November 20th, 2012

Petraeus case shows ease of government email snooping

NSA_Another Way Government Creates Jobs

By Joseph Menn

SAN FRANCISCO | Sat Nov 17, 2012 3:14am EST

Article found at following link. Below are some passages quoted from original. Please read entire article, here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/17/us-usa-generals-email-privacy-idUSBRE8AG04920121117

(Reuters) – The scandal surrounding the sudden resignation of an adulterous CIA director has stunned the American public not just for its prominent cast of characters, but also because of the ease with which authorities appeared to have traipsed through personal email accounts.

Technology has transformed communications much faster than the law, giving U.S. authorities at all levels the power to routinely search reams of intimate emails, texts and instant messages, with much lower burdens of proof as far as the relevance to a criminal case.

Often, the subjects of electronic searches never know that they’ve been hit, let alone why.

Recently, big tech companies including Google Inc and Facebook Inc are pushing back, refusing to disclose even old communications without a warrant and effectively daring the government to press its policy in court.

The issue has been thrust into the spotlight by the still-unfolding scandal that started with the revelation that General David Petraeus, while serving as CIA director, had an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

The relationship was discovered because Jill Kelley, a Tampa socialite and family friend of Petraeus, complained to the FBI’s Tampa office about anonymous harassing emails.

Kelley herself didn’t realize how badly an electronic inquiry could mushroom beyond control. She wrote an email on Wednesday to Tampa Bay’s mayor that said her family had been “put through the ringer,” in part because police released 911 phone call transcripts with her home address and cell phone number. That email, in turn, was among those released Friday after public-records requests to city hall from the media.

In the initial probe, the FBI was disturbed that Kelley’s anonymous emailer had confidential information about Petraeus’ whereabouts. It issued an administrative subpoena empowering agents to examine the email accounts from which the messages came, a law enforcement source told Reuters.

Investigators learned that the harassing messages were sent to Kelley by Broadwell. The FBI eventually got reams of emails, most likely with a warrant or the consent of the correspondents. The agency declined to comment.

In another twist, Marine General John Allen, commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, is now also under investigation for allegedly inappropriate communication with Kelley that was discovered during the course of the same FBI probe. Allen has denied that the two had a sexual relationship, officials said on condition of anonymity.

PUTTING LIVES ONLINE

Authorized snooping has quietly but rapidly reached an unprecedented level in the United States, and the disgrace of senior military officials not accused of any crime provides a rare opportunity to reflect on that transformation, privacy rights advocates said.

-end quoted passages from Reuters article. Read the whole article here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/17/us-usa-generals-email-privacy-idUSBRE8AG04920121117

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2 Responses to “Petraeus case shows ease of government email snooping”

1
Lee Says:
November 20th, 2012 at 9:44 am
Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57552225-38/senate-bill-rewrite-lets-feds-read-your-e-mail-without-warrants/
2
cmdorsey Says:
November 21st, 2012 at 4:26 pm
They are coming for our guns everybody! See the list? Obamas Gun Ban List Is Out: “Bad News” http://beforeitsnews.com/survival/2012/11/obamas-gun-ban-list-is-out-here-it-is-folks-and-it-is-bad-news-2451190.html … via @BeforeItsNews

THE GUN LIST ABOVE: THEY ARE GONNA TRY TO TAKE EVERY LAST GUN WE OWN!!

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OATH KEEPERS: ORDERS WE WILL NOT OBEY

Click here to read full length version.

1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.

2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people

3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.

4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.

5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.

6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control."

9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.

10.We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

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Founder Stewart Rhodes

He is a former firearms instructor and former member of Rep. Ron Paul’s DC staff.

Stewart previously wrote the monthly Enemy at the Gates column for S.W.A.T. Magazine

Stewart graduated from Yale Law School in 2004, where his paper “Solving the Puzzle of Enemy Combatant Status” won Yale’s Miller prize for best paper on the Bill of Rights. He assisted teaching U.S. military history at Yale, was a Yale Research Scholar, and is writing a book on the dangers of applying the laws of war to the American people.