Rising Hegemon
Top secret documents submitted to the court that oversees surveillance by US intelligence agencies show the judges have signed off on broad orders which allow the NSA to make use of information "inadvertently" collected from domestic US communications without a warrant.
Now these communications were used on foreigners, but the collections came domestically. That slope is getting pretty slippery. Here it is, the FISA approval courts are allowing the retention of domestic communications.
So, who is the first small time pot dealer that goes to jail because he made an ill-timed text or phone call abroad...or next door?
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]
3 comments:
Slope? I'd say we're starting to level near the valley now. NSA agents are allowed to listen/read domestically gathered information to verify whether or not a person is a US person. And really, what is the bar for that? Does the person need to say, "Hi! It's just me in Ohio!" Or does the email have to contain, "The weather here in Oklahoma City is 87 today!" before they'll stop?
And how damaging is FISA for foreign investment in America? Overseas businesses should be thinking twice about opening up shop here knowing all calls to the home office will be monitored.
the 2nd amendment gets all the LOVE.
That pot dealer is going to have a lawyer, and with any luck that lawyer is going to discuss her/his client's Fourth Amendment rights, and the case is going to get thrown out. That's what "they're not allowed to do it" means: not that they won't actually do it, but that it won't work out.
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