Judge Orders U.S. Government To Release Classified Surveillance Files

For people thinking the conspiracies about government surveillance are just conspiracies, think again.

A Court has ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to open some old files related to a program called "Project Hemisphere".

Project Hemisphere is designed to somehow search trillions of phone records.

It is/was datamining for drug related criminal activities.

And, it is/was a joint effort by the government and a big corporation AT&T !!!!

Apparently a FOIA request has triggered the whole issue.

Still think your phone calls are "private" ?


Judge Orders U.S. Government To Release Classified Surveillance Files

Proponents of digital privacy and government transparency scored a victory on Thursday as a federal judge ordered the Department of Justice to provide files related to a secret telephone spying program.

In 2013, The New York Times reported on the existence of a previously unknown data-mining program known as Project Hemisphere. The project was developed in secret by telecommunications giant AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as a tool to help with “drug-enforcement task-forces.” However, there is concern about mass surveillance of innocent individuals. Hemisphere searches trillions of phone records, identifies the name and location of each and individual on the phone, and then sends the data back to the DOJ.

Now, U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James has found that the U.S. government has failed to justify their reasoning for denying Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to Project Hemisphere. Judge James order the DOJ to provide her with files for her own private review.

A little background ....

Hemisphere Project

The Hemisphere Project, also called simply Hemisphere, is a mass surveillance program conducted by US telephone company AT&T and paid for by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

AT&T employees work alongside the DEA and local law enforcement agencies at High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston,[2] where they supply officials with metadata from a database of telephone calls dating back to 1987.

CAREFUL !! -- Don't dial any "wrong" numbers !!

originally posted by: xuenchen
For people thinking the conspiracies about government surveillance are just conspiracies, think again.

A Court has ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to open some old files related to a program called "Project Hemisphere".

Project Hemisphere is designed to somehow search trillions of phone records.

It is/was datamining for drug related criminal activities.

And, it is/was a joint effort by the government and a big corporation AT&T !!!!

Apparently a FOIA request has triggered the whole issue.

Still think your phone calls are "private" ?


Judge Orders U.S. Government To Release Classified Surveillance Files

Proponents of digital privacy and government transparency scored a victory on Thursday as a federal judge ordered the Department of Justice to provide files related to a secret telephone spying program.

In 2013, The New York Times reported on the existence of a previously unknown data-mining program known as Project Hemisphere. The project was developed in secret by telecommunications giant AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as a tool to help with “drug-enforcement task-forces.” However, there is concern about mass surveillance of innocent individuals. Hemisphere searches trillions of phone records, identifies the name and location of each and individual on the phone, and then sends the data back to the DOJ.

Now, U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James has found that the U.S. government has failed to justify their reasoning for denying Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to Project Hemisphere. Judge James order the DOJ to provide her with files for her own private review.

George Orwell was spot the hell on!

The world isn't so screwed up as it is because of governments who preached freedom and liberty, but because of men/women so morally bankrupt that once they were elected they immediately sold their souls to gain more wealth and power!

Like I always said, watch the politicians preach. Once elected the only time you hear about how much they care about you and your family is when the start getting worried about being re elected!

There is nothing private in data form just ask Podesta. And like Podesta, if you do want to keep things private dig a cellar or bunker to hide your precious.

a reply to: Rosinitiate
Nicely turned and turned out my wise and clever friend.

Well, you see "slavery" was abolished in the 1800s and all slaves became free.

Now some good souls are working on the last social problem left for us, for which

the final fix is "the abolition of freedom".

Once we've abolished both slavery and freedom, we're done.

It would be very unfortunate if the data warehouse lost this information due to some sort of catastrophe. Maybe a crippling virus from Russian hackers? That seems to be a hotbed for all the US problems lately....

How do you do the :sarcasm: tag again?

If you want to have a private conversation get naked in a hot tub with loud music playing in th background.