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Justice Officials Fear Nation's Biggest Wiretap Operation May Not Be Legal (usatoday.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the can-you-hear-me-now? dept.

schwit1 writes with news about a vast wiretapping program and questions about its legality. USA Today reports: "Federal drug agents have built a massive wiretapping operation in the Los Angeles suburbs, secretly intercepting tens of thousands of Americans' phone calls and text messages to monitor drug traffickers across the United States despite objections from Justice Department lawyers who fear the practice may not be legal. Nearly all of that surveillance was authorized by a single state court judge in Riverside County, who last year signed off on almost five times as many wiretaps as any other judge in the United States. The judge's orders allowed investigators — usually from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — to intercept more than 2 million conversations involving 44,000 people, federal court records show."

10 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. but its working by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Look how the narcotics trafficking and related crimes have plummeted in California. Oh wait that's because pot is legal now, nevermind

    1. Re:but its working by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      False equivalence.

      Murder is clearly a crime with a victim. Recreational drug use is arguably a victimless crime, when done responsibly. This is why alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine are legal despite being extremely addictive and bad for one's health. The exact same reasoning applies to most recreational drugs.

      Furthermore, there isn't a black market for murder. People committing murder illegally doesn't fund a mafia to the point of being so powerful that it threatens entire governments (and, of course, reigns terror on innocents). People using drugs illegally does precisely that.

      So, the reasons why murder are illegal don't apply to recreational drug use. There are clear benefits to making recreational drug use legal, and murder has none of these benefits.

      Logic shows the way. Your thoughtlessness does not.

    2. Re: but its working by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Informative

      >anti-drug laws that do no good and make no sense

      You must be new here. Follow the money.

      https://youtu.be/5_UbAmRGSYw

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  2. Huh? Illegal? by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Illegal? When has that ever stopped the government?

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
    1. Re:Huh? Illegal? by crackerjack155 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes actually they should be treating them because they are not combatants in the fight between the USA and Taliban. It's also been pretty well established that doctors are supposed to treat anyone regardless of who they are or what side of the fight they are on. It is also well established in international law that it is illegal for any side in a fight to attack a hospital unless that hospital is actively attacking you, regardless of who is in it.

      Someone attacking a known non combatant hospital is a war crime and it doesn't matter if the entire leadership of the Taliban was being treated inside it and you had no other way of getting them all.

      If it is actually true that it happened, that they knew it was a hospital and nobody from in the hospital was actively attacking them, then everyone involved from the pilot to the person giving the order belongs in prison for a long time.

  3. Time to rethink the "war on drugs" by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, isn't it about time to rethink the war on drugs? It should be pretty damn obvious, to even a politician, that casual drug users are not an infinitesimally small minority of the population. How about plowing all of that money into education and actual rehabilitation. Besides, we always have the war on terror as an excuse to violate the Constitution when needed.

    1. Re:Time to rethink the "war on drugs" by whoever57 · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's also pretty obvious that the private prison industry is huge and lobbies extensively.

      If only it were just the private sector... Public sector prison guards have powerful lobbying through their unions.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  4. The Words of the former NSA Tech Director by rea1l1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "If I am anywhere in the USA, and am talking on my cellphone, can the government hear me? And are they recording? And can they use it against me at any time?"

    "Yes." -- Bill Binney, former NSA Tech Director. Worked for NSA 37 years

    also:

    "Bulk surveillance is not necessary to protect anybody. NSA tries to track everyone on the planet. google: the program Treasuremap. OS's are absolutely not safe!" -- Bill Binney, former NSA Tech Director. Worked for NSA 37 years

    https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/...

  5. Meanwhile... by Will_Malverson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...the rest of us fear it may be legal.

  6. "Fear" ? by Kohath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because law enforcement personnel sometimes face consequences when they do something illegal?