#patriotact — Public Fediverse posts

Senator, who has repeatedly warned about secret US #GovernmentSurveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘#CIA activities’

by Zack Whittaker, February 6, 2026

Excerpt: "In 2011, #RonWyden said that the U.S. government was relying on a secret interpretation of the #PatriotAct, which he said — without disclosing the nature of his concerns — created a 'gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says.'

"Two years later, then-#NSA contractor #EdwardSnowden revealed that the National Security Agency was relying on its secret interpretation of the Patriot Act to force U.S. phone companies, including Verizon, to turn over the call records of hundreds of millions of Americans on an ongoing basis.

"Since then, Wyden has sounded the alarm on how the U.S. government collects the contents of people’s communications; revealed that the Justice Department barred Apple and Google from disclosing that federal authorities had been secretly demanding the contents of their customers’ push notifications; and said that an unclassified report that #CISA has refused to release contains 'shocking details' about national security threats facing U.S. phone companies.

"As noted by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, we may not know yet why Wyden sounded the siren about the CIA’s activities, but every time Wyden has warned, he has also been vindicated."

Full article:
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/senator-who-has-repeatedly-warned-about-secret-u-s-government-surveillance-sounds-new-alarm-over-cia-activities/

#USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #Spying #USCitizens #WarrantlessSurveillance

Senator, who has repeatedly warned about secret US #GovernmentSurveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘#CIA activities’

by Zack Whittaker, February 6, 2026

Excerpt: "In 2011, #RonWyden said that the U.S. government was relying on a secret interpretation of the #PatriotAct, which he said — without disclosing the nature of his concerns — created a 'gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says.'

"Two years later, then-#NSA contractor #EdwardSnowden revealed that the National Security Agency was relying on its secret interpretation of the Patriot Act to force U.S. phone companies, including Verizon, to turn over the call records of hundreds of millions of Americans on an ongoing basis.

"Since then, Wyden has sounded the alarm on how the U.S. government collects the contents of people’s communications; revealed that the Justice Department barred Apple and Google from disclosing that federal authorities had been secretly demanding the contents of their customers’ push notifications; and said that an unclassified report that #CISA has refused to release contains 'shocking details' about national security threats facing U.S. phone companies.

"As noted by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, we may not know yet why Wyden sounded the siren about the CIA’s activities, but every time Wyden has warned, he has also been vindicated."

Full article:
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/senator-who-has-repeatedly-warned-about-secret-u-s-government-surveillance-sounds-new-alarm-over-cia-activities/

#USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #Spying #USCitizens #WarrantlessSurveillance

Senator, who has repeatedly warned about secret US #GovernmentSurveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘#CIA activities’

by Zack Whittaker, February 6, 2026

Excerpt: "In 2011, #RonWyden said that the U.S. government was relying on a secret interpretation of the #PatriotAct, which he said — without disclosing the nature of his concerns — created a 'gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says.'

"Two years later, then-#NSA contractor #EdwardSnowden revealed that the National Security Agency was relying on its secret interpretation of the Patriot Act to force U.S. phone companies, including Verizon, to turn over the call records of hundreds of millions of Americans on an ongoing basis.

"Since then, Wyden has sounded the alarm on how the U.S. government collects the contents of people’s communications; revealed that the Justice Department barred Apple and Google from disclosing that federal authorities had been secretly demanding the contents of their customers’ push notifications; and said that an unclassified report that #CISA has refused to release contains 'shocking details' about national security threats facing U.S. phone companies.

"As noted by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, we may not know yet why Wyden sounded the siren about the CIA’s activities, but every time Wyden has warned, he has also been vindicated."

Full article:
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/senator-who-has-repeatedly-warned-about-secret-u-s-government-surveillance-sounds-new-alarm-over-cia-activities/

#USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #Spying #USCitizens #WarrantlessSurveillance

Senator, who has repeatedly warned about secret US #GovernmentSurveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘#CIA activities’

by Zack Whittaker, February 6, 2026

Excerpt: "In 2011, #RonWyden said that the U.S. government was relying on a secret interpretation of the #PatriotAct, which he said — without disclosing the nature of his concerns — created a 'gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says.'

"Two years later, then-#NSA contractor #EdwardSnowden revealed that the National Security Agency was relying on its secret interpretation of the Patriot Act to force U.S. phone companies, including Verizon, to turn over the call records of hundreds of millions of Americans on an ongoing basis.

