Wednesday, 28 January 2015. GENEVA - Wikilleaks and its fugitive editor Jullian Assange through one of their lawyers Michael A. Ratner is demanding information and details about the search and seizure of three of Wikileaks' "whistleblowing" journalists' emails and other data by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and provided by Google pursuant to warrant(s) issued over two-and-one-half years ago. Since the subjects never were notified by Google of this demand for their private communications and data they thus were prevented from fighting the warrants in court. The New York Times in the below linked article reports that they are considering initiating a court action now against DOJ and Google related to this action and the failure to notify them.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt issued a statement that it was the "policy" of Google to inform parties in instances where such information was demanded but implied that despite Google's desire to do so the failure here was due to a gag order issued against Google "which sadly happens quite often". Google previously has taken legal action against the Government as to such demands for private information as well as the Government's wholesale collection of such information by "grabbing it out of the air" as in the well-publicized case of the NSA breaking Google's code for internal data point-to-point transmissions as part of the NSA's collection of metadata on all Americans and others without regard for "reasonable suspicion", "probable cause", nor any other limitation.
However the facts here are instructive to all members of the public with Google accounts as they seem to demonstrate Google whatever claims Google may make as to the security of Gmail and other "private" data apparently it in reality is not willing ultimately to go to any efforts whatsoever to help protect the privacy of individuals' Gmail and other "private" data from disclosure to the Government. Google's Eric Schmidt gave no indication at all that Google makes any effort in such cases to fight a Government "gag order" so as even to alert Google account holders so that they can mount a legal defense as to even wrongfully issued search and seizure orders in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Therefore false claims aside Google rolls over immediately without any fight even regarding giving notice to individuals that the Government has sought their Gmails and "private" data. In conclusion Google gave the Government individuals' Gmail and other "private" data without any fight whatsoever because when faced with a gag order Google did not even contest it so that the individuals could at least mount their own defense.
"Gag orders" are particularly anathema to a free society which places a premium on freedom of speech and the press and are a form of "prior restraint" which is repugnant to the most core values of the United States Constitution. Since the Wikileaks' journalists' Gmails and other "private" data unfortunately entrusted to Google obviously were in no danger of being destroyed by the journalists and it is not as if since the disclosures of Edward Snowden especially Wikileaks is unaware it has been a prime target of U.S. Government presumably officials unwilling to operate in the public eye but prosecute whomever they can so as to shut then up so as to continue to operate protected by the "dark cloak of secrecy" hidden from public scrutiny the issuance of "gag orders" here is yet another example demonstating that they know they likely not only cannot withstand public scrutiny but even a legitimate challenge leveled against them in open court.
This is but one more example of why individuals should consider applying for an invitation to a free ProtonMail email account based in Switzerland as described in any earlier post as others such as Hushmail and Statmail ultimately are susceptible to government intrusion whether by pressure on the Canadian government in British Columbia in the case of Hushmail or otherwise as to supposedly "secure" email encrypted accounts. Likewise if computer users do not wish to be tracked by governments or anyone else the stand-alone favorite is the "Tor" browser which can be researched on Wikepedia and other sites and freely downloaded from the internet.
Despite Google's well-publicized seemingly antagonistic relationship to the U.S. Government executive branch in this area this must at the same time be tempered by Google's widely known ventures with the executive branch. One example is with the C.I.A. through that agency's In-Q-Tel investment arm providing services to several national intelligence agencies here in a joint venture with Google Ventures in the web monitoring package of the company Recorded Future described as the "the ultimate tool for open-source intelligence". Open-source intelligence is publicly available information from a wide variety of sources which can be amassed and organized to provide reputedly valuable intelligence information by any party. Readers interested in more detail regarding the above and other national security agency investment relationships with Google are referred initially to the wired.com article at the link http://www.wired.com/2010/07/exclusive-google-cia/.
Finally as to the Obama Administration's DOJ under departing Attorney General Eric Holder that department has undertaken unprecedented efforts to prosecute sources of unauthorized leaks of "security" information notably including aggressively using legal process against journalists and the press to attempt to force them to reveal their sources. This was demonstrated most recently in the subject of the immediately preceding Ninth Amendment post regarding the espionage conviction earlier this week of former C.I.A. agent Jeffrey Sterling which included efforts ultimately dropped to force New York Times reporter James Risen to reveal his source whose identity in the end was identified not by Mr. Risen but by reportedly very strong circumstantial evidence presented at Mr. Sterling's trial.
