domestic surveillance court approved all 1,506 warrants in 2010

from threat level: The secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved all 1,506 government requests to electronically monitor suspected “agents” of a foreign power or terrorists on U.S. soil last year, according to a Justice Department report released under the Freedom of Information Act. The two-page report, which shows about a 13 percent increase in the number of applications for electronic surveillance between 2009 and 2010, was obtained by the Federation of American Scientists and published Friday. “The FISC did not deny any applications in whole, or in part,” according to the April 19 report to Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada). The 11-member court denied two of 1,329 applications for domestic-intelligence surveillance in 2009. The FBI is the primary agency making those requests. Whether the FISA court, whose business is conducted behind closed doors, is rubber-stamping the requests is a matter of debate... The Justice Department report, meanwhile, said the FBI issued 24,287 “national security letter” requests last year on 14,212 people, “a substantial increase from the 2009 level of 14,788 NSL requests concerning 6,114 U.S. persons,” Aftergood wrote in a blog post. In 2008, there were 24,744 requests regarding 7,225 people.

fbi tracking "suspects" online

A Freedom of Information Act(FOIA) request made in 2007 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), reveals FBI using secret spyware. A recent article at Raw Story shows "...that software called the Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier (CIPAV) was used by the FBI since at least 2001. The software allows the FBI to collect a variety of information from a computer every time it connects to the Internet, including the IP address, Media Access Control (MAC) address, open communication ports, list of the programs running, URLs visited, and more. It is unclear how the FBI installs the software on a computer, but it is suspected that the spyware exploits a vulnerability in the user's browser, like other common Internet viruses."

However, the article notes a greater threat posed by a recent FBI proposal. "In February, the FBI urged members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security to update the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and make it easier for authorities to eavesdrop on Internet." CALEA is the same 1994 law that the US administration was not observing just prior to the Iraq war!

3/3 defcon: fascism, fake friends, foia

obama joins critics of nonprofit group that oversees internet;

or, obama & china agree: fascist dictators should control the net*
army of fake social media friends to promote propaganda*
centcom says spy bloggers not 'friending' US targets*
bradley manning charged with 22 new counts, including capital offense*
when westboro won't take no for an answer, anonymous hacks - live!*
chaos as anonymous attacks toilet paper, sweden, itself*
scotus says at&t not exempt from foia*
if watson can win jeopardy, can ibm make cities smarter?*
'minority report'-style shopping? billboard profiles, shows ads tailored to your tastes*