NSA Now This is Interesting....
In a cryptic note posted Thursday to the Lavabit website, owner Ladar Levison said the company is folding rather than becoming, in his words, "complicit in crimes against the American people." Levison didn't return a phone call from The Associated Press.It appears that the firm received a National Security Letter because it claims it "cannot" talk about exactly why they made this decision. Yet that would be the only reason for such a decision -- a gag order with whatever demand was made.
The firm was one where Snowden had at least one email account and may have had more than one.
And for founder to stick his middle finger up in the air in response it has to be presumed that what the government demanded was not a particular set of exchanges with a particular customer but rather a copy of everything, and likely a prospective wiretap on a forward basis as well.
Of course I can't prove that, and the founder can't tell me if I'm right if I run him down and ask him.
But I can come to a logical deduction as to what prompted this response.
It hasn't stopped there:
Silent Circle, which makes software that encrypts phone calls and other communications, announced in a company blog post that it could "see the writing on the wall" and decided it best to shut down its Silent Mail feature. The company said it was inspired by the closure earlier Thursday of Lavabit, another encrypted e-mail service provider that alluded to a possible national security investigation.I've had people ask me about setting up a VPN-based service that is basically impenetrable (under today's technology anyway) -- and have generally been very reticent to discuss such a service.
Having run an ISP before, and this was before the "rage" of current games such as National Security Letters, I'm very-aware of the potential for harassment or worse when it comes to such services.
MCSNet received various legal process from time to time and we always complied with it. We complied rather than fight even if fighting would have been legally difficult (as is the case here) because I never saw such a demand come across my desk that was per-se unreasonable; in each and every case what was being demanded identified specific entities and it was very obvious (even though often not stated specifically) exactly what sort of criminal activity was being investigated.
Simply put we never received anything like what appears to be part and parcel of the current police state crap -- blanket search and seizure orders without any hint of due process or even reasonable suspicion behind them coupled with a threat to throw corporate officers in prison if they refuse to comply -- or even disclose that I received them.
The premise of a legitimate judicial order includes the ability to challenge the basis upon which the order was issued and that in turn requires the ability to debate the order and its predicate(s).
There is a reasonable counterbalance to this when the search or seizure order pertains to a clear target that is the subject of an ongoing and active investigation who is still believed, upon reasonable suspicion, to be engaging in whatever conduct is unlawful.
But that is never the case for blanket seizure orders.
In addition these orders are blatantly unconstitutional under the 4th Amendment as they do not target a specific, articulable individual or group of individuals engaged in a specific unlawful act or set of acts.
Instead they're fishing expeditions or worse, not even in that class, simply intended to vacuum up all the data and store it in the event that it becomes expedient later to use it in some form or fashion.
The people of this nation need to rise and say **** YOU to the NSA, the CIA and all other agencies and each of their employees, contractors and others who feed off their funds and activities to the extent that they are operating inside the United States and aiming their activity at any US firm or person. That means a very public boycott of the people involved in same at all levels, including any who support such activities in word or deed in any way, from cutting their hair to selling them groceries to sitting next to them in the pew on Sunday.
Period.
My view on this matches that of Silent Circle and Lavabit, and just in case anyone has trouble understanding it or thinks there is some nuance to it let me put it in universally-understood terms:
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