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New Documents Detail FBI Eavesdropping On Americans' Emails, IMs and Phone Calls
http://www.infowars.net/articles/april2008/080408FBI.htm
More revelations of government spying in the panopticon society
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Fresh documents reveal that the FBI is actively engaged in the monitoring of electronic
communications and cell phone calls of American citizens without the prior approval of a court.
The latest documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act to the advocacy group
Electronic Frontier Foundation, and obtained by the Washington Post.
"Different versions of the system are used for criminal wiretaps and for foreign intelligence
investigations inside the United States. But each allows authorized FBI agents and analysts,
with point-and-click ease, to receive e-mails, instant messages, cellphone calls and other
communications that tell them not only what a suspect is saying, but where he is and where he
has been, depending on the wording of a court order or a government directive." The Post reports.
The protections of the Fourth Amendment dictate that wiretaps to obtain the content of a phone
call or an e-mail must be authorized by a court upon a showing of probable cause.
However, the FBI gets around this by classing the information it intercepts as "transactional
data" about a communication, that is from whom the communication originated, to whom it was
sent, how long it lasted and the like.
The bureau can collect this information under current law by asserting that it is relevant to
an official investigation. It can administer a subpoena known as a national security letter (NSL).
As the Post reports, according to the Justice Department's inspector general, the number of
NSLs issued by the FBI soared from 8,500 in 2000 to 47,000 in 2005.
Last week separate Pentagon documents, obtained by the ACLU, revealed that the military is
using the FBI as a go between in order to "skirt legal restrictions" on domestic surveillance
and obtain private records of Americans' Internet service providers, financial institutions and
telephone companies.
The DoD is not authorized to obtain e-mail and phone records or lists of web sites that people
have visited as it is illegal for the military to engage in domestic investigations, so it has
been using the FBI to obtain the information via national security letters, hence the more than
500% increase in NSLs in recent years.
These revelations indicate that the FBI is as fully immersed within the program to spy on the
communications of American citizens as its military counterpart, the NSA, and should demand
more immediate and decisive action on behalf of those in Congress who continue to dither and
debate over possible modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs
federal surveillance.
Late last year, reports circulated that the NSA, has increasing control over SSL, now called
Transport Layer Security, the cryptographic protocol that provides secure communications on the
internet for web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, and other data transfers.
In other words the agency is capable of intercepting and reading your emails and instant
messages in real time. It is now beyond doubt that the NSA's "terrorist surveillance program"
now extends to this.
Last week the ACLU also uncovered details pertaining to a secret Justice Department memo from
October 2001 that reveals the Bush administration effectively suspended the Fourth Amendment
where domestic counter terrorism operations are concerned.
It is almost certain that the memo was written to provide a legal basis for the NSA to begin
its warrantless wiretapping program, which was initiated in the same month.
Another set of documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) last June showed
that US telco AT&T allowed the NSA to set up a 'secret room' in its offices to monitor internet
traffic.
Recently, the lawyer for an AT&T engineer alleged that "within two weeks of taking office, the
Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans
http://www.infowars.net/articles/april2008/080408FBI.htm
More revelations of government spying in the panopticon society
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Fresh documents reveal that the FBI is actively engaged in the monitoring of electronic
communications and cell phone calls of American citizens without the prior approval of a court.
The latest documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act to the advocacy group
Electronic Frontier Foundation, and obtained by the Washington Post.
"Different versions of the system are used for criminal wiretaps and for foreign intelligence
investigations inside the United States. But each allows authorized FBI agents and analysts,
with point-and-click ease, to receive e-mails, instant messages, cellphone calls and other
communications that tell them not only what a suspect is saying, but where he is and where he
has been, depending on the wording of a court order or a government directive." The Post reports.
The protections of the Fourth Amendment dictate that wiretaps to obtain the content of a phone
call or an e-mail must be authorized by a court upon a showing of probable cause.
However, the FBI gets around this by classing the information it intercepts as "transactional
data" about a communication, that is from whom the communication originated, to whom it was
sent, how long it lasted and the like.
The bureau can collect this information under current law by asserting that it is relevant to
an official investigation. It can administer a subpoena known as a national security letter (NSL).
As the Post reports, according to the Justice Department's inspector general, the number of
NSLs issued by the FBI soared from 8,500 in 2000 to 47,000 in 2005.
Last week separate Pentagon documents, obtained by the ACLU, revealed that the military is
using the FBI as a go between in order to "skirt legal restrictions" on domestic surveillance
and obtain private records of Americans' Internet service providers, financial institutions and
telephone companies.
The DoD is not authorized to obtain e-mail and phone records or lists of web sites that people
have visited as it is illegal for the military to engage in domestic investigations, so it has
been using the FBI to obtain the information via national security letters, hence the more than
500% increase in NSLs in recent years.
These revelations indicate that the FBI is as fully immersed within the program to spy on the
communications of American citizens as its military counterpart, the NSA, and should demand
more immediate and decisive action on behalf of those in Congress who continue to dither and
debate over possible modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs
federal surveillance.
Late last year, reports circulated that the NSA, has increasing control over SSL, now called
Transport Layer Security, the cryptographic protocol that provides secure communications on the
internet for web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, and other data transfers.
In other words the agency is capable of intercepting and reading your emails and instant
messages in real time. It is now beyond doubt that the NSA's "terrorist surveillance program"
now extends to this.
Last week the ACLU also uncovered details pertaining to a secret Justice Department memo from
October 2001 that reveals the Bush administration effectively suspended the Fourth Amendment
where domestic counter terrorism operations are concerned.
It is almost certain that the memo was written to provide a legal basis for the NSA to begin
its warrantless wiretapping program, which was initiated in the same month.
Another set of documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) last June showed
that US telco AT&T allowed the NSA to set up a 'secret room' in its offices to monitor internet
traffic.
Recently, the lawyer for an AT&T engineer alleged that "within two weeks of taking office, the
Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans
