I wonder why he was using g mail.
Gallagher writes: "The Obama administration fought a legal battle against
Google to secretly obtain the email records of a security researcher and
journalist associated with WikiLeaks."
The Justice Department won an order forcing Google to turn over more than
one year's worth of data from the Gmail account of Jacob Appelbaum. (photo:
Axel Schmidt/DAPD/AP)
How DOJ Gagged Google Over Surveillance of Wikileaks Volunteer
By Ryan Gallagher, The Intercept
21 June 15
The Obama administration fought a legal battle against Google to secretly
obtain the email records of a security researcher and journalist associated
with WikiLeaks.
Newly unsealed court documents obtained by The Intercept reveal the Justice
Department won an order forcing Google to turn over more than one year's
worth of data from the Gmail account of Jacob Appelbaum (pictured above), a
developer for the Tor online anonymity project who has worked with WikiLeaks
as a volunteer. The order also gagged Google, preventing it from notifying
Appelbaum that his records had been provided to the government.
The surveillance of Appelbaum's Gmail account was tied to the Justice
Department's long-running criminal investigation of WikiLeaks, which began
in 2010 following the transparency group's publication of a large cache of
U.S. government diplomatic cables.
According to the unsealed documents, the Justice Department first sought
details from Google about a Gmail account operated by Appelbaum in January
2011, triggering a three-month dispute between the government and the tech
giant. Government investigators demanded metadata records from the account
showing email addresses of those with whom Appelbaum had corresponded
between the period of November 2009 and early 2011; they also wanted to
obtain information showing the unique IP addresses of the computers he had
used to log in to the account.
The Justice Department argued in the case that Appelbaum had "no reasonable
expectation of privacy" over his email records under the Fourth Amendment,
which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Rather than
seeking a search warrant that would require it to show probable cause that
he had committed a crime, the government instead sought and received an
order to obtain the data under a lesser standard, requiring only "reasonable
grounds" to believe that the records were "relevant and material" to an
ongoing criminal investigation.
Google repeatedly attempted to challenge the demand, and wanted to
immediately notify Appelbaum that his records were being sought so he could
have an opportunity to launch his own legal defense. Attorneys for the tech
giant argued in a series of court filings that the government's case raised
"serious First Amendment concerns." They noted that Appelbaum's records "may
implicate journalistic and academic freedom" because they could "reveal
confidential sources or information about WikiLeaks' purported journalistic
or academic activities."
However, the Justice Department asserted that "journalists have no special
privilege to resist compelled disclosure of their records, absent evidence
that the government is acting in bad faith," and refused to concede
Appelbaum was in fact a journalist. It claimed it had acted in "good faith
throughout this criminal investigation, and there is no evidence that either
the investigation or the order is intended to harass the . subscriber or
anyone else."
Google's attempts to fight the surveillance gag order angered the
government, with the Justice Department stating that the company's
"resistance to providing the records" had "frustrated the government's
ability to efficiently conduct a lawful criminal investigation."
The Justice Department wanted to keep the surveillance secret largely
because of an earlier public backlash over its WikiLeaks investigation. In
January 2011, Appelbaum and other WikiLeaks volunteers' - including
Icelandic parlimentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir - were notified by Twitter that
the Justice Department had obtained data about their accounts. This
disclosure generated widepread news coverage and controversy; the government
says in the unsealed court records that it "failed to anticipate the degree
of damage that would be caused" by the Twitter disclosure and did not want
to "exacerbate this problem" when it went after Appelbaum's Gmail data.
The court documents show the Justice Department said the disclosure of its
Twitter data grab "seriously jeopardized the [WikiLeaks] investigation"
because it resulted in efforts to "conceal evidence" and put public pressure
on other companies to resist similar surveillance orders. It also claimed
that officials named in the subpoena ordering Twitter to turn over
information were "harassed" after a copy was published by Intercept
co-founder Glenn Greenwald at Salon in 2011. (The only specific evidence of
the alleged harassment cited by the government is an email that was sent to
an employee of the U.S. Attorney's office that purportedly said: "You guys
are fucking nazis trying to controll [sic] the whole fucking world. Well
guess what. WE DO NOT FORGIVE. WE DO NOT FORGET. EXPECT US.")
Google accused the government of hyperbole and argued that the backlash over
the Twitter order did not justify secrecy related to the Gmail surveillance.
"Rather than demonstrating how unsealing the order will harm its
well-publicized investigation, the government lists a parade of horribles
that have allegedly occurred since it unsealed the Twitter order, yet fails
to establish how any of these developments could be further exacerbated by
unsealing this order," wrote Google's attorneys. "The proverbial toothpaste
is out of the tube, and continuing to seal a materially identical order will
not change it."
