Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1037

Verizon Wants You to Blame the Government — and It's Working

[image error]While everyone races to blame politicians for allowing the NSA to spy on millions of innocent Americans' phone records, and as Washington defends itself on Capitol Hill and the airwaves, Verizon spent Thursday deflecting the blame back toward the government, too. By playing dumb, staying relatively silent, and siding with its customers, the telecom giant seems to have been hoping, at best, to avoid losing a ton of loyal customers or, at worse, to fend off thousands of lawsuits. So far, Verizon damage control is mostly working. Despite the unfortunate marketing choice pictured over at right, and a few users who have announced on social media their decision to up and leave the carrier, company stock has only climbed since The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald broke the story wide open Wednesday night:

[image error]

And then there's the leaked memo from Verizon's legal team to employees, outlining the company messaging. It aims to depict, from the inside-out, a company besieged by the draconian hand of the government court order that forced Verizon to hand over private information. While conveniently neither confirming nor denying anything reported in The Guardian — Verizon is under a court ordered gag order, though the White House is playing the same game — the lawyers defend their position: "Verizon continually takes steps to safeguard its customers' privacy," begins the letter from Verizon General Counsel Randy Milch. "Nevertheless, the law authorizes the federal courts to order a company to provide information in certain circumstances. "If Verizon were to receive such an order, we would be required to comply." In other words: Verizon handed over the meta-data to your cellphone records because it just absolutely had to — or that's what Verizon's lawyers want you to think. Of course, the telecommunications beheamoth isn't exactly that innocent. 

[image error]In the wake of the warrantless wiretapping revelations of the Bush era — and the legislation that followed — Congress and the courts gave telecoms retroactive immunity for warrantless searching after the phone companies, fearful of lawsuits, lobbied hard for the provision. "As that bill was being ironed out, this step was requested by private companies because they wanted protection from lawsuits in case innocents — or millions of innocents — found that the NSA had gathered their call information," Marc Ambinder explains over at The Week. 

Verizon doesn't actually care about protecting your data — in fact, the system is set-up just to hand it over to the government, as this enlightening post by an AT&T employee over at Talking Points Memo explains. Phone companies are always looking for ways to collect (and sell!) our data within legal bounds. (The cheeky Photoshop job above at right pretty much sums that up.) Any telecom, these days, just needs to cover its ass. Indeed, the scrambling inside Verizon following Greenwald's scoop has "more to do with its brand reputation with customers and inside the Beltway, rather than legal liability," sources told Politico's Anna Palmer. That's because Verizon knows its safe — especially with official Washington hold the line. "I'm a Verizon customer," Sen. Lindsey Graham said at a hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder this morning. "It doesn't bother me one bit for the NSA to have my phone number."

(Uncle Sam illustration by DonkeyHotey via Flickr; Verizon logo via Verizon)

       

Quick! Meet New Jersey's New Senator Jeff Chiesa — He's This Temporary

New Jersey Attorney General Jeff Chiesa will step in to the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Frank Lautenberg. Don't spend too much time memorizing how to spell that tricky last name: He'll only be in the seat for the next 130 days or so.

Governor Chris Christie announced the appointment today in the state capital of Trenton. Chiesa, a Republican, was elected to the position of attorney general in 2011. He and Christie have worked together several times before, both in private practice and for the U.S. Attorney's office. As reported by Politico, Christie told reporters that "it became clear" after consideration that Chiesa "would be the best person to represent the people of New Jersey in the United States Senate."

But not for long. Chiesa has pledged not to run for the Senate in the special election slated for October 16. So once he gets to Washington and takes the oath of office, he'll likely already be watching the clock. We've gone ahead and made this little ticker to display how much time Chiesa has left in his Senate term, once it starts.

Chiesa has ' + hrs + ' hours, ' + mns + ' minutes, and ' + secs + ' seconds left in his term.

 

It will nonetheless not be the shortest Senate term in history, unless he resigns after one day.

