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UK gathering secret intelligence via covert NSA operation — Exclusive: UK security agency GCHQ gaining information from world's biggest internet firms through US-run Prism programme — The UK's electronic eavesdropping and security agency, GCHQ, has been secretly gathering intelligence …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Daily Mail, Yahoo! News, BBC, GigaOM, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Weasel Zippers, Engadget and Boing Boing
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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.


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.


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, The Week and Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »


Obama Calls Surveillance Programs Legal and Limited
Discussion:
Guardian, Hit & Run, Washington Post, The Caucus, The Hill, The Week, Yahoo! News and Business Insider

Stop Freaking Out About the NSA
Discussion:
Hit & Run, American Prospect and The PJ Tatler

DNI Statement on Recent Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information
Discussion:
ProPublica, Lawfare, The Volokh Conspiracy, protein wisdom, The Hinterland Gazette, Guardian, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, The Verge, RT and The Hill

President Obama's let's-have-a-debate defense
Discussion:
Pirate's Cove and Hot Air

The Morning Plum: Revelations expose basic contradiction at heart of Obama's war on terror
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Yahoo! News, Hot Air, Firedoglake and Business Insider

Admit It, Rep. Sensenbrenner: You Were Wrong About the Patriot Act
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, emptywheel, Guardian and msnbc.com

What You Should Know About the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Wonkblog, Daily Kos, Lawfare and Senator Wyden's Press Feed

U.S. intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program
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Yahoo! News, Hot Air, Power Line, Wonkblog, Business Insider, WorldViews, Guardian, GigaOM, The Huffington Post, Weasel Zippers, msnbc.com, The Verge, New Republic, Towleroad News #gay, The Next Web, PoliticusUSA, Wall Street Journal, Politico, USA Today, Wake up America, Mediaite, Liberal Values, Firedoglake, Post Politics, TIME, Talking Points Memo, AEIdeas, The Atlantic Wire, americanthinker.com, New York Times, The Fix, The Week, Prairie Weather, Samizdata, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Wired, BBC, susiemadrak.com, Shakesville, ThinkProgress, The Hill, The Moderate Voice, Daily Kos, Betsy's Page, Outside the Beltway, AMERICAblog, Law Blog, Crooks and Liars, CANNONFIRE, Gawker, The Daily Caller, Daily Mail, CBS Denver, CBS News, The PJ Tatler, The Volokh Conspiracy, ABCNEWS, TechCrunch and Pirate's Cove, more at Mediagazer »

DNI Statement on Activities Authorized Under Section 702 of FISA
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Wonkblog, NationalJournal.com, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, Law Blog, Business Insider, Mashable, The Daily Caller and The Next Web

Minimization and the “Collection First” Surveillance Model
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway and Lawfare

James Clapper Clarifies Remarks Over NSA Snooping
Discussion:
emptywheel, Yahoo! News, ABCNEWS and The Daily Caller

NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others
Discussion:
Business Insider, Hit & Run, Mother Jones, News Desk, The Week, The Huffington Post, msnbc.com, TechCrunch, Forbes, Yahoo! News, The Verge, GigaOM, The Next Web, Reuters, Washington Post, The Volokh Conspiracy, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Washington Monthly, Progressive Policy Institute, AllThingsD, Taking Note, The Gateway Pundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Michelle Obama's Mirror, Mashable, Daily Kos, NewsBusters, Daniel W. Drezner, The Hill, Wonkblog, Balloon Juice, BuzzFeed, Wall Street Journal, Gawker, Informed Comment, Law Blog, The Dish, BBC, Weasel Zippers, Boing Boing, ThinkProgress, Pressing Issues, Firedoglake, Associated Press, Taylor Marsh, The Raw Story and The Hinterland Gazette, more at Mediagazer »


Texas woman arrested in ricin letters to Obama, Bloomberg: Officials — A Texas woman has been arrested in connection with the mailing of three letters containing a form of the poison ricin to President Obama, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, federal authorities said.
Discussion:
Politico, CNN and The Raw Story

Soldier Told Not to Read Levin, Limbaugh or Hannity in Uniform — A veteran member of the U.S. Army Band said he is facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors like Mark Levin and David Limbaugh …
Discussion:
American Spectator, Weasel Zippers and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion


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 …

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:
Michelle Malkin, Poynter, Washington Examiner, Mediaite, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Yahoo! News, Althouse, National Review, Pressing Issues and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

Behind the Obamacare Derangement Syndrome — At TNR today, Noam Scheiber looks at the deep investment Republican pols and conservative scribblers and gabbers seem to have in the failure of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, and sees a concentration of the biases we have all called the Obama Derangement Syndrome on this one issue.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo and New Republic


Rape suspect buried alive in Bolivia — A man suspected of rape has been buried alive by villagers in the southern highlands of Bolivia. — Police had identified the 17-year-old as the possible culprit in the rape and murder of a 35-year-old woman near the municipality of Colquechaca.
Discussion:
Gawker

Obama speech-less — (CNN) - President Barack Obama got off to an awkward and unusual start Friday morning as he took the stage to give a speech on health care reform. — Once he took the podium, he realized he didn't have anything to talk about. — “Good morning everybody.


Clinton Slips in Poll After Benghazi Hits, Christie's Up — Hillary Clinton hasn't decided whether she'll run for president in 2016, a status that doesn't matter to the brewing class of potential Republican candidates already running against her. — And, in the pre-campaign posturing …
Discussion:
Washington Wire, CNN and ViralRead

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 …


All the Infrastructure a Tyrant Would Need, Courtesy of Bush and Obama — To an increasing degree, we're counting on having angels in office and making ourselves vulnerable to devils. — Let's assume that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, their staffers …


‘Uhhh...Uh...Uhhh....People!’ Obama at Total Loss for Words When Staff Forgets His Speech — President Obama strolled out to the podium today in San Jose, CA and was immediately at a loss for words. Not only did the President not have teleprompter, his aides forgot his speech.
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs and The PJ Tatler


Transcript: Obama's Remarks on NSA Controversy — President Barack Obama on Friday defended his administration's vast data-collection efforts, saying the programs help prevent terrorist attacks and represent only small encroachments of people's privacy. Here is the transcript of his remarks …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Wall Street Journal and Hit & Run


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

We are shocked, shocked... Is it just me or does the entire news media - as well as all the agitators and self-righteous bloviators on both sides of the aisle — not understand even the rudiments of electronic intercepts and the manner in which law enforcement actually uses such intercepts?
Discussion:
Firedoglake and Little Green Footballs