U.S. authorities are not required to release any internal National Security Agency communications it had with Internet giant Google Inc. after a 2010 cyber attack in China, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
In a poll published last week by the American magazine Consumer Reports, 71% of adults polled confessed to being very concerned about Internet companies abusing their personal information. But what this poll failed to ask was whether we fear governmental abuse of our online data as much as abuse from private companies.
The case against Manssor Arbabsiar, the Iranian-American charged with conspiring to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, looks like a dazzling mix of high drama and low comedy, high stakes and low dealing. The prosecution has enormous implications for the United States' relationship with Iran -- and thus for world peace -- but it's also a criminal case in an American courtroom. So it's worth asking: how strong is that case?
updated: Thu Oct 13 2011 05:43:00
David Tomscha describes his ex-business partner Manssor Arbabsiar "too disorganized" to pull off a terror plot.
A former National Security Agency official was sentenced to one year of probation and 240 hours of community service Friday for exceeding his authorized use of an agency computer.
A former National Security Agency official has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of intentionally exceeding authorized use of a NSA computer as federal prosecutors agreed to drop more serious charges which carried maximum penalties of 35 years in prison.
The United States is building a massive, state-of-the-art data center to help protect the nation's cyber networks.
The Supreme Court has rejected efforts by some families of 9/11 victims to ensure material from the fallen World Trade Towers is treated respectfully because it could contain ashes of those who perished in the terrorist attacks.
Recently, we completed an intensive, bipartisan six-month study on cybersecurity and presented it to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
There's a power struggle going on in the U.S. government right now.
A former employee of the secretive National Security Agency has been indicted in connection with the leak to a reporter of classified information about the agency's electronic intelligence programs, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Google made headlines when it went public with the fact that Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail, in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering. The news here isn't that Chinese hackers engage in these activities or that their attempts are technically sophisticated -- we knew that already -- it's that the U.S. government inadvertently aided the hackers.
updated: Sun Jan 31 2010 20:42:00
CNN's Errol Barnett reports on Secretary Clinton's remarks relating to China's censorship of Google and its implications.
A key Democrat who reportedly was overheard on a National Security Agency wiretap discussing a deal with a suspected Israeli agent has called the wiretap an "abuse of power."
updated: Tue Apr 21 2009 19:41:00
Rep. Jane Harman speaks with CNN's Wolf Blitzer about possibly being wiretapped by the federal government.
U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday that they have added safeguards to prevent the government from unlawfully spying on U.S. citizens after a routine check of the system "detected issues that raised concerns."
updated: Mon Mar 16 2009 11:52:00
A family-owned dance hall still warms the heart during tough economic times.
The beer is flowing, the polka band is playing, and dancers are twirling across the dance floor.
After Abu Ghraib and domestic eavesdropping, it takes a particularly brazen abuse of power to shock most Americans weary from eight years of the Bush Administration's war on terror
Congress is looking into allegations that National Security Agency linguists have been eavesdropping on Americans abroad.
The Senate Wednesday approved a bill to put new rules in place for intelligence agency eavesdropping on suspected terrorists.
The Supreme Court offered no explanation Tuesday for refusing to hear an appeal regarding the Bush administration's covert domestic surveillance program.
updated: Tue Feb 19 2008 13:10:00
President Bush says the U.S. is in more danger of being attacked because Congress failed to renew a wiretapping law.
The Senate voted Tuesday to give immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the federal government eavesdrop on suspected terrorists after the September 11 attacks.
This is the smartphone the well-dressed soldier, spy, and homeland-security agent will be wearing on his or her utility belt starting next year. Built by General Dynamics to specs set by the hyperparanoid National Security Agency, the Sectera Edge is designed to give field agents a gateway to the classified world - plus everything they've come to expect on a PDA, including MP3 music files.
A bill that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies helping out in a no-warrant eavesdropping program authorized by President Bush and reinstate some court oversight to surveillance was OK'd by a Senate panel Thursday.
Though Congress is on vacation, majority Democrats are keeping alive various fights with the White House with one common thread: Congress' access to administration documents and testimony to which President Bush has claimed executive privilege.
With potential perjury accusations hanging over him, embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales sent a letter to Senate leaders Wednesday acknowledging he "may have created confusion" in his previous testimony.
The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said he's not satisfied with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' attempt to clarify his testimony about no-warrant surveillance.
A dispute within the Bush administration in 2004 over a secret surveillance program centered on data mining, not eavesdropping, a former government official told CNN Sunday.
A federal appeals court Friday ordered the dismissal of an ACLU lawsuit challenging President Bush's domestic surveillance program.
We're finally getting around to rewriting the rules on what our intelligence agencies can and can't do. Better late than never, says Robert Baer
The incoming chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says he will have a "cleanup agenda" ready when Democrats take power in January.
The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday that he had struck a deal with the White House to resolve a dispute over the constitutionality of conducting electronic surveillance with court approval.