"Since then, Wyden has sounded the alarm on how the U.S. government collects the contents of people’s communications; revealed that the Justice Department barred Apple and Google from disclosing that federal authorities had been secretly demanding the contents of their customers’ push notifications; and said that an unclassified report that #CISA has refused to release contains 'shocking details' about national security threats facing U.S. phone companies.

"As noted by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, we may not know yet why Wyden sounded the siren about the CIA’s activities, but every time Wyden has warned, he has also been vindicated."

Full article:
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/senator-who-has-repeatedly-warned-about-secret-u-s-government-surveillance-sounds-new-alarm-over-cia-activities/

#USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #Spying #USCitizens #WarrantlessSurveillance

Senator, who has repeatedly warned about secret US #GovernmentSurveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘#CIA activities’

by Zack Whittaker, February 6, 2026

Excerpt: "In 2011, #RonWyden said that the U.S. government was relying on a secret interpretation of the #PatriotAct, which he said — without disclosing the nature of his concerns — created a 'gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says.'

"Two years later, then-#NSA contractor #EdwardSnowden revealed that the National Security Agency was relying on its secret interpretation of the Patriot Act to force U.S. phone companies, including Verizon, to turn over the call records of hundreds of millions of Americans on an ongoing basis.

"Since then, Wyden has sounded the alarm on how the U.S. government collects the contents of people’s communications; revealed that the Justice Department barred Apple and Google from disclosing that federal authorities had been secretly demanding the contents of their customers’ push notifications; and said that an unclassified report that #CISA has refused to release contains 'shocking details' about national security threats facing U.S. phone companies.

"As noted by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, we may not know yet why Wyden sounded the siren about the CIA’s activities, but every time Wyden has warned, he has also been vindicated."

Full article:
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/senator-who-has-repeatedly-warned-about-secret-u-s-government-surveillance-sounds-new-alarm-over-cia-activities/

#USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #Spying #USCitizens #WarrantlessSurveillance

#Search @[email protected] #query {vacatio legis} #Almost #all #results are #foreign #languages! #America has had 4 #decades since #Rex84 passed into #law to #protest #Minnesota #before it happened, 2½ decades since the #PatriotAct! You can't #force-vaccinate #military & #police & expect them to #thank you!

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:iaifhbdrrvebksyobrbwysnw/post/3mdvldwwqhc2u

People should have pressured our elected politicians to go against mass surveillance of Americans. Man, fucking Americans love mass surveillance. This is what Americans deserve for not fighting against the Patriot Act after 9/11.

#edwardsnowden
#patriotact
#fascism
#masssurveillance
#ice

Also, use a trusted #VPN. For heaven's sake, don't use #ExpressVPN. And be very careful with WhatsApp or anything from #Meta, as well as everything that uses unified push. Try to avoid #BigTech in general #patriotact

Bibi, habibi? ✋
Nah bibi! 👉 #nahbibi
#drakememe

https://9to5mac.com/2025/08/21/meta-allegedly-bypassed-apple-privacy-measure-and-fired-employee-who-flagged-it/

🚨 Breaking news: the government is desperately trying to understand #Bitcoin by throwing the Patriot Act at it, hoping to catch it in a net of legalese and confusion. 🎣 Meanwhile, Bitcoin enthusiasts are busy rolling their eyes and clutching their wallets, wondering if the Treasury will ever realize it's not 2001 anymore. 🤦‍♂️💼
https://www.tftc.io/treasury-iexpanding-patriot-act/ #BitcoinRegulation #PatriotAct #CryptoCommunity #LegalConfusion #HackerNews #ngated

Der Fall #egistoott sollte ja schon weithin bekannt sein.

Ein Spionagefall aus Österreich... Wenn man sich damit beschäftigt kann man viel über die Tiefen und Untiefen der menschlichen Seele lernen.

Aber was ich in diesem Zusammenhang sehr spannend finde, ist ein Interview mit Peter Gridling, dem ehemaligen Chef des #BVT, der ab Minute 16 erzählt, dass das BVT von ausländischen Geheimdiensten über Unregelmäßigkeiten bei Egisto Ott hingewiesen wurde.

