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Curated research library of TV news clips regarding the NSA, its oversight and privacy issues, 2009-2014

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Primary curation & research: Robin Chin, Internet Archive TV News Researcher; using Internet Archive TV News service.

Speakers

John Schiffman
Reuters Correspondent
FOXNEWSW 08/06/2013
Lee: but is there any evidence out there as of yet where people feel that they were, that this information was abused in any way? Schiffman: well, it's very hard to tell, and the DEA says they don't track it. I will say there was a honest current prosecutor who we interviewed who said that he was initially told in one of his cases that a tip came from an informant. When he pressed harder, what he learned is it actually came from an NSA intercept, and he was so outraged, he dropped the case. He said this should not be going on.
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John Schiffman
Reuters Reporter
CSPAN 08/08/2013
Schiffman: I worked with my colleague Kristina Cooke. We found the DEA program that has been public for many years it’s called the special operations division it’s located in Virginia, it’s an arm of the DEA. While a lot of what they do is public which is coordinating and de-conflicting different cases and coordinating international cases like the case against Victor Boot, the Russian arms broker, they also had a part of special operations which they (inaudible) that they didn’t really publicize at all. Which is they take tips
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John Schiffman
Reuters Reporter
CSPAN 08/08/2013
Schiffman continued: from intelligence agencies, from informants, from foreign governments, from domestic wiretaps, from a large database of telephone records which is different than they NSA database of telephone records and they pass them along to agents in the field. While this is perfectly acceptable, probably acceptable according to defense attorneys, to pass along the tips, what happens next
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John Schiffman
Reuters Reporter
CSPAN 08/08/2013
Schiffman continued 2: raises questions. And what the agency has been instructed to do according to the documents we saw, is to create something called parallel construction. Which is once they make a case, they act as if they never got the information from SOD. So for example, they might get a tip that a drug dealer will be in a certain place at a certain time. And the agent is in the field from SOD. When an agent will follow a car and wait til it speeds or makes an unsafe lane change and they’ll make a pre textual traffic stop.
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John Schiffman
Reuters Reporter
CSPAN 08/08/2013
Schiffman continued 3:They’ll pull the car over and lo and behold, they’ll find drugs inside but the only reason they knew to follow the car in the first place is because of the tip they got from SOD. The agents and the police in the field are ordered to recreate their investigative trails. So when they testify in court and they write their investigative report, they are supposed to leave out any trace at all that they got this tip from special operations division. The problem with that, say some critics, is that that means the defendant won’t have access to certain information that is part of their constitutional right to a fair trial.
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John Schiffman
Reuters Reporter
CSPAN 08/08/2013
Schiffman: Today we published another story going back through some of -- Reuters is part of the same company as Westlaw, and going back through our databases, ironically. We found in the archives, instructions for IRS agents to do the same thing from the information that they get from the DEA. The SOD, it’s important to understand is, they have ice, immigration, customs enforcement, over there, the FBI is over there, IRS
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John Schiffman
Reuters Reporter
CSPAN 08/08/2013
Schiffman continued 1A: the NSA, the CIA, secret service, they all desks over , they’re all partners over there with special operations division. All of these agencies are receiving some information. The big ones are the IRS, FBI, ice, and of course the DEA. Host: So all these agencies are passing on the information so the SOD, or is it reverse in which the SOD picks from the various agencies as far as information is concerned? Schiffman: it works
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John Schiffman
Reuters Reporter
CSPAN 08/08/2013
Schiffman continued 2A: both ways. One of the reasons the DEA says this is perfectly legal, They say they do it every day. They call it a bedrock concept of law enforcement. Defense attorneys and former judges and at least a couple prosecutors tell us it shouldn’t be. Yes, so they pass it along. It works both ways. The DEA also says this is part of the connect the dots intelligence sharing that supposed to happen post-9/11.
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John Schiffman
Reuters Reporter
CSPAN 08/08/2013
Schiffman: One thing the special operations division has is a database called dice. That is one with a coordinate and send information out nationally. It is an acronym. Seems to change a little. I cannot recall what the current iteration is. We have a lot of acronyms and Washington.
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John Schiffman
Reuters Reporter
CSPAN 08/08/2013
Schiffman continued 1B: And what DICE is, is a database that is different from the NSA database in that, the DEA tells me it only includes information that is collected lawfully from search warrants and subpoenas and also from cases incident to arrest. If they are investigating you for drugs and they did a subpoena and got your phone records, all the numbers you've dialed and all the numbers that dial you would be put in the database. And then if they are investigating me, they would do the same thing. They would get a subpoena
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