(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama
• Read the court order in full here
The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.
The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.
The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.
The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.
WIth the passage of the USA Patriot Act the U.S. government set about creating a true surveillance society . Many believed that with the election of Barrack Obama these types of abuses woud end however that was just wishful thinking as the Obama administration has continued to abuse the rights of all Americans.
The order directs Verizon to “continue production on an ongoing daily basis thereafter for the duration of this order”. It specifies that the records to be produced include “session identifying information”, such as “originating and terminating number”, the duration of each call, telephone calling card numbers, trunk identifiers, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number, and “comprehensive communication routing information”.
This is what authoritarian governments do to control their citizens: Oppression out of fear of what those people would do if given the chance to actually express their opinions. Except were talking about the United States of America not some third world dictatorship. One has to assume that the U.S. Constitution no longer applies considering the abuses of this and the past administration.