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Number of Federal Wiretaps Rose 71 Percent In 2012
cold fjord writes "Looks like last year was pretty busy. I wonder how many were leaks and media? From the Washington Post: 'The number of wiretaps secured in federal criminal investigations jumped 71 percent in 2012 over the previous year, according to newly released figures. Federal courts authorized 1,354 interception orders for wire, oral and electronic communications, up from 792 the previous year, ... There was a 5 percent increase in state and local use of wiretaps in the same period. ... There is no explanation of why the federal figures increased so much, and it is generally out of line with the number of wiretaps between 1997 and 2009, which averaged about 550 annually. There was also a large number of wiretaps in 2010, when 1,207 were secured. A single wiretap can sweep up thousands of communications. One 30-day local wiretap in California, for instance, generated 185,268 cellular telephone interceptions, of which 12 percent were incriminating, according to the report. The vast majority of the wiretaps in both federal and state cases were obtained as part of drug investigations, and they overwhelmingly were directed at cellphones ... Only 14 court orders were for personal residences. Most jurisdictions limit the period of surveillance to 30 days, but extensions can be obtained.'"
I thought the number was supposed to be around 300 million...
because trying to prove beyond reasonable doubt is hard work
This is "Federal criminal investigations". i.e. what you expect the Feds to be up to. Not the secret court, comedy warrants.
If anything it shows you the difference between a legal process with evidence and the judiciary, (1300) and the extra-legal stuff the NSA does (97 billion surveillance records per *month*).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-global-datamining
"A snapshot of the Boundless Informant data, contained in a top secret NSA "global heat map" seen by the Guardian, shows that in March 2013 the agency collected 97bn pieces of intelligence from computer networks worldwide."
So yeh, 300 million captured phone records would be a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of data the NSA is collecting.
OK, we've gotten leaks and FOIA information that is giving us a fairly good idea of the scope of governmental surveillance on US citizens. They're basically recording everything which is either directly in violation of 4th amendments protections, or is rubber-stamped through a legal process that has essentially nullified the 4th's ability for the government to protect our rights. Now we need transparency on how the information is being used and whether it's use in accordance with the law and the public interest, who we're sharing it with and what use they have for it, all who have access to it (government and private entities alike).
There is no explanation of why the federal figures increased so much
Because we can!
--Obama
Ezekiel 23:20
Was an election year.
Good thing we don't have those damn evil repubs in office anymore.
If this (or drone attacks, or more troops in Afghanistan, etc.) happened while GWB was in office, liberals would be going crazy, and screaming their heads off.
Because it Obummer in office, the so-called liberals will look the other way.
Thats just the official sanctioned wiretaps..
Just wondering how bad things government has done there, so that they are that fearful of their own citizens...
The paperwork is merely a ceremonial formality.
There, now we don't have to keep on posting about our world under surveillance every day. Let's post better news on how people are defeating it, if there is any to be found.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
King of the United Nations of Earth! There, that ought to counteract anything bad I've said about the racist Democratic ruling party.
Seems like an awful lot of our social (and budget) problems are caused by the over-the-top enforcement methods of the War on Drugs and the War on Terror.
I would suggest a War on The War on Things, but since the War on Drugs only gets us more drug problems and the War on Terror only seems to be making more terrorists, the War on The War on Things will only wind up producing more Wars on Things.
Hence, I propose The War on The War on the War on Things. That should fix it, right?
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Law enforcement has traditionally gone after low hanging fruit. They don't like pissing off the really nasty ones who would kill them, their families and their cat Fluffy. They're fishing for justification to continue to exist. That's what all the terrorist crap is about and why they'll continue to expand domestic crimes as terrorism.
Soon it will be illegal to report on crop failures, droughts, civic unrest, midnight arrests etc. etc. as that will be facilitating terrorism.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Why, imagine how much BETTER our government would be if we'd just get everyone to pay their "fair share" of taxes
More money would just make our government better, right?
Wouldn't it?
Yeah, sure it would.
ONLY A FUCKING FOOL WOULD VOTE FOR ANY POLITICIAN WHO PROMISES TO RAISE TAXES AND GIVE MORE MONEY TO THIS GOVERNMENT OF TOTALITARIAN WANNA-BES
(guessing) is that there were many millions of illegal interceptions and stuff found in them was then used to apply for warrants. Like if the cops surreptitiously hack into your computer and find a downloaded Disney film, they can't bust you since the search was illegal and they can't tell you about it. But now that they know what was there, they apply for a warrant and then the Disney SWAT team shows up and raids your house, all with proper authorization. Welcome to the future.
If you actually believe this information is anything more than an attention grabber, when in actuality all unencrypted communications are being recorded and cataloged, including cell phones, email, text, web searches, regular phones, forums, etc. Up to the point that they run out of space to save it all so they selectively start dropping uninteresting info on the backend of their buffer. See the new Salt Lake facility for example. They're probably even watching video stream data for buried data. The NSA, FBI, CIA are drunk on the power that digital communications afford them. Currently they're relatively trustworthy, but as their power grows you can bet they will abuse it far more than even Snowden says they are currently. But hey they are keeping it legit with Secret Courts and warrants, right?
"perhaps some some expanding"
Is that what you call "more than doubled"?
Bush sucked. He outspent. Obama more than doubled the deficit.
Bush supported questionable intelligence gathering. Obama more than doubled it, actually recording more cometh medications between US citizens than foreign communications.
By any objective measure, Bush sucked, then Obama sucked twice as much.
Obama inherited the illegal wars of Bush in Iraq, Afghanistan and the southern Arabian Peninsula.
Obama's initiative on taking office in 2010 was to expand the Terror War to the house holds of the U.S.A., arguably his most hated of enemies.
To achieve his dream upon America, Obama plagiarized the works of Hitler, Stalin and Mandela.
Obama's thrust is to surround America, using the NSA who also hate America, and the Senate to pass 'Immigration Reform' a mechanism to dilute the voting power of legal citizen with illegals and 'Gay Rights' as if there were any.
Interesting that the 'relatives' of Mandela are already in court arguing the dispersant of the 'Spoils' before he is dead.
And at this moment, there appears Barak Hussein Obama II aka Barry Durham attempting to gains some of the 'Silverware' just for memento purposes of course.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-court-judges-upset-at-portrayal-of-collaboration-with-government/2013/06/29/ed73fb68-e01b-11e2-b94a-452948b95ca8_story_2.html
On May 24, 2006, Kollar-Kotelly signed another order, this one authorizing the bulk collection of phone metadata from U.S. phone companies, under a FISA provision known as Section 215, or the ”business records provision,” of the USA Patriot Act.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly MUST DIE and enjoy Horrific Death.
It is amazing how fast land of freedom became a surveillance state worse than what existed in the soviet bloc.
At some time we will have to think about US citizen responsability for their failure to monitor their government. How could it happen?
How's that "hopey changey" stuff workin' out for ya?