NSA "Sincerely Regrets" Deleting All Bush-Era Surveillance Data It Was Ordered To Preserve
Content adapted from this Zerohedge.com article : Source
There is a growing consensus among many observers in Washington that the national security agencies have become completely politicized over the past seventeen years and are now pursuing selfish agendas that actually endanger what remains of American democracy.
As Philip Giraldi notes, up until recently it has been habitual to refer to such activity as the Deep State, which is perhaps equivalent to the Establishment in that it includes financial services, the media, major foundations and constituencies, as well as lobbying groups, but we are now witnessing an evolutionary process in which the national security regime is exercising power independently.
**Nowhere is that "independence" of the 'state within a state' more evident than in the blatant and egregious news this week that The National Security Agency destroyed surveillance data it pledged to preserve **in connection with pending lawsuits and apparently never took some of the steps it told a federal court it had taken to make sure the information wasn't destroyed, according to recent court filings.
As Politico reports, the agency tells a federal judge that it is investigating and "sincerely regrets its failure."
Since 2007, the NSA has been under court orders to preserve data about certain of its surveillance efforts that came under legal attack following disclosures that** President George W. Bush ordered warrantless wiretapping** of international communications after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. In addition, the agency has made a series of representations in court over the years about how it is complying with its duties.
However, the NSA told U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White in a filing on Thursday night and another little-noticed submission last year that the agency did not preserve the content of internet communications intercepted between 2001 and 2007 under the program Bush ordered. To make matters worse, backup tapes that might have mitigated the failure were erased in 2009, 2011 and 2016, the NSA said. > **"The NSA sincerely regrets its failure to prevent the deletion of this data," **NSA's deputy director of capabilities, identified publicly as "Elizabeth B.," wrote in a declaration filed in October.
"NSA senior management is fully aware of this failure, and the Agency is committed to taking swift action to respond to the loss of this data."
Defiance of a court order can result in civil or criminal contempt charges, as well as sanctions against the party responsible. So far, no one involved appears to have asked White to impose any punishment or sanction on the NSA over the newly disclosed episodes, although the details of what happened are still emerging.
**"It's really disappointing," **said David Greene, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has been leading the prolonged litigation over the program in federal court in San Francisco.
"The obligation's been in place for a really long time now. … We had a major dust-up about it just a few years ago. This is definitely something that should've been found sooner."
Word of the NSA's foul-up is emerging just as Congress has extended for six years the legal authority the agency uses for much of its surveillance work conducted through U.S. internet providers and tech firms.
Antiwar activist Justin Raimondo believes that something like a civil war is coming, with** the war party Establishment fighting to defend its privileged global order while many other Americans seek a return to normal nationhood with all that implies**. If true, the next few years will see a major internal conflict that will determine what kind of country the United States will be.
Films are subject to the American "deep state" reality, and the US Department of Defense is in the Pentagon. The name of this structure in the Pentagon is "Office of Net Assessment". The deduction from the name, the "Final Assessment Bureau ..." is to evaluate the developments in which the world is living and to shape the American military structure in the course of these evaluations in the course of 30-50 years. It is known that the employees there are in a brain storm that is more than 50 years old, and that the decisions they make are about the future of your children, even your grandchildren! ..
Founded in 1973 by Richard Nixon, Andrew Marshall, the legendary name of the strategy field, born in 1921, was appointed. Marshall remained in that position until January 2015 (94 years old), when he was retiring voluntarily on that day, now that you have changed how many presidents have changed until retirement!
Called "Yoda" in the world of security and intelligence around the world, Andrew Marshall was known for being behind the scenes of the people we always think about developments and events, and Jim Baker, who retired from the US Air Force as a colonel, but it is said that it is now determined to evaluate near threats as well as long term plans.
The "Office of the Net Assessment" has been on the brink of being a cooperative partner of the American-Israeli deep state structures, where the "Israeli lobby" of the Washington security bureaucracy is strongly represented, and Jim Baker does not know how to continue doing this, All of the developments in Andrew Marshall and the "neo-con / Israeli lobby" are from the team.
