[Kzyxtalk] PATRIOT ACT VS. FREEDOM ACT -- OR IS IT A SHELL GAME? ON KMEC RADIO, MONDAY, JUNE 15, AT 1 P.M., PACIFIC TIME

[sako4 at comcast.net]

PATRIOT ACT VS. FREEDOM ACT -- OR IS IT A SHELL GAME? ON KMEC RADIO, MONDAY, JUNE 15, AT 1 P.M., PACIFIC TIME 





By popular demand, this show is a follow-up to last week's show, "NSA Bulk Collection Is Not Ending", with guest, Marcy Wheeler. 




BACKGROUND 




AP reported on June 1: “Eight days after blocking it, Senate Republicans have agreed to begin debate on a House bill that would overhaul the National Security Agency’s handling of American calling records while preserving other domestic surveillance provisions. 


“But that remarkable turnabout didn’t happen soon enough to prevent the laws governing the programs from expiring at midnight Sunday as Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a presidential contender, stood in the way of extending the program, angering his GOP colleagues and frustrating intelligence and law enforcement officials. 


“Now, the question is whether the Senate will pass a bill the House can live with. If so, the surveillance programs will resume, with some significant changes in how the phone records are handled. If not, they will remain dormant. 


“The Senate vote on the measure known as the USA Freedom Act can come no earlier than 1 a.m., Tuesday. Senate Republican aides said they expected some amendments, but no major revisions to the bill.” See CNN report: http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/31/politics/patriot-act-senate-showdown-nsa/ 


See Obama’s radio address backing the so-called USA Freedom Act: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/05/30/weekly-address-pass-usa-freedom-act 


J. KIRK WIEBE 




Wiebe, a popular guest on KMEC Radio, is a retired National Security Agency whistleblower who worked at the agency for 36 years. 

Unable to stay at NSA any longer in good conscience, Wiebe retired in October 2001. 




Since retiring, Wiebe and his fellow NSA whistlblower Bill Binney made several key public disclosures regarding NSA’s massive surveillance program. Wiebe said today: “The larger picture is that the government is playing a shell game, essentially doing what it wants with or without USA Freedom, and that unless we achieve comprehensive review of intelligence policies, we are essentially not improving much in the way of privacy. That’s not to say a victory in defeating parts of the Patriot Act is not important, just that it leaves much to be done by a Congress that doesn’t like being held accountable. 


“The whole matter would be moot if the government would adopt an intelligence production process from collection through analysis that was in line with the Constitution — that the technology exists to do just that, even addressing judicial review (not FISA, but regular Article III court) within seconds, thus mooting the Haydens out there who say the regular court review process takes too long. That fact — that the problem is solvable with today’s technology — portrays the existing proponents of keeping Patriot or just modifying it slightly as in Freedom as either incompetent, or possessing hidden agendas, or just not interested in defending the Constitution.” 


Wiebe took part in Stand Up for Truth events earlier this month, a series of events to support whistleblowing. 




Kirk Wiebe and Bill Binney were last of a series of webcasts. Talks were held in Chicago and Los Angeles. Other webcast participants included EPA whistlblower Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, and State Department whistleblower Matthew Hoh. 




Pentagon Papers whistleblower Dan Ellsberg were with a group of whistleblowers speaking in London, Oslo, Stockholm and Berlin. 

For a full schedule, see: standupfortruth.org/events. 




BILL BLUNDEN 




Blunden is an independent investigator whose current areas of inquiry include information security, anti-forensics, and institutional analysis. He teaches at San Francisco State University. 




Blunden is author of "Behold a Pale Farce: Cyberwar, Threat Inflation, and the Malware-Industrial Complex". 




This book presents a data-driven message that exposes the cyberwar media campaign being directed by the Pentagon and its patronage networks. By demonstrating that the American public is being coerced by a threat that has been blown out of proportion—much like the run-up to the Gulf War or the global war on terror—this book discusses how the notion of cyberwar instills a crisis mentality that discourages formal risk assessment, making the public anxious and hence susceptible to ill-conceived solutions. 




With content that challenges conventional notions regarding cyber security, "Behold a Pale Farce" covers topics—including cybercrime; modern espionage; mass-surveillance systems; and the threats facing infrastructure targets such as the Federal Reserve, the stock exchange, and telecommunications—in a way that provides objective analysis rather than advocacy. 




This book is a must-read for anyone concerned with the recent emergence of Orwellian tools of mass interception that have developed under the guise of national security. 




Blunden is also the author of several other books, including "Offshoring IT: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". 

He’s probably best known for writing the industry’s most detailed manual for software back doors, the "Rootkit Arsenal: Escape and Evasion in the Dark Corners of the System." 




Blunden recently wrote the piece “The USA Freedom Act Doesn’t End Bulk Data Collection. 




See: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/05/the-usa-freedom-act-doesnt-end-bulk-data-collection/ 




In the domain of the social sciences, he has co-authored articles related to 9/11 that have appeared in academic journals like "Peace Psychology" and "Aggressive Behavior." 




Blunden is one of my personal heroes. 




KMEC RADIO 




KMEC Radio airs at 105.1 FM in Ukiah CA. We also stream on the web at www.kmecradio.org 




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