Government twisting facts on NSA targeting Americans for surveillance according to reportsMadison Ruppert In response to a damning report published by CNET based on statements made during a closed briefing, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement essentially saying that the report was entirely false. The briefing was an apparent attempt to deal with the recent outcry following the revelations about the NSAs PRISM surveillance program along with related topics like the role played by tech companies and the secret interpretations of the laws at issue. In response, the main source of the CNET story, Rep Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), retracted his earlier statements entirely and said, The NSA cannot listen to the content of Americans phone calls without a specific warrant. Ryan Gallagher, writing for Future Tense, a project of Slate, the New America Foundation and Arizona State University, contends that the statements from Nadler and the DNIs office fail to paint an accurate picture of the true scope of the NSAs activities. In fact, the NSA actually can sweep up Americans communications without a specific warrant in some cases, Gallagher writes. Still, under the certification the NSA is allowed to pick their own surveillance targets and they only have to have 51 percent certainty that the target is a foreigner. To make matters even more ridiculous, the NSA doesnt have to tell the court about the facilities, places, premises, or property under the certification. That means that while the NSA cant explicitly target a domestic phone call or email involving two people known to be in the U.S., they can incidentally sweep up Americans phone calls and emailsespecially when one party is inside the United States and the other is overseaswhile conducting FISA-authorized spying on foreigners communications, according to Gallagher. While it may be technically true that section 702 of FISA cannot be used to target Americans anywhere in the world, as the DNI stated, its only true because of the word target. The NSA cant outright target Americans, but that does not change the fact that the NSAs surveillance can and inevitably does involve the warrantless interception of Americans private communications, Gallagher points out. This fact can be seen when one considers the statement made last year on at least one occasion the FISA Court found that the so-called minimization procedures used by the government while collecting intelligence were unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Unsurprisingly, the federal government continues to fight all attempts to uncover the details of the courts finding. According to Snowden, the NSA uses domestic as what he calls a weasel word. The reality is that due to the FISA Amendments Act and its section 702 authorities, Americans communications are collected and viewed on a daily basis on the certification of an analyst rather than a warrant, Snowden said, according to the Guardian. They excuse this as incidental collection, but at the end of the day, someone at NSA still has the content of your communications, Snowden continued. Even in the event of warranted intercept, its important to understand the intelligence community doesnt always deal with what you would consider a real warrant like a Police department would have to, the warrant is more of a templated form they fill out and send to a reliable judge with a rubber stamp, Snowden said. Glenn Greenwald asked Snowden to clarify if the NSA has only a record of communications or the actual content. Both. If I target for example an email address, for example under FAA 702, and that email address sent something to you, Joe America, the analyst gets it. All of it. IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything, Snowden said. And it gets saved for a very long time and can be extended further with waivers rather than warrants. Id love to hear your opinion, take a look at your story tips and even your original writing if you would like to get it published. I am also available for interviews on radio, television or any other format. Please email me at Admin@EndtheLie.com Please support our work and help us start to pay contributors by doing your shopping through our Amazon link or check out some must-have products at our store. This article first appeared at End the Lie. Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis databaseEnd The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on UCYTV Monday nights 7 PM 9 PM PT/10 PM 12 AM ET. Show page link here: http://UCY.TV/EndtheLie. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 