The riots of the diplomats
The Pentagon manages the United States through the National Security Council! .. The President who comes to White House, says his personal political preferences, the president is satisfied with some tactical practices without changing the main strategy so far ...
In short, whatever the deep state wants, it happens. This is how it came and went.
I didn't know about Pentagon. Tnx for sharing.
Just an example of how corrupt our system is.
The parts of the government that are there as "checks and balances" are simply ignored. A court order means something...until it doesnt. Save the data says the court.....oops we accidentally erased it....
We will try better next time.
Bush did a wonderful job of crushing individual rights with the Patriot Act....and now we are feeling the result of that.
That is the thing, we never know the implications of this major legislation until decades later.
Your example is quite appreciable.
I'm unsure of the specific law and if anyone could inform me that'd be great: why did we extend the NSA's power for six years, instead of something like two or four? Is it still possible to curtail their increasing power?
Obviously it seems likely that there was peculiarly incriminating evidence contained within that data. It would be interesting to know what type of data those records entailed. If the NSA backs-up/keeps record of phone calls, text messages, emails, etc., does anyone keep a back-up of the NSA? Apparently not.
Some things never change and it seems as much as the public dislikes the NSA (wear your tin foil hats and cover your webcams!!!), they simply provide too much secretive benefit to our government. Although as the NSA continues to become autonomous, we should seek to reign in their grasps before it's too late.
However, it may already be.
Just a guess but the 6 years might be in an attempt to keep it from being political considering the administration is on 4 years terms. I think the Fed chair also gets a 6 year term.
Ah yeah that does make sense. Thanks for the insight.
Yeah it seems quite like that.
the implications of the deleted tapes might not be know for years to come but they will be needed eventually - or rather they could have been used but now that option has been removed.
It the subjects of the communications were important enough to tape in the first place they must have had some doubts about them. Most terrorists do not wake up wanting to bomb buildings, they are radicalised and taught, maybe by the people on the tapes who knows.
If nothing else having them on a block chain means they would never have been lost and with the amount of wasted money that is flying around the departments I am sure they could have paid a couple of people to transcribe them onto a secure server where they could have just sat until they were needed
Wouldnt it be loveley to be a political asset, then you can just "sincerly regret" removing potential incriminating evidence, everyone else faces jailtime.. theie investigation will turn up nothing as usual im sure, or maybe someone from there will flee the country or already have... so many precautions taken and whoop gone anyways! Typical!
Thanks for sharing ! Walking onto the grounds of the oldest U.S. Navy shore installation almost daily, one can’t help but be reminded of the long and storied history. The Washington Navy Yard has been in operation since the first decade of the 19th Century, initially as a shipbuilding center, then as an ordnance plant, and now as the ceremonial and administrative center for the Navy. . @zer0hedge
Zerohedge is doing a good job exposing govt hyposcrisy. Drain the swap. Resteem and upvoted.
Here is actual footage of the NSA "accidentally" deleting this data.
@zer0hedge...It is clear by now that all those Alphabet agencies have to be SCRAPPED . They have become a law that acts without check an balances . It is an intolerable situation that they spy on every citizen , keep records of them ,and gangstalke them for no reason , sell drugs ( the CIA is the major world wholesaler of drugs ) , invents False Flags like the FBI does regularly and it is unthinkable that all of those criminal organizations did not know of the 9/11 . He answers to shadowy Langley and Israeli characters and he says ‘Yes, sir!” to anything they tell him to do. …….. This shit is so off budget stealth black that even the paymaster has no idea where the funds he hands out are coming from. …… He only knows he better do his job right because the punishment for fucking up is to disappear like he was never born.Our IC is owned and it isn’t owned by anyone we know. .. Certainly not We The People.Live Hard, Black Budgets Grow From Black Sources Of Funny Money Mega Funds,Needs to put those responsible for deleting the data in jail. They will sing...and disclose those that ordered it. They can then be jailed and they will disclose who ordered or asked them....and the trail can continue until it gets to the top...Bush or one of his cronies arranged it. A lot of horrific crimes over the last three administrations on both sides of the aisle...thank you for sharing with us...
My dog ate the missing NSA documents...naughty dog