At the point I left off yesterday, we were almost half way through our 5 hour trip up Route 5 in Oregon. Charlotte (the French woman), Wisconsin (her friend), Dewey (the driver), and I (prim and proper older woman) had stopped yet again for Dewey to make his tea. We had all watched as the tea leaves turned water into tea!!!! Will miracles never cease? As we got back onto the road, we stopped chanting for rain for some reason and instead took some long stretch to give thanks for the rain.
Charlotte saw several rainbows. This again was a miracle we wondered at because there were no rainbows, there was no rain. But then she said she had learned a lot about astral projection recently so we kind of had to assume she was somewhere else when she saw the rainbows. Then we had a few blessed moments of quiet praise or maybe just quiet, when Wisconsin proclaimed that crystals gave off energy. This new bit of news gave birth to a lot of talk with the girls deciding that the goddess lived in crystals. Dewey tried to enter the conversation of few times with a few good stories, but the eruptions of giggles and bursting into song from the back seat kind of drowned him out.
Somehow, the levity of the women and the ridiculousness of their banter made this all alright. I can't explain it. Then Charlotte mentioned that she was supposed to be in Montreal, Canada the next day at 6 to meet her parents. "I suppose I will be there" she said. Wisconsin said she was going to British Columbia to the world Rainbow gathering. I asked whether she had been to such a gathering before and she had not.Then Charlotte said that she wanted to go also. "We can sing and heal everybody and it will be heaven." Wisconsin said that we are already in heaven. Dewey said that his shoulder was better.
By then we were an hour from our destination. Dewey asked the women where they needed to be dropped off. They talked for a minute and said they were staying with a friend, could they use Dewey's phone to call their friend? A big scramble to find the number and then a call which almost slightly saddened them when the 'friend' said it was not possible for them to stay with him. Then they perked up because they remembered another Portland person. They called this woman and got an answering machine. Now it was 10 on a Monday night and they had no where to go. Dewey asked them where he should let them off and they said, "Oh anywhere." Miracles happen."
A miracle happened almost immediately when Dewey said that if they had no place to go they could sleep at his house and meet his puppy. Squeals and shrieks emanated from the back seat. "See Dewey, things always work out." Chants of thanksgiving in Sanskrit followed. Then Wisconsin asked Dewey if he had ever been to a Rainbow gathering and whether he liked BC. I wondered out loud how many hours it would take to get to Montreal and then back to BC. Dewey turned to me and said "put me on speed dial and I will keep you updated." I'm in. This was too great to miss.
The thing is that it was great fun. The mood never faltered from fun, delight, amusement and easy camaraderie. As far as I could figure there were no drugs involved. Everyone was harmless. Life was all good. How can you beat that?
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Ride Share Does It Again
So, getting in and out of Ashland, Oregon has its problems. Our town is dead in the middle of nowhere. It is five hours to Portland (small city) and six to San Francisco by car. In the winter the mountain passes are often closed because of snow and for much of the year the nearest airport can be fogged in and that causes huge delays. Also the Medford, Oregon airport can be really expensive , I guess because it is in the middle of nowhere. I must not to neglect to remind you that the train doesn't come near us and the regular bus picks up in Medford at two in the morning. Not convenient is an understatement.
I have written before about my experiment of not owning a car. I am away half the year. I like not having the expense and hassle of owning a car. One drawback is that renting a car when you don't have your own insurance is expensive. But renting a car in the middle of nowhere is really pricey. I, therefore have had find other solutions. The most interesting one by far is the ride share gig.
This week I wanted to come to Portland. There wasn't much on Criag's List but one possibility popped up at the last minute. Dewey was offering a ride for a share for gas $. We emailed back and forth and I was going to meet him at the local hot springs hippie encampment. I was very happy to be going north as we had had a brutal heat wave with consecutive days of 106 degrees. Also some terrible fires were filling the valley with smoke and it was getting worse, not better.
I packed up, said goodbye to my garden which would or would not get water depending on who was around the house and my Greeley drove me to Wellsprings. Dewey showed up pretty much on time and had a nice new hybrid car. Dewey looked pretty sane and sober and was very polite. This was the first time he was offering a ride share. He had been driving from Kansas and had stopped in Oregon for a Festival (I don't exactly know what that means except it was in the great pot growing town of Selma). I think he was bored of driving alone.
I hope I can do justice to our little adventure. He said we were picking up two girls. No one appeared. He made a few phone calls and said "they are here." Soon after these two gorgeous, young girls came dancing and singing down through the camp grounds. They were dressed in harem meets tie dye meets cowgirl style. They were dusty but not smelly dirty. They were followed by a bunch of men and some families with small children...all dancing and singing. We went to a school bus at the far end of the camp to pick up their shit where Dewey and I were subjected to more than a half an hour of being kisses and hugged and danced over and around by the collected troupe. Then we were invited to the Goddess chapel to get blessed. We demurred but not before Dewey mentioned that he had hurt his shoulder.
The one French girl said "Oh my God we must get going, we have do much healing to do." It only took another 20 minutes of kissing and blessing and chanting to get us in the car. As soon as we started to drive, French girl (Charlotte) got out her didgeridoo and placed it up to Dewey's shoulder and started honking on it. Wisconsin girl (no name) sang harmonics. "Vibrations have energy!!!!! We are healing you!!!I know your shoulder is better!!! Thank the Goddess!!! Let us chant together, no first I'll sing Ave Maria." Charlotte sang one of the most beautiful Ave Marias I have ever heard. Then they settled down to a two hour chant to make the rain come and put out the fires, accompanies by a ukulele and recorder. We had to stop several times for Dewey to take out his high tech car adapted tea brewing apparatus and make his peppermint tea from mint leaves from Zambia or Tunisia or somewhere. We all watched each time as the water changed to tea and uttered profuse praise for the blessings from the goddess and the miracle of life and the abundance of the earth. Talking about abundance, "look" cried Charlotte, "someone gifted me this miracle I will never be hungry again." She brought out a zucchini from her purse shuffling away the water colors she was using to paint a mandala.
Stay tuned. The drive gets better and better. I kid you not.
I have written before about my experiment of not owning a car. I am away half the year. I like not having the expense and hassle of owning a car. One drawback is that renting a car when you don't have your own insurance is expensive. But renting a car in the middle of nowhere is really pricey. I, therefore have had find other solutions. The most interesting one by far is the ride share gig.
This week I wanted to come to Portland. There wasn't much on Criag's List but one possibility popped up at the last minute. Dewey was offering a ride for a share for gas $. We emailed back and forth and I was going to meet him at the local hot springs hippie encampment. I was very happy to be going north as we had had a brutal heat wave with consecutive days of 106 degrees. Also some terrible fires were filling the valley with smoke and it was getting worse, not better.
I packed up, said goodbye to my garden which would or would not get water depending on who was around the house and my Greeley drove me to Wellsprings. Dewey showed up pretty much on time and had a nice new hybrid car. Dewey looked pretty sane and sober and was very polite. This was the first time he was offering a ride share. He had been driving from Kansas and had stopped in Oregon for a Festival (I don't exactly know what that means except it was in the great pot growing town of Selma). I think he was bored of driving alone.
I hope I can do justice to our little adventure. He said we were picking up two girls. No one appeared. He made a few phone calls and said "they are here." Soon after these two gorgeous, young girls came dancing and singing down through the camp grounds. They were dressed in harem meets tie dye meets cowgirl style. They were dusty but not smelly dirty. They were followed by a bunch of men and some families with small children...all dancing and singing. We went to a school bus at the far end of the camp to pick up their shit where Dewey and I were subjected to more than a half an hour of being kisses and hugged and danced over and around by the collected troupe. Then we were invited to the Goddess chapel to get blessed. We demurred but not before Dewey mentioned that he had hurt his shoulder.
The one French girl said "Oh my God we must get going, we have do much healing to do." It only took another 20 minutes of kissing and blessing and chanting to get us in the car. As soon as we started to drive, French girl (Charlotte) got out her didgeridoo and placed it up to Dewey's shoulder and started honking on it. Wisconsin girl (no name) sang harmonics. "Vibrations have energy!!!!! We are healing you!!!I know your shoulder is better!!! Thank the Goddess!!! Let us chant together, no first I'll sing Ave Maria." Charlotte sang one of the most beautiful Ave Marias I have ever heard. Then they settled down to a two hour chant to make the rain come and put out the fires, accompanies by a ukulele and recorder. We had to stop several times for Dewey to take out his high tech car adapted tea brewing apparatus and make his peppermint tea from mint leaves from Zambia or Tunisia or somewhere. We all watched each time as the water changed to tea and uttered profuse praise for the blessings from the goddess and the miracle of life and the abundance of the earth. Talking about abundance, "look" cried Charlotte, "someone gifted me this miracle I will never be hungry again." She brought out a zucchini from her purse shuffling away the water colors she was using to paint a mandala.
Stay tuned. The drive gets better and better. I kid you not.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Dumb books this summer.
I have been off TV and movies for the most part of a year. I tend to binge on this stuff, then for no apparent reason, I'm done. I have been on an extended reading binge, like a book a day kind of binge. But I have noticed a kind of weird thing going on . I read excellent books. I like political analysis, inspirational writings, biographies. I really love a good biography. I always have something from these categories going. I read a well written, intellectually challenging book, then I read some of the dumbest, worst written things out there.
The thing is, in the summer especially, I read the good stuff almost like it is work, then I race to read the crap. It is a lot like eating your spinach so you can get to the ice cream. The weird thing is that this is a summer phenomenon for me. I used to always look for a good "beach book." That wasn't a bad idea, reading a not very challenging read that you could fall asleep and then pick up again with no work. But what I am doing now is a little more perverse. I just read the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. Can't even remember the name and I read it yesterday. It was so dumb and predictable that I could anticipate every line before I read it. And yet I kept putting down an excellent biography to get backto the junk.
The question I ask myself is: "Is this what hot weather does to the brain?" Or is this like any addiction. I used to eat a lot of M&Ms. They always were a disappointment. I really don't like milk chocolate and if I did, I would hope I would buy better. But for a long while I picked some up almost daily and ate them and then felt stupid. It is pretty much the same with the dumb books.
I assume this will pass as it has other years. If not, I will have to have a little talk with myself and use some discipline. Hate that. But as with any addiction it makes me wonder why, when I know it will feel bad, do I keep doing it?
The thing is, in the summer especially, I read the good stuff almost like it is work, then I race to read the crap. It is a lot like eating your spinach so you can get to the ice cream. The weird thing is that this is a summer phenomenon for me. I used to always look for a good "beach book." That wasn't a bad idea, reading a not very challenging read that you could fall asleep and then pick up again with no work. But what I am doing now is a little more perverse. I just read the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. Can't even remember the name and I read it yesterday. It was so dumb and predictable that I could anticipate every line before I read it. And yet I kept putting down an excellent biography to get backto the junk.
The question I ask myself is: "Is this what hot weather does to the brain?" Or is this like any addiction. I used to eat a lot of M&Ms. They always were a disappointment. I really don't like milk chocolate and if I did, I would hope I would buy better. But for a long while I picked some up almost daily and ate them and then felt stupid. It is pretty much the same with the dumb books.
I assume this will pass as it has other years. If not, I will have to have a little talk with myself and use some discipline. Hate that. But as with any addiction it makes me wonder why, when I know it will feel bad, do I keep doing it?
