NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon users: Why?

[RoadVirus]

It's sad to know that you believe that.

Who are you calling that makes you so paranoid?

The more accurate question is: What business is it of the government who he or I or anyone else talks to when we are law abiding citizens?

Exactly. I haven't been in contact with a terrorist (that i know of...my grandma is a little weird), so why is the governemnt putting my phone on file?

 

[Intense]

For the camps?

Im not sure if you are trying to be ridiculous, but anything is possible.

That's why we should be working for a limited government. So they don't have the power to even tip toe down that road. And we can't say it wont happen, because it's happened before.

It is happening now, and there is no knowing what use that kind of information will be put to. I know the camps are divided, even amongst themselves, but it is clearly a Pandora's box.

 

[RoadVirus]

What's funny is, Google is collecting more information on you every minute you're on this website than any government agency is doing with your stupid phone records.

Of course that's okay with the inmates, because Google is a corporation.

Google isn't buying 1 billion rounds of hollow point ammunition either you ******* tool

google is listed as another

who has been turning over collected information

to the government

Forced to turn over information

 

[Intense]

Not a conspiracy theory. It's really happening. The Guardian has a copy of the court order.

I'd heard this on Levin earlier and checked it out. The Guardian (left wing Brit newspaper) is reporting that the NSA is secretly collecting millions of Verizon subscribers phone records.

Check this out.

Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily

Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

The disclosure is likely to reignite longstanding debates in the US over the proper extent of the government's domestic spying powers.

Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets.

The Guardian approached the National Security Agency, the White House and the Department of Justice for comment in advance of publication on Wednesday.

All declined. The agencies were also offered the opportunity to raise specific security concerns regarding the publication of the court order.

The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself.

More at link:

Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily | World news | The Guardian

Simple enough.

Because the Patriot Act says they can do it.

I think that the one missing ingredient here is Cause. Show cause, a Terrorist Tie. Without that there is no justification. Funny seeing you defending the Patriot Act. My position is mixed. In an Emergency, connect the dots, circumstance does dictate what actions need to be taken in the interest of preservation. There is due process, which should adapt to the change in circumstances, too. Just a thought.

 

[Intense]

Google isn't buying 1 billion rounds of hollow point ammunition either you ******* tool

google is listed as another

who has been turning over collected information

to the government

Forced to turn over information

Who is to say how that information is even interpreted, considering the extreme prejudices at least some Government workers have against Non Government workers. That is my concern, at least one.

 

[Clementine]

Who's worried about privacy? That was taken away long ago.

Are you saying that since government has disrespected our rights for a long time and they've been increasingly spying on us that we should just bend over and take it?

Hope you understand that some things are worth fighting for. Our rights top the list.

 

[FA_Q2]

In 2007, then SENATOR Obama expressed an intent to LIMIT the use of National Security Letters and resort to the provisions of the Patriot Act.

What happened?

Wanna read something funny? Obama's words in 2008:

Found at Barack Obama - Homeland Security look for the sub-topic 2008 Campaign Event - PATRIOT Act then click the hyperlink.

He "taught" con. Law? Sort of.

HE takes the Constitution "very seriously?" Apparently NOT.

BRINGING more power to the Executive branch is a BAD thing? Then why the **** is Obama DOING it? Or maybe it's only "bad" in his pin head when it was Booooosh doing it (allegedly).

He has BEEN President for 4 and a half ******* years. WHEN exactly is the dipshit planning on this alleged "reversal" that supposedly intended to do?

.

He'll get right on it after he shuts down GITMO.....

Again, it is not the President keeping GITMO opened. HE signed an EO to close it. Congress stopped it.

Then why don’t you show us what congress did that keeps GITMO open against Obama’s wishes.

I would be that if you took your head out of the sand long enough you might even notice Obama’s signature at the bottom of that piece of legislation or are you suggesting that Congress did this without the president.

 

[Sallow]

He'll get right on it after he shuts down GITMO.....

Again, it is not the President keeping GITMO opened. HE signed an EO to close it. Congress stopped it.

Then why don’t you show us what congress did that keeps GITMO open against Obama’s wishes.

I would be that if you took your head out of the sand long enough you might even notice Obama’s signature at the bottom of that piece of legislation or are you suggesting that Congress did this without the president.

The house put it into the defense bill. There was no way, politically, he could veto that..especially with a war going on.

It's not something you'd understand.

 

[FA_Q2]

Again, it is not the President keeping GITMO opened. HE signed an EO to close it. Congress stopped it.

Then why don’t you show us what congress did that keeps GITMO open against Obama’s wishes.

I would be that if you took your head out of the sand long enough you might even notice Obama’s signature at the bottom of that piece of legislation or are you suggesting that Congress did this without the president.

