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

9:45 AM 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 …

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 …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Crooks and Liars, Bloomberg, Guardian, CBS Boston, Slate, CBS News, Right Turn, Pressing Issues, Conservative Intelligence …, Via Meadia, Los Angeles Times, Israel Matzav, Outside the Beltway, ParaPundit, Lawfare, Wired, Politico, Mediaite, The Next Web, Ed Driscoll, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Firedoglake, Pundit & Pundette, Hot Air, BuzzFeed, Hit & Run, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, Law Blog, The Monkey Cage, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Free Beacon, The Lead with Jake Tapper, The Huffington Post, his vorpal sword, Weasel Zippers, The Volokh Conspiracy, Wonkblog, San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Plum Line, The Week, The World's Greatest …, msnbc.com, NO QUARTER USA NET, American Prospect, Mashable, Atlas Shrugs, Connecting.the.Dots and Patterico's Pontifications, more at Mediagazer »

Guardian:

NSA taps into internet giants' systems to mine user data, secret files reveal — • Top secret PRISM program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Facebook and Apple — • Companies deny any knowledge of program in operation since 2007

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Collects Vast Data Trove — NSA Monitoring Includes Three Major Phone Companies, as Well as Online Activity — WASHINGTON—The National Security Agency's monitoring of Americans includes customer records from the three major phone networks as well as emails and Web searches …

Discussion: Hot Air, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Huffington Post, Betsy's Page, GigaOM, Weasel Zippers, Mashable, Conservative Intelligence …, Yahoo! News, The Verge, Forbes, Post Politics, The Week, Guardian, Engadget, Patterico's Pontifications, The PJ Tatler and Washington Wire

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: Guardian, The Daily Caller, Weekly Standard, Mashable, Hit & Run and The Next Web, 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: Guardian, The Hinterland Gazette, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Hill, The Verge and RT

Washington Post:

Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge — “We have never heard of PRISM,” an Apple spokesman said. “We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order.”

Discussion: Firedoglake, News Desk, Towleroad News #gay, TechCrunch, Daily Kos and Business Insider

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 and Guardian

Washington Post:

The government needs to explain about the NSA's phone data program — ACCORDING TO Senate overseers of America's intelligence community, the federal government has been collecting massive quantities of so-called metadata about Americans' phone calls for seven years.

Discussion: Business Insider

Washington Post:

NSA slides explain the PRISM data-collection program — Through a top-secret program authorized by federal judges working under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the U.S. intelligence community can gain access to the servers of nine Internet companies for a wide range of digital data.

Discussion: The Next Web, ThinkProgress, The Hill, The PJ Tatler, Business Insider and Democracy in America

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
Leaks Overshadow Obama's Meeting With President of China

Discussion: New York Times and TechCrunch

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

Discussion: Hot Air, New York Times, The Hill and Lawfare

Jamie Weinstein / The Daily Caller:
New York Times quietly changes published editorial to make it less damning of Obama

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Twitchy, Gawker, Yahoo! News and Mediaite

Guardian:
PRISM scandal: tech giants flatly deny allowing NSA direct access to servers

Discussion: Gawker, Reuters, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite and Business Insider

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

Discussion: The Agonist and Marginal Revolution

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

New York Times:
Anti-Surveillance Activist Is at Center of New Leak

Discussion: Pressing Issues, Daily Kos, Conservative Intelligence …, The BLT, The Verge, GigaOM, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post and Guardian, more at Mediagazer »

Cord Jefferson / Gawker:
The New York Times Quietly Softened Its Scathing Obama Editorial

Discussion: Politico, Yahoo! News, Pressing Issues, Mediaite and Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »

Allison Sherry / The Spot:
Sen. Mark Udall: I knew the NSA was spying, did everything but leak classified information to stop it

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Mediaite, Post Politics and The Moderate Voice

The Huffington Post: NSA Whistleblowers Reveal Stunning Extent Of Spying Operation

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: White House Dossier

Glenn Thrush / Politico:
George W. 'Bush's 4th term'

Discussion: BuzzFeed and Taegan Goddard's …

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

Discussion: Hot Air, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Townhall.com

Matthew Arco / Politicker NJ:

Christie appoints Chiesa to fill Lautenberg's U.S. Senate seat — TRENTON - Gov. Chris Christie tapped state Attorney General Jeff Chiesa as New Jersey's next U.S. senator. — Chiesa, 47, will serve in the U.S. Senate until residents elect someone to replace him during the Oct. 16 special election.

Discussion: American Spectator, Politicker and Daily Kos

Jenna Portnoy / New Jersey Online:
Christie names N.J. attorney general Jeffrey Chiesa to fill Lautenberg's seat

Discussion: ThinkProgress, americanthinker.com, Gothamist, The Week, Yahoo! News, Outside the Beltway, Roll Call, Hot Air and Phantom Public

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

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 …

Rupert Darwall / Wall Street Journal:

Global Warming and the Gipper — Critics of America's policy on carbon emissions accuse it of being a prisoner of free-market ideology. On the contrary, it was the product of hardheaded pragmatism. — Might it be that it was Ronald Reagan and not Barack Obama who began to slow the rise of the seas?

Discussion: National Review

Colin Campbell / Politicker:

‘Soon’: Charlie Rangel Predicts the Death of the Republican Party — Charlie Rangel. (Photo: Getty) — The Grand Old Party will collapse in the near future, veteran Congressman Charlie Rangel prognosticates. — “There are a lot of Republicans that I know are not proud of this period …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …