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A US federal agency is claiming that the NSA is engaged in illegal activities:

January 23, 2014

WASHINGTON — The U.S. National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records provides only minimal benefits to countering terrorism, is illegal and should end, a federal privacy watchdog said in a report to be released on Thursday, according to media reports.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent government agency, has shared its conclusions with President Barack Obama, according to reports in the New York Times and Washington Post. The board was not immediately available for comment.

Its conclusion goes further than Obama, who said in a speech on Friday that he thought the NSA’s database of records should be moved out of government hands but did not call for an outright halt to the program.

Members of Congress are divided about the value and legality of the program, which collects data on millions of phone calls made in the United States but not the content of the calls. The report could add ammunition to those lawmakers seeking an end to the program.

“We have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the telephone records program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counter terrorism investigation,” the board said, according to the newspapers.

The board concluded that the NSA collection raises constitutional concerns with regard to U.S. citizens’ rights of speech, association and privacy.  http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-report-us-privacy-board-says-nsa-phone-program-illegal-should-end/1835953.html

January 24, 2014

The U.S. National Security Agency is illegally collecting phone call records from millions of Americans and the program should be stopped, a federal privacy board recommends in a report issued today.

The five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, created by Congress to protect privacy under post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism laws, said in a 238-page report that the program has provided only “minimal” help to the U.S. in thwarting other terrorist attacks, according to the report.

This panel has no authority to change the programs and President Barack Obama last week went ahead, without waiting for today’s report, and presented his own plan that doesn’t end the use of bulk phone records. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-01-23/nsa-phone-data-program-called-illegal-by-privacy-oversight-board

There is no doubt in my mind that the NSA has engaged in unconstitutional activities.  And now another governmental agency has concluded that some NSA activities are illegal.  The reality is that the USA’s National Security Agency has repeatedly violated rules and agreements with USA courts according to other documents (see NSA found repeatedly violating privacy rules, revealed documents black-out reason why all American telephone records were collected).

No leader in the NSA is being jailed for excessive privacy violations, but instead its top leader has defended its actions.

What the Obama Administration and some in Congress seem to want to do is to change some aspects of the law so that it will not be technically illegal and that courts will allow it to continue.  Many do not seem to care that the massive data collection would still violate the intent of the protections that were written into the US Constitution.

Yet, even if the NSA were to be ordered to stop all of it, it will be too little too late. The reality is that because of the Snowden disclosures, the USA has agreed to share intelligence, espionage, and data collection techniques with the Europeans. As well intentioned as that MIGHT be from the USA and Europe, the reality is that this will be a disaster for the world.

15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13:15-18)

Because of what the USA and UK have done, and the fact that USA President Obama has declared that he would share espionage secrets, techniques, and findings with the Europeans in general and the Germans in particular, this is setting the stage for even greater surveillance which will come from the emerging Beast power in Europe (Revelation 13:16-18).  Edward Snowden’s disclosures have pointed out USA government hypocrisy and constitutional violations more than any one else in some time.

But, as I mentioned, I believe that the biggest impacts will be how the Europeans and others react to the USA, at least partially because of the disclosures.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 23rd, 2014 at 8:15 am and is filed under Prophecy.

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