Thursday, August 16, 2007

The government is using domestic surveillance (oh, and AT&T is in on it too)

There are a few cases in federal court in which a now defunct Islamic organization is trying to make a case that the U.S. government wiretapped them without a warrant, and another case that the government and AT&T colluded in a widespread datamining program that ensnared many unwitting Americans on their phones and Internet.

The government says that this is done to help catch terrorists and that Americans' rights are respected in the process. But how can that be possible? How, in the act of catching revealing transmissions from "possible" terrorists, can these agents not take a glimpse at our private activities as well? And that isn't even factoring in AT&T's role in this. AT&T is being granted state security privileges. We could kiss our Fourth Amendment rights goodbye, if we haven't already.

Read this punch-by-punch account from Wired's Threat Blog. Your head will explode.

UPDATE (2:30 AM EST): I just read this really good article in the LA Times. The lawyer representing the Islamic organization that's filed suit against George W. Bush tells the story of how he had to write a brief for the case in a Justice Department building, in a room with no windows, watched over by guards, with no notes or lawbooks allowed.

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