ADMIT: NSA spies on friends' friends' friends...

ADMIT: NSA SPIES ON FRIENDS' FRIENDS' FRIENDS

Chris Inglis, the agency's deputy director, was one of several government representatives—including from the FBI and the office of the Director of National Intelligence—testifying before the House Judiciary Committee this morning. Most of the testimony largely echoed previous testimony by the agencies on the topic of the government's surveillance, including a retread of the same offered examples for how the Patriot Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act had stopped terror events.

But Inglis' statement was new. Analysts look "two or three hops" from terror suspects when evaluating terror activity, Inglis revealed.  Previously, the limit of how surveillance was extended had been described as two hops. This meant that if the NSA were following a phone metadata or web trail from a terror suspect, it could also look at the calls from the people that suspect has spoken with—one hop. And then, the calls that second person had also spoken with—two hops. Terror suspect to person two to person three. Two hops. And now: A third hop.

...


For a sense of scale, researchers at the University of Milan found in 2011 that everyone on the Internet was, on average, 4.74 steps away from anyone else. The NSA explores relationships up to three of those steps.

Amazingly brazen, even if hardly a surprise...

:shk:

Effectively, if the government isn't watching you, you're in the minority.

If they keep this up Kevin Bacon is going to get charged with terrorism.

on topic: This is quite scary because they seem to be reaching further and further. Before long they will be able to justify accessing any information anywhere. With the 8- degree rule, everybody is linked... EVERYBODY. I dont know all of my friends friends, and i certianly dont know who my friend's friend's friends are, so how are they able to justify this?

Really it just seems to me to be justification to access more and more data, bypassing the fourth amendment without a second thought.

DC

Originally posted by loam

Effectively, if the government isn't watching you, you're in the minority.

Put another way . . .

If the PTB aren't watching you

you are evidently one or more of the following:

1. Toooooooooooo traitorous to be considered even a bona fide citizen--much less a "dangerous" true patriot
&/or
2. Toooooooooooo clueless to worth bothering with;
&/or
3. Toooooooooooo lobotomized to be considered the least bit of a threat;
&/or
4. Toooooooooooo full of their own propagandized swill to have anything interesting or useful to listen to;
&/or
5. Toooooooooooo effectively under one or more of their various effective mind control schemes to be any threat;
&/or
6. Toooooooooooo compulsively given to chronically waddling around with your head in a ~handy dark place;
&/or
7. Toooooooooooo addicted to mindlessly cheering the mind control organs of CNN, MSNBC, ....to bother with;
&/or
8. Toooooooooooo inept to incompetent at language and communication skills to make the least bit of sense;
&/or
9. Toooooooooooo comatose to register any signs of life in any way whatsoever;
&/or
10. Tooooooooooo given to emitting exclusively so much drool and gibberish that nothing useful can be monitored.
.

reply to post by xDeadcowx


Actually . . .

they HAVE been watching, recording at least keywords and all traffic of any interest from

ALL electricity based circuits

for MORE THAN 40 YEARS

with literally acres of computers.

The only hope anyone has is God's protection and the challenge of the mass of data to filter.

reply to post by BO XIAN


True, but linking me to a terrorist because my friend has a friend who has a friend who likes to look up bomb recipes online is a completely different situation, and a scary one at that.

DC

reply to post by xDeadcowx


The opportunities for abuse seem massive now, don't they?

Sad it had to happen in this country.

Originally posted by loam
reply to post by xDeadcowx

 

The opportunities for abuse seem massive now, don't they?

Sad it had to happen in this country.

It happened in your country because people have had it comfortable so long they are afraid to be mad. Afraid to lose their pile of #. "Oh please! Oh please let me preserve myself for another day!". So they set there like sports spectators watching the game wondering why "somebody" doesn't do something. Oh, how delicious to watch the watchers. A fly, on a wall, spectating the spectators.

Originally posted by BO XIAN
4. Toooooooooooo full of their own propagandized swill to have anything interesting or useful to listen to;
&/or
5. Toooooooooooo effectively under one or more of their various effective mind control schemes to be any threat;
&/or
6. Toooooooooooo compulsively given to chronically waddling around with your head in a ~handy dark place;
&/or
7. Toooooooooooo addicted to mindlessly cheering the mind control organs of CNN, MSNBC, ....to bother with;

I think it's pretty likely that the biggest cheerleaders also have their own significant monitoring going on, because those are exactly the ones who are most likely to over-react should they finally figure out and more difficulty... accept... their role in things. The more visible, the more potent such an about-face can be to the ones parroting them.

Those of us who have been methodically and patiently beating the drum of awareness while also increasing our own awareness can be depended upon to be unlikely to make an about face and go ballistic... otherwise we would have already done so by now.

Isn't this kinda like if everyone's special, then no ones special?

As in, what's the big deal, if everyone's watched?

How can you logistically enforce petty laws, if we're all breaking them?

How can you focus energies on anyone but those of most importance?

I'm starting to think this doesn't really matter.... until the machines take over and start policing us via AI.

Until then, it's becoming a bit, meh...

Flame away, but it doesn't seem to be anything new, or anything I wouldn't expect from a government who is capable of doing it.

Originally posted by ErgoTheEgo

I think it's pretty likely that the biggest cheerleaders also have their own significant monitoring going on, because those are exactly the ones who are most likely to over-react should they finally figure out and more difficulty... accept... their role in things. The more visible, the more potent such an about-face can be to the ones parroting them.

Those of us who have been methodically and patiently beating the drum of awareness while also increasing our own awareness can be depended upon to be unlikely to make an about face and go ballistic... otherwise we would have already done so by now.

EXCELLENT points

And one of the reasons that history records that tyrants always exterminate first those who most helped them rise to power.

You have comforted me with your insights.

Thanks.

reply to post by xDeadcowx

If they keep this up Kevin Bacon is going to get charged with terrorism.

so ur saying kevin bacon is now officially a terrorist.

i wonder what terrorized bacon tastes like. Scare the crap out of a pig w 3 days of waterboarding, slaughter, cook, try.....

pig = cops

Originally posted by loam
reply to post by xDeadcowx

 

The opportunities for abuse seem massive now, don't they?

Sad it had to happen in this country.

Imagine what the likes of Hitler or Pol Pot could have done with this technology. It would certainly have made their genocides easier to carry out. Scary, beyond belief

I wonder....if it isn't happening already.....if these "3 hops" will include websites we frequent?

For example, a member of a website goes and does a school shooting or another terror act, so the rest of the web sites membership get associated. We are all but a few hops away from each other here on ATS.

That would put everyone here on the watch list already.

Give it time.

CX.

reply to post by xDeadcowx


I agree that there's plenty that's frightfully horrific about such realities.

I just think that their carefully crafted 200-400+ years of !CONTROL! efforts and schemes diminish greatly what can be done about it at this late stage.

The 2,000+ year old Manual is clear about the state of the global government in this era when Israel became a nation again in her given lands. At least the basic outline, structure of the events contributing to and manipulate and led by the satanic global government are reasonably clear.

I still believe that God has some surprises in store for the evil elite along the way.

Nevertheless, for some part (3.5-7 years?) of the Great Tribulation, the satanic global government will be in charge of all the nations of the earth.

The good will hide themselves and be martyred and some supernaturally protected.

But the surveillance state will be as full and comprehensive as technology and evil spiritual entities can make it.

That much seems fairly certain.