Was die Sache so spannend macht:
Er hat offenbar ein #Gmail-Konto benutzt, um die Daten aus dem BVT auszuschleusen. Die Zugriffe auf die Datenbanken passierten "im Haus" und er hat dann die Daten von seiner Dienstlichen Email an die Gmail-Adresse geschickt, die von irgend jemand anderem offenbar dann abgerufen wurde.

Und über den #Patriotact der USA sind sämtliche US-Provider gezwungen, staatlichen Geheimdiensten Zugang zu den Daten zu gewähren und so kam der Amerikanische Geheimdienst dahinter, dass er Daten den Russen zukommen lässt...

Das allerspannendste dabei ist aber, dass er im Interview bestätigt, dass davon auszugehen ist, dass sämtliche US-Amerikanischen Clouddienste staatlich überwacht werden... Das was ich seit JAHREN erzähle und immer Unverständnis dafür ernte.
Und gerade jetzt in Zeiten vom wahnsinnigen Orangen im Weißen Haus sind diese Clouddienste als "giftig" zu betrachten...

Ich fürchte... die Botschaft wird wieder nicht ankommen.

@RobertoArchimboldi Um, elements of the #PatriotAct are still "enshrined" in the system. Also, have you heard about #ProjectEsther? I appreciate your mentioning all the times that the US government has gone after folks, but Trump and crew are planning to go after #EnvironmentalActivists, #ProPalestinian activists, and a whole lot of other folks who don't agree with the #Oiligarchy.

House Approves “#NonprofitKiller” Bill [#HR9495], Most Dangerous Domestic #AntiTerrorism Bill Since #PatriotAct

#DemocracyNow, November 22, 2024

"The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would empower the Treasury Department to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it deems has provided material support to a terrorist organization. A broad coalition of civil society groups have opposed the bill, warning that it would give the Trump administration sweeping powers to crack down on political opponents. H.R. 9495, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, passed the House 219 to 184 largely along party lines, with 15 Democrats supporting the Republican majority.

"'This bill is essentially a civil rights disaster,' says Darryl Li, an anthropologist, lawyer and legal scholar teaching at the University of Chicago. Li, who recently wrote a briefing paper on the anti-Palestinian origins of U.S. terrorism law, says 'anti-Palestinian racism is one of the great bipartisan unifiers in Congress.'"

Read more / watch / listen:
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/22/nonprofit_bill

#StopHR9495 #CivilRights #SilencingDissent #ViewerSupportedNews

[#Podcast] #LawAndDisorder, September 9, 2024

#September11, 2001: Lessons Learned And Overlooked

"It has been 23 years ago this week since the attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York City, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA, killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring more than 6,000. On that day, the United States had a choice: The #GeorgeWBush administration could have treated the attacks as a violation of US and international law, launched a criminal investigation, and brought the perpetrators to justice in accordance with the rule of law. Instead, President Bush waged #EndlessWars against #Afghanistan and #Iraq, pushed through Congress the USA #PatriotAct, opened the notorious detention center at #GuantanamoBay which remain to this day, rounded up Muslims and South Asians for #IndefiniteDetention, initiated a wave of #CivilLiberties and #HumanRights violations, and committed wholesale torture against detainees and others.

"To assess the legacy of 9/11 and the lessons learned and the lessons overlooked, we’ve invited someone who was at the center of Bush’s #WarOnTerror. John Kiriakou is a journalist, former CIA counterterrorism officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former counterterrorism consultant for ABC News.

"In 2007, Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program, telling ABC News that the #CIA tortured prisoners, that torture was official U.S. government policy, and that the policy had been approved by President George W. Bush. He knew what he was talking about. In 2002, he was responsible for the capture in Pakistan of #AbuZubaydah, then believed to be the third-ranking official in al-Qaeda.

"He became the sixth #whistleblower indicted by the #Obama administration under the #EspionageAct of 1917 — a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his revelations.

"In 2012, the #RalphNader family honored #Kiriakou with the Joe A. Callaway Award for #CivicCourage, an award given to individuals who 'advance truth and justice despite the personal risk it creates.' He won the PEN Center USA’s prestigious First Amendment Award in 2015, the first Blueprint International Whistleblowing Prize for Bravery and Integrity in the Public Interest in 2016, and also in 2016 the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, given by retired CIA, FBI, and NSA officers."