Friday, July 26, 2013
Another muse on " Whom Do You Trust?"
I had traveled in Central and South America with my kids for months and never been robbed or ripped off. This was during the 'troubles' in Guatemala, Salvador, Nicaragua. My son either had his wallet stolen or an attempted theft in the bus station in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. When we got back to the USA, I drove into Boston to meet my sister-in-law for lunch. We ate at a fancy place on Newbury Street next to the Ritz Hotel. (No longer there, alas.)
When I went to pay my bill, my wallet was missing. When I called the cops and reported the theft, they said that was a most popular place for theft. The reason was because people who ate in that neighborhood tended to have a lot of money. Duh. The police informed me that the method was that, because most women put their purses on the floor, the thieves wore black pants and white shirts to look like waiters and then they would drop a napkin on the floor next to the purse and then bend over to retrieve it and reach into the purse and take the wallet.
As soon as the cop told me that, I remembered the 'waiter' doing exactly that. I called the credit card company and the thief was already using my card. They told me to go to the station and make a police report. I asked the cop on the phone why they didn't police the area or have signs posted. I had, after all been so careful on my travels carrying plane tickets and credit cards and travelers checks. (the good old days) The cop said they couldn't be bothered. I took it to mean that the customers were rich so who cares. As anyone knows it is a royal pain in the ass to lose it all. Thank goodness Susan was still with me. I had to borrow money for the parking garage and the tolls to get home.
I went to the main Boston police station and it was crazy. There was so much going on and it was loud and rough and I felt that my problem was pretty minor. It was. Soon a cop came to take my report and he was pretty drunk. He fumbled the report so badly that I finally said, "Thanks, I gotta go."
Most of my other experiences with the police had to do with protests gone funky in the good old days. I was always treated well, except for the problem of tear gas. I am afraid of guns. When I was stopped for speeding in California a few years ago, I was in the middle of nowhere. This big red faced cop standing next to my car with his big gun a the level of my eyes really intimidated me. Probably a good thing because might have mouthed off an made myself trouble.
Do I trust cops? I guess I use the same intuition that I use to decide whether I trust anyone. I trust some and not others.
The following article shocked me dreadfully. Ashland, Oregon is a sweet oasis in the middle of red neck country. This makes me slightly afraid for our state of the nation.
Police Chief: “We’re gonna give two to Nancy [Pelosi], then we’re gonna put two in her face.”
A Schuylkill County (Pennsylvania) police chief is making national news for his videos that seemingly encourage people to shoot U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Gilberton (PA) Police Chief Mark Kessler also calls his political opponents “libtards,” who should “go f*** yourselves.”
In one video, he shoots a target he calls “Nancy Pelosi” while saying, “We’re gonna give two to Nancy, then we’re gonna put two in her face.”(see videos here NSFW)
This outrageous behavior should result in his immediate firing. It is obvious that a person like this cannot objectively carry out his duties.
So what is the reaction of the mayor of Gilberton? She says it’s a free speech issue and she won’t stop him. Her reaction is almost as outrageous as Kessler’s comments.
Write to Mayor Mary Lou Hannon and the Gilberton Borough Council. Tell them to fire Kessler today. He obviously lacks the temperament, levelheadedness and objectiveness that any law enforcement office needs. He is clearly unable to protect people who disagree with him. He needs to be removed from his position immediately.
Here’s a summary of his recent videos:
In a video that has received wide attention, police chief Mark Kessler repeatedly tells those upset by his use of profanity to “go f*ck yourself” as he fires various automatic weapons.
Mayor Mary Lou Hannon told The Morning Call that Kessler had the right to express himself. The city would “not take action to quash free speech, whether or not each member of council or any member of council agrees with it.”
Kessler has uploaded several profanity-laced videos to YouTube. In one video, Kessler berates “libtards” and warns of an armed rebellion against the government.
“F*ck all you libtards out there, as a matter of fact, read my shirt,” he says, turning around to show a message on his back which read, “Liberals take it in the a**.”
“You take it in the a** and I don’t give a f*ck what you say so you can all just go f*ck yourselves. Period. I wont be going to D.C. and I don’t give a f*ck. If you f*cking maniacs want to turn this into an armed revolt, knock yourselves out. I’m not about that, so see you on the other side.”
In a video on basic pistol defense, Kessler repeatedly shoots a picture of scary clown, which he says is Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). He calls Secretary of State John Kerry a “c*cksucker” in another video before firing off an automatic weapon. (Thanks to Susie Madrak, writing atCrooks and Liars)
When I went to pay my bill, my wallet was missing. When I called the cops and reported the theft, they said that was a most popular place for theft. The reason was because people who ate in that neighborhood tended to have a lot of money. Duh. The police informed me that the method was that, because most women put their purses on the floor, the thieves wore black pants and white shirts to look like waiters and then they would drop a napkin on the floor next to the purse and then bend over to retrieve it and reach into the purse and take the wallet.
As soon as the cop told me that, I remembered the 'waiter' doing exactly that. I called the credit card company and the thief was already using my card. They told me to go to the station and make a police report. I asked the cop on the phone why they didn't police the area or have signs posted. I had, after all been so careful on my travels carrying plane tickets and credit cards and travelers checks. (the good old days) The cop said they couldn't be bothered. I took it to mean that the customers were rich so who cares. As anyone knows it is a royal pain in the ass to lose it all. Thank goodness Susan was still with me. I had to borrow money for the parking garage and the tolls to get home.
I went to the main Boston police station and it was crazy. There was so much going on and it was loud and rough and I felt that my problem was pretty minor. It was. Soon a cop came to take my report and he was pretty drunk. He fumbled the report so badly that I finally said, "Thanks, I gotta go."
Most of my other experiences with the police had to do with protests gone funky in the good old days. I was always treated well, except for the problem of tear gas. I am afraid of guns. When I was stopped for speeding in California a few years ago, I was in the middle of nowhere. This big red faced cop standing next to my car with his big gun a the level of my eyes really intimidated me. Probably a good thing because might have mouthed off an made myself trouble.
Do I trust cops? I guess I use the same intuition that I use to decide whether I trust anyone. I trust some and not others.
The following article shocked me dreadfully. Ashland, Oregon is a sweet oasis in the middle of red neck country. This makes me slightly afraid for our state of the nation.
Police Chief: “We’re gonna give two to Nancy [Pelosi], then we’re gonna put two in her face.”
A Schuylkill County (Pennsylvania) police chief is making national news for his videos that seemingly encourage people to shoot U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Gilberton (PA) Police Chief Mark Kessler also calls his political opponents “libtards,” who should “go f*** yourselves.”
In one video, he shoots a target he calls “Nancy Pelosi” while saying, “We’re gonna give two to Nancy, then we’re gonna put two in her face.”(see videos here NSFW)This outrageous behavior should result in his immediate firing. It is obvious that a person like this cannot objectively carry out his duties.
So what is the reaction of the mayor of Gilberton? She says it’s a free speech issue and she won’t stop him. Her reaction is almost as outrageous as Kessler’s comments.
Write to Mayor Mary Lou Hannon and the Gilberton Borough Council. Tell them to fire Kessler today. He obviously lacks the temperament, levelheadedness and objectiveness that any law enforcement office needs. He is clearly unable to protect people who disagree with him. He needs to be removed from his position immediately.
Here’s a summary of his recent videos:
In a video that has received wide attention, police chief Mark Kessler repeatedly tells those upset by his use of profanity to “go f*ck yourself” as he fires various automatic weapons.
Mayor Mary Lou Hannon told The Morning Call that Kessler had the right to express himself. The city would “not take action to quash free speech, whether or not each member of council or any member of council agrees with it.”
Kessler has uploaded several profanity-laced videos to YouTube. In one video, Kessler berates “libtards” and warns of an armed rebellion against the government.
“F*ck all you libtards out there, as a matter of fact, read my shirt,” he says, turning around to show a message on his back which read, “Liberals take it in the a**.”
“You take it in the a** and I don’t give a f*ck what you say so you can all just go f*ck yourselves. Period. I wont be going to D.C. and I don’t give a f*ck. If you f*cking maniacs want to turn this into an armed revolt, knock yourselves out. I’m not about that, so see you on the other side.”
In a video on basic pistol defense, Kessler repeatedly shoots a picture of scary clown, which he says is Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). He calls Secretary of State John Kerry a “c*cksucker” in another video before firing off an automatic weapon. (Thanks to Susie Madrak, writing atCrooks and Liars)
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
I Am so Missing Seeing the Whitey Bulger Trial
No cameras in the court room. For me, this is a real bummer. I grew up with Irish relatives all around Boston. Bulger was a legend in his own time. He was feared, worshiped, hated and most of all, talked about. He and his gang were connected in every way. He was obviously connected to the deadly Boston Irish Mafia. He had strange, mysterious and conflicting relationships with the FBI. His was related to some and well known by many of the most powerful politicians in Boston and in the State. He was handsome, had a rags to riches story, and apparently was and is ruthless and deadly.
Why the fascination? There was the Robin Hood angle. There was the local color angle. There was the loyalty of Southie and all that stood for, and always the question about the police and the politicians and how much they knew and how much they were involved. I guess the story has the lurid appeal of Sons of Anarchy meets Jersey Shore.
One thing I always liked about Boston politics was the safe feeling that our politicians were not only approachable but helpful. Senator Kennedy was famous for this. So was his grandfather Honey Fitz, once Mayor of Boston. But thinking of Bulger, I can see the really bad side of this kind of taking care of people. Until I moved to Oregon, I thought that was the normal state of affairs and everyone had a history of bursting into their senator and reps's offices when they had trouble. It is not the normal state of affairs in Oregon. But there is another side to this, the side Bulger walked on. Then 'taking care of business' turns ugly, dirty, violent and most of all, illegal.
My Buddhist teacher really thinks it is not good mojo to gossip. I have to agree. He says even gossip under the guise of feeling sympathy or 'caring' for another still qualifies as gossip. Next time I see him I have to ask if being interested in something like the Bulger trial is just another form of gossip. I felt that about the OJ trial until the day I recognized it as a milestone in the history of the United States: the moment when everyone everywhere saw the truth that our justice system was 'just' for the person with the most money. A lot of people suspected this or experienced it, but the OJ trial left no doubt anywhere. I wonder whether this Bulger trial will have any profound effect in the long run.
It is interesting that it comes at the same time as the Snowden leaks. What exactly are we to know about the role in Bulgers crimes by the FBI? What happens when there are corrupt FBI people? What is really going on here? It could be interesting.
The following article is about Whitey's brother William, but tells a good piece of the story. He is seen here with Mumbles Menino the forever Mayor of Boston.
The trial of James “Whitey” Bulger has drawn a graying cast of
characters from the gangster’s old turf in South Boston to Moakley
federal courthouse, but one figure has been conspicuously absent: his
younger brother William.
A once-feared politician whose rise to power mirrored his brother’s descent into crime, William has told friends that the scrutiny the trial has brought to his family has been difficult for him. He has also complained to friends that he feels that he, too, is one of his brother’s victims, since he was forced out of his job as president of the University of Massachusetts amid questions about his relationship with Whitey.
Robert H. Quinn — a friend and former House speaker who entered the Legislature with Bulger in 1960 — speculated that the prospect of unwelcome press attention has kept William, 79, away from the trial, even as William’s daughter and another brother, John, have appeared on the wooden bench reserved for relatives.
