Documents filed on Monday indicate the National Security Agency acted on the orders of former President George W. Bush and without court approval after 9/11 when it began gathering enormous amounts of data in a dragnet email sweep.
In a 28-page court filing released by the Justice Department, government lawyers acknowledged that the counterterrorism Internet program, in conjunction with a similar gathering of telephone metadata, operated under Bush's authority before being approved in 2004 by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to Politico.
"Specifically, the president authorized the NSA to collect metadata related to Internet communications for the purpose of conducting targeted analysis to track" al-Qaida-related networks, a senior NSA official wrote in a previously sealed October 2007 declaration. "Internet metadata is header/router/addressing information, such as the 'to,' 'from,' 'cc,' and 'bcc' lines," Politico reported.
The extent of the government's surveillance program became public last June when NSA contractor Eric Snowden leaked a top-secret report outlining details of the program.
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Recind the patriot act now!!!! Problem solved...how much you wanna bet that wont happen...but em i right??..they are all crooks ...kenedy was our last hope
ReplyDeleteKeep cheering, you morons.
ReplyDeleteAll at once now...."USA!" "USA!" "USA!"
If you caught your kid standing outside your bedroom door, listening to your phone conversation with your wife, you'd likely be a little upset, with a stern lecture to them about "privacy".
But when your "leaders" listen to and record EVERY text, email, and phone call, take your picture every time you go outside, and cruise through your neighborhood with backscatter X-Ray trucks, you can't wait to cheer them on.
You know, because they are catching "terrorists". They never catch any, but don't let that fact get in the way of your enthusiasm. Get back to telling your kid that some things are not allowed. Or right.