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Thom's blog
Is the CIA bribing AT&T to spy on foreign citizens?
The Central Intelligence Agency has been bribing AT&T to help them spy on international communications. According to a new report in the New York Times, the CIA has been paying that company $10 million dollars a year for access to their overseas metadata. By accessing that data, the CIA is spying on private communications, including the date and length of calls, and the phone numbers involved, all without a warrant.
Although the CIA claims that only foreign-to-foreign call data is being collected, they admit that calls made to and from the US to another country are also included. AT&T claims that they've imposed strict privacy safeguards to protect Americans, like masking several digits of a phone number and withholding the identity of any numbers from the United States. However, if the CIA wants that information, they simply ask the FBI to issue a subpoena and force AT&T to hand over the details.
Essentially, our tax dollars are being used to bribe a private, for-profit company to help the government spy on foreign citizens. And in the process, Americans' private communication data can be collected. After all the NSA spying scandals, it's hard to believe that this isn't simply another program that the government uses to violate our Fourth Amendment rights. To add insult to injury, we're the ones paying yet another for-profit company to hand our private information over to the government.
-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 9pm... Killing the Poor... (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT, and catch past shows on Youtube)
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Geeky Science: - Magic of Mantras
Daily Take: You might be a Republican if...
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Wednesday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: Election news you won't hear from the corporate news media...
Plus, NYC's new mayor wins on taxing the rich- David Selig, Selig Associates
Hour Two: What the right finds wrong with welfare to work- Patrice Hill, Washington Times
Hour Three: Voting machine irregularities- Brad Friedman, The Brad Blog
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Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET
Hour One: You might have been fooled by Republicans if...
Hour Three: Everything You Know is Wrong: Faith healing...or homicide? Breaking News- Cameron Stauth, Journalist/Author, In The Name of God: The True Story of the Fight to Save Children from Faith-Healing Homicide
Geeky Science - Magic of Mantras?
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Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET
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Thom's Poll
Should out-of-state money be banned from local elections?
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Privatizing our Vote...the Ultimate Crime
The Good - The Bad - And the Very Very Lupanarianly Ugly!
Crazy Alert! Rubber Ducky Disaster!
Politically Corrected! Cancelled Insurance Different than Losing Coverage
Carbon Tax works in Finland
Lone Liberal - Top GOPer says GOP Cuts "Just Insane."
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Tonight's "Lone Liberal Rumble" panel discusses yesterday's election results, whether Chris Christie's embrace of Obamacare was a smart political move and the fate of our country's social safety net programs. Thom speaks with Finland Ambassador to Mexico Anne Lammila on her country's carbon tax, and in tonight's "Daily Take" Thom details how large corporations are now in charge of running and monitoring our elections.
Thom Hartmann on the News: November 6, 2013
Caller: The Unemployed are not all Lazy!
What the Right Finds Wrong With Welfare to Work
NYC's New Mayor Wins on Platform to Tax the Rich
Caller: Electronic Voting Machines Must Go!
Voting Machine Irregularities
Chris Christie: The Next Ronald Reagan?
Election News...you Won't hear in the Corporate News Media
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Thom and Louise Hartmann founded the New England Salem Children's Village (NESCV) in New Hampshire in 1979. With states delaying payment for the children they entrust to the village, they need help with cash flow. Can you help? Now on Facebook. |
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