“It’s a tough decision,” said Quinn, 85, who has regular lunches with Bulger at Doyle’s Café in Jamaica Plain. “And one of the decisions I’m sure relates to you boys [in the media] and whether you’ll say, ‘Shame on him for showing up,’ and if he doesn’t show up, you’ll say, ‘Shame on him; he doesn’t give a damn.’ So what are you going to do?”
After undergoing heart surgery in 2011, he has, friends say, been moving more slowly than during his long reign as president of the Massachusetts Senate, from 1978 to 1996. Last month, he was among the many retired lawmakers at the memorial service for Paul Cellucci, former governor, at the State House.
W. Paul White, who served in the Senate with Bulger, said the two chatted briefly at the service. “I just said to him, ‘I hope you’re doing well; this is a difficult time,’ and he smiled and said, ‘Well, it is a difficult time,’ ” White said.
White surmised that William Bulger wants to avoid creating a spectacle by attending his brother’s trial.
“He probably wants to let things take their course, and it’s important to let these things play out,” White said. “I feel badly for anyone in this situation. It’s so complicated.”
The trial stands as a bookend to another one, six decades ago, when William was 21, and he went to federal court in Boston to watch as Whitey, then 26, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for participating in three bank robberies. Later, he traveled with his father to visit Whitey in prison in Atlanta and Pennsylvania, according to his memoir, “While the Music Lasts: My Life in Politics.”
Back then, the brothers were just just heading into their chosen careers, one in politics, the other in crime. But even as their paths forked, William remained fiercely loyal to Whitey.
Friends say their bond had been forged as boys growing up in a tough public housing development in South Boston, when the neighborhood was an insular enclave of immigrant families from Ireland.
That bygone era remains a touchstone for William Bulger, said his friend, Joseph S. Oteri, a fellow lawyer who saw Bulger several months ago at an event for Boston College Law School alumni.
“We talked about growing up in Southie, we talked about how life has changed,” Oteri said. “Neither one of us came from a monied background.”
But one thing Oteri did not discuss was Whitey Bulger. It is a topic that acquaintances say they do not bring up unless William raises it first, and he seldom does. “Bill’s very close-mouthed, and I didn’t think it was my job,” Oteri said.
One friend said William Bulger feels he has taken a beating in public life because of his brother’s crimes. Yet William has never condemned his gangster brother.
Whitey “is my brother and I love him,’’ he wrote in his 1996 autobiography. He added that he believed Whitey was the target of “planted press stories, absurd rumors, wild exaggerations.’’
In 2001, six years after Whitey fled town, William testified to a grand jury that he had spoken to Whitey once, in 1995, at the Quincy home of a friend, a location arranged to avoid electronic eavesdropping.
“I do have an honest loyalty to my brother, and I care about him, and I know that’s not welcome news, but . . . it’s my hope that I’m never helpful to anyone against him,’’ William testified. “I don’t feel an obligation to help everyone to catch him.’’
Two years later, Governor Mitt Romney forced William Bulger to resign from UMass, after he refused to testify before Congress about Whitey’s whereabouts. Romney argued that William’s ties to his brother had disgraced the university. These days, William Bulger’s world appears to center around his old neighborhood. He still goes for early-morning walks at Castle Island and attends 8 a.m. Mass at Saint Brigid Church, said Raymond L. Flynn, former mayor and a fellow South Boston resident.
On Thursday, William Bulger attended an awards ceremony for Mayor Thomas M. Menino at the Labouré Center, a children’s welfare organization run by Catholic Charities in South Boston. Bulger and his wife, Mary, sat at the head table, in front of the podium.
“He seemed like his normal self. He was cracking jokes, talking about his dislike for the Globe and Herald,” said one neighbor who bumped into Bulger on the street about a month ago. “We talked about how politics has changed in South Boston.”
As they spoke, Whitey was seated just a few miles away in federal court, facing charges that he participated in 19 murders, extorted bookmakers and drug dealers, and stockpiled an arsenal of weapons. William did not mention the courthouse drama, the neighbor said.
“It’s not a subject that he talks about,” he said. “I’m sure it’s affected him, but he doesn’t show it, or at least nothing that I’ve seen.”
Why the fascination? There was the Robin Hood angle. There was the local color angle. There was the loyalty of Southie and all that stood for, and always the question about the police and the politicians and how much they knew and how much they were involved. I guess the story has the lurid appeal of Sons of Anarchy meets Jersey Shore.
One thing I always liked about Boston politics was the safe feeling that our politicians were not only approachable but helpful. Senator Kennedy was famous for this. So was his grandfather Honey Fitz, once Mayor of Boston. But thinking of Bulger, I can see the really bad side of this kind of taking care of people. Until I moved to Oregon, I thought that was the normal state of affairs and everyone had a history of bursting into their senator and reps's offices when they had trouble. It is not the normal state of affairs in Oregon. But there is another side to this, the side Bulger walked on. Then 'taking care of business' turns ugly, dirty, violent and most of all, illegal.
My Buddhist teacher really thinks it is not good mojo to gossip. I have to agree. He says even gossip under the guise of feeling sympathy or 'caring' for another still qualifies as gossip. Next time I see him I have to ask if being interested in something like the Bulger trial is just another form of gossip. I felt that about the OJ trial until the day I recognized it as a milestone in the history of the United States: the moment when everyone everywhere saw the truth that our justice system was 'just' for the person with the most money. A lot of people suspected this or experienced it, but the OJ trial left no doubt anywhere. I wonder whether this Bulger trial will have any profound effect in the long run.
It is interesting that it comes at the same time as the Snowden leaks. What exactly are we to know about the role in Bulgers crimes by the FBI? What happens when there are corrupt FBI people? What is really going on here? It could be interesting.
The following article is about Whitey's brother William, but tells a good piece of the story. He is seen here with Mumbles Menino the forever Mayor of Boston.
JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF
William Bulger chatted with Mayor Thomas M. Menino at a memorial
last month for Paul Cellucci. Bulger’s friends say he has slowed down
since heart surgery in 2011.A once-feared politician whose rise to power mirrored his brother’s descent into crime, William has told friends that the scrutiny the trial has brought to his family has been difficult for him. He has also complained to friends that he feels that he, too, is one of his brother’s victims, since he was forced out of his job as president of the University of Massachusetts amid questions about his relationship with Whitey.
Robert H. Quinn — a friend and former House speaker who entered the Legislature with Bulger in 1960 — speculated that the prospect of unwelcome press attention has kept William, 79, away from the trial, even as William’s daughter and another brother, John, have appeared on the wooden bench reserved for relatives.
“It’s a tough decision,” said Quinn, 85, who has regular lunches with Bulger at Doyle’s Café in Jamaica Plain. “And one of the decisions I’m sure relates to you boys [in the media] and whether you’ll say, ‘Shame on him for showing up,’ and if he doesn’t show up, you’ll say, ‘Shame on him; he doesn’t give a damn.’ So what are you going to do?”
Related
Bulger’s absence from the trial does not mean he has
cut off contact with Whitey. William has visited his brother multiple
times in Plymouth County jail. When Whitey was captured in 2011, William
also attended his arraignment, and the two exchanged smiles upon seeing one another, apparently for the first time since Whitey fled federal authorities and went into hiding in 1994.
Since the trial began, William has declined to speak to the news
media, so his reasons for avoiding the courthouse are not known. No one
answered the door this week at his home in South Boston or at his summer
home in Mashpee.After undergoing heart surgery in 2011, he has, friends say, been moving more slowly than during his long reign as president of the Massachusetts Senate, from 1978 to 1996. Last month, he was among the many retired lawmakers at the memorial service for Paul Cellucci, former governor, at the State House.
W. Paul White, who served in the Senate with Bulger, said the two chatted briefly at the service. “I just said to him, ‘I hope you’re doing well; this is a difficult time,’ and he smiled and said, ‘Well, it is a difficult time,’ ” White said.
White surmised that William Bulger wants to avoid creating a spectacle by attending his brother’s trial.
“He probably wants to let things take their course, and it’s important to let these things play out,” White said. “I feel badly for anyone in this situation. It’s so complicated.”
The trial stands as a bookend to another one, six decades ago, when William was 21, and he went to federal court in Boston to watch as Whitey, then 26, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for participating in three bank robberies. Later, he traveled with his father to visit Whitey in prison in Atlanta and Pennsylvania, according to his memoir, “While the Music Lasts: My Life in Politics.”
Back then, the brothers were just just heading into their chosen careers, one in politics, the other in crime. But even as their paths forked, William remained fiercely loyal to Whitey.
Friends say their bond had been forged as boys growing up in a tough public housing development in South Boston, when the neighborhood was an insular enclave of immigrant families from Ireland.
That bygone era remains a touchstone for William Bulger, said his friend, Joseph S. Oteri, a fellow lawyer who saw Bulger several months ago at an event for Boston College Law School alumni.
“We talked about growing up in Southie, we talked about how life has changed,” Oteri said. “Neither one of us came from a monied background.”
But one thing Oteri did not discuss was Whitey Bulger. It is a topic that acquaintances say they do not bring up unless William raises it first, and he seldom does. “Bill’s very close-mouthed, and I didn’t think it was my job,” Oteri said.
One friend said William Bulger feels he has taken a beating in public life because of his brother’s crimes. Yet William has never condemned his gangster brother.
Whitey “is my brother and I love him,’’ he wrote in his 1996 autobiography. He added that he believed Whitey was the target of “planted press stories, absurd rumors, wild exaggerations.’’
In 2001, six years after Whitey fled town, William testified to a grand jury that he had spoken to Whitey once, in 1995, at the Quincy home of a friend, a location arranged to avoid electronic eavesdropping.
“I do have an honest loyalty to my brother, and I care about him, and I know that’s not welcome news, but . . . it’s my hope that I’m never helpful to anyone against him,’’ William testified. “I don’t feel an obligation to help everyone to catch him.’’
Two years later, Governor Mitt Romney forced William Bulger to resign from UMass, after he refused to testify before Congress about Whitey’s whereabouts. Romney argued that William’s ties to his brother had disgraced the university. These days, William Bulger’s world appears to center around his old neighborhood. He still goes for early-morning walks at Castle Island and attends 8 a.m. Mass at Saint Brigid Church, said Raymond L. Flynn, former mayor and a fellow South Boston resident.
On Thursday, William Bulger attended an awards ceremony for Mayor Thomas M. Menino at the Labouré Center, a children’s welfare organization run by Catholic Charities in South Boston. Bulger and his wife, Mary, sat at the head table, in front of the podium.
“He seemed like his normal self. He was cracking jokes, talking about his dislike for the Globe and Herald,” said one neighbor who bumped into Bulger on the street about a month ago. “We talked about how politics has changed in South Boston.”
As they spoke, Whitey was seated just a few miles away in federal court, facing charges that he participated in 19 murders, extorted bookmakers and drug dealers, and stockpiled an arsenal of weapons. William did not mention the courthouse drama, the neighbor said.
“It’s not a subject that he talks about,” he said. “I’m sure it’s affected him, but he doesn’t show it, or at least nothing that I’ve seen.”
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Whom do you trust?
I just don't know. I would guess that the answer is most often "my inner voice." When I am especially frazzled, this doesn't work very well. Then, I reach out to God. As an armchair theologian, I might venture the thought that both are one and the same. Just a thought. But the thing is that I think it is the belief that makes things work.