Listen:
https://lawanddisorder.org/category/criminalizing-dissent/

#CIASponsoredTerror #CivilRights, #CriminalizingDissent #ExtraordinaryRendition #FreeSpeech #HumanRights #IraqWar #BushAdministraiton #HumanRights #HumanRightsViolation #TargetingMuslims #Torture #WarResister #Whistleblowers #CivilLiberties #CivilLibertiesRadio #EndlessWar

Militarized Tech and Mass Surveillance
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/rights/surveillance

#BigTech #Surveillance
#ExecutiveOrder12333 #Section215 #Section702 #PatriotAct #Cyber #Pentagon #HSIN #FBI #DHS #MilitarizedSociety #TotalInformationAwareness

Costs of War
https://lemmy.world/post/21005003

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
-- President Eisenhower

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwighteisenhowercrossofiron.htm

econofwar.org (inet statistics)

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/teaching

#war #economics #MilitaryPoliceState

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/rights/surveillance

#BigTech #Surveillance
#ExecutiveOrder12333 #Section215 #Section702 #PatriotAct #Cyber #Pentagon #HSIN #FBI #DHS #MilitarizedSociety #TotalInformationAwareness

Costs of War
https://lemmy.world/post/21005003

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
-- President Eisenhower

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwighteisenhowercrossofiron.htm

econofwar.org (inet statistics)

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/teaching

#war #economics #MilitaryPoliceState

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/rights/surveillance

#BigTech #Surveillance
#ExecutiveOrder12333 #Section215 #Section702 #PatriotAct #Cyber #Pentagon #HSIN #FBI #DHS #MilitarizedSociety #TotalInformationAwareness

Costs of War
https://lemmy.world/post/21005003

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
-- President Eisenhower

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwighteisenhowercrossofiron.htm

econofwar.org (inet statistics)

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/teaching

#war #economics #MilitaryPoliceState

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/rights/surveillance

#BigTech #Surveillance
#ExecutiveOrder12333 #Section215 #Section702 #PatriotAct #Cyber #Pentagon #HSIN #FBI #DHS #MilitarizedSociety #TotalInformationAwareness

Costs of War
https://lemmy.world/post/21005003

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
-- President Eisenhower

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwighteisenhowercrossofiron.htm

econofwar.org (inet statistics)

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/teaching

#war #economics #MilitaryPoliceState

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/rights/surveillance

#BigTech #Surveillance
#ExecutiveOrder12333 #Section215 #Section702 #PatriotAct #Cyber #Pentagon #HSIN #FBI #DHS #MilitarizedSociety #TotalInformationAwareness

Costs of War
https://lemmy.world/post/21005003

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
-- President Eisenhower

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwighteisenhowercrossofiron.htm

econofwar.org (inet statistics)

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/teaching

#war #economics #MilitaryPoliceState

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/rights/surveillance

#BigTech #Surveillance
#ExecutiveOrder12333 #Section215 #Section702 #PatriotAct #Cyber #Pentagon #HSIN #FBI #DHS #MilitarizedSociety #TotalInformationAwareness

Costs of War
https://lemmy.world/post/21005003

Guantanamo Bay was the first no-exit military strategy since the Vietnam War.

#GuantanamoBay #strategy #NationalSecurity #military #VietnamWar #PatriotAct #surveillance #ModelMinority

https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81315804?s=i&trkid=14170286&vlang=en&clip=81486010

Guantanamo Bay was the first no-exit military strategy since the Vietnam War.

#GuantanamoBay #strategy #NationalSecurity #military #VietnamWar #PatriotAct #surveillance #ModelMinority

https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81315804?s=i&trkid=14170286&vlang=en&clip=81486010

Guantanamo Bay was the first no-exit military strategy since the Vietnam War.

#GuantanamoBay #strategy #NationalSecurity #military #VietnamWar #PatriotAct #surveillance #ModelMinority

https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81315804?s=i&trkid=14170286&vlang=en&clip=81486010

Guantanamo Bay was the first no-exit military strategy since the Vietnam War.

#GuantanamoBay #strategy #NationalSecurity #military #VietnamWar #PatriotAct #surveillance #ModelMinority

https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81315804?s=i&trkid=14170286&vlang=en&clip=81486010

Guantanamo Bay was the first no-exit military strategy since the Vietnam War.

