Sunday, March 11, 2007

FBI illegally collecting the Internet communications of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of Americans

We must destroy the Constitution in order to save it.

The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed.

Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords.

Such a technique is broader and potentially more intrusive than the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system, later renamed DCS1000. It raises concerns similar to those stirred by widespread Internet monitoring that the National Security Agency is said to have done, according to documents that have surfaced in one federal lawsuit, and may stretch the bounds of what's legally permissible...

[The Electronic Frontier Foundation's staff attorney, Kevin] Bankston said that the FBI is "collecting and apparently storing indefinitely the communications of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of innocent Americans in violation of the Wiretap Act and the 4th Amendment to the Constitution."

- John in DC, AmericaBlog

LSB: Hearings! Please! And when is someone from this admin gonna "swing like Saddam?" For all the treasonous acts commited against its citizens, you'd think that we'd deserve more than one guilty verdict (and eventual pardon) for all the traitors in this White House.

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