Video: Big Brother is Watching You (Public Broadcasting Service, USA, AT&T, PBS, May West, West Coast, E-Mail, Wiretapping)

kulttuuri

04-02-2008

A wiretapping program named ThinThread was tested in the late 1990s, according to information obtained by the Baltimore Sun in 2006. This program may have contributed to the underlying technology used in later systems, but its safeguards on privacy were abandoned after the 9/11 attacks.

Phone taps.

Main article: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.

On December 16, 2005, the New York Times reported that, under White House pressure and with an executive order from President George W. Bush, the National Security Agency, in an attempt to thwart terrorism, had been conducting phone-taps on individuals in the U.S. calling persons outside the country, without obtaining warrants from a secret court as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Proponents of the warrantless surveillance claim that the President has the authority to order such action, arguing that the President has powers under the Constitution that trump laws such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In addition, some argued that FISA was implicitly overridden by a subsequent statute, the Authorization for Use of Military Force, although most concede this argument is untenable after the Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. On August 2006 in the case ACLU v. NSA, U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor concluded that the NSA's warantless surveillance program was illegal and unconstitutional. However, on July 6, 2007 the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Judge Taylor's ruling.[17] See NSA warrantless surveillance controversy for details.

Previous NSA tapping of US citizens.

Further information: Church Committee

In the years after President Richard Nixon resigned, there were several investigations of suspected misuse of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and NSA facilities. Senator Frank Church headed a Senate investigating committee called the Church Committee which uncovered previously unknown activity, such as a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro by the CIA, which had been ordered by President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. During the investigation, it was also found that the NSA was actively tapping the phones of targeted American citizens. After the Church Committee hearings, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 became law, limiting circumstances under which domestic surveillance was allowed.

[edit] AT&T Internet monitoring.

Further information: Hepting v. AT&T,Mark Klein,NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.

In May 2006 Mark Klein, a former AT&T employee, alleged that his company had cooperated with the NSA in installing hardware to monitor network communications including traffic between American citizens.

Vunet.org

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