conservative Intelligence …, Hit & Run, Daily Kos, Mediaite, The Dish and The BLT, more at Mediagazer »

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:

On whistleblowers and government threats of investigation — No healthy democracy can endure when the most consequential acts of those in power remain secret and unaccountable — We followed Wednesday's story about the NSA's bulk telephone record-gathering with one yesterday …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, more at Mediagazer »

Dylan Byers / Politico:

N.Y. Times changes scathing editorial — The New York Times editorial board has quietly changed the language in the most widely cited line from Thursday's scathing editorial about the Obama administration's surveillance of U.S. citizens. — The line — “The administration has now lost all credibility” …

Discussion: Hot Air, Mediaite, Althouse and National Review, more at Mediagazer »

ODNI Newsroom Feed:

DNI Statement on Recent Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information — The highest priority of the Intelligence Community is to work within the constraints of law to collect, analyze and understand information related to potential threats to our national security.

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Volokh Conspiracy, Guardian, The Hinterland Gazette, The Verge, Yahoo! News and RT

New York Times:

President Obama's Dragnet — Within hours of the disclosure that the federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every …

William Saletan / Slate:

Stop Freaking Out About the NSA — The government's phone surveillance isn't Orwellian. It's limited and supervised. — You don't need a wiretap to hear what people are saying about the National Security Agency's phone surveillance program. The program's details …

Discussion: American Prospect, Hit & Run and The PJ Tatler

ODNI Newsroom Feed:

DNI Statement on Activities Authorized Under Section 702 of FISA — The Guardian and The Washington Post articles refer to collection of communications pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They contain numerous inaccuracies.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Mashable, Business Insider, Weekly Standard, The Daily Caller, The Next Web and Hit & Run

Nick Hopkins / Guardian:
UK gathering secret intelligence via covert NSA operation

Discussion: Yahoo! News, BBC, TechCrunch, Weasel Zippers, The Next Web, Engadget, GigaOM and Boing Boing

Hugh Hewitt / Townhall.com:
Data Collection Isn't Data Abuse — Yet

Discussion: The Hugh Hewitt Show and LewRockwell.com Blog

Brendan Sasso / The Hill:
Obama sponsored bill that would have made Verizon order illegal

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Politico, Washington Examiner and Hot Air

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
DNI: WaPo, Guardian Articles Contained ‘Numerous Inaccuracies’

Discussion: Business Insider

Stewart Baker / The Volokh Conspiracy:
Minimization and the “Collection First” Surveillance Model

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Lawfare

Carlo Muñoz / The Hill:
Clapper denied NSA surveillance before Senate panel in March testimony

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, Forbes, New York Times and The Hill

Michael Hirsh / NationalJournal.com:
James Clapper Clarifies Remarks Over NSA Snooping

Discussion: emptywheel, Yahoo! News, ABCNEWS and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:
Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Week, susiemadrak.com, Firedoglake, News Desk, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Daily Kos and Guardian

Washington Post:
The government needs to explain about the NSA's phone data program

Discussion: Business Insider

Wall Street Journal:
Tech Firms' Data Is Also Tapped

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mother Jones, Yahoo! News, The Atlantic Wire, Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, Business Insider, Mashable, The Next Web and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:
U.S. Confirms That It Gathers Online Data Overseas

Reuters:

Misfired 2010 email alerted IRS officials in Washington of targeting — (Reuters) - A misfired email from a U.S. Internal Revenue Service employee in Cincinnati alerted a number of Washington IRS officials that extra scrutiny was being placed on conservative groups in July 2010 …

Discussion: CBS DC, Yahoo! News, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, LifeNews.com, The PJ Tatler, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers and Jammie Wearing Fools

Bloomberg:

Why Obama Keeps Losing at the Supreme Court — In cases before the Supreme Court last year, President Barack Obama's Justice Department relied on outlandish legal theories that pushed a constitutional interpretation of extreme federal power. That posture led to unanimous losses in three …

Discussion: Conservative Intelligence …

New York Times:
States Should Decide Gay Marriage, Poll Finds

Discussion: National Review

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

George W. Bush critics turn wrath on President Obama — A club of Capitol Hill liberals made life hell for George W. Bush in his second term. — Now the gang is back — and they don't care that this time the president is their guy. — In the last few weeks, some of the loudest anti-Bush voices …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and White House Dossier

Ronald Brownstein / NationalJournal.com:

Why Republicans Can Get Away With Ignoring Their Problems — The GOP can enjoy another strong midterm election in 2014 without doing much more to attract young or minority voters. — Republicans have a problem with young voters. Democrats have a problem with young nonvoters.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Catherine Rampell / New York Times:

U.S. Added 175,000 Jobs in May; Jobless Rate Rises to 7.6% — American employers added 175,000 jobs in May, almost exactly the average monthly job growth over the last year, the Labor Department reported Friday, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6 percent.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Economix, The Maddow Blog, National Review, Daily Kos, Campaign for America's Future and americanthinker.com

Bill McBride / Calculated Risk:
May Employment Report: 175,000 Jobs, 7.6% Unemployment Rate

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Business Insider and Economix

Justin Sink / Ballot Box:

Geraldo Rivera rules out Senate bid in New Jersey special election — In a Fox News Latino column, Rivera compares running against Newark Mayor Cory Booker to a battle in the “Lord of the Rings” books, saying the race would “be as one-sided as Théoden faced when leading his riders against Mordor.”

Discussion: Politico

Geraldo Rivera / Fox News:
Geraldo Rivera, Fox News Commentator, Will Not Run For U.S. Senate

Discussion: CNN

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

President Obama's let's-have-a-debate defense — The Obama administration has a familiar refrain on the surveillance of Americans' telephone records: the president and his team are eager to have the debate. — Eager, that is, only after others have brought the tactics to light and the administration has spent years employing them.

Discussion: Pirate's Cove and Hot Air