Chiesa's views on policy remain somewhat murky. At the press conference, as the Washington Post noted, he called himself a "conservative Republican," and indicated that a lot of federal policy issues "are new to me." He supports stronger border security as a tool for reducing illegal immigration. And in April, Christie and Chiesa joined forces to call for expanded background checks — perhaps one of the most controversial votes Chiesa might face.

Chiesa was also in the news recently for his role in cracking down on Jersey restaurants that were serving rubbing alcohol in lieu of name-brand liquor. Before that, he helped halt an attempted hit by the manager of one Tick Tock Diner on the manager of another. He is, indeed, ready for DC.

       

One Thing We Know About Putin's Secretive Marriage: It's Over

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, went on national television this evening to announce that they have separated and their "marriage is over." The soon-to-be former Mrs. Putin said "this is civilized divorce" and they will remain friends. The couple married in 1983 and have two daughters.

Lyudmila Putin is rarely seen in public, and rumors have been swirling for months that they had already split up. Rumors about her husband's infidelities and even possible abuse have swirled even longer that, but in truth, very little is known about Putin's family life, even in his home country. (Which we suppose is not that unexpected for a former KGB agent.) In fact, according to Daily Mail, no photographs of the couple's daughters have ever been published in the Russian media, even though they are both in their mid-20s and their father has been President for most of their lives.

However, the first couple was reportedly photographed together just last night at a ballet performance.

Russia's Putin & wife go on TV to say marriage over. Lyudmila only seen rarely but pictured last night leaving ballet pic.twitter.com/MqolcGtfxc

— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) June 6, 2013

Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Shkrebneva on their wedding day in 1983 pic.twitter.com/tLOMiLPYVg

— Stefan Becket (@stefanjbecket) June 6, 2013

       

Look Who's Defending the NSA's Phone Record Snooping

Washington controversies that involve the invasion of privacy and terrorism have a way of clarifying, with uncommon speed, what exactly the town's leaders and critics believe. So it's no surprise that The Guardian's massive scoop on the National Security Agency's furtive collection of Verizon call records inspired an array of politicians and columnists to defend the practice of gathering data about American citizens who have been accused of no wrongdoing, in part because many of these individuals supported and voted for it. (Senators are even going on the Congressional record with their defense.) What's odd here is the tone: By actors across the political spectrum, in journalistic organs left and right, Glenn Greenwald's report has been treated as, well, un-surprising. Old hat. This raises a pretty big question: If the NSA's agenda amounts to ho-hum, procedural intelligence gathering — with no real repercussions for civil rights — why does it operate under near-total secrecy? In a way, the spirited defenses collected below offer an answer to this catch-22. Here's a (continually updating) guide to who's sticking their neck out on behalf of the NSA:

Politicians, current and former

Senator Dianne Feinstein: "It's called protecting America." (She also criticized "the culture of leaks" that America has supposedly become.) 

Senator Saxby Chambliss: "This is nothing particularly new. This has been going on for seven years under the auspices of the FISA authority and every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this."

Senator Lindsey Graham: "We don't have anything to worry about" and "I'm glad the NSA is trying to find out what the terrorists are up to overseas and in our country."

Former Congressman Newt Gingrich: "If what you're trying to do is avoid the kind of terrorism that occurred in Boston ... or in Times Square a couple of years ago, I'm for whatever it takes, as long as it's restricted to the National Security Agency ... It's a war."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "Everyone should just calm down" and "It's been going on for 7 years"

Pundits

Andrew C. McCarthy at National Review: "Here is what they don’t tell you. Telephone record information ... is not and has never been protected by the Fourth Amendment." 

Unlike the content of your communications, you have no expectation of privacy in your telephone activity records. If you think about it for a second, you know you don’t. If there were a mistake on your phone bill – for example, if you were charged for a long-distance call you didn’t make — you would expect to be able to call your phone company and have the problem addressed. That is because you understand that, when you make a call, this information is not secret: your phone company keeps records of whom you called and how long the call lasted.

Andrew Sullivan at The Dish: "This kind of technology is one of the US’ only competitive advantages against Jihadists."

