"NSA, today, is collecting everything – including content – of every digital communication in this country, both computer and phone, and that information is being stored indefinitely.” (Moscow trials ring a bell?)

◼ Bombshell: Fmr. Intelligence Agent Accuses NSA, Obama Of Lying, Alleges Broader Spying Programs - Noah Rothman/Mediaite

On Friday, MSNBC anchor Craig Melvin interviewed former U.S. Air Force intelligence Agent Russell Tice about the revelations surrounding the National Security Agency’s monitoring of Americans’ digital and electronic communications. Tice accused a variety of administration officials, including President Barack Obama, of disseminating outright falsehoods in their efforts to explain those programs. He added that those programs are far broader than any government official has said up to this point. Tice slammed the president’s meeting with privacy advocates today, conceding the point that this was largely a “PR move.”

“There is a lot of disinformation going on,” Tice observed. “I’ve always said the station is much worse.”

Tice accused the NSA’s past and current directors of misleading the public regarding the scope of the agency’s communications monitoring programs.

“NSA, today, is collecting everything – including content – of every digital communication in this country, both computer and phone, and that information is being stored indefinitely,” Tice said. “And that’s something that they’re lying about.”

◼ Discussion at Lucianne

◼ Revealed: the top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant - Glenn Greenwald & James Ball/Guardian [UK]

Top secret documents submitted to the court that oversees surveillance by US intelligence agencies show the judges have signed off on broad orders which allow the NSA to make use of information "inadvertently" collected from domestic US communications without a warrant. The Guardian is publishing in full two documents submitted to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (known as the Fisa court), signed by Attorney General Eric Holder and stamped 29 July 2009.

◼ Document one: procedures used by NSA to target non-US persons
◼ Document two: procedures used by NSA to minimise data collected from US persons

◼ Discussion at Lucianne