As I've said many times here, the efforts on the part of the TSA is
really to help the IRS search for undeclared income by way of physically
searching americans as they travel within the country, and to assemble
and maintain lists of who travels where for future use during IRS
"discovery" investigations.

Now we see that the NSA is going to step in and vacuum up the banking
transaction records of americans in an effort to help the IRS connect
the dots in the financial lives of some 300 million americans (at least
those who actually have bank accounts - which is going down all the time
as more and more resort to pay-day check-cashing services).

This is what you get when you start illegal wars that you can't pay
for. You rack up a huge national debt and you lose your liberty as your
gov't becomes more and more desperate as it tries to squeeze you for tax
dollars.

And all your god-damn personal firearms are going to do exactly - what?
As your freedoms and liberties are taken away from you.

You are living under the thumb of a facist gov't and you still have
childish expectations that your "right to bear arms" will remedy the
situation.

What a complete bunch of morons you people are...

===============================

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-0...-financial-det

As NSA Pairs With Banks To "Fight Hackers", Will It Also Gain Access To
Every American's Financial Secrets?

Just because there was not enough encroachment by the government into
virtually every corner of private life, here is another "collaboration"
that will further enmesh big brother into every aspect of private life,
in this case private financial life, because as the WaPo reports, "major
U.S. banks have turned to the National Security Agency for help
protecting their computer systems after a barrage of assaults that have
disrupted their Web sites, according to industry officials. The attacks
on the sites, which started about a year ago but intensified in
September, have grown increasingly sophisticated, officials said. The
NSA, the world’s largest electronic spying agency, has been asked to
provide technical assistance to help banks further assess their systems
and to better understand the attackers’ tactics."

And while we salute the great diversionary pretext that "Iranian
hackers" pose a greater risk to the stability of the US financial system
than, say, the ongoing monetization of US debt at a pace of $85 billion
per month, which has made the Fed's DV01 rise to a mindboggling $2.75
billion, or idiot pundits who claim all American problems can be
resolved with one coin, we can't help but wonder what happens when the
most intrusive of US spy agencies, one which as reported last year is
free "to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store" virtually every
electronic communication in the entire world, now has full explicit
access to all bank data, and, incidentally, every American's financial
snapshot at any given moment?

More on the official spin:

==================
The cooperation between the NSA and banks, industry officials say,
underscores the government’s fears about the unprecedented assault
against the financial sector and is part of a broader effort by the
government to work with U.S. firms on cybersecurity. Nonetheless, the
assistance is likely to dismay privacy advocates, who say that the NSA
has no business peering inside private companies’ systems, even if for
the strict purpose of improving computer security.

U.S. intelligence officials said last year they believe the attacks
against the banks and other companies have been carried out by Iran,
although some experts have cautioned that it is difficult to accurately
determine who is behind them.

The banks whose Web sites have been disrupted include Bank of
America, PNC Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, HSBC and SunTrust. In recent
weeks, attackers have targeted up to seven banks a day, but only on
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
=====================

So Monday and Friday are holy days for Iranian hackers we take it?

It appears that the private anti-hacker sector is completely powerless
to withstand this massive onslaught of millions of Iranian hackers hell
bent on seeing just how much money the average American has in their
Bank of America online account page:

======================
The banks whose Web sites have been disrupted include Bank of
America, PNC Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, HSBC and SunTrust. In recent
weeks, attackers have targeted up to seven banks a day, but only on
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Enter the NSA, which has generously agreed to provide its expertise in
learning all there is to know about everyone's finances thwarting evil
Iranian hacks.

The government’s willingness to engage “is emblematic of how these
cyber-related risks are evolving,” the bank official said. “Agencies
like the NSA have tremendous expertise for very sophisticated types of
information-security programs.”

In general, it can provide assistance to private-sector companies
when their systems are seen as critical to national security, said
Richard George, a former computer security official at the NSA. The
request must come from a government agency, such as the Treasury
Department or the Department of Homeland Security, that has authority to
work with the company.
==========================

But don't worry - the NSA is with the government, and it is here to
help:

==========================
“The dual mission of the NSA, to promote security and to pursue
surveillance, creates an intractable privacy problem,” said Marc
Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center.

Former NSA officials say privacy concerns are overblown and note
that requests for NSA assistance are denied when there is no national
security interest at stake. George said that, over the past decade, the
agency has aided about 10 companies a year after their networks were
compromised.

“If NSA is involved [with the banks], it’s because they would love
to see what’s happening on the victim’s side,” a second former defense
official said. “There’s probably more for the government to learn than
to give.”
==========================

In conclusion:

The NSA declined to comment for this article beyond a statement
saying that the agency provides assistance “in full compliance with all
applicable laws and regulations.”

Enlighten us, please, which applicable laws and regulations are these?
The same ones that give the government the right to detain citizens
indefinitely. Or the one granting it the right to spy and monitor all
Americans' emails and calls without a warrant? Because we are confused.