"New evidence from other UK intelligence documents revealed by Snowden also shows that a GCHQ information security assessment listed “investigative journalists” as a threat in a hierarchy alongside terrorists or hackers."
The Guardian
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A different article on the (in)efficacy of all the "counter-terror" snooping:
Soon after Snowden’s revelations, Alexander said that the N.S.A.’s surveillance programs have stopped “fifty-four different terrorist-related activities.” Most of these were “terrorist plots.” Thirteen involved the United States. Credit for foiling these plots, he continued, was partly due to the metadata program, intended to “find the terrorist that walks among us.” (...)(...) Senator Patrick Leahy (...) called the fifty-four-plots statistic “plainly wrong . . . these weren’t all plots, and they weren’t all thwarted.” He cited a statement by Alexander’s deputy that “there’s only really one example of a case where, but for the use of Section 215 bulk phone-records collection, terrorist activity was stopped.” “He’s right,” [NSA director] Alexander said.
New Yorker
A reminder for why I blog on civil liberties topics in addition to classic defence topics: It's pointless to defend freedom against outsiders if you already lost it to a clique of fellow countrymen!
S O
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