Big Brother is Big

[phantom power]

It certainly looks like the Obama administration took 50 USC § 1861 and really ran with it. I don't know what they told the judge, but in obtaining all domestic (not foreign) Verizon phone records for a three month period, they've made it to hard to envision how they could possibly need all that information if they are supposed to be limited to obtaining "foreign intelligence information not concerning a United States person." They can only peek at U.S. citizens under this law if their concern is not solely related to First Amendment rights and the citizen has some connection to "international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." At least, that's how the law reads to me.

I suspect that Glenn Greenwald is correct that this kind of massive sweep is what Senators Mark Udall and Ron Wyden have been concerned about.

The law on which the order explicitly relies is the so-called "business records" provision of the Patriot Act, 50 USC section 1861. That is the provision which Wyden and Udall have repeatedly cited when warning the public of what they believe is the Obama administration's extreme interpretation of the law to engage in excessive domestic surveillance.

In a letter to attorney general Eric Holder last year, they argued that "there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows."

"We believe," they wrote, "that most Americans would be stunned to learn the details of how these secret court opinions have interpreted" the "business records" provision of the Patriot Act.

To be clear, these are not wiretaps. And it doesn't cover the content of emails or text messages. But it is a record of every American Verizon user's calls, texts, emails, and locations of where those messages were sent from and received. Since this is a leaked court order, I think we can safely assume that all the other phone carriers received a court order, too. We don't know if this is a one-off thing or something that is re-upped every three months.

Whatever is going on, the judge is not supposed to grant the request unless he determines that the government has "reasonable grounds to believe that the tangible things sought are relevant to an authorized investigation (other than a threat assessment)."

So, somehow, every use of a phone in this country is relevant to an authorized investigation?

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/6/5/23122/85905

[handmade34]

1. no surprises

[dkf]

2. Wapo source says they have been renewing every 3 months since '06

This allows retroactive tracking of movements since location data is provided if the govt knows where you were every time you called or texted someone since '06. That's a lot of data points for me.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022954991
http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2013/jun/06/phone-call-metadata-information-authorities

[hobbit709]

3. What gets me is that even here on DU there are those that defend this.

[HereSince1628]

4. The desire for security is a relentless and often compelling foe of liberty n/t

[marmar]

5. In this case I think it's more the desire to defend the actions of a Democratic administration.....

....... regardless of how indefensible those actions are.

[HereSince1628]

8. Maybe. I think it's also evidence of relentless pushing by the security establishment

The leverage of the security agencies is considerable.

When the agencies make arguments about the dangerous downsides of not following their advice the politicians inevitably give some slack to those who want more power to provide more security. Sometimes it's a little slack and sometimes it's a lot. It bit by bit erodes liberty and often seems to provide less security than originally promised

[HereSince1628]

7. The NSA phone tapping is about keeping a party in power? Hmm. n/t

[hunter]

9. Bwagglesnarps.

(I just wanted that on my permanent record.)

[tavalon]

10. TIA

Total Information Awareness. We screamed bloody murder then and we had damn well better scream bloody murder this time!!

[RobertEarl]

11. Big Brother says:

Your business is our business. Thank you for your cooperation.