For some, the goal is to portray the program as a crime

[ProSense]

71. Yup, and here's the thing

Last edited Thu Jun 13, 2013, 11:58 PM - Edit history (1)

"Yep. We can hate it as much as we want but it's not illegal"

...people are making up all sorts of claims and conflating these programs.

Prior to the FISA amendments, Bush was intentionally targeting Americans in collecting metadata without a warrant and bypassing the FISA Court.

That was illegal, but more specific is the fact that Bush was actually eavesdropping on Americans.

While many details about the program remain secret, officials familiar with it say the N.S.A. eavesdrops without warrants on up to 500 people in the United States at any given time. The list changes as some names are added and others dropped, so the number monitored in this country may have reached into the thousands since the program began, several officials said. Overseas, about 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time, according to those officials.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html

"As part of its battle to win votes in favor of war against Iraq," the Observer had reported on March 2, 2003, the U.S. government developed an "aggressive surveillance operation, which involves interception of the home and office telephones and the e-mails of U.N. delegates." The smoking gun was "a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency -- the U.S. body which intercepts communications around the world -- and circulated to both senior agents in his organization and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency." The friendly agency was Britain's Government Communications Headquarters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1227-26.htm

The fact that the FISA amendment gave the telecoms retroactive immunity for their role in the law-breaking acivity is being misinterpreted to mean the law made Bush's activities legal.

That's like claiming that someone given immunity for cooperating in a criminal investigation means that the crime being investigated becomes legal.

Also, the collection of metadata isn't new.

<...>

Pen Registers and Trap and Trace

Pen registers and trap and trace devices provide non-content information about the origin and destination of particular communications. Because this information does not contain the content of the communication, it is subject to lesser restrictions than actual content. The Supreme Court has long held that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in this information because the telecommunications company has ready access to it; in fact, the company must utilize this information to ensure the communications are properly routed and delivered. The Pen-Register Act covers pen registers/trap and trace.

In the context of phone calls, Pen-Registers display the outgoing number and the incoming number. Because e-mail subject lines contain content, their use on e-mails, per revisions in the USA PATRIOT Act, must include the sender and addressee, but avoid any part of the subject. IP addresses and port numbers associated with the communication are also fair game under the Act.

The regulations specifically apply to "devices" that capture this information. Thus, ECPA generally prohibits the installation or use of any device that serves as a pen register or trap and trace. Amendments in the USA PATRIOT Act allow the term devices to also encompass software.

At his trial, Katz sought to exclude any evidence connected with these wiretaps, arguing that the warrantless wiretapping of a public phone booth constitutes an unreasonable search of a "constitutionally protected area" in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The federal agents countered by saying that a public phone booth was not a "constitutionally protected area," therefore, they could place a wiretap on it without a warrant.

http://epic.org/privacy/ecpa/

The program implemented in the aftermath of Bush's illegal collection of the data, requires a warrant from the FISA court, and it's still illegal to target Americans.

Eavesdropping on Americans is against the law.

The thing that has to be addressed is the scope and methods for collecting information when targeting foreigners, to ensure that the privacy of Americans is protected. The immunity issue is a potential problem because if the telecoms aren't accountable, they will always be accomplices.