Yes, its abuses could be terrible. But so could the consequences of its absence. Maybe the record shows my passionate denunciation of this by Bush. I don’t remember it. If someone finds me in a double-standard here, let me know.

Joshua Foust on his website: "The NSA, despite the broad nature of its warrant request, did nothing illegal, and the supposed illegality of the FISC procedure has not been demonstrated."

The information the NSA is collecting is metadata, not content (like a wiretap), and not account names. Uncovering personally identifiable information would require separate warrants to do so. This was a pattern analysis, not really mass surveillance as we traditionally understand it. Anyone who calls this a “wiretap” is probably stupid or didn’t read the order.

       

At Least 6 Dead in Today's Philadelphia Building Collapse

In a press conference late Wednesday night, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter confirmed that six died in a building collapse earlier today. The collapse involved a partially demolished building in the city's downtown. It fell into a Salvation Army thrift store, trapping over a dozen inside. 

The dead are five women and one man. The mayor wouldn't release any more details on the deceased during the 11 p.m. press conference, though he did say that he wasn't sure whether the six victims have all been identified yet. 

Here's how the Philadelphia Inquirer described the scene earlier today, as victims were pulled from the rubble: 

"Amid pandemonium and choking dust, bystanders and emergency responders pulled survivors from the collapsed thrift store at 22nd and Market Streets, which had been crowded with morning shoppers who turned out for its weekly "Half-Off" sale." 

One survivor was buried for over two hours in the rubble. She had only minor injuries, according to Nutter. He noted that search and rescue crews haven't finished searching the rubble. They think everyone in the collapse has been removed at this point, but "we do not know for sure."

The Associated Press, meanwhile, spoke to those who lived and worked near the building, and found that quite a few people thought a disaster like this was bound to happen at that site. Roofer Patrick Glynn told the AP that "For weeks they've been standing on the edge, knocking bricks off...You could just see it was ready to go at any time. I knew it was going to happen." Meanwhile, Steve Cramer and Dan Gills (who'd been washing nearby windows for several days) said "We've been calling it for the past week - it's going to fall, it's going to fall." The building had no existing violations, and the proper permits for demolition, the AP notes. 

For more on the collapse, take a look at our earlier report. 

       

NBC's 'Exclusive' Drone Story Was Reported Elsewhere Months Ago

Tonight, NBC released a bombshell story on the government's drone targeting program, indicating that the U.S. isn't always certain of who they're targeting, despite assurances otherwise. That is, it'd be a bombshell if a similar story hadn't shown up on McClatchy in the beginning of April. 

Here's the lede from NBC: 

"The CIA did not always know who it was targeting and killing in drone strikes in Pakistan over a 14-month period, an NBC News review of classified intelligence reports shows.

About one of every four of those killed by drones in Pakistan between Sept. 3, 2010, and Oct. 30, 2011, were classified as "other militants,” the documents detail. The “other militants” label was used when the CIA could not determine the affiliation of those killed, prompting questions about how the agency could conclude they were a threat to U.S. national security."

And McClatchy's report: 

"The documents also show that drone operators weren’t always certain who they were killing despite the administration’s guarantees of the accuracy of the CIA’s targeting intelligence and its assertions that civilian casualties have been “exceedingly rare.”...The U.S. intelligence reports reviewed by McClatchy covered most – although not all – of the drone strikes in 2006-2008 and 2010-2011." 

While obviously we don't have the classified data used in both stories to determine for ourselves whether it's the same information, the author of the McClatchy story certainly thought NBC's piece sounded familiar: 

@emptywheel @gregmitch This is a bogus "exclusive." I published same story, same classified data @mcclatchydc on 4/9: tinyurl.com/lzgqppt

— Jonathan Landay (@JonathanLanday) June 6, 2013

At the very least, it looks like the two were using information that overlaps significantly, and led them to more or less the same conclusions. That being said, a story like this does bear repeating in the news cycle, especially since NBC's take on the data comes after Obama's big drone speech earlier this month.

