With a Single Wiretap Order, US Authorities Listened In on 3.3 Million Phone Calls (zdnet.com)

US authorities intercepted and recorded millions of phone calls last year under a single wiretap order, authorized as part of a narcotics investigation, ZDNet's Zack Whittaker reports. From the article: The wiretap order authorized an unknown government agency to carry out real-time intercepts of 3.29 million cell phone conversations over a two-month period at some point during 2016, after the order was applied for in late 2015. The order was signed to help authorities track 26 individuals suspected of involvement with illegal drug and narcotic-related activities in Pennsylvania. The wiretap cost the authorities $335,000 to conduct and led to a dozen arrests. But the authorities noted that the surveillance effort led to no incriminating intercepts, and none of the handful of those arrested have been brought to trial or convicted.

Comments

So much winning!

[Anonymous Coward]

Great success! Flawless victory! The war on drugs is now over!

The drugs won.

Re:So much winning!

[Anonymous Coward]

It was never about the drugs. It is about control of people who think differently.

Re:Question

[Tulsa_Time]

Did you discuss it on the phone with anyone ?

Re: none... have been brought to trial or convicte

[dougdonovan]

can you hear me now ?

1 = 3.3 Million?

[Zurkeyon3733]

Yeah this sounds like US LEO-Logic... Way to go Common core! :-D

Re:Control-F Trump

[93 Escort Wagon]

Nah... the issue is you're on a Mac - so you needed to hit Command-F.

Wrong Administration

[Kunedog]

It was "last year" and that's not the POTUS we'd wage a never-ending demonization campaign against.

Re:Wrong Administration

[Mashiki]

Keep in mind that's also the POTUS that if you dared speak out against, the first response from the progressives was that: "you're a racist." But hey, they can keep digging that hole, sure going to be interesting with Rice testifying now, especially after all that backtracking and that it appears that the previous administration illegally unmasked people for political reasons(or that her story has changed and that she actually did unmask names illegally). And that those records were sent to the Obama library(which hasn't been built yet) and will take an act of congress to actually uncover, unless after that testimony that they subpoena them which is likely going to be the case.

inb4 someone claims legal insurrection is a partisan site, and not operated by one of the top law blogs run by a clinical law processor at Cornell.

Re:Wrong Administration

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the problem people are having with the current POTUS is that he is a colossal fucking retard who claims people like Alex Jones are respectable members of the media.

I certainly don't care if you're racist. Everybody's racist. I just care if you're an idiot. And the orange clown and his salad tossers are some of the biggest idiots we have seen in a long time, a weird mixture of terrified and ignorant old people, and unemployed and uneducated young people.

With a Single Wiretap Order, US Authorities....

[DivineKnight]

"And they learned nothing."

skeptical of the maths

[rmdingler]

3,300,000/26 suspects = 126,923 calls per suspect in two months?

9065 calls per suspect per day=377 per day, or one call every 15.738 minutes if none of them sleep.

Re:skeptical of the maths

[rtb61]

Basically a fishing expedition authorised by secret courts. So 26 suspects and everyone they called and all the people that those people called and then all the people that those people called and on and on it went. Blatant criminal fishing expedition, criminal as it exceeds the laws governing search warrants by a huge margin. Planned from the start and approved by an extremely corrupt judge.

Re:skeptical of the maths

[Hank the Lion]

3 or 4 hops.
Suspect calls pizza delivery service (1 hop)
Now everyone who has called that pizza delivery service is under surveillance _as only the second hop_.
In this way, 3.3 million people are easily reached from 4 hops from people under surveillance.
I doubt that the ones signing the legislation allowing 4 hops were aware of this.
If they were, all the worse.

Re:skeptical of the maths

[AHuxley]

Some good charts existed in the press about the 3 hop size of investigations.
With 3 'Hops,' NSA Gets Millions Of Phone Records (July 31, 2013)
http://www.npr.org/templates/s...

Re:The real issue.

[Megol]

Nobody bitches about the web developers as porn site operators aren't a group discriminated against. That's what that case was about - discrimination. If the bakery didn't bake wedding cakes for anybody there wouldn't be a problem, if they didn't bake it for a nazi wedding it wouldn't be a problem, if they didn't bake it because they didn't like the cut of their (the customers) jib it wouldn't be a problem. They refused to do it because the people ordering it were homosexuals. There are laws against discriminating for racial, sexual (and a lot of other) reasons so refusing due to that is against the law.

NB that nowhere in the NT (and AFAIK not in the OT either) are there commandments to refuse homosexuals or other "sinners" service. Actually that idea goes directly against what Jesus preached!

Personally I'd be okay with refusing service to homosexuals if they weren't the only "sinners" refused. I'd expect each potential customer to fill in a huge questionnaire with such questions like "have you ever touched a menstruating woman" and "have you ever said hard words against your parents".