I watched in horror an episode of Hoarders on TV. Horror because I am such a minimalist that I couldn't even breathe watching the piles of crap in those houses. Then Greeley and I were talking about addictions and depressing depression and concluding, sadly, that the words that the hoarders spoke were the same words that come from the mouths of any addict. Myself included. Did I mention that I smoke?
Then Greeley started up about my fear of heights. For a long time he has been trying to understand this fear. He knows another friend who shares it. He tried again to talk to my rational mind about this irrational fear. I explained that it was visceral. It was also specific. I love flying. I adore small planes. I can't stand to go to our roof top observatory. Greeley is a star man and he goes up there nightly. I have only gone once and never to the higher one on his country house. Never.
Once, going up a ski lift at Killington, VT, I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder at the majestic view. I was so frozen that I couldn't get off at the top of the mountain. I knew I shouldn't have looked. I looked. I climbed the pyramid at Tikal, Guatemala, never looking anywhere but at the stones in front of me. Got to the top, barely, and almost fainted coming down. Now, that could have been because flying saucers land there, or most likely, it was because I am afraid of heights. There was a German lady, a big lady, who had to be carried down because she froze at the top. She must have looked over her shoulder.
But the reason I am telling you this with the opening of "Whom do you trust?" is that when I was at Yosemite Park, I was about to die when we stopped on the way in to look at a view, an extremely precipitous view and the fear came. At that same moment I remembered that either a yoga teacher or a eurythmy teacher had told me to cross my arms in front of my chest and the fear would go away. I did so. The fear left. I couldn't believe it! When I uncrossed them, back it came with the faintness, the butterflies, the knees going weak.
I have no idea what went on in the esoteric sense. But in my world, I had a cure. Belief? Magic? Trust? I don't know. It worked and still works. This from the mother who gave her son a little stone when he was a kid. He had been afraid of squirrels or chipmunks or something. I gave him a "magic" stone that would protect him from any chipmunk attacks...and it worked! Is it belief? Is our unconscious mind really dumb? Or is there real magic that happens when you believe enough? We all make wishes when we blow out our birthday candles. Many of us have wished upon a star. Fun to think about.
I watched in horror an episode of Hoarders on TV. Horror because I am such a minimalist that I couldn't even breathe watching the piles of crap in those houses. Then Greeley and I were talking about addictions and depressing depression and concluding, sadly, that the words that the hoarders spoke were the same words that come from the mouths of any addict. Myself included. Did I mention that I smoke?
Then Greeley started up about my fear of heights. For a long time he has been trying to understand this fear. He knows another friend who shares it. He tried again to talk to my rational mind about this irrational fear. I explained that it was visceral. It was also specific. I love flying. I adore small planes. I can't stand to go to our roof top observatory. Greeley is a star man and he goes up there nightly. I have only gone once and never to the higher one on his country house. Never.
Once, going up a ski lift at Killington, VT, I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder at the majestic view. I was so frozen that I couldn't get off at the top of the mountain. I knew I shouldn't have looked. I looked. I climbed the pyramid at Tikal, Guatemala, never looking anywhere but at the stones in front of me. Got to the top, barely, and almost fainted coming down. Now, that could have been because flying saucers land there, or most likely, it was because I am afraid of heights. There was a German lady, a big lady, who had to be carried down because she froze at the top. She must have looked over her shoulder.
But the reason I am telling you this with the opening of "Whom do you trust?" is that when I was at Yosemite Park, I was about to die when we stopped on the way in to look at a view, an extremely precipitous view and the fear came. At that same moment I remembered that either a yoga teacher or a eurythmy teacher had told me to cross my arms in front of my chest and the fear would go away. I did so. The fear left. I couldn't believe it! When I uncrossed them, back it came with the faintness, the butterflies, the knees going weak.
I have no idea what went on in the esoteric sense. But in my world, I had a cure. Belief? Magic? Trust? I don't know. It worked and still works. This from the mother who gave her son a little stone when he was a kid. He had been afraid of squirrels or chipmunks or something. I gave him a "magic" stone that would protect him from any chipmunk attacks...and it worked! Is it belief? Is our unconscious mind really dumb? Or is there real magic that happens when you believe enough? We all make wishes when we blow out our birthday candles. Many of us have wished upon a star. Fun to think about.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Meditation
I was randomly looking through free youtube meditation videos yesterday. A friend had called and needed a meditation to take to her women's group. I found a few and tried a few. By then it was too late for my friend, but I was having fun. I think it was a pretty scientific endeavor. Testing for blast off.
I tried a few nice ones. I rejected a few weird ones. You just want to be careful about opening yourself to some people's inner core. There are a lot of weird people and trips out there. But, I trust myself. I stopped at the first indication that it was not a place I wanted to go or a person I wanted to be with. Some could be rejected instantly. Creepy voice or overdone promises or "You can reach enlightenment if you send money." My search was, after all, for free meditation downloads.
I don't know any Sanskrit except a few words like "OM". But, I trust Deepak Chopra. I did a 16 minute meditation that he had posted. I trusted that the Sanskrit mantra he gave was saying something nice or profound. With my iphone next to me, I went very far away and felt profoundly rested and renewed. Thank you D.
I am sharing this because I sometimes get the impression that many of us make too much of the question of how to meditate and some of us make too big a deal about where and when and how long and what outer conditions. Some or all of this can be important in a practice, but if it is getting in the way of just dropping into that meditative place, if it is giving you reasons not to meditate or if it is making you self critical "I'm not very good at meditating." then maybe it is time to lighten up and enjoy yourself. I think a good moment of meditation that brings a smile to your lips or a lift in your heart is worth its weight in gold.
My message today is "Lighten up!" Bring some light into your heart. It is not hard. Namaste.
I tried a few nice ones. I rejected a few weird ones. You just want to be careful about opening yourself to some people's inner core. There are a lot of weird people and trips out there. But, I trust myself. I stopped at the first indication that it was not a place I wanted to go or a person I wanted to be with. Some could be rejected instantly. Creepy voice or overdone promises or "You can reach enlightenment if you send money." My search was, after all, for free meditation downloads.
I don't know any Sanskrit except a few words like "OM". But, I trust Deepak Chopra. I did a 16 minute meditation that he had posted. I trusted that the Sanskrit mantra he gave was saying something nice or profound. With my iphone next to me, I went very far away and felt profoundly rested and renewed. Thank you D.
I am sharing this because I sometimes get the impression that many of us make too much of the question of how to meditate and some of us make too big a deal about where and when and how long and what outer conditions. Some or all of this can be important in a practice, but if it is getting in the way of just dropping into that meditative place, if it is giving you reasons not to meditate or if it is making you self critical "I'm not very good at meditating." then maybe it is time to lighten up and enjoy yourself. I think a good moment of meditation that brings a smile to your lips or a lift in your heart is worth its weight in gold.
My message today is "Lighten up!" Bring some light into your heart. It is not hard. Namaste.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Doing Nothing is so Hard
I've been here before. I've been here before for some extended periods of time. I am basically doing nothing right now. The only reason I can see for this is that I don't have a clear picture of what my next step is. By 'doing nothing' I don't mean that I am not doing anything. I am keeping my house and body clean, nourishing my body, tending my garden...that kind of daily maintenance. I am walking good distances every day and swimming when I get the chance.
The problem is this feeling that I should be doing something more. It is an inner restlessness in a time of outer peacefulness. The thing is that I have learned through many experiences that for me it is not good to force the issue. I have tried making plans recently and they have not flowed. When this has happened in the past and I have thrown my will into forcing the issue, things still haven't flowed. So, now I wait until I know my next move.
Until that time, I am reading fun books and plodding through "Dirty Wars" by Jeremy Scahill. I know, I mentioned this months ago. I read a book a day and this one is taking me forever. That is because it is a game changer. There is pretty much nothing in the news today or last week or last month that doesn't somehow have light thrown on it by this story of our actions in the Middle East as researched and written by Jeremy. He is not only a fabulous story teller, but a great journalist. I am lucky to have this time with myself and with Jeremy.
The problem is this feeling that I should be doing something more. It is an inner restlessness in a time of outer peacefulness. The thing is that I have learned through many experiences that for me it is not good to force the issue. I have tried making plans recently and they have not flowed. When this has happened in the past and I have thrown my will into forcing the issue, things still haven't flowed. So, now I wait until I know my next move.
Until that time, I am reading fun books and plodding through "Dirty Wars" by Jeremy Scahill. I know, I mentioned this months ago. I read a book a day and this one is taking me forever. That is because it is a game changer. There is pretty much nothing in the news today or last week or last month that doesn't somehow have light thrown on it by this story of our actions in the Middle East as researched and written by Jeremy. He is not only a fabulous story teller, but a great journalist. I am lucky to have this time with myself and with Jeremy.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Life before widespread use of computers had some benefits.
Long long ago and far far away in times when dreams came true....I was broke and had bought a lemon of a used car for not much money and it had crapped out almost immediately. (this was actually about twenty-seven years ago) I lusted after a new Jeep Cherokee. I lived in New England and had three kids and I wanted 4 wheel drive for winter fun. I came up with an idea and put it in motion.
I dressed up like a rich Yankee. This means simple, tailored, good quality and went to the Jeep dealership and picked out the car I wanted. We came to a price, they asked me if I wanted financing. I said, "Yes". They asked me to fill out an application form. I said that I earned over $100,000 a year and had hundreds of thousands in the bank. Five minutes later I drove out of the lot in my new car. No computers. No phone calls. Simple sweet deal.
I have no idea where I got the guts to do that. I figured there was nothing to loose. If they had checked me out, all I would have had to say was, "I must have been mistaken." I met every payment except one for the next five years. They didn't make a mistake giving me the car and maybe they knew I was full of it the whole time. I don't have a clue.
But, these days with computers and all, anyone can find anything anytime about everyone. This seems to me to take a lot of the fun out of life. I used to love calling the Research Librarian at the Boston Public Library with questions. If I couldn't find the right book for research and the encyclopedia didn't give me enough, I called these genius ladies and they would call back with the info. Yes, it is easier now to whip out my phone and Google something, but it lacks the fun, the mystery and most of all the human connection. Another old lady mourning the past. Sorry.
So, we are all hearing all the time about the NSA with its ability to know everything about everyone. So I looked up the NSA in the wikipedia. From what I have read this is just the tip of the iceberg because in addition to the obscene number of employees mining data, the NSA now uses mercenary companies (Blackwater ilk) in pretty enormous numbers. Scary some of those guys. In any case below is the scoop on the NSA. We might as well know what we are up against and who the research librarians of today are.
The National Security Agency (NSA) is the central producer and manager of signals intelligence for the United States. The NSA operates under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense, and reports to the Director of National Intelligence.
Estimated to be one of the largest U.S. intelligence agencies in terms of personnel and budget, the NSA is primarily tasked with collecting and analyzing information and data of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence value, including through clandestine means.[5] The agency is also responsible for the protection of U.S. government communications and information systems,[6] which involves information security, cryptanalysis and cryptography. Due to the organization's secrecy, NSA is at times explained to stand for "No Such Agency" or "Never Say Anything".[7]
While the CIA serves as the national coordinator for human intelligence (HUMINT), the NSA is tasked with coordination and deconfliction of national SIGINT missions across the intelligence community, with all other government establishments being prevented by law from engaging in such activities without the approval of the Defense Secretary following consultations with the NSA.[8][broken citation] As part of these streamlining responsibilities, the agency has a co-located organization called the Central Security Service, which was created to facilitate cooperation between NSA and other U.S. military cryptanalysis components. The NSA Director, who is at least a lieutenant general or vice admiral, also serves as the Commander of the United States Cyber Command and Chief of the Central Security Service.
