Relevance to PG seems to be that this NSA program tracked large financial transactions & the FBI, who published terms used in sex trafficking, has referred to "pizza" while this same usage re huge financial transactions such as the Obama Whitehouse importing Chicago "pizza" at about $60k (if I recall) seems a flag. One might expect food caterers but why "pizza" and of all the thousands of possible business types?
"A warrantless surveillance program known by the code name "Stellar Wind" (or "Stellarwind") began under the George W. Bush administration's President's Surveillance Program (PSP). The National Security Agency (NSA) program was approved by President Bush shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and was revealed by Thomas Tamm to The New York Times in 2008. Stellar Wind was a prelude to new legal structures that allowed President Bush and President Barack Obama to reproduce each of those programs and expand their reach..."
"The intelligence community also was able to obtain from the U.S. Treasury Department suspicious activity reports, or "SARS", which are reports of activities such as large cash transactions that are submitted by financial institutions under anti-money laundering rules...."
"There were internal disputes within the U.S. Justice Department about the legality of the program, because data are collected for large numbers of people, not just the subjects of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants. During the Bush Administration, the Stellarwind cases were referred to by FBI agents as "pizza cases" because many seemingly suspicious cases turned out to be food takeout orders. According to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, approximately 99% of the cases led nowhere, but "it's that other 1% that we've got to be concerned about"..."
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Da-Cat ago
Relevance to PG seems to be that this NSA program tracked large financial transactions & the FBI, who published terms used in sex trafficking, has referred to "pizza" while this same usage re huge financial transactions such as the Obama Whitehouse importing Chicago "pizza" at about $60k (if I recall) seems a flag. One might expect food caterers but why "pizza" and of all the thousands of possible business types?
"A warrantless surveillance program known by the code name "Stellar Wind" (or "Stellarwind") began under the George W. Bush administration's President's Surveillance Program (PSP). The National Security Agency (NSA) program was approved by President Bush shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and was revealed by Thomas Tamm to The New York Times in 2008. Stellar Wind was a prelude to new legal structures that allowed President Bush and President Barack Obama to reproduce each of those programs and expand their reach..."
"The intelligence community also was able to obtain from the U.S. Treasury Department suspicious activity reports, or "SARS", which are reports of activities such as large cash transactions that are submitted by financial institutions under anti-money laundering rules...."
"There were internal disputes within the U.S. Justice Department about the legality of the program, because data are collected for large numbers of people, not just the subjects of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants. During the Bush Administration, the Stellarwind cases were referred to by FBI agents as "pizza cases" because many seemingly suspicious cases turned out to be food takeout orders. According to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, approximately 99% of the cases led nowhere, but "it's that other 1% that we've got to be concerned about"..."