       

Twitter's Jaded Reaction to the NSA's Phone Records Collection Program

A huge Guardian scoop Wednesday evening revealed confirmation of an indiscriminate phone records collection program, encompassing the calls of every Verizon customer on a daily basis — that's millions of Americans' phone data. And unsurprisingly, Twitter blew up with commentary just after the story broke. But not with outrage, with a jaded reaction that indicates the scoop basically confirms what a lot of people have suspected anyway. 

I'm kind of shocked at this point to find people are surprised by the NSA/Verizon story.

— Quinn Norton (@quinnnorton) June 6, 2013

@monaeltahawy This has been going on since "Patriot Act" and most Americans are oblivious & frankly some are ok w/it. This is what fear does

— Julian Gallo (@JulianGallo66) June 5, 2013

Also disappointing as a customer to learn @vzwnews is complying with that NSA order (but not remotely surprising).

— Mike Madden (@mikemadden) June 6, 2013

People. What do you think the NSA does? This is what it does. You can not like it but you shouldn't be surprised.

— Patrick Iber (@PatrickIber) June 6, 2013

@morningmoneyben shocking? Not at all.Not sure why anyone is surprised NSA does this.

— Ben Hargrove (@BenHargroveNY) June 6, 2013

Oh look, NSA totally abused its power and VZ totally cooperated. Sooo did not see that coming. guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun…

— haroldfeld (@haroldfeld) June 6, 2013

While others took the opportunity to note that their phone conversations (the content of which, to be clear, aren't being collected under the order, just the calls' metadata) are pretty boring, anyway:

Conversations with my wife about our cats. Go for it, NSA. theatln.tc/ZQ5xfH

— Steve King(@steveking_) June 6, 2013

I certainly hope the NSA enjoyed listening to me talking my mom through the process of minimizing a window.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) June 6, 2013

This response is kind of becoming a meme under the #CallstheNSAKnowsAbout hashtag: 

I ordered Thai food last week. They put me on hold for a while. #CallsTheNSAKnowsAbout

— Andy Carvin (@acarvin) June 6, 2013

I accidentally said "love you" at the end of a long Time Warner Cable service call. #CallsTheNSAKnowsAbout

— Josh Greenman (@joshgreenman) June 6, 2013

I'm not really concerned about #CallsTheNSAKnowsAbout . I'm used to making calls in Egypt; I *expect* my phone is tapped whenever I use it.

— H.A. Hellyer (@hahellyer) June 6, 2013

Of course, there were plenty of strong reactions to the story:

In digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous? ow.ly/lKS13

— Al Gore (@algore) June 6, 2013

This NSA surveillance story is just about the most mind boggling thing I’ve ever read.

— Greg Lipper (@theglipper) June 6, 2013

There are few things more sensitive and classified than a FISA warrant. This one is astounding

— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanap) June 6, 2013

Wow! @ggreenwald reports Nat'l Security Agency collects phone records of millions of people daily gu.com/p/3gc62/tw

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) June 6, 2013

For more on the story, head to our write-up, or the Guardian's original piece.

       

The NSA is Collecting Phone Records in Bulk

A secret court order requires Verizon to hand over all of its call data to the government, according to a stunning late Wednesday scoop by the Guardian. The order applies to millions of Americans, and allows the NSA to collect phone records without linking calls to a specific individual suspected of wrongdoing. We know that the Bush Administration collected phone records in bulk, but now, it seems, there's documentation of the practice's continued existence. 

The order doesn't cover the content of the conversation itself or the subscriber's personal information, but allows the government to collect almost everything else about the call, loosely defined as its "metadata." (if you're interested in what the government can learn about you from this data, check out the National Journal and the Guardian's excellent explainers) It also prohibits Verizon from talking about the request for records, or the order itself. The order reads (emphasis ours): 

"IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, the Custodian of Records shall produce to the National Security Agency (NSA) upon service of this Order, and continue production on an ongoing daily basis thereafter for the duration of this Order, unless otherwise ordered by the Court, an electronic copy of the following tangible things: all call detail records or "telephony metadata" created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls. This Order does not require Verizon to produce telephony metadata for communications wholly originating and terminating in foreign countries. Telephony metadata includes comprehensive communications routing information,. including but not limited to session identifying information (e.g., originating and terminating telephone number, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number, International Mobile station Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, etc.), trunk identifier, telephone calling card numbers, and time and duration of call. Telephony metadata does not include the substantive content of any communication, as defined by 18 U.S.C. ? 2510(8), or the name, address, or financial information of a subscriber or customer."

