The NSA's Domestic Surveillance Centers

Now my SΛMSUNG Android phone has a judge’s gavel symbol that comes on from time to time in the corner, and Google reports my location as “King County, Washington.”

Now there is a “main” courthouse for King County right downtown Seattle where you might appear for arraignment if you were indicted for a parking violation under the Seattle Municipal Code by that pot-smokin’ D.A. Petey Holmes, but that one is kind of a front for the whole dowtown “law” operation, because there is a whole array of subsidiary courthouses and justice centers — most of them forced-confession and guilty-plea only — and you’ve got a heavy presence of Asian triads and Japanese motorcycle gangs running immigration and human trafficking through the “justice system” right out of the Port of Seattle.

Security Sam • July 6, 2018 5:03 PM

The Cuckoo’s Egg by Cliff Stoll
Has now finally taken its toll
We the people taxes and rolls
Are funding our high tech trolls.

echo • July 6, 2018 5:53 PM

I read through the artcile and bounced onto another linked at the bottom: “The Ghost of Ronald Reagan Authorises most NSA spying”. Deconstructing Reagan’s executive order and FISA Act is an interesting exercise. In contrast the UK is quite wriggly by comparison. I have near zero understanding of mainland European approaches which is really quite disappointing from a cultural point of view. Not only that the paucity of popular dialogue makes for a very boring movie landscape. I haven’t watched a decent thriller in years. Ok, I have but not many and no major movie to my recollection.

https://theintercept.com/2014/09/29/new-documents-confirm-expansive-spying-powers-reagan-era-order/

albert • July 6, 2018 6:12 PM

@vas pup,

Get a copy of The Old Farmers Almanac. Look for dates of a High Moon [“runs high”] (Low Moon [“runs low”] in the Southern Hemisphere). See if a Full Moon comes close to these dates. This is the most likely time for major quakes. If the Moon is “on equator”, either hemisphere could be affected.

. .. . .. — ….

Ismar • July 6, 2018 9:07 PM

@Bruce
One thing about The Intercept I find tarnishes their reputation is that they tend to make things look more dramatic even when there is no any need for doing so.

“Among the pinpointed buildings, there is a nuclear blast-resistant, windowless facility in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood; in Washington, D.C., a fortress-like, concrete structure less than half a mile south of the U.S. Capitol; in Chicago, an earthquake-resistant skyscraper in the West Loop Gate area; in Atlanta, a 429-foot art deco structure in the heart of the city’s downtown district; and in Dallas, a cube-like building with narrow windows and large vents on its exterior, located in the Old East district.”

Nuclear-blast resistant , earthquake-resistant

It puts me off – does it you as well ?

echo • July 6, 2018 10:07 PM

@Ismar

What intrigued me was the facility had two weeks worth of fuel to maintain services independently. In a snippit of news this week UK regulators decided two days lack of services under some circumstances was acceptable for banking customers. UK simulations of total electricity supply failure predicted total breakdown of governance within three days. What interests me is the discussion behind these numbers and the reasoning. I’m also a touch concerned that decision makers can have a nasty habit of kicking people to the kerb for the sake of preserving the hierarchy because of cost reasons. This harsh and unpleasant truth is rarely given much airing or opportunity to challenge.

Western countries are used to a long and widespread prosperity and general calm. A friend brought home the realities of some conflicts when they pointed out that a situation during the Bosnian civil war was no different to wherewe lived being at war with downtown which is a long stroll away and visible if you are standing on top of a medium sized high rise building. I recalled this discussion when reading news of Syria not to mention the long queues of asylum seekers/refugees dressed in very Western clothing making their way across borders to safety. They could have been us very easily.

Very few people of English nationalist style dogma and extremism realise England was formed from completely seperate kingdoms and, if I recall, this took at least two seperate attempts. Parliament is largely a fiction of its own making as it was originally just a meta court formed to replace the inter-kingdom courts used for trade and dispute resolution. This makes a mockery of neo-fascist agitators who promoted Brexit because the EU in a sense is an extension of the English, now UK, history which they themselves are unwinding as post-Brexit both Scotland and Ireland are increasingly determined to go their own way.

Mrs Peel • July 7, 2018 12:38 AM

Surely it is a bit extreme to have the NSA, or for that matter any TLA, keep surveillance on domestics. One’s maid, valet, butler, chauffeur et al may pilfer a silver spoon or cravat or what have you, but this can always be handled privately and directly with a few well chosen words.

C U Anon • July 7, 2018 4:19 AM

@ Mrs Peel,

It appears you have lost your Steed… So pray tell who is now your riding partner?

vas pup • July 7, 2018 12:12 PM

@albert Thank you!
Do you think this technology could be utilized to detect hidden tunnels building in progress across US Southern boarder?

Hmm • July 8, 2018 12:41 AM

“Do you think this technology could be utilized to detect hidden tunnels building in progress across US Southern boarder?”

Seriously this is your rationale for laying fiber in the US domestically with government backing?

Facepalm.

PeaceHead • July 9, 2018 12:59 PM

I am not understanding why this article was published. What’s the purpose? I’m neither for nor against publishing it. It’s just devoid of any implied direction about “what do we do with this info?” kind of thing. There’s like zero sociological content.

Does the author want them shut down? Supported? Protected? Relocated? Does he want the neighbors to know? Does he want the masses to know? Does he want people to be hush-hush about it, but pass it along?

Is it a ({“controlled leak”})?

Are they in jeopardy?
Is this to annoy them? To target them? To point them out to the NSA’s allies and/or enemies?

Is it just a curio? Trivia?
Depending upon one’s role in society, it could be helpful or harmful or both or neither.

I’m glad to know. I just hope that the info is used for sensible common sense purposes not to exaccerbate America’s self-denial of it’s security, political, and social problems.

I care about America, but we’re so self-conflicted as a nation. This article reminds me of that.

Much to think about.
May Peace Prevail Within All Realms of Existence.

jl • July 9, 2018 1:08 PM

This link has some background on various Chicago buildings and why they were built to be so opaque. You will come face to face with the AT&T center as you exit the Metra station onto Madison St. It was built in 1970 by Illinois Bell. The possibility of nuclear war was on people’s minds at that time, so it was built to be blast-resistant.

http://wglt.org/post/hidden-plain-sight-inside-downtown-chicagos-windowless-doorless-buildings#stream/0

steve • July 15, 2018 9:46 AM

Perhaps this is a red herring. But I cringe all the time when something posted in the news attributes something to AT&T. Most people still connect the name AT&T with the long distance company that was a part of the Bell System as basically the ‘only’ long distance service in the USA. However, it is not. THAT company went out of business, selling it’s assets a little at a time to various competitors after the year 2000 (some before the year 2000). BACK THEN, I was a part of ‘Fidonet’ and ran up huge long-distance bills using AT&T as my long distance carrier.

Eventually the only asset remaining of/to AT&T was the name AT&T and the logo. They didn’t make NCR PC’s anymore. Or sell analog long distance services. Or even own any lines, let alone buildings in various cities. All thatw as sold off to various small-fry competitors.

Along comes a rinky-dinky cell phone company that had tried for several years to get a large slice of marketshare, but their service was so bad they had trouble keeping customers and was expected to go bankrupt like so many other cell phone companies. But no, they approached and purchases the A&T name and logo. No other assets were left. So the AT&T people write about these days is from the expansion of a rinky dinky bad cell phone company that finally managed to get a certain amount of success buy buying a name of a company that essentially no longer existed and no longer had any physical plants left whatsoever.

Schneier on Security

The NSA's Domestic Surveillance Centers

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