The NSA’s Massive Data Center Is Coming Online Ahead Of Schedule — And It’s More Powerful Than You Thought According to an NSA whistle-blower, the agency is routinely collecting the full contents of domestic communications. And its supersized Utah Data Center is up and running. Buzzfeed

posted on July 15, 2013 at 3:09pm EDT The National Security Agency’s massive Utah Data Center, designed for communications storage and processing is already up and running, despite agency claims the center won’t open until September. Opening the facility — the largest of its kind in history — is the key final step that will allow the agency to collect and store massive amounts of data on United States citizens. The NSA has numerous other data centers, but the Utah facility will be the central repository, enabling data collection on an unprecedented scale. And according to Russ Tice, a former NSA intelligence analyst who still maintains close ties with numerous colleagues at the agency, it’s not just metadata — which has been a key distinction in the administration’s defense of its intelligence gathering programs. The agency, according to Tice, is currently able to collect the full contents of digital communications. That includes the contents of emails, text messages, Skype communications, and phone calls, as well as financial information, health records, legal documents, and travel documents. This comports with statements given this week by a former senior intelligence official, claiming that NSA Director Keith Alexander’s ethos was to “collect it all, tag it, store it … And whatever it is you want, you go searching for it.” The NSA’s ability to collect and store such vast quantities of information is difficult to grasp. But so is the enormous footprint of the data center in Bluffdale, Utah, 25 miles south of Salt Lake City. The facility, which cost the government $2 billion, covers 1 million square feet, 100,000 of which is purely for computer servers and storage hardware. According to James Bamford’s Wired magazine article published last year, “The Pentagon is attempting to expand its worldwide communications network, known as the Global Information Grid, to handle yottabytes (10^24 bytes) of data. (A yottabyte is a septillion bytes—so large that no one has yet coined a term for the next higher magnitude.)”…

… …“I kept saying [in 2006 and 2009]: It is so much worse, but I can’t explain why right now,” Tice says. “Well, what I’m telling you right now, this is the rest of the story.” While Tice was still at the NSA, he was able to see the identities of numerous targets of surveillance, which included high-level United States government officials. In the evenings, NSA analysts would be given handwritten notes on yellow legal-pad paper listing contact information for targets, including then-Senate hopeful Barack Obama, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, former CIA Director David Petraeus, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Republican Sen. John McCain, and Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein. Other targets include multiple three-star generals and admirals, lawyers, and members of the Senate and the House, including members of the intelligence committees and the armed services committees…

Yes, when it comes to our nation’s “war on terrorism,” we’ve been witnessing a tremendous amount of propaganda, disinformation, and…lies emanating from inside the Beltway in the past few months (which has been preceded by more than a decade of propaganda, disinformation and lies, as well).

Just this week, and even in today’s NY Times, we’ve been reminded—on more than one occasion--that our nation’s leaders tell us one thing as they move in the completely opposite and wrong direction, where and when it matters most.

(I’ve taken the liberty of providing a couple of pieces of “extra credit” reading/viewing, below. I hope you’ll find them enlightening.)



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One of my more recent themes, as far as the far-gone condition of our surveillance state is concerned, is the greater truth that our nation’s highly-propagandized “war on terror” is quickly morphing into what’s now being referenced by many as a “war on crime.” (And, if those reading this think “the war on crime” is not an institutionally racist issue, as it’s being defined by the actions of the FBI, and their profiling of entire communities in urban areas -- and their blatantly racist data manipulation efforts , described herein -- I would strongly recommend that you checkout “3,” below, and click upon the links in that paragraph, in particular.)

As with all things surveilled in our country these days, the proper organizations to facilitate that falsely-labelled effort are our local law enforcement authorities and, on the federal and local levels, the FBI. Here’s a piece that I’m taking the time to republish from over at the American Civil Liberties (ACLU) website, if for nothing else than as a reminder of the organization that’s leading this effort, domestically…



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As many reading this may already be aware of it, thisan example of what happens when the full force of our nation's ubiquitous (and growing in size exponentially, as you read this) domestic and international surveillance infrastructure is used to “fight crime.”

Last but not least, a little, somewhat gratuitous reminder that words matter, especially when they’re posted online in a well-read blog. From Chris Hedges’ interview series (the entire series is well worth a listen) with Paul Jay over at the Real News Network, from the past few days.

Here's the link which starts at 6:45 into the piece.

And, here's the whole broadcast of Part 3 of this 7-part series...

(Please note the screen background, which serves as support for Hedges' commentary in this excerpt between 7:00 and 7:19. Big h/t to Kossacks joe shikspack and Azazello.)