#GuantanamoBay #strategy #NationalSecurity #military #VietnamWar #PatriotAct #surveillance #ModelMinority

https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81315804?s=i&trkid=14170286&vlang=en&clip=81486010

US Domestic Surveillance Disclosures pre-dating Edward Snowden's Revelations

Asking for sources of any current activities met with some resistance at HN. Challenged for any awareness of pre-Snowden programmes, I listed a few I was aware of, off the top of my head:

Regards pre-Snowden, the situation was far more than an "open secret", there were multiple documented projects and methods employed. Among them:

• 2013: Hemisphere, an AT&T call records database dating to the 1980s accessible by the US DEA. (This was publicised near-simultaneously with Snowden's own 2013 disclosures.) https://www.eff.org/cases/hemisphere

• 2006: Mark Klein and the Room 641A revelations concerning AT&T's beam splitters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

• 2005, William Binney and J. Kirk Wiebe, NSA whistleblower, warrantless surveillance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Binney_(intelligence_official)

• 2004, Russell Tice, NSA surveillance including of congressional members. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2006/01/why-nsa-whistle-blower-russ-tice-may-be-right.html

There were very strong suspicions around the TIA (total information awareness) and USA PATRIOT ACT (2003, 2001). I recall much chatter about this at the time, and the related FISA court, though little by way of specific details of technological measures and methods involved.

Carnivore, a WinNT workstation-based tool, disclosed ~2000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore_(software)

There are telephnic data retention programmes, including MAINWAY (revealed in 2006), containing an estimated over 1.9 trillion call-detail records, and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAINWAY

Project ECHELON, with disclosures of varying aspects from 1972 -- 2000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON

There are earlier periods, notably addressed by the FBI's own COINTELPRO archives (https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro), though for my purposes I'm considering "modern" projects to be circa 1990 onwards. (COINTELPRO and the Church Committee hearings resulted in substantial changes, at least publically, to US domestic surveillance).

And I've compiled a long list of pre-1990 references of concerns regarding significant technologists who'd warned of the risks of information technology as a tool of surveillance and control, largely as no such list seemed extant: https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/105074933053020193

I'm well aware that documentation of clandestine and national security issues is difficult to come by, see the TK case for one reason why that is.

But that's also why specific documentation is so valuable and why I'd requested that.

(Adapted from an HN comment:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27184956 )

#surveillance #SurveillanceState #SurveillanceCapitalism #NSA #CIA #FBI #Carnivore #ECHELON #PatriotAct #FISA #MAINWAY #Room614A #ATT #MarkKlein #WilliamBinney #RussellTice #Hemisphere #EdwardSnowden #COINTELPRO #ChurchCommittee

Feds logged website visitors in 2019, citing Patriot Act authority - Enlarge (credit: Peter Dazeley | Getty Images)
The federal government gathered up visitor logs fo... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=1727701 #surveillance #patriotact #section215 #privacy #policy

RT @[email protected]

Aux États-Unis, le débat sur la réforme du renseignement prend une drôle de tournure... https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265768877427851265 #GUARDINT #FISA #PATRIOTACT

Aux États-Unis, le débat sur la réforme du renseignement prend une drôle de tournure... #GUARDINT #FISA #PATRIOTACT

RT @[email protected]

If the FISA Bill is passed tonight on the House floor, I will quickly VETO it. Our Country has just suffered through the greatest political crime in its history. The massive abuse of FISA was a big part of it!

Browsing and search history protections gain momentum in the House - Enlarge / Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), center, on Capitol Hill in March 2020. (credit: Tom Williams/CQ-... more: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1678938 #patriotact #section215 #zoelofgren #privacy #policy

Tomorrow, the US Senate will vote to renew sections of the #PatriotAct. Senate majority leader is pushing for a provision that would let the FBI collect Americans' web browsing history without a warrant. https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/mitch-mcconnell-is-pushing-the-senate-to-pass-a-law-that-would-let-the-fbi-collect-americans-web-browsing-history-without-a-warrant/articleshow/75727307.cms #GUARDINT

Freedom Act: NSA und #FBI dürfen weiter Internetdaten auch von US-Bürgern sammeln | heise online https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Freedom-Act-NSA-und-FBI-duerfen-weiter-Internetdaten-auch-von-US-Buergern-sammeln-4722646.html #PatriotAct #Vorratsdaten