History
The predecessor of the National Security Agency was the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA), created on May 20, 1949.[9] This organization was originally established within the U.S. Department of Defense under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.[9] The AFSA was to direct Department of Defense communications and electronic intelligence activities, except those of U.S. military intelligence units.[9] AFSA failed to achieve a centralized communications intelligence mechanism, and failed to coordinate with civilian agencies that shared its interests (the Department of State, CIA, and FBI).[9]
In December 1951, President Harry S. Truman ordered a study to correct AFSA's failures. Six months later, the four members finished and issued the Brownell Report, which criticized AFSA, strengthened it and resulted in its redesignation as the National Security Agency.[10] The agency was formally established by Truman in a memorandum of October 24, 1952, that revised National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9.[11] Truman's memo was later declassified.[11]
The heraldic insignia of NSA consists of an eagle inside a circle, grasping a key in its talons.[12] The eagle represents the agency's national mission.[12] Its breast features a shield with bands of red and white, taken from the Great Seal of the United States, and represents Congress.[12] The key is taken from the emblem of Saint Peter and represents security.[12]
When the NSA was created, the agency had no emblem and used that of the Department of Defense.[13] The agency adopted its first of two emblems in 1963.[13] The current NSA insignia has been in use since 1965, when then-Director, LTG Marshall S. Carter (USA) ordered the creation of a device to represent the agency.[14]
National Cryptologic Memorial
Crews associated with NSA missions have been involved in a number of dangerous and deadly situations.[15] The USS Liberty incident in 1967 and USS Pueblo incident in 1968 are examples of the losses endured during the Cold War.[15]
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service Cryptologic Memorial honors and remembers the fallen personnel, both military and civilian, of these intelligence missions.[16] It is made of black granite, and has 171 names (as of 2013) carved into it.[16] It is located at NSA headquarters. A tradition of declassifying the stories of the fallen was begun in 2001.[16]
In 1999, NSA founded the NSA Hall of Honor, a memorial at the National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland.[17] The memorial is a "tribute to the pioneers and heroes who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to American cryptology".[17] NSA employees must be retired for more than fifteen years to qualify for the memorial.[17]
NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland
An exit sign for NSA employees along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway
The main NSA headquarters and operations building is what James Bamford, author of Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, describes as "a modern boxy structure" that appears similar to "any stylish office building."[27] which is covered with one-way dark glass.[27] The building has 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m2), or more than 68 acres (28 ha), of floor space. Bamford said that the U.S. Capitol "could easily fit inside it four times over."[27] Under the outside glass the building uses copper shielding to trap in any signals and sounds to prevent espionage.[27] The facility has over 100 watchposts,[28] one of them being the visitor control center, a two-story area that serves as the entrance.[27] At the entrance, a white pentagonal structure,[29] visitor badges are issued to visitors, and security clearances of employees are checked.[30] The visitor center includes a painting of the NSA seal.[29]
The OPS2A building, the tallest building in the NSA complex and the
location of much of the agency's operations directorate, is accessible
from the visitor center. Bamford described it as a "dark glass Rubik's Cube".[31]
The facility's "red corridor" houses non-security operations such as
concessions and the drug store. The name refers to the "red badge" which
is worn by someone without a security clearance. The NSA headquarters
includes a cafeteria, a credit union, ticket counters for airlines and
entertainment, a barbershop, and a bank.[29] NSA headquarters has its own post office, fire department, and police force.[32][33][34]
The employees at the NSA headquarters reside in various places in the Baltimore-Washington area, including Annapolis, Baltimore, and Columbia in Maryland and the District of Columbia, including the Georgetown community.[35]
Headquarters at Fort Meade circa 1950s
When the agency was established, its headquarters and cryptographic center were in the Naval Security Station in Washington, D.C.. The COMINT functions were located in Arlington Hall in Northern Virginia, which served as the headquarters of the U.S. Army's cryptographic operations.[36] Because the Soviet Union
had detonated a nuclear bomb and because the facilities were crowded,
the federal government wanted to move several agencies, including the
AFSA/NSA. A planning committee considered Fort Knox, but Fort Meade, Maryland,
was ultimately chosen as NSA headquarters because it was far enough
away from Washington, D.C. in case of a nuclear strike and was close
enough so its employees would not have to move their families.[37]
Construction of additional buildings began after the agency occupied buildings at Ft. Meade in the late 1950s, which they soon outgrew.[38] In 1963 the new headquarters building, nine stories tall, opened. NSA workers referred to the building as the "Headquarters Building" and since the NSA management occupied the top floor, workers used "Ninth Floor" to refer to their leaders.[39] COMSEC remained in Washington, D.C., until its new building was completed in 1968.[38] In September 1986, the Operations 2A and 2B buildings, both copper-shielded to prevent eavesdropping, opened with a dedication by President Ronald Reagan.[40] The four NSA buildings became known as the "Big Four."[40] The NSA director moved to 2B when it opened.[40]
Groundbreaking for the High Performance Computing Center 2, May 2013
Stretching 16 years into the future, increments 2 and 3 would quadruple the space, covering 5,800,000 square feet (54 ha; 0.21 sq mi) with 60 buildings and 40 parking garages.[32]
NSA operates RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, which was, according to BBC News in 2007, the largest electronic monitoring station in the world.[48] Planned in 1954, and opened in 1960, the base covered 562 acres (227 ha; 0.878 sq mi) as of 1999.[49]
In 2013, a new Consolidated Intelligence Center, also to be used by NSA, is being built at the headquarters of the United States Army Europe in Weisbaden, Germany.[50] NSA's partnership with Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German foreign intelligence service, was confirmed by BND president Gerhard Schindler.[50]
Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado
As of 2012, NSA collected intelligence from four geostationary satellites.[51] Satellite receivers were at Roaring Creek station in Catawissa, Pennsylvania and Salt Creek in Arbuckle, California.[51] It operated ten to twenty taps
on U.S. telecom switches. NSA had installations in several U.S. states
and from them observed intercepts from Europe, the Middle East, North
Africa, Latin America, and Asia.[51]
NSA had facilities at Friendship Annex (FANX) in Linthicum, Maryland, which is a 20 to 25-minute drive from Ft. Meade;[52] the Aerospace Data Facility at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora outside Denver, Colorado; NSA Texas in the Texas Cryptology Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas; NSA Georgia at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia; NSA Hawaii in Honolulu, the Multiprogram Research Facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and elsewhere.[35][51]
On January 6, 2011 a groundbreaking ceremony was held to begin construction on NSA's first Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative (CNCI) Data Center, known as the "Utah Data Center" for short. The billion data center is being built at Camp Williams, Utah, located 25 miles (40 km) miles south of Salt Lake City. The data center will help support the agency's National Cyber-security Initiative.[53] It is expected to be operational by September 2013.[51]
In 2009, to protect its assets and to access more electricity, NSA sought to decentralize and expand its existing facilities in Ft. Meade and Menwith Hill,[54] the latter expansion expected to be completed by 2015.[43]
The Yakima Herald-Republic cited Bamford, saying that many of NSA's bases for its Echelon program were a legacy system, using outdated, 1990s technology.[55] In 2004, NSA closed its operations at Bad Aibling Station (Field Station 81) in Bad Aibling, Germany.[56] In 2012, NSA began to move some of its operations at Yakima Research Station, Yakima Training Center, in Washington state to Colorado, planning to leave Yakima closed.[57] As of 2013, NSA also intended to close operations at Sugar Grove, West Virginia.[55]
Brochure of the NSA about polygraph testing
The NSA conducts polygraph
tests of employees. For new employees, the tests are meant to discover
enemy spies who are applying to the NSA and to uncover any information
that could make an applicant pliant to coercion.[62] As part of the latter, historically EPQs or "embarrassing personal questions" about sexual behavior had been included about the NSA polygraph.[62]
The NSA also conducts five-year periodic reinvestigation polygraphs of
employees, focusing on counterintelligence programs. In addition the NSA
conducts aperiodic polygraph investigations in order to find spies and
leakers; those who refuse to take them may receive "termination of
employment", according to a 1982 memorandum from the director of the
NSA. There are also "special access examination" polygraphs for
employees who wish to work in highly sensitive areas, and those
polygraphs cover counterintelligence questions and some questions about
behavior.[63] NSA's brochure states that the average test length is between two and four hours.[64] A 1983 report of the Office of Technology Assessment
stated that "It appears that the NSA [National Security Agency] (and
possibly CIA) use the polygraph not to determine deception or
truthfulness per se, but as a technique of interrogation to encourage
admissions."[65]
Sometimes applicants in the polygraph process confess to committing
felonies such as murder, rape, and selling of illegal drugs. Between
1974 and 1979, of the 20,511 job applicants who took polygraph tests,
695 (3.4%) confessed to previously felony crimes; almost all of those
crimes had been undetected.[62]
In 2010 the NSA produced a video explaining its polygraph process.[66] The video, ten minutes long, is titled "The Truth About the Polygraph" and was posted to the website of the Defense Security Service. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post said that the video portrays "various applicants, or actors playing them -- it’s not clear -- describing everything bad they had heard about the test, the implication being that none of it is true."[67] AntiPolygraph.org argues that the NSA-produced video omits some information about the polygraph process; it produced a video responding to the NSA video.[66] George Maschke, the founder of the website, accused the NSA polygraph video of being "Orwellian".[67]
According to the Washington Post, "[e]very day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications. The NSA sorts a fraction of those into 70 separate databases."[69]
Because of its listening task, NSA/CSS has been heavily involved in cryptanalytic research, continuing the work of predecessor agencies which had broken many World War II codes and ciphers (see, for instance, Purple, Venona project, and JN-25).
In 2004, NSA Central Security Service and the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to expand NSA Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Program.[70]
As part of the National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23 (NSPD 54), signed on January 8, 2008 by President Bush, the NSA became the lead agency to monitor and protect all of the federal government's computer networks from cyber-terrorism.[6]
Due to its incessant work, NSA is one of the largest electricity consumers in the U.S.