The house put it into the defense bill. There was no way, politically, he could veto that..especially with a war going on.

It's not something you'd understand.

I understand perfectly. You give the president credit for everything that he signs that you agree with. Then you absolve him of every action that he takes that you disagree with.

Here is the simple truth – he signed the bill. A bill that was a travesty BTW but he still signed it either way. That is his responsibility and his decision. There is no way of taking his part in its passing away from him other than being a blind partisan hack.

Continue to call anyone anyone holding Obama responsible for the legislation he signs as unintelligent by saying they won’t understand. It only reinforces the known fact that you are a hack.

 

[paulitician]

They do these things simply because they can. The American People have allowed their Government to go rogue. Only they can change things.

 

[MarcATL]

Not a conspiracy theory. It's really happening. The Guardian has a copy of the court order.

I'd heard this on Levin earlier and checked it out. The Guardian (left wing Brit newspaper) is reporting that the NSA is secretly collecting millions of Verizon subscribers phone records.

Check this out.

Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily

Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

The disclosure is likely to reignite longstanding debates in the US over the proper extent of the government's domestic spying powers.

Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets.

The Guardian approached the National Security Agency, the White House and the Department of Justice for comment in advance of publication on Wednesday.

All declined. The agencies were also offered the opportunity to raise specific security concerns regarding the publication of the court order.

The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself.

More at link:

Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily | World news | The Guardian

Why not? Let's just go with the Conservative position when the Bush Administration started doing the same thing...

If you have nothing to hid, then what's the problem?

 

[paulitician]

Not a conspiracy theory. It's really happening. The Guardian has a copy of the court order.

I'd heard this on Levin earlier and checked it out. The Guardian (left wing Brit newspaper) is reporting that the NSA is secretly collecting millions of Verizon subscribers phone records.

Check this out.

Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily

Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

The disclosure is likely to reignite longstanding debates in the US over the proper extent of the government's domestic spying powers.

Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets.

The Guardian approached the National Security Agency, the White House and the Department of Justice for comment in advance of publication on Wednesday.

All declined. The agencies were also offered the opportunity to raise specific security concerns regarding the publication of the court order.

The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself.

More at link:

Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily | World news | The Guardian

Why not? Let's just go with the Conservative position when the Bush Administration started doing the same thing...

If you have nothing to hid, then what's the problem?

That was the Neo-Conservative position. And now it's the Socialist/Progressive position as well. Anything to protect their own. Party before Country and all that. It's very sad.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Party before Country and Obama above all

 

[ScreamingEagle]

Not a conspiracy theory. It's really happening. The Guardian has a copy of the court order.

I'd heard this on Levin earlier and checked it out. The Guardian (left wing Brit newspaper) is reporting that the NSA is secretly collecting millions of Verizon subscribers phone records.

Check this out.

Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily

Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

The disclosure is likely to reignite longstanding debates in the US over the proper extent of the government's domestic spying powers.

Under the Bush administration, officials in security agencies had disclosed to reporters the large-scale collection of call records data by the NSA, but this is the first time significant and top-secret documents have revealed the continuation of the practice on a massive scale under President Obama.

The unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets.

The Guardian approached the National Security Agency, the White House and the Department of Justice for comment in advance of publication on Wednesday.

All declined. The agencies were also offered the opportunity to raise specific security concerns regarding the publication of the court order.

The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself.

More at link:

Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily | World news | The Guardian

Why not? Let's just go with the Conservative position when the Bush Administration started doing the same thing...

If you have nothing to hid, then what's the problem?

that's what we keep asking Obama & company....

 

[Circe]

1. 911.gov | Funding & Policy

2. Attributing Federal Highway Revenues to Each State ? Office of Highway Policy Information (OHPI) ? FHWA

3. A reason to vote Republicans out.

Can I ask how this has anything to do with the topic? Funding for 911 dispatchers, Federal Highway Revenues and Social Security are totally irrelevant. I love how liberals are totally deflecting from this ever broiling heat that Obama is now under. Strawmen, all of it. Partisan hackery, I get tired of it sometimes...

Sociopaths will become angry or aggressive when their integrity is questioned.

Ummmmmm.....doesn't everyone get angy when their integrity is questioned?

 

[Circe]

The reason is pretty obvious. The real question is why do we tolerate it?

We don't have the power to stop it.

That.

As the Sun Microsystems president said, "There is no privacy. Get over it."

Apparently every word we ever write anywhere ends up in digital form at "No Such Agency" permanently so they can search it.


I guess there won't be a revolution after all, huh?

 

[Circe]

Like terrorists limit their activities to the Verizon network....

