Q. & A: What you should know about NSA phone, data collection program

[jakeXT]

Here’s what you need to know about the secret program and how it works:

Q: What happened and why is it a big deal?

A: The Guardian newspaper published a highly classified April U.S. court order that allows the government access to all of Verizon’s phone records on a daily basis, for both domestic and international calls. That doesn’t mean the government is listening in, and the National Security Agency did not receive the names and addresses of customers. But it did receive all phone numbers with outgoing or incoming calls, as well as the unique electronic numbers that identify cellphones. That means the government knows which phones are being used, even if customers change their numbers.

This is the first tangible evidence of the scope of a domestic surveillance program that has existed for years but has been discussed only in generalities. It proves that, in the name of national security, the government sweeps up the call records of Americans who have no known ties to terrorists or criminals.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/20590122-418/q-a-what-you-should-know-about-nsa-phone-data-collection-program.html

[GeorgeGist]

1. Oh Jeebus I feel so much better.

“Everyone should just calm down and understand that this isn’t anything that’s brand new,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Thursday. “It’s been going on for some seven years.”

[OnyxCollie]

2. Reid could have done *nothing* and the FISA amendments would have sunset,

returning FISA to pre-Bush status.

He's directly responsible for this.

[bluedeathray]

3. Those who want the Government

To protect them are mostly fine with this. They expect secrets to be kept.

Those who want the transparency that President Obama campaigned on are a little more outraged, but some still accept the fact of Government intrusion for sake of security (whatever that is).

Those who want corporations to stop pissing off foreign populations who then want to kill us, making it necessary to "protect" us and create the institutions that pry into our lives more and more deeply are fucking pissed.

Those who make lots O cash from the status quo are laughing all the way to the bank.