Chief NSA Lawyer Hints That NSA May Be Tracking US Citizens

itwbennett writes "Responding to questions from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday, Matthew Olsen, the NSA's general counsel, said that the NSA 'may', under 'certain circumstances' have the authority to track U.S. citizens by intercepting location data from cell phones, but it's 'very complicated.' 'There's no need to panic, or start shopping for aluminum-foil headwear,' says blogger Kevin Fogarty, but clearly the NSA has been thinking about it enough 'that the agency's chief lawyer was able to speak intelligently about it off the cuff while interviewing for a different job.'"

Comments

May be?

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the secret rooms of ATT, where domestic US traffic was routed to the NSA?

NSA is, not "may be".

Re:How is this anything new?

[ScentCone]

which is NOT what they're supposed to be doing

Unless those people are in communication with people outside the country, in which case they (the domestic phone users) are one half of the call and tracking that is precisely what they're supposed to be doing.

Re:Very complicated

[Ohrion]

In court? Spying agencies don't need to bother with court. They can get information to the right people to effect the change they desire.

Re:Very complicated

[techoi]

The problem at this point isn't the Republicans or the Democrats. The problem is the Republicans AND the Democrats. Don't matter who is in charge.

Re:Does anyone really think this isn't going on?

[element-o.p.]

...so unless NSA has taps on all the telecomm central offices, its going to be really hard to track and capture all of it.

Yes, as a matter of fact, they do:

CALEA's purpose is to enhance the ability of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to conduct electronic surveillance by requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have built-in surveillance capabilities, allowing federal agencies to monitor all telephone, broadband internet, and VoIP traffic in real-time.

Welcome to 1994.