US govt secretly collecting data on millions of Verizon users: Report

General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command, speaks to reporters??Can you hear me now? Eep. The National Security Agency (NSA) has been collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon customers ? right down to local call data ? under a top-secret court order issued in April, Britain?s The Guardian newspaper reported late Wednesday.

Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) order, the Guardian reported, Verizon Business Services must provide the NSA ?on an ongoing daily basis? with information from calls between the U.S. and overseas ? but also with calls entirely inside the United States. Calls made entirely overseas were not affected. It was unclear whether phones in other Verizon divisions -- its regular cell phone operations, for instance -- were similarly targeted.

Guardian writer Glenn Greenwald, a frequent and fierce critic of the national security state?s expansion since 9-11, writes in his bombshell report that:

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk ? regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The order, issued April 25 and valid through July 19, requires Verizon to turn over the numbers of both parties, location data, call duration, and other information ? though not the contents of the calls.

Judge Roger Vinson?s order relies on Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. That part of the law, also known as the ?business records provision,? permits FBI agents to seek a court order for ?any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items)? it deems relevant to an investigation.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has repeatedly sounded the alarm about the way the government interprets that provision -- though he is sharply limited in what he can say about classified information. Wyden and Democratic Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, another committee member, wrote a scathing letter to Attorney General Eric Holder in Sept. 2011 warning that Americans would be "stunned" if they learned what the government was doing.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) denounced the scope of the surveillance. "It?s analogous to the FBI stationing an agent outside every home in the country to track who goes in and who comes out," said Jameel Jaffer, ACLU Deputy Legal Director. The organization's Legislative Counsel, Michelle Richardson, bluntly branded the surveillance "unconstitutional" and insisted that "the government should end it and disclose its full scope, and Congress should initiate a full investigation."

The White House declined to comment -- but former vice president Al Gore, on Twitter, sharply condemned the government's actions:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/us-govt-secretly-collecting-data-millions-verizon-users-013542225.html

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