Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Guardian

Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama.

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order

[donnasgirl]

1. This is wrong

[Robb]

2. NSA collecting transactional data. Only surprising thing frankly is the existence of a court order.

[pediatricmedic]

6. Yes, very surprised they even went through the motions of getting a court order

[L0oniX]

18. That's just a dog and pony show.

[rhett o rick]

19. Doesnt do much good to have the court protecting our rights if they are

going to give blanket court orders like this. We are screwed.

[steve2470]

3. This is not ok whatsoever

If Verizon is doing it, I would not be surprised if the other major telcos are doing it also.

[Rebl]

5. You are

so right about that. I'm sure the Bush administration did it too--likely started with them and never has ended.

[steve2470]

7. You are probably right about the Bush administration, sigh nt

[donnasgirl]

9. We are not talking about bush

People are saying under President Obama,

Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama.

I don't care who it is under it's wrong.

[thecrow]

11. If it is such a top secret

How do *you* know about it?

[donnasgirl]

15. The same way you did

Wrong is wrong

[indepat]

4. How rapid our nation has gone from a constitutional Republic, the land of the free and

home of the brave, a government of, by, and for the people, to a national security state that spies on its citizens and keeps its citizens in the dark as to its real intentions while engaged in a nebulous perpetual world-wide war against a tactic that's been around since the cradle of civilization.

[blkmusclmachine]

16. This started LONG before 9/11.

They only use 9/11 as an excuse to do what they wanted to do all along.

OPERATION NORTHWOODS: The 9/11 You Never Knew.

[indepat]

23. The apparatus for a looming national security state was set in place in 1947 and has been

nurtured ever since: government's over-riding purpose has morphed into primarily feeding and nurturing this national security state at the expense of almost all else, imo, as reflected in each subsequent president's annual budget.

[limpyhobbler]

8. Gobama!

[limpyhobbler]

10. Somebody remind me again why President Obama needs the phone logs of millions of Americans?

Seems kind of creepy.

[AndyA]

12. So this is what transparency looks like! Who knew that Obama only meant transparent for HIM

He want to see and know all, and to hell with rights.

We, on the other hand, get basically nothing more than we've had.

[spin]

13. It's possible to collect a large amount of data but the problem ...

is how to sift through it to find real threats.

Unfortunately this data could be misused to target individuals that disagree with the policies of an administration. This is likely what may eventually happen.

At some time in the future, I fear most Americans will be very careful about how they express their views and what they say out of fear of the government. When and if that day occurs, the terrorists will have won.

[limpyhobbler]

17. That day is now.

With all the espionage cases the President has pushed against government employees for talking to the press, it's bound to have already had an effect.

How about the next soldier who wants to talk to a friend about information that the government says is "secret". Like what if he/she wants to report crimes, or rape, or massacres, or lack of equipment, lack of body armor, bad food in the mess hall, etc.

That soldier is going to think twice about reporting problems if he or she knows it could be called "aiding the enemy" and result in jail time.

[ReRe]

20. Again, from The Guardian...

... there should be no doubt about the kind of country we live in now. We have to get our news from across the pond, and we're all being treated like a bunch of effing criminals in our own country. Do you know how much $ they are wasting on this needless and unlawful search? Ha! This country throws so much money down the effing drain. I think we ought to be paid, or get our phone service free. Since we pay the taxes that makes it possible for the NSA to surveil us in the first place. They are going to be very disappointed when they listen to mine.

[Downwinder]

21. Have to give George Orwell credit.

He was as accurate as Jules Vern.

