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NSA Deleted Surveillance Data It Was Under Court Order To Maintain In Electronic Frontier Foundation Lawsuit

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Published on: January 21, 2018

And the hits of the Deep State just keep on coming!

Apparently, the National Security Agency (NSA) admitted to US District Court Judge Jeffrey White on Thursday that they destroyed internet surveillance data that a court had ordered it to secure and maintain in a lawsuit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

According to recent court filings, the NSA didn’t take the necessary steps it told the court it would ensure the data was not destroyed.

Politico reports:

Since 2007, the NSA has been under court orders to preserve data about certain of its surveillance efforts that came under legal attack following disclosures that President George W. Bush ordered warrantless wiretapping of international communications after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. In addition, the agency has made a series of representations in court over the years about how it is complying with its duties.

However, the NSA told U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White in a filing on Thursday night and another little-noticed submission last year that the agency did not preserve the content of internet communications intercepted between 2001 and 2007 under the program Bush ordered. To make matters worse, backup tapes that might have mitigated the failure were erased in 2009, 2011 and 2016, the NSA said.

“The NSA sincerely regrets its failure to prevent the deletion of this data,” NSA’s deputy director of capabilities, identified publicly as “Elizabeth B.,” wrote in a declaration filed in October. “NSA senior management is fully aware of this failure, and the Agency is committed to taking swift action to respond to the loss of this data.”

In the update Thursday, another NSA official said the data were deleted during a broad, housecleaning effort aimed at making space for incoming information.

“The NSA’s review to date reveals that this [Presidential Surveillance Program] Internet content data was not specifically targeted for deletion,” wrote the official, identified as “Dr. Mark O,” “but rather the PSP Internet content data matched criteria that were broadly used to delete data of a certain type … in response to mission requirements to free-up space and improve performance of the [redacted] back-up system. The NSA is still investigating how these deletions came about given the preservation obligations extant at the time. The NSA, however, has no reason to believe at this time that PSP Internet content data was specifically targeted for deletion.”

The obvious question is why the information was wiped out.  This just doesn’t happen willy nilly.  Is it because it was collected unconstitutionally?  Probably.

NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, who was prosecuted for espionage because he simply told the truth, says it’s not an accident, not that anyone would buy that claim in the first place.

“NSA conveniently wipes out ‘01-‘07 mass surveillance data from warrantless & unconstitutional STELLAR WIND program violating court orders in ongoing lawsuits against NSA. Obstructs justice. Destroyed criminal evidence against itself. No accident,” he tweeted on Friday.

This is the same CIA that has gone after whistleblowers and may have actually gotten 20 double agents killed in China, all while violating a court order to secure that data.

Director of Whistleblower & Source Protection (WHISPeR) and attorney Jesselyn Raddack took a shot at the NSA for its obvious criminal activity.

Apparently, this is not the first time the NSA has broken the law in destroying data it has collected unlawfully.

Why these people continue to be funded is beyond me.  It’s truly because the American people are brainwashed into believing they keep everyone safe at the expense of violating the Constitution and our liberties.

A righteous nation has nothing to fear but God, and God truly protects those who uphold the law.

Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain. – Psalm 127:1

“It’s really disappointing,” said David Greene, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has been leading the prolonged litigation over the program in federal court in San Francisco. “The obligation’s been in place for a really long time now. … We had a major dust-up about it just a few years ago. This is definitely something that should’ve been found sooner.”

No, it’s not disappointing.  It’s criminal.  People’s heads need to roll over this and Congress needs to stop funding this criminal agency.

Greene commented on just how serious the data collection of the NSA is with regard to what they are claiming.

“We don’t know exactly how bad it is,”  he said.

“Even if you take them at their word that this was just an honest mistake, what it shows is despite your best intention to comply with important restrictions, it can be really difficult to implement. … It shows that with the really tremendous volume of information they’re vacuuming up, it is impossible to be meticulous,” he concluded.

And that is a very big deal as there is no doubt that they do not have warrants for the vast majority of data they are collecting.

What should concern you, even more, is that all that metadata that they talk about collecting, which they try and make sound worthless and insignificant has actually resulted in people being killed by the CIA/NSA.

Unconstitutional FISA courts, NSA acting unconstitutionally, FBI acting unconstitutionally, the White House acting unconstitutionally and a plethora of corruption in Congress, as well as the judicial system in indicates that our biggest threat is from those in our own government, not foreigners.

Article posted with permission from Freedom Outpost

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