Following a major power outage in 2000, in 2003 and in follow ups through 2007, The Baltimore Sun
reported that the NSA was at risk of electrical overload because of
insufficient internal electrical infrastructure at Fort Meade to support
the amount of equipment being installed. This problem was apparently
recognized in the 1990s but not made a priority, and "now the agency's
ability to keep its operations going is threatened."[71]
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE, now Constellation Energy) provided NSA with 65 to 75 megawatts at Ft. Meade in 2007, and expected that an increase of 10 to 15 megawatts would be needed later that year.[72] In 2011, NSA at Ft. Meade was Maryland's largest consumer of power.[23] In 2007, as BGE's largest customer, NSA bought as much electricity as Annapolis, the capital city of Maryland.[71]
One estimate put the potential for power consumption by the new Utah Data Center at $40 million per year.[51]
NSA/CSS, in combination with the equivalent agencies in the United Kingdom (Government Communications Headquarters), Canada (Communications Security Establishment), Australia (Defence Signals Directorate), and New Zealand (Government Communications Security Bureau), otherwise known as the UKUSA group,[74] was reported to be in command of the operation of the so-called Echelon system. Its capabilities were suspected to include the ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's transmitted civilian telephone, fax and data traffic.[75]
During the early 1970s, the first of what became more than eight large satellite communications dishes were installed at Menwith Hill.[76] Investigative journalist Duncan Campbell reported in 1988 on the Echelon surveillance program, an extension of the UKUSA Agreement on global signals intelligence Sigint, and detailed how the eavesdropping operations worked.[77] In November 3, 1999 the BBC reported that they had confirmation from the Australian Government of the existence of a powerful "global spying network" codenamed Echelon, that could "eavesdrop on every single phone call, fax or e-mail, anywhere on the planet" with Britain and the United States as the chief protagonists. They confirmed that Menwith Hill was "linked directly to the headquarters of the US National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade in Maryland".[78]
NSA's United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) strictly prohibited the interception or collection of information about "... U.S. persons, entities, corporations or organizations...." without explicit written legal permission from the United States Attorney General when the subject is located abroad, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when within U.S. borders. Alleged Echelon-related activities, including its use for motives other than its national security, including political and industrial espionage, received criticism from countries outside the UKUSA alliance.[79][80]
The NSA began the PRISM electronic surveillance and data mining program in 2007.[82][83] PRISM gathers communications data on foreign targets from nine major U.S. internet-based communication service providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. Data gathered include email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP chats such as Skype, and file transfers. Another program, Boundless Informant, employs big data databases, cloud computing technology, and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to analyze data collected worldwide by the NSA, including that gathered by way of the PRISM program.[84][citation needed]
The Real Time Regional Gateway was a data collection program introduced in 2005 in Iraq by NSA during the Iraq War. It consisted of gathering all Iraqi electronic communication, storing it, then searching and otherwise analyzing it. It was effective in providing information about Iraqi insurgents who had eluded less comprehensive techniques.[85] Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian believes that the "collect it all" strategy introduced by NSA director Alexander shows that "the NSA's goal is to collect, monitor and store every telephone and internet communication" worldwide.[86]
NSA's mission, as set forth in Executive Order 12333, is to collect information that constitutes "foreign intelligence or counterintelligence" while not
"acquiring information concerning the domestic activities of United
States persons". NSA has declared that it relies on the FBI to collect
information on foreign intelligence activities within the borders of the
USA, while confining its own activities within the USA to the embassies
and missions of foreign nations.[citation needed]
NSA's domestic surveillance activities are limited by the requirements imposed by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; however, these protections do not apply to non-U.S. persons located outside of U.S. borders, so the NSA's foreign surveillance efforts are subject to far fewer limitations under U.S. law.[88] The specific requirements for domestic surveillance operations are contained in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), which does not extend protection to non-U.S. citizens located outside of U.S. territory.[88]
These activities, especially the publicly acknowledged domestic telephone tapping and call database programs, have prompted questions about the extent of the NSA's activities and concerns about threats to privacy and the rule of law.[citation needed]
The number of exemptions from legal requirements has also been criticized. When in 1964 the Congress was hearing a bill giving the director of the NSA the power to fire at will any employee, the Washington Post wrote: "This is the very definition of arbitrariness. It means that an employee could be discharged and disgraced on the basis of anonymous allegations without the slightest opportunity to defend himself." Yet, the bill was accepted with overwhelming majority.[89]
ThinThread contained advanced data mining capabilities. It also had a 'privacy mechanism'; surveillance was stored encrypted; decryption required a warrant. The research done under this program may have contributed to the technology used in later systems. Thinthread was cancelled when Michael Hayden chose Trailblazer, which did not include Thinthread's privacy system.[93]
Trailblazer Project ramped up circa 2000. SAIC, Boeing, CSC, IBM, and Litton worked on it. Some NSA whistleblowers complained internally about major problems surrounding Trailblazer. This led to investigations by Congress and the NSA and DoD Inspectors General. The project was cancelled circa 2003-4; it was late, overbudget, and didn't do what it was supposed to do. The Baltimore Sun ran articles about this in 2006–07. The government then raided the whistleblower's houses. One of them, Thomas Drake, was charged with in 2010 in an unusual use of espionage law. He and his defenders claim that he was actually being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project. In 2011, all 10 original charges against Drake were dropped.[94][95]
Turbulence started circa 2005. It was developed in small, inexpensive 'test' pieces rather than one grand plan like Trailblazer. It also included offensive cyber-warfare capabilities, like injecting malware into remote computers. Congress criticized Turbulence in 2007 for having similar bureaucratic problems as Trailblazer.[95] It was to be a realization of information processing at higher speeds in cyberspace.[96]
One such surveillance program, authorized by the U.S. Signals Intelligence Directive 18 of President George Bush, was the Highlander Project undertaken for the National Security Agency by the U.S. Army 513th Military Intelligence Brigade. NSA relayed telephone (including cell phone) conversations obtained from both ground, airborne, and satellite monitoring stations to various U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Officers, including the 201st Military Intelligence Battalion. Conversations of citizens of the U.S. were intercepted, along with those of other nations.[98]
Proponents of the surveillance program claim that the President has executive authority to order such action, arguing that laws such as FISA are overridden by the President's Constitutional powers. In addition, some argued that FISA was implicitly overridden by a subsequent statute, the Authorization for Use of Military Force, although the Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld deprecates this view. In the August 2006 case ACLU v. NSA, U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor concluded that NSA's warrantless surveillance program was both illegal and unconstitutional. On July 6, 2007 the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the decision on the grounds that the ACLU lacked standing to bring the suit.[99]
On January 17, 2006, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit, CCR v. Bush, against the George W. Bush Presidency. The lawsuit challenged the National Security Agency's (NSA's) surveillance of people within the U.S., including the interception of CCR emails without securing a warrant first.[100][101]
In September 2008, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class action lawsuit against the NSA and several high-ranking officials of the Bush administration,[102] charging an "illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet communications surveillance,"[103] based on documentation provided by former AT&T technician Mark Klein.[104]
On April 25, 2013, the NSA obtained a court order requiring Verizon's Business Network Services to provide information on all calls in its system to the NSA "on an ongoing daily basis", as reported by The Guardian on June 6, 2013.[108][109]
Its secure government communications work has involved the NSA in numerous technology areas, including the design of specialized communications hardware and software, production of dedicated semiconductors (at the Ft. Meade chip fabrication plant), and advanced cryptography research. For 50 years, NSA designed and built most of its computer equipment in house, but from the 1990s until about 2003 when U.S. Congress curtailed the practice, the agency contracted with the private sector in the fields of research and equipment.[110]
NSA was embroiled in some minor controversy concerning its
involvement in the creation of the Data Encryption Standard (DES), a
standard and public block cipher algorithm used by the U.S. government and banking community. During the development of DES by IBM
in the 1970s, NSA recommended changes to some details of the design.
There was suspicion that these changes had weakened the algorithm
sufficiently to enable the agency to eavesdrop if required, including
speculation that a critical component—the so-called S-boxes—had been altered to insert a "backdoor"
and that the reduction in key length might have made it feasible for
NSA to discover DES keys using massive computing power. It has since
been observed that the S-boxes in DES are particularly resilient against
differential cryptanalysis, a technique which was not publicly discovered until the late 1980s, but which was known to the IBM DES team. The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
reviewed NSA's involvement, and concluded that while the agency had
provided some assistance, it had not tampered with the design.[111][112]
In late 2009 NSA declassified information stating that "NSA worked
closely with IBM to strengthen the algorithm against all except brute
force attacks and to strengthen substitution tables, called S-boxes.
Conversely, NSA tried to convince IBM to reduce the length of the key
from 64 to 48 bits. Ultimately they compromised on a 56-bit key."[113]
A new hash standard, SHA-3, has recently been selected through the competition concluded October 2, 2012 with the selection of Keccak as the algorithm. The process to select SHA-3 was similar to the one held in choosing the AES, which concluded in 2001.
One of NSA's published patents describes a method of geographically locating an individual computer site in an Internet-like network, based on the latency of multiple network connections.[125] Although no public patent exists, NSA is reported to have used a similar locating technology called trilateralization that allows real-time tracking of an individual’s location, including altitude from ground level, using data obtained from cellphone towers.[126]
On 25th July 2013 Template:This day has not happened yet, The Guardian newspaper's Glen Greenwald alleged that the infamous American whistleblower Edward Snowden held the blueprints of the National Computer Security Center, thereby sparking fresh controversy. [136]
I dressed up like a rich Yankee. This means simple, tailored, good quality and went to the Jeep dealership and picked out the car I wanted. We came to a price, they asked me if I wanted financing. I said, "Yes". They asked me to fill out an application form. I said that I earned over $100,000 a year and had hundreds of thousands in the bank. Five minutes later I drove out of the lot in my new car. No computers. No phone calls. Simple sweet deal.
I have no idea where I got the guts to do that. I figured there was nothing to loose. If they had checked me out, all I would have had to say was, "I must have been mistaken." I met every payment except one for the next five years. They didn't make a mistake giving me the car and maybe they knew I was full of it the whole time. I don't have a clue.
But, these days with computers and all, anyone can find anything anytime about everyone. This seems to me to take a lot of the fun out of life. I used to love calling the Research Librarian at the Boston Public Library with questions. If I couldn't find the right book for research and the encyclopedia didn't give me enough, I called these genius ladies and they would call back with the info. Yes, it is easier now to whip out my phone and Google something, but it lacks the fun, the mystery and most of all the human connection. Another old lady mourning the past. Sorry.
So, we are all hearing all the time about the NSA with its ability to know everything about everyone. So I looked up the NSA in the wikipedia. From what I have read this is just the tip of the iceberg because in addition to the obscene number of employees mining data, the NSA now uses mercenary companies (Blackwater ilk) in pretty enormous numbers. Scary some of those guys. In any case below is the scoop on the NSA. We might as well know what we are up against and who the research librarians of today are.
The National Security Agency (NSA) is the central producer and manager of signals intelligence for the United States. The NSA operates under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense, and reports to the Director of National Intelligence.
Estimated to be one of the largest U.S. intelligence agencies in terms of personnel and budget, the NSA is primarily tasked with collecting and analyzing information and data of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence value, including through clandestine means.[5] The agency is also responsible for the protection of U.S. government communications and information systems,[6] which involves information security, cryptanalysis and cryptography. Due to the organization's secrecy, NSA is at times explained to stand for "No Such Agency" or "Never Say Anything".[7]
While the CIA serves as the national coordinator for human intelligence (HUMINT), the NSA is tasked with coordination and deconfliction of national SIGINT missions across the intelligence community, with all other government establishments being prevented by law from engaging in such activities without the approval of the Defense Secretary following consultations with the NSA.[8][broken citation] As part of these streamlining responsibilities, the agency has a co-located organization called the Central Security Service, which was created to facilitate cooperation between NSA and other U.S. military cryptanalysis components. The NSA Director, who is at least a lieutenant general or vice admiral, also serves as the Commander of the United States Cyber Command and Chief of the Central Security Service.
