The PRISM through which the WH views privacy; An award for Mabus; An “out member” gets a second star; Five vet charities termed “the worst”; Sonenshine on public diplomacy; and a bit more.

By Gordon Lubold

After the Verizon story yesterday, new revelations about the Obama administration’s tapping of Internet records. The WaPo obtained a top-secret document that shows that the National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the servers of nine American Internet companies, "extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets," according to the paper this morning. "The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley."

And: "Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: ‘Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.’ PRISM was launched from the ashes of President George W. Bush’s secret program of warrantless domestic surveillance in 2007, after news media disclosures, lawsuits and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court forced the president to look for new authority."

The war ain’t over.  Despite Obama’s declaring that "all wars must end" in a recent speech at National Defense University, the revelations of Internet tapping and phone records show that at least behind that shadowy world, the administration is still very much on a war footing. The NYT’s Peter Baker: "Whatever his ambivalence about what President George W. Bush called a global war, Mr. Obama has used some of the same aggressive powers in the name of guarding national security even, in the view of critics, at the expense of civil liberties. Rather than dismantling Mr. Bush’s approach to national security, Mr. Obama has to some extent validated it and put it on a more sustainable footing."

Strange bed fellows: Baker notes how Dems like Al Gore and Tea Partiers like Rand Paul see the privacy issue in much the same way. "’Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?’ former Vice President Al Gore, the former Democratic presidential nominee, wrote in a Twitter message. On his own Twitter account, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a possible Republican presidential candidate, condemned the surveillance as ‘an astounding assault on the Constitution.’

WaPo published slides that describe the PRISM program, here.

Why you shouldn’t be hyped about some of this. Writing on FP, Stewart Baker: "Does this mean the end of privacy, law, and the Constitution? Nope. There are a lot of reasons to be cautious about rushing to the conclusion that these "scandals" signal a massive, lawless new intrusion into Americans’ civil liberties. Despite this apparent breadth, and even if we assume that the leaked FISA order is genuine, there are a lot of reasons to be cautious about rushing to the conclusion that it signals a massive, lawless new intrusion into Americans’ civil liberties."

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Read and watch Anderson Cooper’s interview on CNN of the transgender former Navy SEAL, Kristin Beck, here.

The Navy’s stand-down on sexual assault. The Defense Department ordered each service to review sexual assault training in what is known in military parlance as a "stand down," or an operational pause by July 1. Yesterday, the Navy announced details of its own effort: "The intent of this stand-down is to ensure service members and civilian personnel clearly understand SAPR principles and resources available. Personnel should understand their accountability and role in eliminating sexual assault, fostering a command climate of dignity and respect, and upholding our core values of honor, courage, and commitment. This effort builds upon training completed under SAPR-Fleet and SAPR-Leadership training modules." Navy’s announcement , here.

What does Ray Mabus have in common with Whirlpool? Both the Navy Secretary and the Whirlpool Corporation won energy efficiency awards from the Alliance to Save Energy. From a press release: "Secretary Mabus will receive the Chairman’s Award from Alliance Honorary Chair Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) for the secretary’s commitment to helping make the U.S. Navy a global leader in energy efficiency and helping to elevate the issue at the Pentagon." More here.

Five organizations with "veterans" in their name made the list of "America’s Worst Charities." The Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting teamed up to create the list. It includes: National Veterans Service Fund, the Veterans Fund, Veterans Assistance Foundation, Circle of Friends for America’s Veterans and Our American Veterans. The project looked at the amount of money spent on corporate solicitors versus money for the recipients. The list here. Their story, here.

Openly lesbian general gets a second star. She’s now Air Force Maj. Gen. Patricia Rose, and she’s the highest-ranking "out member" of the gay-lesbian community. Rose, the mobilization assistant to the commander of Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, was promoted on May 31. From the press release: "General Rose’s wife Julie Roth, who served in the Navy for 22 years, pinned on her second star."