USA Today reported Friday that lawmakers confirmed the existence of the National Security Agency's program of collecting phone records, but the paper said it could not verify whether telecom firms Verizon and BellSouth provided phone records to the government agency.
Phone service provider AT&T announced Thursday a privacy policy overhaul that removes a key reference from its previous policy, which had said the company "does not access, read, upload or store data contained in or derived from private files without the members' authorization..."
The Republican chairman of a Senate committee said Sunday he is prepared to call telephone company officials to testify about a domestic wiretapping program if he doesn't get cooperation in talks with the Bush administration.
A Senate committee chairman warned of a "constitutional confrontation" with the Bush administration Wednesday over its domestic surveillance program, threatening to subpoena administration officials or phone company executives in a congressional review.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter reversed course Tuesday, announcing he will not call on phone company executives to testify on their cooperation with the government in a secret eavesdropping program run by the National Security Agency.
The attorney general and the FBI director have asked the nation's leading Internet service companies to keep a variety of customer information and other data for two years, much longer than the companies do now, the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday.
The FBI wants to interview top members of Congress from both parties about the leak to The New York Times concerning the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, sources told CNN.
The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 12-3 Tuesday in favor of Gen. Michael Hayden to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, sending his nomination to the floor for a vote by the full Senate.
Telecommunications giant BellSouth has sent a letter to USA Today asking for a retraction of a story the paper ran last week alleging the company and two others were cooperating with a National Security Agency program to compile a massive database of domestic phone calls.
BellSouth is demanding that the newspaper that said it provided private phone records to the National Security Agency retract its article.
One in four Americans think it is likely that the government has listened to their phone calls, according to a CNN poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation.
Gen. Michael Hayden told senators Thursday that he would determine what the American public needs to know and what will remain secret if he is confirmed to take the reins of the embattled Central Intelligence Agency.
The judge hearing a case challenging the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program said Wednesday that the plaintiffs may keep documents AT&T says contain proprietary information for use in preparing their case, but the documents must remain under seal.
Details of a classified government wiretap program will be given to full congressional committees for the first time on Wednesday, senior politicians said.
BellSouth and AT&T were added to a class-action lawsuit against Verizon Communications that alleges the companies illegally participated in a National Security Agency domestic surveillance program.
Verizon Communications Inc. denied Tuesday reports that it provided the National Security Agency with customer phone records. The company's full statement follows:
Verizon Communications Inc. denied earlier media reports that it entered into a contract with the National Security Agency, providing the government office with info about its customer phone calls.
Despite media reports to the contrary, BellSouth said late Monday it had not participated in any effort by the National Security Agency to collect customer phone records.
A lawsuit is asking a federal court to order President Bush, the National Security Agency and Verizon to end a secret snooping program, and Verizon's stock took a hit on the news Monday.
Around the White House, an abrupt change in the president's public schedule is known as an "audible," and generally, it's the last thing anyone wants to suggest to a boss so allergic to disruption that he makes everyone turn off their cell phones when he's in the room.
Verizon Communications on Friday would neither confirm nor deny whether it has provided domestic telephone records to the National Security Agency, but the company insisted it protects customer privacy and would never participate in a government "fishing expedition."
The National Security Agency has been collecting information on millions of domestic phone calls, according to a report this week in USA Today. CNN.com asked readers whether they think it is appropriate for the government to monitor telephone records. Here is a selection of the responses, some of which have been edited:
CNN.com asked users for their reaction to Thursday's USA Today report that the National Security Agency, with the cooperation of three telecommunication companies, has compiled a database of millions of domestic phone calls. Here is a sampling from the responses, some of which have been edited:
President Bush on Thursday told Americans that their privacy "is fiercely protected" after a newspaper report that the National Security Agency compiled a database of domestic phone records.
President Bush said Thursday the government is "not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans" with a reported program to create a massive database of U.S. phone calls.
USA Today reported Thursday that the National Security Agency has been secretly collecting records of the phone calls of ordinary Americans.
President Bush on Monday nominated Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to be the new CIA chief, setting up a possible battle with members of Congress who question whether his military status is right for the spy agency.
Lawmakers from both parties expressed concern Sunday that President Bush reportedly will nominate a longtime military officer to head the CIA.
The House Intelligence Committee has set up a special group to conduct oversight of the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program, a spokesman for the panel's chairman said Wednesday.
Four Senate Republicans have proposed a bill to provide what one called "very rigorous oversight" of President Bush's controversial no-warrant domestic surveillance program while also giving it the force of law.
An Ohio truck driver and al Qaeda operative who pleaded guilty in 2003 to participating in a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge wants to rescind that plea if the National Security Agency ever eavesdropped on him without a warrant.
For now, the Senate Intelligence Committee won't investigate the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, its chairman said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing Monday on the National Security Agency's controversial secret domestic spying program -- and already the Justice Department is balking at turning over its legal opinions justifying the electronic surveillance of Americans without a court warrant. But there's a bigger problem committee chairman Arlen Specter and the panel's other members face than simply getting Justice to cough up documents. Exactly how should the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the Justice Department to obtain a warrant from a special FISA court before wiretapping anyone in the U.S., be updated to give the NSA more flexibility in spying on suspected terrorists?