The circumstances of these various legal actions and others in their totality would seem to point to a certain amount of ambiguity in the Obama Administration's perceived espoused concerns for the protection of privacy and freedom of speech rights of individuals and the press versus the reality of the unprecedented or continuing actions of the Obama Administration that seemingly intrude on them to a degree rarely or never seen before.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/world/europe/wikileaks-assails-google-and-the-us.html?mabReward=A4&action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine
Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt issued a statement that it was the "policy" of Google to inform parties in instances where such information was demanded but implied that despite Google's desire to do so the failure here was due to a gag order issued against Google "which sadly happens quite often". Google previously has taken legal action against the Government as to such demands for private information as well as the Government's wholesale collection of such information by "grabbing it out of the air" as in the well-publicized case of the NSA breaking Google's code for internal data point-to-point transmissions as part of the NSA's collection of metadata on all Americans and others without regard for "reasonable suspicion", "probable cause", nor any other limitation.
However the facts here are instructive to all members of the public with Google accounts as they seem to demonstrate Google whatever claims Google may make as to the security of Gmail and other "private" data apparently it in reality is not willing ultimately to go to any efforts whatsoever to help protect the privacy of individuals' Gmail and other "private" data from disclosure to the Government. Google's Eric Schmidt gave no indication at all that Google makes any effort in such cases to fight a Government "gag order" so as even to alert Google account holders so that they can mount a legal defense as to even wrongfully issued search and seizure orders in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Therefore false claims aside Google rolls over immediately without any fight even regarding giving notice to individuals that the Government has sought their Gmails and "private" data. In conclusion Google gave the Government individuals' Gmail and other "private" data without any fight whatsoever because when faced with a gag order Google did not even contest it so that the individuals could at least mount their own defense.
"Gag orders" are particularly anathema to a free society which places a premium on freedom of speech and the press and are a form of "prior restraint" which is repugnant to the most core values of the United States Constitution. Since the Wikileaks' journalists' Gmails and other "private" data unfortunately entrusted to Google obviously were in no danger of being destroyed by the journalists and it is not as if since the disclosures of Edward Snowden especially Wikileaks is unaware it has been a prime target of U.S. Government presumably officials unwilling to operate in the public eye but prosecute whomever they can so as to shut then up so as to continue to operate protected by the "dark cloak of secrecy" hidden from public scrutiny the issuance of "gag orders" here is yet another example demonstating that they know they likely not only cannot withstand public scrutiny but even a legitimate challenge leveled against them in open court.
This is but one more example of why individuals should consider applying for an invitation to a free ProtonMail email account based in Switzerland as described in any earlier post as others such as Hushmail and Statmail ultimately are susceptible to government intrusion whether by pressure on the Canadian government in British Columbia in the case of Hushmail or otherwise as to supposedly "secure" email encrypted accounts. Likewise if computer users do not wish to be tracked by governments or anyone else the stand-alone favorite is the "Tor" browser which can be researched on Wikepedia and other sites and freely downloaded from the internet.
Despite Google's well-publicized seemingly antagonistic relationship to the U.S. Government executive branch in this area this must at the same time be tempered by Google's widely known ventures with the executive branch. One example is with the C.I.A. through that agency's In-Q-Tel investment arm providing services to several national intelligence agencies here in a joint venture with Google Ventures in the web monitoring package of the company Recorded Future described as the "the ultimate tool for open-source intelligence". Open-source intelligence is publicly available information from a wide variety of sources which can be amassed and organized to provide reputedly valuable intelligence information by any party. Readers interested in more detail regarding the above and other national security agency investment relationships with Google are referred initially to the wired.com article at the link http://www.wired.com/2010/07/exclusive-google-cia/.
Finally as to the Obama Administration's DOJ under departing Attorney General Eric Holder that department has undertaken unprecedented efforts to prosecute sources of unauthorized leaks of "security" information notably including aggressively using legal process against journalists and the press to attempt to force them to reveal their sources. This was demonstrated most recently in the subject of the immediately preceding Ninth Amendment post regarding the espionage conviction earlier this week of former C.I.A. agent Jeffrey Sterling which included efforts ultimately dropped to force New York Times reporter James Risen to reveal his source whose identity in the end was identified not by Mr. Risen but by reportedly very strong circumstantial evidence presented at Mr. Sterling's trial.
The circumstances of these various legal actions and others in their totality would seem to point to a certain amount of ambiguity in the Obama Administration's perceived espoused concerns for the protection of privacy and freedom of speech rights of individuals and the press versus the reality of the unprecedented or continuing actions of the Obama Administration that seemingly intrude on them to a degree rarely or never seen before.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/world/europe/wikileaks-assails-google-and-the-us.html?mabReward=A4&action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine
Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
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