Verizon Case Offers Glimpse of Vast N.S.A. Surveillance
Verizon Case Offers Glimpse of Vast N.S.A. Surveillance
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and EDWARD WYATT
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Responding to the disclosure on Wednesday night of a highly classified court order to a subsidiary of Verizon Communications seeking all of its customers communications logs, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the top Democrat and Republican on the Intelligence Committee, said the order appeared to be a routine reauthorization as part of a broader program that lawmakers have long known about.
As far as I know, this is an exact three-month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years, Ms. Feinstein said, adding that it was carried out by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court under the business records section of the Patriot Act. Therefore, it is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress.
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As the scope of the governments collection of logs of Americans domestic communications started to come into greater focus on Thursday, privacy groups erupted. Anthony Romero of the American Civil Liberties Union said that group a client of Verizons business unit was considering filing a lawsuit to challenge the dragnet surveillance...A pox on all the three houses of government, he said. On Congress, for legislating such powers, on the FISA court for being such a paper tiger and rubber stamp, and on the Obama administration for not being true to its values.
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Following the comments by Ms. Feinstein and Mr. Chambliss, Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, issued a statement confirming that the program was the one that he and Senator Mark Udall, Democrat of Colorado, have been cryptically warning about for years each time the Patriot Act has come up for renewal. He said he hoped the disclosure would force a real debate about whether such sweeping, dragnet surveillance should be permitted or is necessary.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/us/nsa-verizon-calls.html
What You Should Know About The Governments Massive Domestic Surveillance Program
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022956461