As the Guardian notes, the order seems to explain the repeated warnings by Democratic Senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, who sit on the Senate intelligence committee. They've hinted at the government's surveillance powers are much more broad than most Americans would assume. Orders like this one, which went into effect in April and lasts until mid-June, could very well be what they were referring to. 

Mark Rumold, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Atlantic Wire that "this is what we long suspected is going on."

The EFF, who've warned about exactly this sort of thing in the past, currently have two lawsuits pending on the subject: the first challenges practices like the NSA's bulk phone records collection (which is now corroborated by the Guardian scoop), and the other is a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit addressing secret court orders allowed under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. "This is confirmation of what we've long feared, that the NSA has been tracking the calling patterns of the entire country," Rumold continued, adding, "our real hope now is that the government will stop trying to hide this fact. We hope more than anything else that the government will allow a judge to decide whether this is constitutional, and we can finally put an end to this practice." 

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court granted the order, signed by judge Robert Vinson, whose seven-year term on the court apparently expired a couple of weeks ago. Don't know about FISC? We have a great primer on it here.

While the revealed order only encompasses the records of one company, the Guardian wisely notes that there's no reason other orders, directed at other telephone companies, couldn't exist out there, too. 

As you'd expect, basically no one involved in the order would comment to the Guardian, including Verizon. 

       

The Fascinating, Creative Young Protesters of Istanbul in Photos

The young people protesting in Istanbul's Taksim square are getting creative as they demonstrate against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's conservative government. Photos of the protesters -- and their graffiti and memes on social media -- show that even in the face of tear gas and Twitter arrests, they can be funny. They also show the kids have not forgotten about the opposite sex. Here are pictures of the Istanbul demonstrations over the last few days that show Turkish young people are just like us.

Kids tweeted by Dream TV's Birsen Birdir.

[image error]

Newlyweds on on Istanbul's famous İstiklal Avenue near Taksim square on June 2.

[image error]

(Photo via Reuters.)

Protesters find love on a damaged public bus on June 5. 

[image error]

If you look closely, it looks like tourists are taking photos on the other side.

(Photo via Reuters.)

It goes without saying that no one wants to be tear gassed. But you can tell some people like having their photo taken while wearing a gas mask.

[image error]

This photo of a woman using her phone through a gas mask has been all over Twitter and Tumblr and Facebook. Tracking down the original source has been difficult.

[image error]

This graffiti was on a wall on İstiklal Avenue, according to Rami Sabbagh.

[image error]

Anonymous masks are popular.

[image error]

Very.

[image error]

[image error]

So is the Turkish flag.

[image error]

A whirling dervish with a gas mask in Taksim square on June 5.

[image error]

(Photo via Associated Press.)

This tumblr says these bruises are from the police. It's been reposted a lot, too.

[image error]

This is deputy prime minister Bülent Arinç, who met with protesters on Wednesday. I'm taking a risk and posting something when I'm not sure what it says, because it looks so interesting. Google Translate gives a shaky translation of: "The main areas of interest insults, white-haired man with extreme rage and great adventures in porn."

[image error]

But Erdogan is the figure most prefer to ridicule.

[image error]

A kid sits on a broken pole near a barricade on June 4.

[image error]

(Photo via Reuters.)

Tents.

[image error]

I think this says "People's Resistance Against Terrorism."

[image error]

Protesters coined the Anglicized term "capulling" after Erdogan referred to the protesters as "çapulcu," which means "looter" or "marauder." 

[image error]

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons.)

From a 19-year-old in Istanbul:

[image error]

These cookies say "Tatlı Çapulcu" -- sweet looters.

