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SPYING

Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 16, 2013
NSA broke privacy rules repeatedly, audit finds
The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.
WORLD
Aug 16, 2013
Secret court's effectiveness dependent on U.S. government being honest, top judge admits
The leader of the secret court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the U.S. government's vast spying programs says its ability do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 10, 2013
Putin taken to task on soured U.S. relations
Vladimir Putin's Russia has slid back toward the suspicions and mistrust of the Cold War contest with the United States, U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday, adding that it is appropriate to "reassess" a relationship that has been damaged most recently by the case of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 10, 2013
'Broad standard' OKs NSA snooping
The Obama administration on Friday asserted a bold and broad power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans to search for a nugget of information that might thwart a terrorist attack.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 4, 2013
NSA leaks allow Wyden chance at privacy debate
It was one of the strangest personal crusades on Capitol Hill: For years, Sen. Ron Wyden said he was worried that intelligence agencies were violating Americans' privacy.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Aug 2, 2013
Putin gives Russian voters what they want in Snowden move
Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing his gamesmanship on a global stage by giving his voters what they want with the asylum granted to ex-U.S. contractor Edward Snowden while leaving the White House flustered.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 1, 2013
'Help us defend the country:' NSA chief
It doesn't get much stranger than this, even in Vegas.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 29, 2013
Former whistle-blowers struggling
The former high-ranking National Security Agency analyst now sells iPhones. The top intelligence officer at the CIA lives in a motor home outside Yellowstone National Park and spends his days fly-fishing for trout. The FBI translator fled Washington for the West Coast.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 28, 2013
Idaho mom sues Obama over surveillance program
Anna Smith is a mother of two who lives in rural Idaho, works the night shift as a nurse and goes to the gym a lot. She rarely follows the news and knows little about the debate over government surveillance and privacy that has rocked Washington in recent weeks.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 28, 2013
Breakneck NSA growth fueled by insatiable demand for its product
Twelve years later, the cranes and earthmovers around the National Security Agency are still at work, tearing up pavement and uprooting trees to make room for a larger workforce and more powerful computers. Already bigger than the Pentagon in square meters, the NSA's footprint will grow by an additional 50 percent when construction is complete in a decade.
WORLD
Jul 25, 2013
Proposal to restrict NSA tracking fails
A controversial proposal to restrict how the National Security Agency collects Americans' telephone records failed to advance in the House of Representatives by a narrow margin Wednesday, a victory for the Obama administration, which has spent weeks defending the program.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2013
Of spies and whistleblowers
Edward Snowden, a former contractor to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, has been trapped in the transit lounge of Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow for the past two weeks, while the United States government strives mightily to get him back in its clutches. Recently it even arranged for the plane flying Bolivian President Eve Morales home from Moscow to be diverted to Vienna and searched, mistakenly believing that Snowden was aboard.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2013
Declassify Yahoo data decision: FISA court
The secret surveillance court that approved the U.S. government's broad collection of millions of Americans' telephone and email records called Monday for the White House to declassify and release as much as it can of one of the court's early legal decisions sanctioning that collection.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 15, 2013
NSA chief on quest to 'collect it all'
In late 2005, as Iraqi roadside bombings were nearing an all-time peak, the National Security Agency's newly appointed chief began pitching a radical plan for halting the attacks that then were killing or wounding a dozen Americans a day.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 12, 2013
Venezuela's Maduro attempts to make his mark with Snowden affair
Fugitive Edward Snowden's diminishing possibilities of remaining free to continue releasing information about secret U.S. surveillance programs increasingly appear to hinge on Venezuela, which Monday awaited word on whether the former National Security Agency contractor would accept its offer of asylum.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 7, 2013
Strict rules help U.S. access data traffic on undersea cables
The U.S. government had a problem: Spying in the digital age required access to the fiber-optic cables traversing the world's oceans, carrying torrents of data at the speed of light. And one of the biggest operators of those cables was being sold to an Asian firm, which might complicate American surveillance efforts.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 6, 2013
Snowden assisted by WikiLeaks' 'gatekeeper'
He didn't have the space for it, but Gavin MacFadyen needed more bodies. The American running a British think tank for investigative journalism had eight employees crammed into a 4.5-by-3.5-meter office in east-central London, trying to crack a story on wrongdoing at a multinational company.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 5, 2013
Desperately seeking Snowden in Sheremetyevo: Fugitive eludes all at Moscow airport
Every year, around 25 million passengers enter Sheremetyevo airport — and usually they come out again. Not Edward Snowden. The guy who was made famous by spilling the beans about U.S. surveillance programs has managed to keep his own whereabouts strictly hush-hush.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 2, 2013
Record shows U.S. officials misled public on NSA programs
Amid the cascading disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance programs, the top lawyer in the U.S. intelligence community opened his remarks at a rare public appearance last week with a lament about how much of the information being spilled was wrong.
WORLD
Jul 2, 2013
Surveillance court judge defends role
Recent leaks of classified documents have pointed to the role of a special court in enabling the government's secret surveillance programs, but members of the court are chafing at the suggestion that they were collaborating with the executive branch.

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