But Google's attempt to overturn the gag order was denied by magistrate
judge Ivan D. Davis in February 2011. The company launched an appeal against
that decision, but this too was rebuffed, in March 2011, by District Court
judge Thomas Selby Ellis, III.
The government agreed to unseal some of the court records on Apr. 1 this
year, and they were apparently turned over to Appelbaum on May 14 through a
notification sent to his Gmail account. The files were released on condition
that they would contain some redactions, which are bizarre and inconsistent,
in some cases censoring the name of "WikiLeaks" from cited public news
reports.
Not all of the documents in the case - such as the original surveillance
orders contested by Google - were released as part of the latest disclosure.
Some contain "specific and sensitive details of the investigation" and
"remain properly sealed while the grand jury investigation continues,"
according to the court records from April this year.
Appelbaum, an American citizen who is based in Berlin, called the case "a
travesty that continues at a slow pace" and said he felt it was important to
highlight "the absolute madness in these documents."
He told The Intercept: "After five years, receiving such legal documents is
neither a shock nor a needed confirmation. . Will we ever see the full
documents about our respective cases? Will we even learn the names of those
signing so-called legal orders against us in secret sealed documents?
Certainly not in a timely manner and certainly not in a transparent, just
manner."
The 32-year-old, who has recently collaborated with Intercept co-founder
Laura Poitras to report revelations about National Security Agency
surveillance for German news magazine Der Spiegel, said he plans to remain
in Germany "in exile, rather than returning to the U.S. to experience more
harassment of a less than legal kind."
"My presence in Berlin ensures that the cost of physically harassing me or
politically harassing me is much higher than when I last lived on U.S.
soil," Appelbaum said. "This allows me to work as a journalist freely from
daily U.S. government interference. It also ensures that any further
attempts to continue this will be forced into the open through [a Mutual
Legal Assistance Treaty] and other international processes. The German
goverment is less likely to allow the FBI to behave in Germany as they do on
U.S. soil."
The Justice Department's WikiLeaks investigaton is headed by prosecutors in
the Eastern District of Virginia. Since 2010, the secretive probe has seen
activists affiliated with WikiLeaks compelled to appear before a grand jury
and the FBI attempting to infiltrate the group with an informant. Earlier
this year, it was revealed that the government had obtained the contents of
three core WikiLeaks staffers' Gmail accounts as part of the investigation.
Google, the Justice Department, and the U.S. Attorneys Office had not
responded to requests for comment on this story at time of publication.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
The Justice Department won an order forcing Google to turn over more than
one year's worth of data from the Gmail account of Jacob Appelbaum. (photo:
Axel Schmidt/DAPD/AP)
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/20/wikileaks-jacob-appelbaum-goog
le-investigation/https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/20/wikileaks-jac
ob-appelbaum-google-investigation/
How DOJ Gagged Google Over Surveillance of Wikileaks Volunteer
By Ryan Gallagher, The Intercept
21 June 15
he Obama administration fought a legal battle against Google to secretly
obtain the email records of a security researcher and journalist associated
with WikiLeaks.
Newly unsealed court documents obtained by The Intercept reveal the Justice
Department won an order forcing Google to turn over more than one year's
worth of data from the Gmail account of Jacob Appelbaum (pictured above), a
developer for the Tor online anonymity project who has worked with WikiLeaks
as a volunteer. The order also gagged Google, preventing it from notifying
Appelbaum that his records had been provided to the government.
The surveillance of Appelbaum's Gmail account was tied to the Justice
Department's long-running criminal investigation of WikiLeaks, which began
in 2010 following the transparency group's publication of a large cache of
U.S. government diplomatic cables.
According to the unsealed documents, the Justice Department first sought
details from Google about a Gmail account operated by Appelbaum in January
2011, triggering a three-month dispute between the government and the tech
giant. Government investigators demanded metadata records from the account
showing email addresses of those with whom Appelbaum had corresponded
between the period of November 2009 and early 2011; they also wanted to
obtain information showing the unique IP addresses of the computers he had
used to log in to the account.
The Justice Department argued in the case that Appelbaum had "no reasonable
expectation of privacy" over his email records under the Fourth Amendment,
which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Rather than
seeking a search warrant that would require it to show probable cause that
he had committed a crime, the government instead sought and received an
order to obtain the data under a lesser standard, requiring only "reasonable
grounds" to believe that the records were "relevant and material" to an
ongoing criminal investigation.
Google repeatedly attempted to challenge the demand, and wanted to
immediately notify Appelbaum that his records were being sought so he could
have an opportunity to launch his own legal defense. Attorneys for the tech
giant argued in a series of court filings that the government's case raised
"serious First Amendment concerns." They noted that Appelbaum's records "may
implicate journalistic and academic freedom" because they could "reveal
confidential sources or information about WikiLeaks' purported journalistic
or academic activities."
