Post by John Duncan on Aug 20, 2022 16:12:47 GMT -5
Many who believe in the Warren Commission Report (WCR), and all things official, are known to label those that believe there was a conspiracy as being "Un-American", but this program that the U.S. government carried out for thirty-years is the real Un-American act. Operation Shamrock was discovered by the Church Committee and it had to come to an end shortly thereafter.
The Church Committee's final report will call Shamrock "probably the largest government interception program affecting Americans ever undertaken." [Church Committee, 4/23/1976] The program originated with the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) then continued when that turned into the National Security Agency (NSA -- see 1952) and went on until 1975.
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1945-1975: NSA's Operation Shamrock Secretly Monitors US Citizens' Overseas Communications. The NSA, working with British intelligence, begins secretly intercepting and reading millions of telegraph messages between US citizens and international senders and recipients. The clandestine program, called Operation Shamrock and part of a larger global surveillance network collectively known as Echelon (see April 4, 2001, and Before September 11, 2001), begins shortly after the end of World War II, and continues through 1975, when it is exposed by the "Church Committee," the Senate investigation of illegal activities by US intelligence organizations (see April, 1976). [Telepolis, 7/25/2000]
The program actually predates the NSA, originating with the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) then continuing when that turned into NSA (see 1952). [Pensito Review, 5/13/2006]
The program operates in tandem with Project Minaret (see 1967-1975). Together, the two programs spy on both foreign sources and US citizens…The NSA receives the cooperation of such telecommunications firms as Western Union, RCA, and ITT. [Telepolis, 7/25/2000] (Those companies are never required to reveal the extent of their involvement with Shamrock; on the recommendations of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and presidential Chief of Staff Dick Cheney. In 1975 President Ford extends executive privilege to those companies, precluding them from testifying before Congress.) [Pensito Review, 5/13/2006]
In the 1960s, technological advances make it possible for computers to search for keywords in monitored messages instead of having human analysts read through all communications. In fact, the first global wide-area network, or WAN, is not the Internet, but the international network connecting signals intelligence stations and processing centers for US and British intelligence organizations, including the NSA, and making use of sophisticated satellite systems such as Milstar and Skynet. (The NSA also builds and maintains one of the world's first e-mail networks, completely separate from public e-mail networks, and highly secret.)
At the program's height, it operates out of a front company in Lower Manhattan code-named LPMEDLEY, and intercepts 150,000 messages a month. In August 1975, NSA director Lieutenant General Lew Allen testifies to the House of Representatives' investigation of US intelligence activities, the Pike Committee (see January 29, 1976), that "NSA systematically intercepts international communications, both voice and cable." He also admits that "messages to and from American citizens have been picked up in the course of gathering foreign intelligence," and acknowledges that the NSA uses "watch lists" of US citizens "to watch for foreign activity of reportable intelligence interest." [Telepolis, 7/25/2000] The Church Committee's final report will call Shamrock "probably the largest government interception program affecting Americans ever undertaken.” [Church Committee, 4/23/1976]
Shortly after the committee issues its report, the NSA terminates the program. Since 1978, the NSA and other US intelligence agencies have been restrained in their wiretapping and surveillance of US citizens by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (see 1978). Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, who will become the NSA's director in 1977, and who testifies before the Church Committee as director of Naval Intelligence, will later say that he worked actively to help pass FISA: "I became convinced that for almost anything the country needed to do, you could get legislation to put it on a solid foundation.
