Slashdot Mirror
NSA Overstepped the Law On Wiretaps
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that legal and operational problems surrounding the NSA's surveillance activities have come under scrutiny from the Obama administration, Congressional intelligence committees, and a secret national security court, and that the NSA had been engaged in 'overcollection' of domestic communications of Americans. The practice has been described as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional. The Justice Department has acknowledged that there had been problems with the NSA surveillance operation, but said they had been resolved. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the intelligence community, did not address specific aspects of the surveillance problems, but said in a statement that 'when inadvertent mistakes are made, we take it very seriously and work immediately to correct them.' The intelligence officials said the problems had grown out of changes enacted by Congress last July to the law that regulates the government's wiretapping powers, as well as the challenges posed by enacting a new framework for collecting intelligence on terrorism and spying suspects. Joe Klein at Time Magazine says the bad news is that 'the NSA apparently has been overstepping the law,' but the good news is that 'one of the safeguards in the [FISA Reform] law is a review procedure that seems to have the ability to catch the NSA when it's overstepping — and that the illegal activities have been exposed, and quickly.'"
When were U.S. citizens given rights to privacy over a public infrastructure such as phone lines. If you are out on a public street talking to someone and a cop hears you talking about doing something illegal, you should get in trouble. Telephone lines are public infrastructure and thus are a controlled by the government. We are given privacy in our own private homes, but I am not sure when this right to privacy has been extended to public areas (including public infrastructure such as the internet or telephone lines). The government can police there roads and get you for doing illegal things if they are road related or not. Why should other public infrastructure be different. If you are not doing anything wrong then it shouldnt matter.
"No, it's privileged. but I can point you to a judge who will assure you that this legal authorization is legitimate.
It is not possible, under any conceivable set of circumstances, for such a thing to be legitimate, so pointing me to a judge who is willing to commit treason isn't helping your indefensible, cowardly, treasonous, attempt at a point.
You're just demonstrating that you and some judge somewhere despise living in a free country.
You should move to China or Saudi Arabia or Iran rather than stay here where you hate every decent thing this country ever claimed to stand for. Seriously, how did you get so broken that you'd rather work to destroy decent things instead of moving to where people like you hate the same things you do?!?
Vile worms like you've absolutely proven yourself to be (absolutely, it's a fact) are the bottom of the barrel of our species. Please go die before you do more damage. You've proven yourself incapable of doing anything but harm.
Personally I like the way FISA was set up in 1978 and feel that 72 hours to obtain a retroactive warrant from a secret classified court is sufficient latitude for intelligence gathering in the "war on terror." Eliminating oversight by the judicial branch completely is totalitarian.
Allowing any retroactive warrants under any circumstances necessarily eliminates any possibility of oversight by the judicial branch. If that isn't obvious to you, spend a few minutes thinking about it. If it still isn't obvious, please move to China. You are not capable of being a *citizen* of a free society. Sorry, but you just don't make the grade. Don't blame me, it's 100% your fault that you've failed to learn even basic reasoning skills or gain any sort of historical perspective. It's not that you're too dumb, it's a question of courage and ethics. You might not be dumb, but you are an unethical coward. You've proven that beyond the possibility of a doubt.
The appropriate response:
"So can we get that tap now?"
"No, it's privileged, based on other privileged stuff and legal opinions that I am not allowed to share with you, sorry."
And I gotta agree with the other posters who suggest you crawl in a dark hole in some other nation and die. As soon as possible. Trust me, I have a secrete warrant directing you to.
I am not a crackpot.