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Friday, August 23, 2013 – Daily News 7A WORLD BRIEFING NSA reveals more about program WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency declassified three secret court opinions Wednesday showing how in one of its surveillance programs it scooped up as many as 56,000 emails and other communications by Americans not connected to terrorism annually over three years, revealed the error to the court — which ruled its actions unconstitutional — and then fixed the problem. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper authorized the release, part of which Obama administration officials acknowledged Wednesday was prodded by a 2011 lawsuit filed by an Internet civil liberties activist group. The court opinions show that when the NSA reported its inadvertent gathering of American-based Internet traffic to the court in September 2011, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the agency to find ways to limit what it collects and how long it keeps it. In an 85-page declassified FISA court ruling from October 2011, U.S. District Judge James D. Bates rebuked government lawyers for repeatedly misrepresenting the operations of the NSA's surveillance programs. ''This court is troubled that the government's revelations regarding NSA's acquisition of Internet transactions mark the third instance in less than three years in which the government has disclosed a substantial misrepresentation regarding the scope of a major collection program,'' Bates wrote in a footnoted passage that had portions heavily blacked out in the government's disclosure. The NSA had moved to revise its Internet surveillance in an effort to separate out domestic data from its foreign targeted metadata — which includes email addresses and subject lines. But in his October 2011 ruling, Bates ruled that the government's ''upstream'' collection of data — taken from internal U.S. data sources — was unconstitutional. Three senior U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday that national security officials realized the extent of the NSA's inadvertent collection of Americans' data from fiber optic cables in September 2011. One of the officials said the problem became apparent during internal discussions between NSA and Justice Department officials about the program's technical operation. ''They were having a discussion and a light bulb went on,'' the official said. The problem, according to the officials, was that the top secret Internet-sweeping Amazing Finds NEW & USED FURNITURE & MUCH, MUCH MORE! 50% Red Tag SALE Two Locations - 30,000 square feet RED BLUFF 530-917-1138 REDDING 530-917-7797 22660 Antelope Blvd. 3351 S. Market St. amazingfindsredbluff.com amazingfindshome.com 9am – 8pm (closed Saturdays) 9am – 6:30pm daily Summer Sale! operation, which was targeting metadata contained in the emails of foreign users, was also amassing thousands of emails that were bundled up with the targeted materials. Because many web mail services use such bundled transmissions, the official said, it was impossible to collect the targeted materials without also sweeping up data from innocent domestic U.S. users. The officials did not explain why they did not prepare for that possibility when the surveillance program was created and why they discovered it only after the program was well under way. Officials said that when they realized they had an American communication, the communication was destroyed. But it was not clear how they determined to whom an email belonged and whether any NSA analyst had actually read the content of the email. The officials said the bulk of the information was never accessed or analyzed. As soon as the extent of the problem became clear, the officials said, the Obama administration provided classified briefings to both Senate and House intelligence committees within days. At the same time, officials also informed the FISA court, which later issued the three 2011 rulings released Wednesday — with redactions — as part of the government's latest disclosure of documents. The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe the program publicly. Obama unveils plans for rating colleges by cost BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Targeting the soaring cost of higher education, President Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled a broad new government rating system for colleges that would judge schools on their affordability and perhaps be used to allocate federal financial aid. But the proposed overhaul faced immediate skepticism from college leaders who worry the rankings could cost their institutions millions of dollars, as well as from congressional Republicans wary of deepening the government's role in higher education. The president, speaking to a student-heavy crowd of 7,000 at the University at Buffalo, said he expected pushback from those who have profited from the ballooning cost of college. But he argued that with the nation's economy still shaky and students facing increasing global competition, making college affordable is ''an economic imperative.'' ''Higher education cannot be a luxury,'' Obama said during the first stop on a two-day bus tour through New York and Pennsylvania. ''Every American family should be able to get it.'' Republicans on Capitol Hill weighed in quickly with criticism. