US Senators Think There's Nothing Wrong With Secretly Monitoring Your Phone Records
June 6, 2013
Just hours after news leaked that Verizon Wireless has been handing over telephone records of millions of subscribers to the National Security Agency (NSA), comes some even more alarming news.
The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Select Committee On Intelligence see this as little more than a renewal of practices that have been ongoing since 2006. As such, they say that the practices are completely “lawful,” according to CNN.
As Aldrin Calimlim noted previously, the top secret order issued in April, “requires Verizon to furnish the NSA on an ‘ongoing, daily basis’ with information pertaining to all phone calls made on its network, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.”
No problem, says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the intelligence committee.
She states:
As far as I know this is the exact three month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years. This renewal is carried out by the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court under the business records section of the Patriot Act.Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the vice chairman and top Republican on the committee, concurred stating "this is nothing new."
BREAKING: Senator confirms NSA collection of phone records is a renewal of an ongoing practice. — The Associated Press (@AP) June 6, 2013So, let me get this straight. The U.S. government is able to gain access to our telephone records, without a warrant, under an order that until this week, was secret? That doesn't sound right, in my opinion. Ironic then that today is the 64th anniversary of the publishing of George Orwell's "1984."
