Listening In

Seems like The phone companies arent always so nervous about not helping:

The FBI routinely failed to pay telecom companies promptly for providing phone and internet lines to the FBI's impressive domestic surveillance architecture -- resulting in at least one phone company cutting off a foreign intelligence wiretap until the FBI paid its bill, according to an audit released Thursday.

The Justice Department's Inspector General also found that telecom charges and invoices for surveillance overwhelmed the FBI's ability to keep track of their bill and that one field office got a $66,000 bill from a carrier for unpaid surveillance work.

Some of the problems stemmed from telecoms billing multiple times for individual surveillance warrants -- which, in the case of Cox Communications, costs $1500 for a 30-day wiretap order. But telecoms also bill the FBI for internet connections and phone lines that connect the carrier's wiretap-friendly switches with the FBI's wiretap software system known as the Digital Collection System.

Former FBI agent and now ACLU national security policy counsel Mike German directed his ire at the telecoms who happily played along with the government's warrantless spying and let the FBI illegally get customer records following requests to get surveillance today with false promises to pay with a court order tomorrow.

"To put it bluntly it sounds as though the telecoms believe it when FBI says warrant is in the mail but not when they say the check is in the mail," German said.

This law is not for spying on American citizens. It is for listening in on FOREIGN terrorists calling FOREIGN terrorists. Secondly, the bogus claim that if telecomm companies want immunity, that means they MUST be doing something illegal is very interesting. I'll remember that the next time a leftie like Hillary hides (er, misplaces) something like Rose law firm billing records (until the statute of limitations wears out), or Clinton refusing to release medical records in 8 years of presidency. He MUST have something to hide. What?

FINALLY SOMETHING WE CAN AGREE ON SOMETHING. ACLU protects perversions!!!!! Yes, a group that portects minorities such as Duke of KKK to his right to speak. I totally agree, that ACLU protects perversions. I will even step out a little more, and say that they help serve minority such as Blacks, Cubans, Whites, ..... even you when the LEFT calls for your head. Yes, ACLU will protect your precious little bubble head.

stenchao

correction leftist media offers no solutions, only cowardice & platitudes,
retreat before the enemy surrenders, and revel in ostrich head mentality. Hmmm look a poem in the sand.

x

stenchao

I was against Vietnam, but any freedom has a price. I'am not sure the sacrifice is
easy for anyone. But I refuse to be brainwashed by the leftist media, that offer new solutions,only cowardice .

OH, did king George pay the telepone bill.... That is right, someone forgot to pay their bill for quite awhile. That was one reason for some of the holes in communication record. This is public record.... look it up!! If it was so important to keep us protected by listening to DOMESTIC CONVERSATIONS/NOISE, then someone forgot to tell King Gorge.

Finally! The House is stepping up and doing what the majority was elected for! Restoring some of our civil rights! We have the FISA judges - this is just another power play and hopefully it will wake some people up; people in the telecommunications (and other) industries as well as elected officials!

aclu & communists,

The Aclu are the communists, they have no regard for your rights they want unlimited
anarchy & lawsuites. Tyranny of lawsuites. Aclu protects perversion, vice and any vile thing they can find.
find,awas


t

Off with my head is perfectly fine, if king george can promise future peace for my family , my country, people who I want to meet. It is a small sacrafice for such great gain. Will you Robert give up something of yourself for bettering the world? It is so easy to kill off others than to give yourself. Oh, is that why king George did not really serve Vietnam?

Wow, such blind hatred. So easy to go along sacraficing others. Germans did it. Serbs did it.... How many more sheeps are there willing to see other sheeps being scraficed, before realizing that we're all sheeps.

After 9/11, the Bush administration was criticized by you lefties for not doing enough to protect us. Here they are, trying to protect us from foreign terrorists (whom I might remind you have zero constiutional rights, as they're not citizens), and you stop that! I just wish the terrorists would just bomb you lefties and leave the real Americans the job of destroying them.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Once again, Newsweek, you are wrong. This law allows the U.S. to listen in on conversations originating by foreign terrorists outside the U.S. to foreign terrorists outside the U.S. The objection is that they may enter U.S. telecommunications networks, so fall under the purview of U.S. laws.

legal or illegal is bogus premise, Do we have to pass laws saying its illegal to
plot to kill americans. Liberty Free from restriction or control. The gov't isn't
preventing you from calling foreign countries. The Aclu wants sow the
seeds of anarchy and mass law suites.

Like always Newsweek, you're wrong. This bill allows for the U.S. to listen in on conversations originating by terrorists outside the U.S. to foreign terrorists outside the U.S. Refusing to renew this law prohibits this, because the calls "may" enter American telecommunications networks.

Tough Luck! I hope the Congress does not renew something that the administration will turn on citizens of the United States without any cause what-so-ever! I will be glad when this administration is out of office. Between the president and the vice-president, they have trounced on the United States Constitution and Bill of Right!.

Tough Luck! I hope the Congress does not renew something that the administration will turn on citizens of the United States without any cause what-so-ever! I will be glad when this administration is out of office. Between the president and the vice-president, they have trounced on the United States Constitution and Bill of Right!.

the answer to the question is yes, the telecoms will be less likely to participate in criminal activity if they can't count on lawmakers to bail them out when they are prosecuted or sued. that's as it should be. the FISA court is set up specifically to provide warrants for domestic wiretapping. if circumventing the court was not illegal, then bush and verizon have nothing to fear from the lawsuits.

The End of America by Naomi Wolf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9PulYpjGs&feature=related