FISA court renews NSA surveillance program

[Tovarish]

The Obama administration has renewed the authority for the National Security Agency to regularly collect the phone records of millions of Americas as allowed under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The United States government has reportedly asked the FISA court every 90 days since 2006 to renew an order that compels the nation's telecommunication providers to hand over telephony metadata pertaining to millions of US citizens.The program has been conducted in near total secrecy, however, until NSA leaker Edward Snowden released top-secret documentation to the Guardian newspaper which caused an international backlash upon being published last month.... FISA court renews NSA surveillance program ? RT USA

 

[Cardinal]

The Obama administration has renewed the authority for the National Security Agency to regularly collect the phone records of millions of Americas as allowed under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The United States government has reportedly asked the FISA court every 90 days since 2006 to renew an order that compels the nation's telecommunication providers to hand over telephony metadata pertaining to millions of US citizens.The program has been conducted in near total secrecy, however, until NSA leaker Edward Snowden released top-secret documentation to the Guardian newspaper which caused an international backlash upon being published last month.... FISA court renews NSA surveillance program ? RT USA

And why shouldn't they? After it was revealed that the NSA was doing this enough Americans appeared to be more concerned with whether Snowden could crush a beer can with his forehead than whether the government was listening in on their phone calls without a warrant.

 

[tererun]

I learned an interesting thing. the US, UK, Netherlands, Australia, and Canada all do this monitoring. They all do it in the other countries. What happens is the US government cannot collect data on it's citizens (yes i know this has changed somewhat) however these other countries can collect data on americans and when our government asks for the data these governments give it to them. So technically no government has to collect data on it's own people because it's allies will do it and then just share the data.

It almost seems like this may be the price we pay for technology.

 

[Mr. Invisible]

I learned an interesting thing. the US, UK, Netherlands, Australia, and Canada all do this monitoring. They all do it in the other countries. What happens is the US government cannot collect data on it's citizens (yes i know this has changed somewhat) however these other countries can collect data on americans and when our government asks for the data these governments give it to them. So technically no government has to collect data on it's own people because it's allies will do it and then just share the data.

It almost seems like this may be the price we pay for technology.

Very much so. Here is a rather informative article on the subject: Antifascist Calling...: ECHELON Today: The Evolution of an NSA Black Program

 

[CanadaJohn]

I learned an interesting thing. the US, UK, Netherlands, Australia, and Canada all do this monitoring. They all do it in the other countries. What happens is the US government cannot collect data on it's citizens (yes i know this has changed somewhat) however these other countries can collect data on americans and when our government asks for the data these governments give it to them. So technically no government has to collect data on it's own people because it's allies will do it and then just share the data.

It almost seems like this may be the price we pay for technology.

This is very true - it's a less painful equivalent of rendition where you ship off someone else's terrorist to a third party who tortures them and then you can claim you didn't do the torturing, someone else did. All very legal, all very corrupt, but in today's environment, probably all very necessary.

 

[Helix]

FISA has granted 33,942 warrants and has rejected only 11. that's a kangaroo court.

 

[tererun]

FISA has granted 33,942 warrants and has rejected only 11. that's a kangaroo court.

It makes me wonder just how insane those 11 were.

 

[Helix]

It makes me wonder just how insane those 11 were.

no kidding. what does one have to do to get rejected by a rubber stamp court?