Posted on 06/06/2013 3:46:24 AM PDT by Evil Slayer
Edited on 06/06/2013 5:31:03 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Security Agency has been collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a top secret court order, according to a report in Britain's Guardian newspaper.
The order was granted by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 25 and is good until July 19, the newspaper reported Wednesday. The order requires Verizon, one of the nation's largest telecommunications companies, on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
We must start renaming things, restating them. Obama has separated himself successfully from “the administration.” We must start saying “Obama’s NSA”, “Obama’s Justice Department” “Onama’s State Department”. That can start HERE at FR. We must reconnect him to his deeds. This man must be held accountable as non-governing “president.” He is a community organizer still and only can speak reading a TelePrompTer...he is a campaigner and we are letting him get away with it. Lets start redefining what we are saying and associate his name with everything. For instance, whether it is Shootings at Sandy Hook or Ft Hood? Say “Welcome to OBAMA’s America, folks.” Lets start giving him FULL CREDIT for what is happening! Blame Obama...it is well-placed!
I guess I'm wondering about why we (U.S.) have to wait on Britain to do OUR reporting for US.
(Not that I'm not grateful to the Guardian for doing it).
I don’t see the correlation, could you explain?
“The content of the conversation itself is not covered”.
Yeah, right.
Good idea.
Nor was I, but there were a number of the seriously foolish who were. Even on this forum there are people who think background checks for gun purchases are a good thing, that the police are there to help you, giving the government more powers will help catch those evil muslim terrorists without any negative consequences for the rest of us, etc.
In fact it probably wasn't covered, but only because the telecoms don't save that information because it is of no use to them. The metadata is very useful for billing, network performance measurment, social network analysis etc, but the content of the calls doesn't matter. Plus it is very expensive to store just the metadata - about 500 fields per call. Typically it's only stored for 90 - 120 days simply because of the volume and cost.
I understand, fog. I guess what I was saying (and I was the one that wasn’t clear) is that if they are doing this... I don’t believe they haven’t been listening. I may be jaded but with the whole press scandal, IRS/conservative group scandal... I personally believe more privacy has been violated than we know. (I need more coffee...)
Blackbrair
They do check everyones emails for content too. Just for fun I encrypt a goodly fraction of my emails with GPG (the free version of PGP) and always anything of a financial nature. Sometimes my friends and I encrypt meaningless things like web pages poems etc. and send them to each other just to give the government something to make them feel useful. (BTW GPG and PGP are unbreakable by any current technology in spite of some cutsie TV shows showing the hero lab geeks breaking breaking encryption on the bad guys' comptuers)
Tracking all electronic communication is an attempt to intercept terrorist planning. We can’t stop it any more than we can stop the government from taking 40% of the money we earn. The outrage is understandable, yet their actions unstoppable. The noise of people complaining about things they can’t control provides cover for our betters to continue their actions.
I got you. Thanks for the clarification.
I don’t agree with any of those things you mentioned. The government or police are not your friends.
Former Vice President Al Gore also criticized the move.
"In the digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?" he said in a post on Twitter.
Naming things ‘Obama’ is a huge mistake, just like Clintonizing things was. This is the real goal, face and intent of the Democratic Party.
Long after Clinton is gone and Obama just a memory, the Democratic Party will continue to press for these policies and actions. Is this so different than FDR, LBJ, Kennedy, Carter, Clinton?
It’s a continuum, a thought continuum. It’s their philosophy.
I prefer: DemocratCare, etc. Don’t let them get away blaming the man - that’s ad hominem and to their advantage.
5.56mm
Many of us warned them. Lots of times we got chestnuts like "why do you hate america?" just for pointing the bleading obvious, like this power being abused. It's not like their beloved gop is going to do anything more than some hypocritical harrumphing over this one.
STEP RIGHT UP and get yourself a free Obama phone!!!
1984? This sort of stuff used to be conspiracy talk...not any longer.
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