Extent of E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress

[jefferson_dem]

Source: NYT

Extent of E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said.

The agency’s monitoring of domestic e-mail messages, in particular, has posed longstanding legal and logistical difficulties, the officials said.

Since April, when it was disclosed that the intercepts of some private communications of Americans went beyond legal limits in late 2008 and early 2009, several Congressional committees have been investigating. Those inquiries have led to concerns in Congress about the agency’s ability to collect and read domestic e-mail messages of Americans on a widespread basis, officials said. Supporting that conclusion is the account of a former N.S.A. analyst who, in a series of interviews, described being trained in 2005 for a program in which the agency routinely examined large volumes of Americans’ e-mail messages without court warrants. Two intelligence officials confirmed that the program was still in operation.

Both the former analyst’s account and the rising concern among some members of Congress about the N.S.A.’s recent operation are raising fresh questions about the spy agency.

Representative Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey and chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, has been investigating the incidents and said he had become increasingly troubled by the agency’s handling of domestic communications.

In an interview, Mr. Holt disputed assertions by Justice Department and national security officials that the overcollection was inadvertent.

“Some actions are so flagrant that they can’t be accidental,” Mr. Holt said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17nsa.html?_r=1

[MADem]

1. BIG rec... nt

[katandmoon]

2. K&R

[frog92969]

3. Can you hear me now?

Then suck it you Orwellian pig fuckers!

[Bozita]

4. Renews? ... I must have missed that concern the first time around.

[SpiralHawk]

5. "Sneer. Smirk." - Commander AWOL & VP Dickie 'Five Deferments' Cheney (R)

[Psephos]

6. KnR

:kick:

[L. Coyote]

7. Prosecute, prosecute, prosecute

If you can. Routing calls overseas is an end-run on the laws inside the USA!!!

Are ALL COMMUNICATIONS routed overseas to circumvent US law and the Constitution?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2245762

[Quantess]

8. recommended.

[Snazzy]

9. "the program was still in operation"

and by "was" they mean "is".

So by looking forward, we are actually looking back. What else is ongoing? I have remain convinced that Gonzo and Comey (among others) were hinting there was some really really illegal programs,or as some sort of put it, what was so bad that even Ashcroft wouldn't sign off on it? Who has the data? What are they doing with it?

[robinlynne]

10. I'm sorry. ALL email messages are monitored. What can be broader than that?

There were 30 lawsuits against AT&T and brethren. ALl were THROWN OUT of court by our Congresspeople RETROACTIVELY. So now they're worried? Those lawsuits would have made the difference. This is way too little and way too late.

[No Elephants]

11. So, which parts of the Bill of Rights are still in effect? Someone needs to remind me.