However, the Justice Department asserted that "journalists have no special
privilege to resist compelled disclosure of their records, absent evidence
that the government is acting in bad faith," and refused to concede
Appelbaum was in fact a journalist. It claimed it had acted in "good faith
throughout this criminal investigation, and there is no evidence that either
the investigation or the order is intended to harass the . subscriber or
anyone else."
Google's attempts to fight the surveillance gag order angered the
government, with the Justice Department stating that the company's
"resistance to providing the records" had "frustrated the government's
ability to efficiently conduct a lawful criminal investigation."
The Justice Department wanted to keep the surveillance secret largely
because of an earlier public backlash over its WikiLeaks investigation. In
January 2011, Appelbaum and other WikiLeaks volunteers' - including
Icelandic parlimentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir - were notified by Twitter that
the Justice Department had obtained data about their accounts. This
disclosure generated widepread news coverage and controversy; the government
says in the unsealed court records that it "failed to anticipate the degree
of damage that would be caused" by the Twitter disclosure and did not want
to "exacerbate this problem" when it went after Appelbaum's Gmail data.
The court documents show the Justice Department said the disclosure of its
Twitter data grab "seriously jeopardized the [WikiLeaks] investigation"
because it resulted in efforts to "conceal evidence" and put public pressure
on other companies to resist similar surveillance orders. It also claimed
that officials named in the subpoena ordering Twitter to turn over
information were "harassed" after a copy was published by Intercept
co-founder Glenn Greenwald at Salon in 2011. (The only specific evidence of
the alleged harassment cited by the government is an email that was sent to
an employee of the U.S. Attorney's office that purportedly said: "You guys
are fucking nazis trying to controll [sic] the whole fucking world. Well
guess what. WE DO NOT FORGIVE. WE DO NOT FORGET. EXPECT US.")
Google accused the government of hyperbole and argued that the backlash over
the Twitter order did not justify secrecy related to the Gmail surveillance.
"Rather than demonstrating how unsealing the order will harm its
well-publicized investigation, the government lists a parade of horribles
that have allegedly occurred since it unsealed the Twitter order, yet fails
to establish how any of these developments could be further exacerbated by
unsealing this order," wrote Google's attorneys. "The proverbial toothpaste
is out of the tube, and continuing to seal a materially identical order will
not change it."
But Google's attempt to overturn the gag order was denied by magistrate
judge Ivan D. Davis in February 2011. The company launched an appeal against
that decision, but this too was rebuffed, in March 2011, by District Court
judge Thomas Selby Ellis, III.
The government agreed to unseal some of the court records on Apr. 1 this
year, and they were apparently turned over to Appelbaum on May 14 through a
notification sent to his Gmail account. The files were released on condition
that they would contain some redactions, which are bizarre and inconsistent,
in some cases censoring the name of "WikiLeaks" from cited public news
reports.
Not all of the documents in the case - such as the original surveillance
orders contested by Google - were released as part of the latest disclosure.
Some contain "specific and sensitive details of the investigation" and
"remain properly sealed while the grand jury investigation continues,"
according to the court records from April this year.
Appelbaum, an American citizen who is based in Berlin, called the case "a
travesty that continues at a slow pace" and said he felt it was important to
highlight "the absolute madness in these documents."
He told The Intercept: "After five years, receiving such legal documents is
neither a shock nor a needed confirmation. . Will we ever see the full
documents about our respective cases? Will we even learn the names of those
signing so-called legal orders against us in secret sealed documents?
Certainly not in a timely manner and certainly not in a transparent, just
manner."
The 32-year-old, who has recently collaborated with Intercept co-founder
Laura Poitras to report revelations about National Security Agency
surveillance for German news magazine Der Spiegel, said he plans to remain
in Germany "in exile, rather than returning to the U.S. to experience more
harassment of a less than legal kind."
"My presence in Berlin ensures that the cost of physically harassing me or
politically harassing me is much higher than when I last lived on U.S.
soil," Appelbaum said. "This allows me to work as a journalist freely from
daily U.S. government interference. It also ensures that any further
attempts to continue this will be forced into the open through [a Mutual
Legal Assistance Treaty] and other international processes. The German
goverment is less likely to allow the FBI to behave in Germany as they do on
U.S. soil."
The Justice Department's WikiLeaks investigaton is headed by prosecutors in
the Eastern District of Virginia. Since 2010, the secretive probe has seen
activists affiliated with WikiLeaks compelled to appear before a grand jury
and the FBI attempting to infiltrate the group with an informant. Earlier
this year, it was revealed that the government had obtained the contents of
three core WikiLeaks staffers' Gmail accounts as part of the investigation.
Google, the Justice Department, and the U.S. Attorneys Office had not
responded to requests for comment on this story at time of publication.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
