History
A TIMELINE OF THE CONTROVERSY
October 24, 1952 - President Truman establishes the NSA as an extension to the Armed Forces Security Agency
July 27, 1993 - Government establishes policies on how the NSA is permitted to intercept communications
January 13, 2000 - The NSA director, Michael Hayden, states that the NSA:
- May only target US Citizens if they are suspicious to the United States.
- May not target US Citizens overseas without proper consent with Attorney General
Early 2000's - William Binney and J. Wieb disclose details about NSA's spying program Stellar Wind, which intercepts domestic communications
May, 2006 - NSA begins to violate rules governing telephone surveillance by tapping into 4000 phone numbers whose owners clearly have no terrorist ties.
2010 - Washington Post reports that "...[NSA] intercept and store 1.7 billion emails, phone calls, and other type of communications".
February 4, 2011 - Attorney General Eric Holder orders Skype to provide the NSA with video/audio chats.
May, 2012 - NSA audit counts 2776 incidents of unauthorized collection
April 25, 2013 - FISA Court issues order giving NSA unlimited authority to American Citizens' information for a period of no longer than three months
June 5, 2013 - Edward Snowden, former CIA assistant, reveals a host of startling relevations on NSA surveillance. For example, Verizon has been collecting metadata of customers' phone records.
June 6, 2013 - White House defends NSA activities -- "critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats
At Senate meeting, Eric Holder refuses to discuss NSA, reponds evasively saying that it was not an appropriate place for discussion.
Several former NSA employees reveal surveillance of private information has been going on for years, involving all major US phone companies
PRISM Program made public (started in 2007)
-Microsoft (2007)
- Yahoo (2008)
- Google (2009)
- Facebook (2009)
- PalTalk (2009)
- Youtube (2010)
- AOL (2011)
- Skype (2011)
- Apple (2012)
June 7, 2013 - President Obama denies that the NSA has been "listening to your telephone calls".
June 8, 2013 - Republicans and Democrats release similar statements to the Obama Administration, demanding answers
NSA spying controversy becomes prominent
June 9, 2013 - Director of National Intelligence Shawn Turner files NSA controversy to the US Department of Justice
Republican Jim Sensenbrenner denies the Obama Administration's claim that the PATRIOT Act authorizes NSA surveillance, stating that the NSA goes beyond what the act intended.
June 10, 2013 - Edward Snowden claims -- "I could wiretap anyone...if I had a personal email."
Shawn Turner -- "...currently reviewing damage done by recent disclosures"
Justice Department Nanda Chitre -- "The Department of Justice is in initial stages of an investigation."
Jay Carney, spokesman for the White House, says that President Obama has no comment regarding the Edward Snowden.
June 11, 2013 - The Guardian receives secret documents, saying that as much as 97 billion pieces of information are collected by the NSA worldwide
June 12, 2013 - The ACLU becomes the first organization to file a lawsuit against the NSA for violation of privacy
NSA Director Keith Alexander states :
1. NSA helped disrupt dozens of terrorist threats
2. Edward Snowden was incorrect about NSA ability to listen to calls and read emails.
June 14, 2013 - Poll shows increasing amount of citizens concerned about NSA surveillance tactics
Former NSA employee states that thousands of companies work closely with the NSA and have access to classified intelligence.
June 15, 2013 - Officials defend NSA, saying that it is less sweeping than alleged, and that the NSA thwarted terrorist plots in 20+ countries
June 17, 2013 - Senator Ted Cruz (Rep. TX) states that is becoming harder and harder for Americans to trust the government (misleading Bengazi attack information, IRS targeting, and now the NSA controversy.)
Several new polls indicate that the Americans' trust in the Government has reached an all-time low.
Obama states that the Snowden case has been referred to the Department of Justice for further investigation
June 18, 2013 - NSA director states that NSA surveillance has thwarted as many as 50 terrorist plots.
NSA denies claims that the NSA has authority to wiretap citizens
New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, lashes out against NSA -- "What sort of oversight is there inside the NSA to prevents abuse?"
June 20, 2013 - FISA approves NSA to:
1. Keep data of American Citizens for up to five years
2. Retain domestic communications if usable on criminal activity
3. Preserve "Foreign Intelligence" information
4. Access communications gathered by US based machines in order to establish if target is in the US.
June 27, 2013 - It is reported that for two years, the Obama administration allowed NSA to continue to collect records pertaining to Americans' internet usage
June 29, 2013 - Secret Documents reveal that the NSA has:
1. conducted surveillance of European Citizens
2. bugged buildings that housed EU institution
3. infiltrated EU computer network, gaining access to emails and internal docs.
Revelations of NSA spying in EU sparks more disapproval
-German Chancellor Angela Merkel
-German Justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarranberger
-French Premier Francois Hollande
-Martin Shulz, President of European Parliament
-Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn
-Elmar Brok, Chairman of European Parliament of Foreign Affairs Commitee
-Austria's Hannes Swoboda, Head of Social Democrats in European Parliament
July 1, 2013 - German Government opens inquiries into finding out if German laws have been broken by the NSA
President Obama, on a trip to Africa, tries to diffuse tensions between US and EU
July 7, 2013 - Snowden claims that partnerships are organized so that countries can "insulate" their corresponding political leaders from backlash is event somehow becomes public
July 9, 2013 - Brazilian Newspaper claims that US has been collecting info in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.
July 11, 2013 - Newly released documents show how detailed Microsoft instructed the NSA on how to decode encrypted messages on Outlook and Hotmail, and how to access Skydrive.
July 13, 2013 - Glen Greenwald, a journalist, reports that Snowden has highly-damaging documents stored in different parts of the world, that may potentially harm the US
July 28, 2013 - Greenwald and George Stephanopoulos state that the NSA even allows low-level analysts to read emails and phone calls of Americans.
August 20, 2013 - Wall Street Journal reports that the NSA "has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all US internet traffic to hunt for foreign intelligence."
September 10, 2013 - It is learned that from May 2006 to January 2009, NSA violated rules of telephone-record surveillance by collecting information of 16000 phone numbers
October 30, 2013 - NSA intercepts electronic communication as they move:
a) between private facilities of Google and the Internet
b) between private facilities of Yahoo and the Internet
December 5, 2013 - Washington Post reveals that the NSA is gathering 5 billion records per day on cell phones around the world, tracking movement and possible relationships with other numbers.
December 16, 2013 - Judge Richard Leon rules that NSA cell phone surveillance violates privacy rights and is Unconstitutional. However, he puts off his order barring the NSA from continuing to gather information.
January 16, 2014 - It is reported that the NSA has collected and stored around 200 million text messages per day from around the world.
January 17, 2014 - President Obama appoints John Podesta "to lead a comprehensive review of big data and privacy" in the aftermath of revelations about the NSA spying controversy.
February 26, 2014 - The Obama Administration asks the FISA Court for permission to hold millions of phone records longer than the current five-year limit; The Justice Department insists that this information needs to be maintained as evidence for the many lawsuits filed in the wake of Snowden's Revelations.