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, cast the proposal as government overreach and suggested a state-by-state approach would be preferable. Justice Dept sues Texas over voter ID law AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Justice Department sued Texas on Thursday over the state's voter ID law and will seek to intervene in Join us for a week of fun in The Olive City! Corning Olive Festival 2013 Monday, August 19th, Clues for the Missing Olive Hunt begins. Wednesday, August 21st Water Festival 6pm-8pm, Northside Park SATURDAY@ 7:30 PM AUGUST 24, 2013 15 in advance $ 20 at the door $ Tickets available at www.statetheatreredbluff.com Wink Fashion & Salon, or Sky River Music THEATRE — FOR THE ARTS — 333 Oak Street, Red Bluff, CA www.statetheatreredbluff.com 530-529-ARTS (2787) Bloomberg: New oversight makes it more difficult to protect city NEW YORK (AP) — The City Council voted Thursday to create an outside watchdog for the nation's biggest police department and make it eas- ier for people to file profiling claims against it, overriding Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vetoes and prompting him to say the city's safety is being jeopardized. Bloomberg said the new oversight at the New York Police Department will make it ''harder for our police officers to protect New Yorkers and continue to drive down crime.'' ''Make no mistake: The communities that will feel the most negative impacts of these bills will be minority communities across our city, which have been the greatest beneficiaries of New York City's historic crime reductions,'' he said in a statement. Proponents see the legislation as a check on a police force that's come under scrutiny for its heavy use of a tactic known as stop and frisk and its extensive surveillance of Muslims, which was revealed in stories by The Associated Press. Cheers and applause burst out in the packed spectators' gallery when the council's vote was announced. Later, supporters exchanged hugs outside City Hall. Staff Sgt. Bales apologizes for Afghan massacre JOINT BASE LEWISMCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — The U.S. soldier who massacred 16 Afghan civilians during pre-dawn raids last year apologized for the first time for his ''act of cowardice,'' but could not explain the atrocities to a military jury considering whether he should one day have a shot at freedom. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales said he would bring back the victims of his March 11, 2012, attack ''in a heartbeat,'' if possible. ''I'm truly, truly sorry to those people whose families got taken away,'' he said in a mostly steady voice. ''I can't comprehend their loss. I think about it every time I look at my kids.'' Bales, 40, did not recount specifics of the horrors, but described the killings as an ''act of cowardice, behind a mask of fear, bullshit and bravado,'' and said he hoped his words would be translated for the villagers, none of whom was in the courtroom. The father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., was serving his fourth combat deployment when he left his outpost at Camp Belambay, in Kandahar Province, in the middle of the night to attack the villages. He pleaded guilty in June, and the six-member jury is deciding whether his life sentence should include the chance of parole. His attorneys previously made much of Bales' repeated deployments and suggested that post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury may have played a role in the killings. But they offered no testimony from medical experts on that point, saying they saw little point in making the case a battle of the experts. Instead, they rested their defense after Bales finished speaking Thursday. Closing arguments were scheduled Friday morning. Saying he was nervous to address the court, Bales sat at the witness stand as his wife cried in the front row of the courtroom. Bales himself briefly became emotional, especially choking up as he apologized to his fellow soldiers. ''I love the Army, I've stood next to some really good guys, some real heroes,'' he said. ''I can't say I'm sorry to those guys enough. 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Holder is concentrating on Texas because of years of litigation over the state's Voter ID law and redistricting maps that federal judges in Washington have determined would either indirectly disenfranchise minorities and the poor, or intentionally discriminate minorities. Texas is the only state found to have intentionally discriminated against minorities in this decade's round of redistricting, and the state was banned from enforcing either law. But the U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring revisions to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 took away the judges' authority to intervene. Olive Festival Parade Solano Street 6pm Bed Race Solano & 6th Streets following parade Saturday, August 24th All events at Woodson City Park South & Peach Streets 7-11am Pancake Breakfast 8-10am Hot Air Balloon Rides 9am Fun Run/Walk 9am-4pm Arts, Crafts, Food Booths 11am Live Music 11am & 1pm Olive Tours 11am Fireman's Hose Down 11pm Children's Activities 1pm Cook–Off Judging 2pm Olive Pit Spitting Contest (New) 3pm Raffle Drawing and Olive Drop Advertising published through an event cosponsorship agreement with The Daily News Now Buying CRV Aluminum, Plastic & Glass We Buy Most Metals Richfield Recycling, Inc. 23052 Sonoma Ave, Corning, CA 96021 (530) 824-2123 • Fax: (530) 824-2062