[kitchen]

That is, what numbers were called by the reporters, what numbers called them, how long the calls lasted, etc. And that is bad enough...

Recall that Echelon records and archives every electronic communication. Land lines, email, cell phone, etc. Forever. If someone is identified, all their communications can be retrieved. Future calls can be tagged for review, either by software or human intervention.

It used to be that our benevolent government would “have” to ask the Canadians, Brits, or Aussies if they had anything on so-and-so in their files. Maintain deniability, so to speak – ‘hell no, we’re not spying on Americans!’ Foreign nationals would retrieve and forward the requested information. I suspect the keyan commie has dispensed with that step.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

Yes - am fully aware of that - it's standard investigative procedure to first gather then look at the call records for correlation to active or potential targets then proceed from there. They were ultimately after more than just call stats. This should take a lot of interesting turns before it is over.