In December 1951, President Harry S. Truman ordered a study to correct AFSA's failures. Six months later, the four members finished and issued the Brownell Report, which criticized AFSA, strengthened it and resulted in its redesignation as the National Security Agency.[10] The agency was formally established by Truman in a memorandum of October 24, 1952, that revised National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9.[11] Truman's memo was later declassified.[11]
Insignia
When the NSA was created, the agency had no emblem and used that of the Department of Defense.[13] The agency adopted its first of two emblems in 1963.[13] The current NSA insignia has been in use since 1965, when then-Director, LTG Marshall S. Carter (USA) ordered the creation of a device to represent the agency.[14]
Memorials
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service Cryptologic Memorial honors and remembers the fallen personnel, both military and civilian, of these intelligence missions.[16] It is made of black granite, and has 171 names (as of 2013) carved into it.[16] It is located at NSA headquarters. A tradition of declassifying the stories of the fallen was begun in 2001.[16]
In 1999, NSA founded the NSA Hall of Honor, a memorial at the National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland.[17] The memorial is a "tribute to the pioneers and heroes who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to American cryptology".[17] NSA employees must be retired for more than fifteen years to qualify for the memorial.[17]
Facilities
Headquarters
Headquarters for the National Security Agency is set apart from but is technically inside Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. Ft. Meade is about 20 mi (32 km) southwest of Baltimore,[18] and 25 mi (40 km) northeast of Washington, DC.[19] The NSA has its own exit off Maryland Route 295 South labeled "NSA Employees Only".[20][21] The exit may only be used by people with the proper clearances, and security vehicles parked along the road guard the entrance.[22] NSA is the largest employer in the U.S. state of Maryland, and two-thirds of its personnel work at Ft. Meade.[23] Built on 350 acres (140 ha; 0.55 sq mi)[24] of Ft. Meade's 5,000 acres (2,000 ha; 7.8 sq mi),[25] the site has 1,300 buildings and an estimated 18,000 parking spaces.[26][19]
The employees at the NSA headquarters reside in various places in the Baltimore-Washington area, including Annapolis, Baltimore, and Columbia in Maryland and the District of Columbia, including the Georgetown community.[35]
History of headquarters
Construction of additional buildings began after the agency occupied buildings at Ft. Meade in the late 1950s, which they soon outgrew.[38] In 1963 the new headquarters building, nine stories tall, opened. NSA workers referred to the building as the "Headquarters Building" and since the NSA management occupied the top floor, workers used "Ninth Floor" to refer to their leaders.[39] COMSEC remained in Washington, D.C., until its new building was completed in 1968.[38] In September 1986, the Operations 2A and 2B buildings, both copper-shielded to prevent eavesdropping, opened with a dedication by President Ronald Reagan.[40] The four NSA buildings became known as the "Big Four."[40] The NSA director moved to 2B when it opened.[40]
Planned headquarters expansion
NSA had a groundbreaking ceremony at Ft. Meade in May 2013 for its High Performance Computing Center 2, expected to open in 2016.[41] Called Site M, the center has a 150 megawatt power substation, 14 administrative buildings and 10 parking garages.[32] It cost $3.2 billion and covers 227 acres (92 ha; 0.355 sq mi).[32] The center is 1,800,000 square feet (17 ha; 0.065 sq mi)[32] and initially uses 60 megawatts of electricity.[42]Stretching 16 years into the future, increments 2 and 3 would quadruple the space, covering 5,800,000 square feet (54 ha; 0.21 sq mi) with 60 buildings and 40 parking garages.[32]
International stations
Following the signing in 1946–1956[44] of the UKUSA Agreement between the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, who then cooperated on signals intelligence and Echelon,[45] NSA stations were built at GCHQ Bude in Morwenstow, United Kingdom; Geraldton, Pine Gap and Shoal Bay, Australia; Leitrim and Ottawa, Canada; Misawa, Japan; and Waihopai and Tangimoana,[46] New Zealand.[47]NSA operates RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, which was, according to BBC News in 2007, the largest electronic monitoring station in the world.[48] Planned in 1954, and opened in 1960, the base covered 562 acres (227 ha; 0.878 sq mi) as of 1999.[49]
In 2013, a new Consolidated Intelligence Center, also to be used by NSA, is being built at the headquarters of the United States Army Europe in Weisbaden, Germany.[50] NSA's partnership with Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German foreign intelligence service, was confirmed by BND president Gerhard Schindler.[50]
Other U.S. facilities
NSA had facilities at Friendship Annex (FANX) in Linthicum, Maryland, which is a 20 to 25-minute drive from Ft. Meade;[52] the Aerospace Data Facility at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora outside Denver, Colorado; NSA Texas in the Texas Cryptology Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas; NSA Georgia at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia; NSA Hawaii in Honolulu, the Multiprogram Research Facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and elsewhere.[35][51]
On January 6, 2011 a groundbreaking ceremony was held to begin construction on NSA's first Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative (CNCI) Data Center, known as the "Utah Data Center" for short. The billion data center is being built at Camp Williams, Utah, located 25 miles (40 km) miles south of Salt Lake City. The data center will help support the agency's National Cyber-security Initiative.[53] It is expected to be operational by September 2013.[51]
In 2009, to protect its assets and to access more electricity, NSA sought to decentralize and expand its existing facilities in Ft. Meade and Menwith Hill,[54] the latter expansion expected to be completed by 2015.[43]
The Yakima Herald-Republic cited Bamford, saying that many of NSA's bases for its Echelon program were a legacy system, using outdated, 1990s technology.[55] In 2004, NSA closed its operations at Bad Aibling Station (Field Station 81) in Bad Aibling, Germany.[56] In 2012, NSA began to move some of its operations at Yakima Research Station, Yakima Training Center, in Washington state to Colorado, planning to leave Yakima closed.[57] As of 2013, NSA also intended to close operations at Sugar Grove, West Virginia.[55]
Employees
The number of NSA employees is officially classified,[58] but in 2012, the NSA said more than 30,000 employees work at Ft. Meade and other facilities.[1] In 2012 John C. Inglis, the deputy director, said that the total number of NSA employees is "somewhere between 37,000 and one billion" as a joke.[58] In 2013 Der Spiegel stated that the NSA had 40,000 employees.[59] In 2012 Inglis stated that the agency is "probably the biggest employer of introverts."[58] More widely, it has been described as the world's largest single employer of mathematicians.[60] It is the owner of the single largest group of supercomputers.[61]Polygraphing
In 2010 the NSA produced a video explaining its polygraph process.[66] The video, ten minutes long, is titled "The Truth About the Polygraph" and was posted to the website of the Defense Security Service. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post said that the video portrays "various applicants, or actors playing them -- it’s not clear -- describing everything bad they had heard about the test, the implication being that none of it is true."[67] AntiPolygraph.org argues that the NSA-produced video omits some information about the polygraph process; it produced a video responding to the NSA video.[66] George Maschke, the founder of the website, accused the NSA polygraph video of being "Orwellian".[67]
Operations
Mission
NSA's eavesdropping mission includes radio broadcasting, both from various organizations and individuals, the Internet, telephone calls, and other intercepted forms of communication. Its secure communications mission includes military, diplomatic, and all other sensitive, confidential or secret government communications.[68]According to the Washington Post, "[e]very day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications. The NSA sorts a fraction of those into 70 separate databases."[69]
Because of its listening task, NSA/CSS has been heavily involved in cryptanalytic research, continuing the work of predecessor agencies which had broken many World War II codes and ciphers (see, for instance, Purple, Venona project, and JN-25).
In 2004, NSA Central Security Service and the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to expand NSA Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Program.[70]
As part of the National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23 (NSPD 54), signed on January 8, 2008 by President Bush, the NSA became the lead agency to monitor and protect all of the federal government's computer networks from cyber-terrorism.[6]
Power consumption
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE, now Constellation Energy) provided NSA with 65 to 75 megawatts at Ft. Meade in 2007, and expected that an increase of 10 to 15 megawatts would be needed later that year.[72] In 2011, NSA at Ft. Meade was Maryland's largest consumer of power.[23] In 2007, as BGE's largest customer, NSA bought as much electricity as Annapolis, the capital city of Maryland.[71]
One estimate put the potential for power consumption by the new Utah Data Center at $40 million per year.[51]
Echelon
Main article: ECHELON
Echelon was created in the incubator of the Cold War.[73] Today it is a legacy system, and several NSA stations are closing.[55]NSA/CSS, in combination with the equivalent agencies in the United Kingdom (Government Communications Headquarters), Canada (Communications Security Establishment), Australia (Defence Signals Directorate), and New Zealand (Government Communications Security Bureau), otherwise known as the UKUSA group,[74] was reported to be in command of the operation of the so-called Echelon system. Its capabilities were suspected to include the ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's transmitted civilian telephone, fax and data traffic.[75]
During the early 1970s, the first of what became more than eight large satellite communications dishes were installed at Menwith Hill.[76] Investigative journalist Duncan Campbell reported in 1988 on the Echelon surveillance program, an extension of the UKUSA Agreement on global signals intelligence Sigint, and detailed how the eavesdropping operations worked.[77] In November 3, 1999 the BBC reported that they had confirmation from the Australian Government of the existence of a powerful "global spying network" codenamed Echelon, that could "eavesdrop on every single phone call, fax or e-mail, anywhere on the planet" with Britain and the United States as the chief protagonists. They confirmed that Menwith Hill was "linked directly to the headquarters of the US National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade in Maryland".[78]
NSA's United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) strictly prohibited the interception or collection of information about "... U.S. persons, entities, corporations or organizations...." without explicit written legal permission from the United States Attorney General when the subject is located abroad, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when within U.S. borders. Alleged Echelon-related activities, including its use for motives other than its national security, including political and industrial espionage, received criticism from countries outside the UKUSA alliance.[79][80]
Data mining
Main articles: PRISM (surveillance program), Data mining, analytics, information extraction, and data analysis
NSA is reported to use its computing capability to analyze
"transactional" data that it regularly acquires from other government
agencies, which gather it under their own jurisdictional authorities. As
part of this effort, NSA now monitors huge volumes of records of
domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers,
credit-card transactions and travel and telephone records, according to
current and former intelligence officials interviewed by The Wall Street Journal.[81]The NSA began the PRISM electronic surveillance and data mining program in 2007.[82][83] PRISM gathers communications data on foreign targets from nine major U.S. internet-based communication service providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. Data gathered include email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP chats such as Skype, and file transfers. Another program, Boundless Informant, employs big data databases, cloud computing technology, and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to analyze data collected worldwide by the NSA, including that gathered by way of the PRISM program.[84][citation needed]
The Real Time Regional Gateway was a data collection program introduced in 2005 in Iraq by NSA during the Iraq War. It consisted of gathering all Iraqi electronic communication, storing it, then searching and otherwise analyzing it. It was effective in providing information about Iraqi insurgents who had eluded less comprehensive techniques.[85] Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian believes that the "collect it all" strategy introduced by NSA director Alexander shows that "the NSA's goal is to collect, monitor and store every telephone and internet communication" worldwide.[86]
Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO)
In May 2013, it was revealed that the NSA runs a secretive unit called Tailored Access Operations (TAO) which hacks into foreign computers to conduct cyber-espionage. According to a Bloomberg BusinessWeek article titled How the U.S. Government Hacks the World, Pentagon hackers within the NSA harvest nearly 2.1 million gigabytes of stolen data every hour. That is the equivalent of hundreds of millions of pages of text. For years, the NSA did not acknowledge the unit's existence, but a Pentagon official confirmed the unit conducts what it calls "computer network exploitation."Two-man rule
As of 2013 about 1,000 system administrators work for the NSA.[87] Edward Snowden's leaking of PRISM in 2013 caused the NSA to institute a "two-man rule" where two system administrators are required to be present when one accesses certain sensitive information.[87]Domestic activity
| National Security Agency surveillance |
|---|
Map of global NSA data collection
|
