NSA not just monitoring Verizon, over 3 billion US calls monitored daily on all US citizens
Former employees of the National Security Agency say the publishing of a court order asking Verizon to hand over all its phone calling records for a three-month period opens a new window on an operation that has been in place for years and involves all major U.S. phone companies.
“NSA has been doing all this stuff all along, and it’s been all these companies, not just one,” William Binney told news program Democracy Now on Thursday. “They’re just continuing the collection of this data on all U.S. citizens.”
photo Charles Fettinger via Flickr
Binney is a 40 year vet of the NSA who left after 9/11 because of the expansion of surveillance on US citizens. Binney says they collect data on 3 billion calls a day.
“These are routine orders,” said Thomas Drake, another NSA whistleblower. “What’s new is we’re seeing an actual order, and people are surprised by it.”
“We’ve been saying this for years from the wilderness,” Drake told Democracy Now. “But it’s like, hey, everybody went to sleep while the government is collecting all these records.”
Drake started working for the NSA in 2001 and blew the whistle on what he saw as a wasteful and invasive program at the agency. He was later prosecuted for keeping classified information. Most of the charges were dropped before trial, and he was sentenced to one year of probation and community service.
NSA’s original charter was to eavesdrop on communications between countries, not inside the U.S.
The Guardian reported late Wednesday released an order from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, requesting Verizon to give the NSA the details on every phone call on its landline and wireless networks on a daily basis between April 25 and July 19.
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile USA, three of the largest phone companies, said they had no comment on the matter. A representative from Sprint did not respond to a message. Verizon’s general counsel emailed employees Thursday saying that the company has an obligation to obey court orders, but did not confirm the existence of an order.
James Bamford, a journalist and author of several books on the NSA, said it’s very surprising to see that the agency tracks domestic calls, including local calls. In 2006, USA Today reported that the NSA was secretly collecting a database of domestic call information. However, some phone companies denied any involvement in such a program.
The surveillance by NSA is but one part of a far greater threat to all Americans from a now emerging tyrannical government. What the federal government has in store for us in the near future using the Department of Homeland Security and TSA (and in no way for
OUR security!) appears to be a totalitarian police state!! …See these reports–
“DHS insider: It’s about to get Very Ugly” (6/09/13)
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/06/09/dhs-insider-its-about-to-get-very-ugly/ &… “Halliburton Confirms Concentration Camps Already Constructed”
http://www.libertyforlife.com/jail-police/us_concentraion_camps.htm
Two recent internet reports are relevant to this story…
“How Extensive is the NSA Domestic Surveillance of U.S. Media? Is it legal?”
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55649
And…
‘NSA Should Now Mean “Now Saving Ass” Because the Government is Paranoid of the
American People’
http://www.thelonestarwatchdog.com/nsa-now-means-saving-ass-because-the-
government-is-paranoid-of-the-american-people.html
[…] news that the NSA is monitoring Verizon, multiple Internet and communication sources is just the latest scandal to hit […]
SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY GOING ON WITH Verizon.
ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT, I SPENT TIME VIEWING ONLINE ALL-MALE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT. THE NEXT MORNING, I RECEIVED A SUSPICIOUS E-MAIL. I OPENED IT AND SAW DEPICTIONS OF NUDE FEMALES WHO WANTED TO “CHAT.” [I will never understand why adult sites promoting nude females send e-mails to male homosexuals who had clearly visited all-male sites. THAT TECHNIQUE DOES NOT WORK ON US]. WHEN I LOOKED AT THE RETURN E-MAIL ADDRESS FOR THESE NUDE FEMALES, I SAW A Verizon address; I DID NOT KNOW Verizon IS INVOLVED IN ADULT ENTERTAINMENT.
SO, IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE National Security Agency WATCHES Verizon. EVERYONE KNOWS ADULT-ENTERTAINMENT WEBSITES ARE GREAT PLACES TO GO TO FIND PEOPLE – USUALLY, MALES – WHO MAY HAVE AN INTEREST IN BIOTERROR, “GUN-RUNNING,” ETC. YET, IT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO LET PEOPLE KNOW PHONE CALLS AND ONLINE INTERESTS ARE BEING MONITORED – THE ONLY PEOPLE THEY ARE SCARING BELONG TO THE “whimpy crowd,” WHO ARE AFRAID OF THEIR OWN SHADOWS.
CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON
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[…] NSA not just monitoring Verizon, over 3 billion US calls monitored daily on all US citizens […]