Guardian Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama
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 unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is extremely unusual. Fisa court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target who is suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets.
Read the court order.
Wonder if this is related — NSA building new $2 bn communications data-mining center in Utah set to open Sept. 2013: wired.com/threatlevel/20…
— Garance Franke-Ruta (@thegarance) June 6, 2013
A new take on “Can you hear me now?”.
The wheels are coming off the cart when the guardian (the interbred bastard of the Biased Broadcasting Corporation) is printing this.
All those times that Error Holder said he couldn’t recall? He didn’t remember? He doesn’t know?
Someone should check to see if he’s a Verizon customer.
… who’s going on administrative leave for this?
If you don’t have it get an encryption service or app for your phone. I reccomend RedPhone.
“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…”
Incorrectamundo my friends. Not the first time we’ve known about this, not even close. They’ve been doing this non-stop since Clinton.
However it -is- really nice to finally have incontrovertible proof instead of innuendo and indirect indications.
Interesting that the Guardian managed to get hold of a “top secret” document like that. Possibly some DemocRat middle management type doesn’t like where all this is heading.
Encryption app? Really?
Listen LASsie, if you think the NSA doesn’t have a back door into every commercial encryption package on the market, you are the biggest sucker in the world.
You want secure, you write it yourself.
Besides which, they know who you called. If they -really- want to know what was said they stick a gun in your face and ask you.
Doesn’t Obama trust the people who mindlessly voted for him?
Just think of it as a small swab of DNA you’re leaving for Dr. B. Hussien’s nurse.
That’s why I use burners.
Randall says it best.
http://xkcd.com/538/
Big Brother is watching.
Remember when only “nutbars” like Alex Jones reported this kind of stuff? Funny how a lot of his rants are proving to be prophetic. Maybe we should pay attention to some of his current ones instead of waiting five years to catch on to the truth of what he’s saying.
And remember…dizzy is watching you. :):)
But Glenn Beck is the crazy one…
He’s been on that Utah data centre for weeks.
In East Germany it was ‘walls have ears’; now your “iPhone has iEars”.
The NSA acronym has never been truer; “Never Say Anything”…
All the smart people only use their cells for minimalist conversation, whilst substantive talk is always person to person.
The STASI lives…!
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
but … but … Obama is the Guardian, the Guardian’s favored son.
Libertarian Propaganda follows:
The State has a life of its own, beyond the control of elected officials. That is why it is important to restrict the domain and purview of the State.
Ronald Reagan “Tear Down This Wall” Comrade Obama, go after their IRS records, squeeze them, tape every call I want to know who is against me. DHS buy more bullets, they are clinging to their guns and bibles. I am a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, I am the Greatest, Greater even than Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. I am the One, You Will Submit……
Not to worry, they only target certain words like conservative, patriot, tea party, freedom, constitution,….
I’m sure it’s nothing.
Yes, but only half of you voted last November.
Hey, guys–read the court order. Metadata only is covered, and NOT any of the contents of the call, nor the name and address of either party.
There has been a 30% increase in warrantless wiretaps since Obama took office, but has there been a 30% increase in terrorist chatter? Has this question been raised in Congress, by the Tea Party legislators?
Since Sept. 11, the American people have given their government everything it asked for, all in the name of protecting the populace from terrorism. However, the likelihood that an American dies in a terrorist attack is less than the probability of death by lightning strike.
Here’s a look at how the two parties voted on NDAA in 2011.
Republicans: 190 for, 43 against
Democrats: 93 for, 93 against
Tea Party: 44 for, 11 against
Politicians lie, numbers don’t.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll932.xml
Absolutely revolting. If American politicians had any honor left, they’d immediately repeal the law that authorizes these abuses by the NSA, and then proceed to impeach each & every official in the executive branch who carried this out, up to and including the president, and then impeach the judge who signed off on the warrant.
But they’ll all chicken out of it on “Terism!” grounds and proceed to engage in more political kabuki theatre.
