
Senator Feinstein Admits the NSA Taps the Internet Backbone - antsar
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/senator_feinste.html
======
devx
Throw her in a federal prison for "hurting national security" and for being a
"spy and traitor". Fortunately, she didn't manage to "defect" to some of US'
_enemies_ \- like Russia - so it should be easy enough to arrest her and keep
her there for a year before we come up with a solid list of charges.

Oh - what say you? She's a Senator that has immunity and can't be imprisoned
for leaking NSA's classified information? Well, that's great news! I expect a
lot more senators to come forward with other juicy classified NSA information
then...

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detcader
She also apparently doesn't even understand the NSA violations that she was
trying to talk about [1]

[1] [http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/09/27/whoa-whoa-whoa-stop-
dia...](http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/09/27/whoa-whoa-whoa-stop-dianne-
feinstein-misstates-the-2011-violations/)

~~~
j-g-faustus
I was struck by this part:

"FEINSTEIN: [...] upstream collection [...] comprises about 10 percent of all
collection that takes place under 702, and occurs when NSA obtains Internet
communications, such as e-mails, from certain U.S. companies that operate the
Internet [backbone]"

If vacuuming the internet backbone is only 10% of the data they collect, where
the hell do they find enough data to fill the remaining 90%?

Phone calls/SMS? Banks/payments? Encryption they can't break, so they have to
ask the endpoint, like Lavabit?

~~~
pyre
It's possible that this is a misunderstanding of terms. It seems reasonable
that when the NSA pulls up all data on a single person only 10% of it comes
from the Internet firehose, and the other 90% comes from Facebook/Google/etc.
They may be sucking up all of the Internet, but are not able to correlate is
to a person 100% of the time in an automated fashion.

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javajosh
Don't talk to the police, because it strips away your 5th amendment protection
against self-incrimination. [1]

Under the NSA's universal surveillance regime, you are always talking to the
police.

So, not only does PRISM, etc violate the 1st and 4th amendments, but it makes
the 5th amendment all but useless. I mean, I guess I'm okay with shredding the
constitution if that's what the majority of american's want, but something
tells me they don't want that.

[1]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc)

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frank_boyd
So this should make her a terrrerist then.

~~~
HarryHirsch
In a way this is true. If anyone can come up with a definition of terrorism,
it's causing an outrage for political purpose. The Snowden revelations and the
subsequent revelations have certainly changed the political landscape, just
like the Red Army Faction did back then, consequently, yes, Sen. Feinstein
qualifies.

~~~
venomsnake
So was Nixon with the pulled out his ass war on drugs. And Tipper Gore for the
"metal hurts our kids".

------
o0-0o
Liberal Senatrix from Cali that says, "The chase is on" while referring to
Snowden.

What a fat, disgusting, old hypocrite.

~~~
whyenot
I know some people have very strong feeling about her, but come on, HN used to
be better than this. Criticize what she has done, not her appearance / age.

~~~
contingencies
I'm willing to overlook people's self image related qualms with this post on
account of how impressed I am by the neologism _Senatrix_. Hilarious! More
like this :)

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warmfuzzykitten
I doubt she has any idea what an internet backbone is.

~~~
thrownaway2424
Nobody does, because it's not a thing which exists.

~~~
hnriot
Sure it is. Ever hear of routers and fiber cables and switches ...

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bsullivan01
She's an opportunist scumbag. Usually the liberal (and libertarian) ones are
against a surveillance state, but she has no core, no backbone.

~~~
bediger4000
Or perhaps she's been compromised: Apparently, ex-California Representative
Jane Harman made an appearance on a NSA wiretap
([http://www.salon.com/2009/04/20/harman/](http://www.salon.com/2009/04/20/harman/)).
If you read that Salon article, after getting caught dealing with AIPAC, AG
Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez intervened, and Rep Harman went on to
"became probably the most crucial defender of the Bush warrantless
eavesdropping program".

To be 100% fair here, it sounds like some ethics and accountability offices
did want to have Harman prosecuted, but the Bush administration intervened to
get Harman off the hook. Apparently they went on to use that as leverage on
Harman.

So, it's been done before. The results looked like what Feinstein is doing
now.

~~~
mmagin
Even back as far as when she was mayor of San Francisco, it's not clear that
she was particularly liberal.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianne_Feinstein#Mayor_of_San_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianne_Feinstein#Mayor_of_San_Francisco)

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icecreampain
At this point, I'll believe anything about US spying, no matter how ludicrous.
If someone told me that the NSA has spent billions setting up spying stations
on Mars and Pluto, I'd figure that it seems like a really small amount
compared to how many tax dollars they COULD have spent building bases there.