NSA's domestic surveillance activities are limited by the requirements imposed by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; however, these protections do not apply to non-U.S. persons located outside of U.S. borders, so the NSA's foreign surveillance efforts are subject to far fewer limitations under U.S. law.[88] The specific requirements for domestic surveillance operations are contained in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), which does not extend protection to non-U.S. citizens located outside of U.S. territory.[88]
These activities, especially the publicly acknowledged domestic telephone tapping and call database programs, have prompted questions about the extent of the NSA's activities and concerns about threats to privacy and the rule of law.[citation needed]
Criticism
The NSA received criticism early on in 1960 after two agents had defected to the Soviet Union. Investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee and a special subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee revealed severe cases of ignorance in personnel security regulations, prompting the former personnel director and the director of security to step down and leading to the adoption of stricter security practices.[89] Nonetheless, security breaches reoccurred only a year later when in an issue of Izvestia of July 23, 1963, a former NSA employee published several cryptologic secrets. The very same day, an NSA clerk-messenger committed suicide as ongoing investigations disclosed that he had sold secret information to the Soviets on a regular basis. The reluctance of Congressional houses to look into these affairs had prompted a journalist to write "If a similar series of tragic blunders occurred in any ordinary agency of Government an aroused public would insist that those responsible be officially censured, demoted, or fired." David Kahn criticized the NSA's tactics of concealing its doings as smug and the Congress' blind faith in the agency's right-doing as shortsighted, and pointed out the necessity of surveillance by the Congress to prevent abuse of power.[89]The number of exemptions from legal requirements has also been criticized. When in 1964 the Congress was hearing a bill giving the director of the NSA the power to fire at will any employee, the Washington Post wrote: "This is the very definition of arbitrariness. It means that an employee could be discharged and disgraced on the basis of anonymous allegations without the slightest opportunity to defend himself." Yet, the bill was accepted with overwhelming majority.[89]
Domestic wiretapping under Richard Nixon
Further information: Church Committee
In the years after President Richard Nixon resigned, there were several investigations of suspected misuse of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and NSA facilities.[90] Senator Frank Church headed a Senate investigating committee (the Church Committee) which uncovered previously unknown activity,[90] such as a CIA plot (ordered by the administration of President John F. Kennedy) to assassinate Fidel Castro.[91] The investigation also uncovered NSA's wiretaps on targeted American citizens.[92] After the Church Committee hearings, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 became law, limiting circumstances under which domestic surveillance was allowed.[90]IT projects: ThinThread, Trailblazer, Turbulence
NSA created new IT systems to deal with the flood of information from new technologies like the internet and cellphones.ThinThread contained advanced data mining capabilities. It also had a 'privacy mechanism'; surveillance was stored encrypted; decryption required a warrant. The research done under this program may have contributed to the technology used in later systems. Thinthread was cancelled when Michael Hayden chose Trailblazer, which did not include Thinthread's privacy system.[93]
Trailblazer Project ramped up circa 2000. SAIC, Boeing, CSC, IBM, and Litton worked on it. Some NSA whistleblowers complained internally about major problems surrounding Trailblazer. This led to investigations by Congress and the NSA and DoD Inspectors General. The project was cancelled circa 2003-4; it was late, overbudget, and didn't do what it was supposed to do. The Baltimore Sun ran articles about this in 2006–07. The government then raided the whistleblower's houses. One of them, Thomas Drake, was charged with in 2010 in an unusual use of espionage law. He and his defenders claim that he was actually being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project. In 2011, all 10 original charges against Drake were dropped.[94][95]
Turbulence started circa 2005. It was developed in small, inexpensive 'test' pieces rather than one grand plan like Trailblazer. It also included offensive cyber-warfare capabilities, like injecting malware into remote computers. Congress criticized Turbulence in 2007 for having similar bureaucratic problems as Trailblazer.[95] It was to be a realization of information processing at higher speeds in cyberspace.[96]
Warrantless wiretaps under George W. Bush
Main article: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
On December 16, 2005, the New York Times reported that, under White House pressure and with an executive order from President George W. Bush,
the National Security Agency, in an attempt to thwart terrorism, had
been tapping phone calls made to persons outside the country, without
obtaining warrants from the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secret court created for that purpose under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).[97]One such surveillance program, authorized by the U.S. Signals Intelligence Directive 18 of President George Bush, was the Highlander Project undertaken for the National Security Agency by the U.S. Army 513th Military Intelligence Brigade. NSA relayed telephone (including cell phone) conversations obtained from both ground, airborne, and satellite monitoring stations to various U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Officers, including the 201st Military Intelligence Battalion. Conversations of citizens of the U.S. were intercepted, along with those of other nations.[98]
Proponents of the surveillance program claim that the President has executive authority to order such action, arguing that laws such as FISA are overridden by the President's Constitutional powers. In addition, some argued that FISA was implicitly overridden by a subsequent statute, the Authorization for Use of Military Force, although the Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld deprecates this view. In the August 2006 case ACLU v. NSA, U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor concluded that NSA's warrantless surveillance program was both illegal and unconstitutional. On July 6, 2007 the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the decision on the grounds that the ACLU lacked standing to bring the suit.[99]
On January 17, 2006, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit, CCR v. Bush, against the George W. Bush Presidency. The lawsuit challenged the National Security Agency's (NSA's) surveillance of people within the U.S., including the interception of CCR emails without securing a warrant first.[100][101]
In September 2008, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class action lawsuit against the NSA and several high-ranking officials of the Bush administration,[102] charging an "illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet communications surveillance,"[103] based on documentation provided by former AT&T technician Mark Klein.[104]
AT&T Internet monitoring
Further information: Hepting v. AT&T, Jewel v. NSA, Mark Klein, NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
In May 2006, Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee, alleged that his company had cooperated with NSA in installing Narus (company) hardware to replace the FBI Carnivore program, to monitor network communications including traffic between American citizens.[105]Wiretapping under Barack Obama
In 2009 the NSA intercepted the communications of American citizens, including a Congressman, although the Justice Department believed that the NSA had corrected its errors.[106] United States Attorney General Eric Holder resumed the wiretapping according to his understanding of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amendment of 2008, without explaining what had occurred.[107]On April 25, 2013, the NSA obtained a court order requiring Verizon's Business Network Services to provide information on all calls in its system to the NSA "on an ongoing daily basis", as reported by The Guardian on June 6, 2013.[108][109]
Role in scientific research and development
NSA has been involved in debates about public policy, both indirectly as a behind-the-scenes adviser to other departments, and directly during and after Vice Admiral Bobby Ray Inman's directorship. NSA was a major player in the debates of the 1990s regarding the export of cryptography. Restrictions on export were reduced but not eliminated in 1996.Its secure government communications work has involved the NSA in numerous technology areas, including the design of specialized communications hardware and software, production of dedicated semiconductors (at the Ft. Meade chip fabrication plant), and advanced cryptography research. For 50 years, NSA designed and built most of its computer equipment in house, but from the 1990s until about 2003 when U.S. Congress curtailed the practice, the agency contracted with the private sector in the fields of research and equipment.[110]
Data Encryption Standard
Main article: Data Encryption Standard
Clipper chip
Main article: Clipper chip
Because of concerns that widespread use of strong cryptography would hamper government use of wiretaps, NSA proposed the concept of key escrow
in 1993 and introduced the Clipper chip that would offer stronger
protection than DES but would allow access to encrypted data by
authorized law enforcement officials.[114] The proposal was strongly opposed and key escrow requirements ultimately went nowhere.[115] However, NSA's Fortezza
hardware-based encryption cards, created for the Clipper project, are
still used within government, and NSA ultimately declassified and
published the design of the Skipjack cipher used on the cards.[116][117]Advanced Encryption Standard
Main article: Advanced Encryption Standard
The involvement of NSA in the selection of a successor to DES, the
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), was limited to hardware performance
testing (see AES competition).[118]
NSA has subsequently certified AES for protection of classified
information (for at most two levels, e.g. SECRET information in an
unclassified environment) when used in NSA-approved systems.[119]SHA
The widely used SHA-1 and SHA-2 hash functions were designed by NSA. SHA-1 is a slight modification of the weaker SHA-0 algorithm, also designed by NSA in 1993. This small modification was suggested by NSA two years later, with no justification other than the fact that it provides additional security. An attack for SHA-0 that does not apply to the revised algorithm was indeed found between 1998 and 2005 by academic cryptographers. Because of weaknesses and key length restrictions in SHA-1, NIST deprecates its use for digital signatures, and approves only the newer SHA-2 algorithms for such applications from 2013 on.[120]A new hash standard, SHA-3, has recently been selected through the competition concluded October 2, 2012 with the selection of Keccak as the algorithm. The process to select SHA-3 was similar to the one held in choosing the AES, which concluded in 2001.
Dual EC DRBG random number generator
Main article: Dual EC DRBG
NSA promoted the inclusion of a random number generator called Dual EC DRBG in the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology's 2007 guidelines. This led to speculation of a backdoor which would allow NSA access to data encrypted by systems using that random number generator.[121]Academic research
NSA has invested many millions of dollars in academic research under grant code prefix MDA904, resulting in over 3,000 papers (as of 2007-10-11). NSA/CSS has, at times, attempted to restrict the publication of academic research into cryptography; for example, the Khufu and Khafre block ciphers were voluntarily withheld in response to an NSA request to do so. In response to a FOIA lawsuit, in 2013 the NSA released the 643-page research paper titled, "Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research,[122] " written and compiled by NSA employees to assist other NSA workers in searching for information of interest to the agency on the public Internet.[123]Patents
NSA has the ability to file for a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under gag order. Unlike normal patents, these are not revealed to the public and do not expire. However, if the Patent Office receives an application for an identical patent from a third party, they will reveal NSA's patent and officially grant it to NSA for the full term on that date.[124]One of NSA's published patents describes a method of geographically locating an individual computer site in an Internet-like network, based on the latency of multiple network connections.[125] Although no public patent exists, NSA is reported to have used a similar locating technology called trilateralization that allows real-time tracking of an individual’s location, including altitude from ground level, using data obtained from cellphone towers.[126]
NSANet
NSANet is the official National Security Agency intranet.[127] It is a classified internal network,[128] and TS/SCI.[129] In 2004 it was reported to have used over twenty commercial off-the-shelf operating systems.[130] Some universities that do highly sensitive research are allowed to connect to it.[131] In 1998 it, along with NIPRNET and SIPRNET, had "significant problems with poor search capabilities, unorganized data and old information".[132]National Computer Security Center
The DoD Computer Security Center was founded in 1981 and renamed the National Computer Security Center (NCSC) in 1985. NCSC was responsible for computer security throughout the federal government.[133] NCSC was part of NSA,[134] and during the late 1980s and the 1990s, NSA and NCSC published Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria in a six-foot high Rainbow Series of books that detailed trusted computing and network platform specifications.[135] The Rainbow books were replaced by the Common Criteria, however, in the early 2000s.[135]On 25th July 2013 Template:This day has not happened yet, The Guardian newspaper's Glen Greenwald alleged that the infamous American whistleblower Edward Snowden held the blueprints of the National Computer Security Center, thereby sparking fresh controversy. [136]
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