Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama
Glenn Greenwald
The Guardian [UK]
5 June 2013
• Read the court order in full here
“there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows.”
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…
…It is not known whether Verizon is the only cell-phone provider to be targeted with such an order, although previous reporting has suggested the NSA has collected cell records from all major mobile networks. It is also unclear from the leaked document whether the three-month order was a one-off, or the latest in a series of similar orders.
The court order appears to explain the numerous cryptic public warnings by two US senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, about the scope of the Obama administration’s surveillance activities.
For roughly two years, the two Democrats have been stridently advising the public that the US government is relying on “secret legal interpretations” to claim surveillance powers so broad that the American public would be “stunned” to learn of the kind of domestic spying being conducted…
The complete article is at The Guardian.
Like us, Al Gore must be a Verizon subscriber: ‘Obscenely outrageous’: Al Gore fury over report of Obama administration blanket surveillance
Twitter users joined Gore in a rare fit of bipartisanship to bash what could be the latest addition to a growing line of Obama administration scandals
In digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous? ow.ly/lKS13
— Al Gore (@algore) June 6, 2013
Maybe the President is a uniter after all…
The Blaze is carrying this story.
Update: Obama Can Hear You Now
Update 2: ACLU on Obama’s NSA Snooping on Verizon Customers: ‘It Is Beyond Orwellian’
Well, well, well, now the left is suddenly in high dudgeon over Obama and his band of thugs snooping on Americans. Welcome to the party, folks. We don’t recall any cacophony of outrage when it was discovered Obama and Holder put Fox News reporter James Rosen and his parents under surveillance, but now it’s different, apparently…
We are all James Rosen now.
Also, Battered Obama Supporter Syndrome — The Phone Records Grabber Episode
