The Invisible Hand of the NSA

Tapping the News – Civil Liberties – July 1, 2013

The NSA “ShellTrumpet” program collected half a trillion meta-data records in 2012 alone

According to the Guardian, the NSA’s collecting of metadata has skyrocketed in the past year reaching a trillion meta data records by the end 2012.

“Half-a-trillion Internet metadata records were processed in 2012 by one NSA surveillance program alone, The Guardian reported Thursday. The five-year program, codenamed ShellTrumpet, collected its “one trillionth metadata record” on December 31, 2012. Half of that amount was processed in just 2012 alone.

The metadata — which included email addresses, IP addresses, phone numbers and the duration of calls — allow intelligence analysts to learn a great deal about a target, including his or her’s physical location, without even knowing the content of the communications.”
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/27/report-nsa-internet-spying-program-collected-half-a-trillion-records-in-2012/#ixzz2XkpDSV2w

NSA overreach has branched out to undermine EU-US Relations

“I am deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices,” Schulz said in a statement, according to The Wall Street Journal. “If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-U.S. relations.” 

“German federal prosecutors also said they are looking into the reports. The Federal Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement Sunday that it was probing the claims so as to “achieve a reliable factual basis” before considering whether a formal investigation was warranted.”