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales sipped water, read from bread-box sized law books and generally kept his cool through a barrage of questions Monday as Senators from both parties tried to corner him on the limits of presidential wartime powers. It was the first real public debate in Congress since 9/11 about presidential authority in times of war, and so while the hearing was ostensibly about the President's secret warrantless wiretapping program, the most exercised debate was about how far the Commander in Chief's powers could be taken without judicial oversight.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is poised to defend President Bush's controversial domestic spying program Monday when he testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the program.
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller on Thursday complained about a "wall the White House has constructed" around its domestic surveillance program and said Democrats will press their attacks on the president's authorization of the program.
President Bush touched on many different areas in his State of the Union address Tuesday. Here is a CNN Fact Check of some of the statements he made:
The White House has begun a new push to justify a controversial domestic spying program that allows the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on conversations to or from the United States without obtaining a court warrant.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had trouble tapping into a group of hooded protesters at Georgetown Law School in Washington on Tuesday.
President Bush and other officials Monday intensified their defense of a domestic surveillance program that supporters say protects against terrorism and critics say threatens civil liberties.
The Justice Department has issued a detailed legal justification for President Bush's decision to order the National Security Agency's controversial domestic surveillance program.
Two lawsuits were filed Tuesday against the National Security Agency over its no-warrant wiretapping program, claiming the domestic eavesdropping is unconstitutional and that President Bush exceeded his authority by authorizing it.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales once again Monday defended the legality of a controversial surveillance program by the National Security Agency, calling it a "very targeted and limited" operation that has helped thwart terrorist attacks in the United States.
Former Vice President Al Gore called on Congress and the public to resist what he called "a gross and excessive power grab" by the Bush administration amid the war on terrorism, declaring that "our Constitution is at risk."
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday that he will testify in a Senate hearing on the National Security Agency's recently revealed domestic eavesdropping program.
A senior U.S. intelligence official told CNN on Thursday that the National Security Agency did not target CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour or any other CNN journalist for surveillance.
In a robust defense of the nation's post-9/11 domestic eavesdropping program, Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday said the tool is "critical" for U.S. national security.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, George W. Bush's script to put the misery of 2005 behind him had seemed destined for a smooth rollout. Buoyed by the apparent success of the Iraqi elections, the President would score a quick confirmation victory with Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, follow it up with a soaring State of the Union address and then return to full campaign mode with a sweep around the country, talking about big issues like immigration and Medicare and throwing the spotlight on a resurgent economy. But the revelation that his Administration has been spying in this country without warrants -- illegally, critics say --may have put a crimp in Bush's plan to climb back on top of the agenda as the new legislative session begins. "When Congress comes back," warns a top GOP congressional aide, "domestic surveillance and privacy issues will be all over the front pages."
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, White House officials were haunted by two questions. Were there other terrorists lying in wait within the U.S.? And, given how freely the 19 hijackers had been able to operate before they acted, how would we know where to find them? It didn't take long before an aggressive idea emerged from the circle of Administration hawks. Liberalize the rules for domestic spying, they urged. Free the National Security Agency (NSA) to use its powerful listening technology to eavesdrop on terrorist suspects on U.S. soil without having to seek a warrant for every phone number it tracked. But because of a 1978 law that forbids the NSA to conduct no-warrant surveillance inside the U.S., the new policy would require one of two steps. The first was to revise the law. The other was to ignore it.
President Bush on Sunday defended his administration's use of wiretaps on U.S. citizens without a court order, saying comments he made in 2004 that "nothing has changed" in the use of wiretaps were not misleading.
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into leaks to the media about the National Security Agency's classified domestic surveillance program.
Defense attorneys for several terror suspects prosecuted by the Justice Department said Wednesday they plan to file court motions questioning the legality of a National Security Agency surveillance project.
Telecommunications companies are helping the National Security Agency collect information as part of a program President Bush secretly approved in 2002, a source familiar with the program said.
Justice Department lawyers have sent a letter to key congressional leaders providing legal arguments they say justify President Bush's decision to authorize the National Security Agency to intercept communications between people in the United States and potential terrorist contacts abroad.
A court that oversees government surveillance will receive a secret briefing about President Bush's controversial domestic spying program, a judge on the court told CNN.
Democratic House leaders called Sunday for an independent panel to investigate the legality of a program President Bush authorized that allows warrantless wiretaps on U.S. citizens, according to a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
In acknowledging the message was true, President Bush took aim at the messenger Saturday, saying that a newspaper jeopardized national security by revealing that he authorized wiretaps on U.S. citizens after September 11.
The following is a statement from New York Times executive editor Bill Keller on the paper's decision to print a story Friday that said President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and others in the United States who were communicating with individuals overseas.
Without confirming a report that he OK'd eavesdropping on U.S. citizens in 2002, President Bush defended his actions since September 11, 2001, saying he has done everything "within the law" to protect the American people.
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