There was the comfort of going out and saying in speeches, 'We don't target US citizens, and what we do is authorized by a court.'" [Pensito Review, 5/13/2006] Shamrock is considered unconstitutional by many US lawmakers, and in 1976 the Justice Department investigates potential criminal offenses by the NSA surrounding Shamrock. Part of the report will be released in 1980; that report will confirm that the Shamrock data was used to further the illegal surveillance activities of US citizens as part of Minaret. [Telepolis, 7/25/2000]
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Three major telecommunications companies helped them spy on both foreign sources and US citizens, especially those considered "unreliable," such as civil rights leaders and anti-war protesters; and opposition figures such as politicians, diplomats, businessmen, trades union leaders, non-government organizations like Amnesty International, and senior officials of the Catholic Church. These companies were Western Union, RCA, and ITT and they would receive assistance from President Gerald Ford's group - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and presidential Chief of Staff Dick Cheney - they are not forced to testify before the Church Committee on their part of the plan.
Should you continue to believe the government has your best interest at heart?
Should you continue to believe the government has your best interest at heart?
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1945-1975: NSA's Operation Shamrock Secretly Monitors US Citizens' Overseas Communications. The NSA, working with British intelligence, begins secretly intercepting and reading millions of telegraph messages between US citizens and international senders and recipients. The clandestine program, called Operation Shamrock and part of a larger global surveillance network collectively known as Echelon (see April 4, 2001, and Before September 11, 2001), begins shortly after the end of World War II, and continues through 1975, when it is exposed by the "Church Committee," the Senate investigation of illegal activities by US intelligence organizations (see April, 1976). [Telepolis, 7/25/2000]
The program actually predates the NSA, originating with the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) then continuing when that turned into NSA (see 1952). [Pensito Review, 5/13/2006]
The program operates in tandem with Project Minaret (see 1967-1975). Together, the two programs spy on both foreign sources and US citizens…The NSA receives the cooperation of such telecommunications firms as Western Union, RCA, and ITT. [Telepolis, 7/25/2000] (Those companies are never required to reveal the extent of their involvement with Shamrock; on the recommendations of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and presidential Chief of Staff Dick Cheney. In 1975 President Ford extends executive privilege to those companies, precluding them from testifying before Congress.) [Pensito Review, 5/13/2006]
In the 1960s, technological advances make it possible for computers to search for keywords in monitored messages instead of having human analysts read through all communications. In fact, the first global wide-area network, or WAN, is not the Internet, but the international network connecting signals intelligence stations and processing centers for US and British intelligence organizations, including the NSA, and making use of sophisticated satellite systems such as Milstar and Skynet. (The NSA also builds and maintains one of the world's first e-mail networks, completely separate from public e-mail networks, and highly secret.)
At the program's height, it operates out of a front company in Lower Manhattan code-named LPMEDLEY, and intercepts 150,000 messages a month. In August 1975, NSA director Lieutenant General Lew Allen testifies to the House of Representatives' investigation of US intelligence activities, the Pike Committee (see January 29, 1976), that "NSA systematically intercepts international communications, both voice and cable." He also admits that "messages to and from American citizens have been picked up in the course of gathering foreign intelligence," and acknowledges that the NSA uses "watch lists" of US citizens "to watch for foreign activity of reportable intelligence interest." [Telepolis, 7/25/2000] The Church Committee's final report will call Shamrock "probably the largest government interception program affecting Americans ever undertaken.” [Church Committee, 4/23/1976]
Shortly after the committee issues its report, the NSA terminates the program. Since 1978, the NSA and other US intelligence agencies have been restrained in their wiretapping and surveillance of US citizens by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (see 1978). Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, who will become the NSA's director in 1977, and who testifies before the Church Committee as director of Naval Intelligence, will later say that he worked actively to help pass FISA: "I became convinced that for almost anything the country needed to do, you could get legislation to put it on a solid foundation.
There was the comfort of going out and saying in speeches, 'We don't target US citizens, and what we do is authorized by a court.'" [Pensito Review, 5/13/2006] Shamrock is considered unconstitutional by many US lawmakers, and in 1976 the Justice Department investigates potential criminal offenses by the NSA surrounding Shamrock. Part of the report will be released in 1980; that report will confirm that the Shamrock data was used to further the illegal surveillance activities of US citizens as part of Minaret. [Telepolis, 7/25/2000]
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