[image error]

It can be tough to figure out what's really from Istanbul. This photo, of a woman using a bra as a gas mask, has gone around Tumblr tagged as if the woman were in Istanbul. 

[image error]

But it's actually half of the "Emergency Bra," which has been online since at least 2010.

[image error]

       

There's Still Time to Buy the 114 iPods People Left on New York's Subway

If you've ever wanted to own earrings that someone else left on the New York City subway, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a deal you won't want to miss. Until 5 p.m. Friday, you will have the chance to bid on 106 such earrings — and a whole slew of other random junk — in the MTA's weird auction. By our estimate, forgetful New Yorkers are about to give the agency a cool $20,000 in revenue.

How to bid 1. Go to the "Asset Recovery" page and choose one of the listings, which are loosely organized into categories. The listing contains line items that look like this:

[image error]

2. Print the listing out. 3. Write the amount you want to pay for the lot. Yes, the lot. You are buying all of them, however many there are. In the example above, you should write down how much you want to pay for 68 digital cameras. 4. Fill out the hard-to-read Authorization Form. 5. Mail that form and the listing to the MTA. Or, since the auction ends at 5 p.m. on Friday, fax it. 6. Find out if your bid was the highest, at some point, apparently.

This is how online auctions work in the MTA's world. It's like Storage Wars, Big City Edition.

So what can you get your hands on? There are two categories of surplus items: stuff people left on trains and busses, and the stuff used to make the trains and busses run.

What to bid on: Stuff people left on trains and busses

This breaks down further into four categories: electronics, musical instruments, toys, and jewelry. We matched each item against how much it sold for on eBay to get a sense of how much the MTA stood to make. The most valuable items are in the electronics category, which we estimate to bring in over $12,000. The least valuable is the instruments, which probably won't even bring in $1,000.

Electronics
There are a lot of electronics. For example:

2 Toshiba laptops A Macbook Pro 3 Kindles / Nooks A printer (in case you want to participate in future auctions) 114 MP3 Players A digital projector A Wii 68 Digital cameras 29 Game Boys 12 radios 19 calculators

Included in those calculators is one of those old types that prints the sums out on a paper roll. Some sad accountant had a bad day on the downtown C.

You can also buy what the MTA calls a "copier," but which is actually a crappy HP printer/scanner combo. We estimate it's worth ten bucks.

Instruments
Short list: Two trumpets, a violin, a flute, a sax, a guitar. Oh, and a plastic recorder. Maybe start the bidding low on that one.

Toys and games
There are some sporting goods in this category, mostly tennis rackets ($320 worth in total). And a "Yoostar," which appears to be a device that lets kids be seen in videos on their TVs ($10). Three bicycles of varying quality ($900), and — the best item — a battery-powered scooter, battery not included ($350). There are also 295 books, 30 of them "religious."

And this listing includes household goods. Like a slow cooker or a hair trimmer. Want a used hair trimmer someone left on the subway? Fax in your bid!

Jewelry (The MTA calls this "Jewelry and Shoes," but there are no shoes.)
If you have 60 friends you need to buy for this Christmas, this listing is perfect. It includes:

62 Watches 62 Bracelets 61 Necklaces 106 Earrings 82 Rings

That's one watch, one bracelet, one necklace, a set of earrings (give or take), and a ring for each person, with a few rings left over for you.

What to bid on: Stuff used to make the trains and busses run

The fun doesn't stop with used books and bracelets. The MTA is also auctioning a variety of stuff they don't need anymore. Like:

A bus 15 Ford Crown Vics 300 floor scrubber brushes Two counterfeit currency identifiers (we actually kind of want these) A driveable snow blower This thing

And, for the truly adventurous: 52,790 boxes of expired alcohol hand wipes. Which might just be enough to clean those 106 earrings enough where you'd want to wear them.

As we said, if you want to buy all of those lost items (but not the cars, etc.), it would cost you about $20,227 dollars. Or you could give the same amount to the MTA by riding the train 8,090 times. Seems like a better investment.

Photo: Some of the MTA's iPods.