[markiv]

37. my favorite Orwell passage, from Animal Farm

this hits VERY close to home

(for those of you unfamiliar with 'Animal Farm', Jones is the bad drunken human farmer that the Animals ran off in their revolution)

The mystery of where the milk went to was soon cleared up. It was mixed
every day into the pigs' mash. The early apples were now ripening, and the grass
of the orchard was littered with windfalls. The animals had assumed as a matter
of course that these would be shared out equally; one day, however, the order
went forth that all the windfalls were to be collected and brought to the harness-
room for the use of the pigs. At this some of the other animals murmured, but
it was no use. All the pigs were in full agreement on this point, even Snowball
and Napoleon. ProSense was sent to make the necessary explanations to the
others.
`Comrades!' he cried. `You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing
this in a spirit of selshness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk
and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is
to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science,
comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig.
We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm
depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your
sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would
happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would
come back! Surely, comrades,' cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from
side to side and whisking his tail, `surely there is no one among you who wants
to see Jones come back?'
Now if there was one thing that the animals were completely certain of, it
was that they did not want Jones back. When it was put to them in this light,
they had no more to say. The importance of keeping the pigs in good health
was all too obvious. So it was agreed without further argument that the milk
and the windfall apples (and also the main crop of apples when they ripened)
should be reserved for the pigs alone

from page 15

http://msxnet.org/orwell/print/animal_farm.pdf

[NOVA_Dem]

38. Sounds a lot like "Do you want President Romney!" n/t

[Phillip McCleod]

22. gah.

well it's a damn awful business model.. and comm tech is changing rapidly. even now one can use VOIP on 4G instead of the network phone. verizon can hand that over but it's a far cry from call logs.

[Android3.14]

26. Because after all, the government would never monitor the internet

That was sarcasm.

[pmorlan1]

24. Proof of our suspicions

Wait until the professional spinners come out tomorrow and the days after (they have to create their story line and coordinate among themselves). This thread will be filled with partisan defenders using talking points to defend the Administration. They will claim that this is A-ok with them even though they screamed about this very thing during the Bush administration. It will happen.

[GoneFishin]

28. Yeah, "because if you have not done anything wrong then ... " blah, blah, blah,

fucking blah.

[Seeking Serenity]

33. Because, as one of the talking heads said when the AP phone records story broke,

they trust Obama with this kind of power. Special dispensation.

[DesMoinesDem]

25. Some ProPagandist will be along shortly with a bunch of blue links

to tell us how this is so great. Obama can do no wrong.

[MNBrewer]

29. Did you hear how RUDE that heckler was to Michelle? And isn't she just BEAUTIFUL???

Yup, NoSense seems to be everywhere with those.

[Skittles]

47. Pro is hardly the worst offender

at least Pro gives it real effort

[MotherPetrie]

27. Hail to the new boss... same as the old boss...

[Iliyah]

30. Wait for your next boss

the one you want R.P.

Nothing new, have been happening since ummmmmmmm, early 20th century. Y'think government did not have devices before the public huh?

[Fuddnik]

31. The crux of the biscuit, is the apostrophe.

Face it. The whole system is fucked.

Time to try a new one.

[Swede Atlanta]

32. I hope they are recording my phone sex conversations...

That should put their analysts to sleep for days

[DJ13]

34. Are we SURE we elected a Democrat in 08 & 12?

[NOVA_Dem]

36. We were conned. n/t

[forestpath]

40. Not by my standards, we didn't.

[markiv]

35. I eagerly await an explanation by Prosense nt

[forestpath]

39. Somewhere Bush is toasting Obama.

[markiv]

42. heckofajob there, Barry....

[Mz Pip]

41. If you collect hay stacks and hay stacks of hay

It will become impossible to find the needle.

[markiv]

43. politics is like sailing

if you want to go to a point on the other shore, you cant just point the boat right at it

you have to tack left, then right, then left

but you're always headed to the same place, no matter what your boat is pointed at at any given moment in time

[ForgoTheConsequence]

44. Can't blame congress.

Waiting for the spinsters.

[Malik Agar]

45. This thread is now being monitored by the NSA

I wish I could say i was joking but in all seriousness, they probably are...

[erpowers]

46. Isn't This Unconstitutional

Wouldn't this violate the illegal search and seizure statue of the U.S. Constitution?