Palm Center Director Aaron Belkin: "When gay and lesbian service members were forced to conceal their identities, they often paid a high price. And when they told the truth about who they are, the military lost a lot of good people. The community takes great pride in General Rose’s promotion, both for her personally, but also as a milestone for how far the military has come."

Georgia lost seven service members in Afghanistan yesterday to a VBIED. ISAF Commander Gen. Joe Dunford in a statement this morning on the vehicle born improvised explosive device that exploded yesterday in Helmand: "Georgia’s support of the ISAF mission has been steadfast and tangible. While many have contributed to the se
curity improvements in Afghanistan, Georgian soldiers have always stood out for their toughness and willingness to take on difficult missions. Georgia has more than 1,500 troops serving in Helmand Province, making it the largest non-NATO contributor to ISAF. ISAF will always be grateful for Georgia’s contribution and commitment."

Run for the border: Military contractors try to cash in on the U.S.-Mexico line. Feeling the pinch of the end of more than a decade of war, defense contractors are headed to the U.S.-Mexican border to snag a Department of Homeland Security contract for "military grade radar and long-range camera systems" that could be worth as much as $1 billion, the NYT reports this morning. Companies like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics are entering into a "showdown" to compete for that contract. Eric Lipton: "Northrop Grumman, meanwhile, is pitching to Homeland Security officials an automated tracking device — first built for the Pentagon to find roadside bombs in Afghanistan — that could be mounted on aerial drones to find illegal border crossers. And General Atomics, which manufactures the reconnaissance drones, wants to double the size of the fleet under a recently awarded contract worth up to $443 million. The military-style buildup at the border zone, which started in the Tucson area late in the Bush administration, would become all but mandatory under the bill pending before the Senate. It requires that within six months of enactment, Homeland Security submit a plan to achieve ‘effective control’ and ‘persistent surveillance’ of the entire 1,969-mile land border with Mexico, something never before accomplished." Says Dennis Hoffman, an economics professor at Arizona State University: "There are only so many missile systems and Apache attack helicopters you can sell…. This push toward border security fits very well with the need to create an ongoing stream of revenue."

As Tara Sonenshine prepares to leave State, a talk about public diplomacy. State’s Undersecretary for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy Tara Sonenshine, who will be leaving her post later this summer, spoke at Stimson yesterday "to thread public diplomacy -often thought of as ‘soft power’ and to thread it more tightly into the tapestry of American foreign policy and conflict work, often thought of as ‘hard power,’" she told Situation Report. An excerpt:  "There are situations where conflict erupts or an unexpected situation unfolds and we have no choice but to react in the short term, whether we are working in conflict reconciliation, or we are helping people cope – as we did in Haiti – with the consequences of an earthquake. The military will step in, as it did in Haiti, and sort through the rubble and civilians will stay long after to rebuild. And throughout both periods, our messaging, our narrative, and our public diplomacy matter. It has to work together.

"Then there is the midterm, where we are working, through our public diplomacy programs and educational exchanges, to offer alternative scenarios to the world’s growing cohorts of, for example, economically disaffected youth – some of whom become radicalized and turn to violence.

Many of our programs for youth around the world offer English language training, job skills, an education. As President Obama put it in his recent speech at National Defense University – these efforts address the "underlying grievances and conflicts that feed extremism." Public diplomacy is also in the conflict prevention business.

"In the long term, public diplomacy is also about building community and mutual understanding, and civil societies so that, our own economy stands to benefit from emerging trading and strategic global partners. We are also in the post-conflict arena."

Noting

• The Gazette (Colorado): Other than Honorable, Day 3. 
• Battleland: Marines get carded.
• National Defense: Diplomats give SOCOM a reality check.
• Small Wars: Aiding opposition civilian authority in Syria.  
• The Atlantic: Government phone surveillance: an explainer.
• USA Today: (opinion) Massive secret surveillance betrays Americans.