N.S.A. Often Broke Rules on Privacy, Audit Shows

[ProSense]

N.S.A. Often Broke Rules on Privacy, Audit Shows

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency violated privacy rules protecting the communications of Americans and others on domestic soil 2,776 times over a one-year period, according to an internal audit leaked by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden and made public on Thursday night.

The violations, according to the May 2012 audit, stemmed largely from operator and system errors like “inadequate or insufficient research” when selecting wiretap targets.

The largest number of episodes — 1,904 — appeared to be “roamers,” in which a foreigner whose cellphone was being wiretapped without a warrant came to the United States, where individual warrants are required. A spike in such problems in a single quarter, the report said, could be because of Chinese citizens visiting friends and family for the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

“Roamer incidents are largely unpreventable, even with good target awareness and traffic review, since target travel activities are often unannounced and not easily predicted,” the report says.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/us/nsa-often-broke-rules-on-privacy-audit-shows.html

NSA statements to The Post
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023469856

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Finding out the error rate here would be good to know.

I'd like to see how the other 874 episodes stack up against all the intercepts made. Are they above 10% of all intercepts? Or are they under 1%? Time will tell.

[pnwmom]

2. +1. nt

[ProSense]

7. What I'd like to know

is why there aren't more puppy pictures and recipes posted in response to this OP?

[BenzoDia]

3. So, the largest number of incidents are roamers that were eventually identified as such.

Also, FISA court has been active in smacking down NSA activities that have gone to far. Plus. we have an internal NSA doc that notes the errors that members of Congress can access.

There needs to be more oversight, but I'm still not alarmed yet.

[ProSense]

8. What we have is a media feeding frenzy

I don't remember Bush's illegal spying and bypassing the FISA court receiving this much attention.

On the NSA, this is what happens when reports conflate the Bush and Obama administrations.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023471576

[mick063]

4. They are spooks

There are no rules with spooks.


Can't anyone understand that?

[cali]

5. +1000 and raises hand.

I've been saying that over and over and over.

How ignorant of history and/or in denial do you have to be to grasp that basic and most salient truth.

[ProSense]

6. Kick! n/t