2 billion dollar secret data mining center to red flag Homeland Security that my pet black snake ‘Obama’ swallowed my flip phone and had to be killed to get it back?
I don’t understand, where does all this money come from?
How do you get funding for something like this?
Julius Levinson:
“You don’t actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer,
$30,000 on a toilet seat do you?”
Gah…. the system tracks and analyses calling station and called station ID data. This data is not private information of the users, it’s the property of the telecom carrier. This data is readily available for sale to anyone interested in market or telecom research.
The real questions with this situation:
1- Why do they not request the data directly?
2- Why use a ‘secret’ warrant?
3- Was the warrant actually ‘secret’? This IS the Guardian after all.
4- Why do they nee a $2billion data center to do analysis on something the carrier already does. Besides the fact that I can do the same analysis on a laptop PC.
On a more hypothetical and ironic note:
5- Who ‘leaked’ the story to the Guardian?
6- Will Holder have the ‘leaker’ investigated?
Agreed. We know that they already record -everything- directly off trunk lines, so why they need Verizon’s less complete routing data makes for an interesting question.
There was another story a couple days ago with Google giving up all records to the NSA as well.
The US Gulag. Obama’s Retro Concentration Camp. The Watchers and the Watched. It is not just phones records it is all communication. Email, Twitter etc. This is the Evil Empire that everyone wanted to escape from and swim to America. http://cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-williams-jr/watchers-and-watched-americas-electronic-concentration-camp
Do you think Verizon is the only monitored phone company?
I doubt the legal experts within Holder’s justice dept. feels the need for a court warrant to monitor foreign phone calls…
Did ya’ll say “Hola” to B. Hussien this morning?
The Same Federal Judge Who Struck Down Obamacare Approved The Government’s Sweeping Collection Of Phone Records
http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-verizon-wiretap-judge-obamacare-roger-vinson-2013-6
The most sophisticated billing software that’s in use by most of the large telcos, that can reach into the telco’s switches and pull call detail records for roll-up onto your usage details and bills, is written in Israel. I’m just sayin’…
What’s puzzling is that the Authorization order, signed by “Roger Vinson, Judge, United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court”, requires Verizon to keep call detail records (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls, but —
Seems more like an order issued by a domestic intelligence surveillance court.
Yeah well…grow up and smell the coffee.
I not only went to a one room school house but didn’t get a private telephone line until I was mid 30’s.
It is instinctive to NEVER say nothin’ on a party line…..which for all practical purposes, is any/every land line or cell phone.
Back in the day we defined NSA (No Such Agency) because the only law that pertained to the NSA was it was a crime to devulge anything about the NSA.
For, at least, a coupla generations, at Fort Meade, Virginia (foggy bottoms)a room full of the most powerful computers created (Cray 2’s) monitored EVERY signal (wire or wireless) in North America. Key words detected would have these calls flagged and then monitored by a live agent.
Ya never(for practical purposes) did have any reasonable expectation of privacy.
The ‘secret’ order for Verizon to turn over ALL data in 99% sure to be JUST ONE of numerous such orders to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, all the cable companies, the suppliers / carriers of “burner” phones to Walmart, Target, etc. etc. etc. … American must now assume that LITERALLY EVERY phone communication via EVERY American telecom carrier is also subject to the same / a similar Homeland Security order.
“The issue is not that people are paranoid about Obama’s leadership, the issue is are they paranoid ENOUGH?”
Right, because this administration has such respect for the rule of law they wouldn’t ever step outside their bounds.
Hans, you are quite warm with that statement. Step by step the government’s security organs are becoming copies of the Stasi and Cheka/Nkvd in regards to surveillance of the people. It is for the good of the people of course.
“Any society willing to trade a little freedom for a little security will soon find, they have neither.” Ben Franklin.
and this data collection, in one form or another, has been going on for a long time
as to one poster mentioning it’s ONLY metadata, that type of data is a lot more use full than many think it is, because it can be “correlated” using specialized programs.
1984 arrived long before Obumbles did