Our legal system is suppose to focus on probable cause and not let's check on everyone and see what filters out.

Do you REALLY think that Verizon was the only one?

Shooooooooo......by now the news is saying they've got so much megadata from every Internet and every possible company that they have digitized everything you've ever said anywhere, up to and including your paper diaries and your refrigerator notes.

Seems a bit intrusive................................is that just me? [:-0


I have a question.

If abortion has to be allowed constitutionally because it's a right of privacy --- and I'm wildly in favor of that --- well, where are the privacy rights re everything you ever communicated in every email, every report, every post, everything you ever wrote anywhere? Darn, I'm seeing a strange disjunct here. Stretching the idea of "privacy" way out of shape to legitimitize abortion, but not bothering with privacy in the secret collection of 100% of the private communications all Americans have always thought WERE private and protected?

Does not compute.

 

[IlarMeilyr]

Party before Country and Obama above all

Sung to the tune of Deutschland uber alles.



I KNEW there was something alarmingly familiar about these liberal Democratics.

 

[depotoo]

the Director of National Intelligence released a statement regarding it -

June 6, 2013

DNI Statement on Recent Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information

The highest priority of the Intelligence Community is to work within the constraints of law to collect, analyze and understand information related to potential threats to our national security.

The unauthorized disclosure of a top secret U.S. court document threatens potentially long-lasting and irreversible harm to our ability to identify and respond to the many threats facing our nation.

The article omits key information regarding how a classified intelligence collection program is used to prevent terrorist attacks and the numerous safeguards that protect privacy and civil liberties.

I believe it is important for the American people to understand the limits of this targeted counterterrorism program and the principles that govern its use. In order to provide a more thorough understanding of the program, I have directed that certain information related to the “business records” provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act be declassified and immediately released to the public.

The following important facts explain the purpose and limitations of the program:


■The judicial order that was disclosed in the press is used to support a sensitive intelligence collection operation, on which members of Congress have been fully and repeatedly briefed. The classified program has been authorized by all three branches of the Government.
■Although this program has been properly classified, the leak of one order, without any context, has created a misleading impression of how it operates. Accordingly, we have determined to declassify certain limited information about this program.
■The program does not allow the Government to listen in on anyone’s phone calls. The information acquired does not include the content of any communications or the identity of any subscriber. The only type of information acquired under the Court’s order is telephony metadata, such as telephone numbers dialed and length of calls.■The collection is broad in scope because more narrow collection would limit our ability to screen for and identify terrorism-related communications. Acquiring this information allows us to make connections related to terrorist activities over time. The FISA Court specifically approved this method of collection as lawful, subject to stringent restrictions.
■The information acquired has been part of an overall strategy to protect the nation from terrorist threats to the United States, as it may assist counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities.
■There is a robust legal regime in place governing all activities conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which ensures that those activities comply with the Constitution and laws and appropriately protect privacy and civil liberties. The program at issue here is conducted under authority granted by Congress and is authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). By statute, the Court is empowered to determine the legality of the program.
■By order of the FISC, the Government is prohibited from indiscriminately sifting through the telephony metadata acquired under the program. All information that is acquired under this program is subject to strict, court-imposed restrictions on review and handling. The court only allows the data to be queried when there is a reasonable suspicion, based on specific facts, that the particular basis for the query is associated with a foreign terrorist organization. Only specially cleared counterterrorism personnel specifically trained in the Court-approved procedures may even access the records.
■All information that is acquired under this order is subject to strict restrictions on handling and is overseen by the Department of Justice and the FISA Court. Only a very small fraction of the records are ever reviewed because the vast majority of the data is not responsive to any terrorism-related query.
■The Court reviews the program approximately every 90 days. DOJ conducts rigorous oversight of the handling of the data received to ensure the applicable restrictions are followed. In addition, DOJ and ODNI regularly review the program implementation to ensure it continues to comply with the law.
■The Patriot Act was signed into law in October 2001 and included authority to compel production of business records and other tangible things relevant to an authorized national security investigation with the approval of the FISC. This provision has subsequently been reauthorized over the course of two Administrations – in 2006 and in 2011. It has been an important investigative tool that has been used over the course of two Administrations, with the authorization and oversight of the FISC and the Congress.


Discussing programs like this publicly will have an impact on the behavior of our adversaries and make it more difficult for us to understand their intentions. Surveillance programs like this one are consistently subject to safeguards that are designed to strike the appropriate balance between national security interests and civil liberties and privacy concerns. I believe it is important to address the misleading impression left by the article and to reassure the American people that the Intelligence Community is committed to respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all American citizens.


James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence


###

 

[depotoo]

DNI Statement on Recent Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information