Above image is the actual diagram, though simple, of the MUSCULAR project.  Including the sarcastic smiley face.  This project is a partnership between the NSA and the UK’s GCHQ that infiltrates the communication between Google’s and Yahoo’s data centers across the world.  Visit the following link from The Washington Post for all the details, it is pretty compelling.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story_2.html

The good news is that these companies that we rely on everyday are starting to question Congress as well as trying to find ways to encrypt the data stream so that the NSA will not be able to parse through all the communications coming and going from their data centers.

Finally, the NSA and the President are having to answer questions regarding the USA spying operations. And finally, this was headline news on at least one of the nationial media outlets this morning.  What frustrates me is that it wasn’t the USA’s citizens that caused the NSA and the President to answer for their unconstitutional spy, but foreign leaders.  I am sure they are fed up with the USA snooping around in all their emails and their phone calls.  Please visit the link below for more information:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/28/21209499-us-coping-with-furious-allies-as-nsa-spying-revelations-grow?lite

“The latest report, published Monday in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, said that the National Security Agency had collected information on 60 million calls in that country last December.”

Alex

It boggles my mind that this type of information is not headlines news with our local and national media outlets.  Please take the time to read this link from the ACLU:

https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-free-speech/edward-snowden-saturday-demand-end-surveillance-state

On October 26, there was a rally in DC organized by the StopWatching.US coalition.  This marked the 12th anniversary of the signing of the Patriot Act into law.  As with anything regarding the government, this law was put into place with good (we would hope) intentions, but look at it now?  Being exploited and abused so that our government can watch everything we do even if it is not related to terrorist activities.

Here is a quote from Snowden that is an excerpt from the above link:

“In the last four months, we’ve learned a lot about our government.

We’ve learned that the U.S. intelligence community secretly built a system of pervasive surveillance. Today, no telephone in America makes a call without leaving a record with the NSA. Today, no internet transaction enters or leaves America without passing through the NSA’s hands. Our representatives in Congress tell us this is not surveillance. They’re wrong.

Now it’s time for the government to learn from us. On Saturday, the ACLU, EFF, and the rest of the StopWatching.Us coalition are going to D.C. Join us in sending the message: Stop Watching Us.”

Lets keep the momentum going!!  Spread the word!  We can make a change at the next Presidential election.

Alex