The NSA Is Recording Every Cell Phone Call in the Bahamas

[Luminous Animal]

From The Intercept

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/05/19/data-pirates-caribbean-nsa-recording-every-cell-phone-call-bahamas/

The National Security Agency is secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of virtually every cell phone conversation on the island nation of the Bahamas.

According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the surveillance is part of a top-secret system – code-named SOMALGET – that was implemented without the knowledge or consent of the Bahamian government. Instead, the agency appears to have used access legally obtained in cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to open a backdoor to the country’s cellular telephone network, enabling it to covertly record and store the “full-take audio” of every mobile call made to, from and within the Bahamas – and to replay those calls for up to a month.

SOMALGET is part of a broader NSA program called MYSTIC, which The Intercept has learned is being used to secretly monitor the telecommunications systems of the Bahamas and several other countries, including Mexico, the Philippines, and Kenya. But while MYSTIC scrapes mobile networks for so-called “metadata” – information that reveals the time, source, and destination of calls – SOMALGET is a cutting-edge tool that enables the NSA to vacuum up and store the actual content of every conversation in an entire country.

All told, the NSA is using MYSTIC to gather personal data on mobile calls placed in countries with a combined population of more than 250 million people. And according to classified documents, the agency is seeking funding to export the sweeping surveillance capability elsewhere.

[nilram]

1. And they use this to combat tax evasion and human trafficking?

[Luminous Animal]

2. That's what they say.

[nilram]

3. Actually hadn't heard that, I was being sarcastic.

NSA data seem to stay within NSA or used for intelligence purposes. The IRS is underfunded with regard to combating tax evasion, and the FBI just doesn't seem to prioritize human trafficking. If NSA data were actually used for either of those purposes, then I could concede that there's some moral purpose for their surveillance. But as it is, I it unwarranted paranoia and grasping for power.

on edit: whups, the article does say it's used against "international narcotics traffickers and special-interest alien smugglers."

[Luminous Animal]

4. To be clear, you advocate the surveillance of innocents

because there are traffickers? Millions of innocent people. That us grossly undemocratic. Privacy, the right to be left alone, crucial for a free society.

[randome]

5. Not American citizens.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Luminous Animal]

6. Those furriners don't deserve basic human rights.

[randome]

14. I knew it was only a matter of time...

...before someone at DU used the word 'furriners' as a sarcastic pejorative.

To answer your unasked question, no, I don't see non-Americans as somehow less human than the rest of us. I'm saying it is the NSA's job to monitor foreign communications. The only thing significant that has changed over the years is the technology.

Whining about the NSA is, to me, like whining about corporations. Corporations are the egregious behemoths they are because Congress gives them the keys to loot us all. The same Congress that gives NSA the authority to basically monitor everything outside America.

'Blaming' a corporation or a bureaucracy for being a corporation or a bureaucracy is like blaming a horse for not being a bunny rabbit.

Want things to change? Like it or not, that's Congress' bailiwick.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Luminous Animal]

15. It is the NSA's job to monitor foreign communications as they pertain to defense.

It is not the NSA's job to monitor the communications of millions of innocents.

Congress will not change anything without the will of the people and unless the people are informed and actually SAY SOMETHING, Congress will have no motivation to make those changes.

[nilram]

7. To concede an imagined point is not to advocate anything.

[WillyT]

8. Keeping Us Safe From Terrorists...

& Rec !!!

[Logical]

9. What terrorists? nt

[WillyT]

11. Oh... Haven't You Heard ???

‘A lot more terror attacks coming our way:’ former NSA chief
Gen. Keith Alexander, the former head of the spy agency, warned in an interview with The New Yorker of a ‘growing’ number of potential attacks on the U.S.
BY ADAM EDELMAN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, May 18, 2014, 5:39 PM

Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/lot-terror-attacks-coming-nsa-chief-article-1.1797130

NewYorker piece: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/05/were-at-greater-risk-q-a-with-general-keith-alexander.html?utm_source=www&utm_medium=tw&utm_campaign=20140515

I hear they're launching from the Bahamas.

[Logical]

12. Shit!!!!!! I understand the NSA now! They are protecting me and my family! Thanks! nt

[Luminous Animal]

16. I just finished Greenwald's 'No Place To Hide" in which there is a great section about

the Terror! Terror! Terror! justifications featuring serial liar Alexander among others.

I highly recommend the book.

[Luminous Animal]

17. Apparently, that 14 year old girl talking about her homework is worthy of surveillance.

It is absolutely disgusting that the U.S. would put the citizenry of an entire nation under surveillance. 250 million people.

As Greenwald has revealed from the NSA's own documents, “Collect it all, sniff it all; know it all, exploit it all.”

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Once again Snowdenwald reveals espionage activities against foreign countries

Not unconstitutional and certainly not illegal. Snowden previously revealed the NSA spied on China and Brazil. Ummm.....no shit?

The NSA was setup for this. If you want to have a discussion about abolishing the NSA and CIA, that's fine with me.

But don't act shocked when an espionage agency setup to gather foreign intelligence is gathering foreign intelligence.

Yes...I'm Stasi.....I know.

[Luminous Animal]

13. Who's shocked? I find that spying on every man, woman, and child of an entire nation, immoral.