FBI mines records of ordinary Americans

November Friday 4th 2005 (16h47) :
Drifting towards a Police State
2 comment(s).
by Mike Whitney

“Those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid the terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America’s enemies and pause to America’s friends” Former Attorney General, John Ashcroft

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FBI mines records of ordinary Americans
Under Patriot Act, feds probe lives of residents not alleged to be terrorists
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9939709/

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The Nature and Scope of Governmental Electronic Surveillance Activity

June 2004

Even before the PATRIOT Act, federal agencies had broad legal powers to monitor telephone conversations, e-mail, pagers, wireless phones, computers and all other electronic communications and communications devices. The PATRIOT Act expanded some of these powers but generally did not disrupt the basic framework, which is constitutionally grounded.
Government wiretap authority

There are two sources of authority for wiretapping in the US.

(1) The Federal Wiretap Act, sometimes referred to as Title III, was adopted in 1968 and expanded in 1986. It sets procedures for court authorization of real-time surveillance of all kinds of electronic communications, including voice, e-mail, fax, and Internet, in criminal investigations. It normally requires, before a wiretap can commence, a court order issued by a judge who must conclude, based on an affidavit submitted by the government, that there is probable cause to believe that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed. Terrorist bombings, hijackings and other violent activities are crimes for which wiretaps can be ordered. (The PATRIOT Act expanded the list of criminal statutes for which wiretaps can be ordered.) This authority is used to prevent as well as punish crimes: government can wiretap in advance of a crime being carried out, where the wiretap is used to identify planning and conspiratorial activities. Judges almost never deny government requests for wiretap orders.
FULL REPORT: http://www.cdt.org/wiretap/wiretap_overview.html

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David H. Price: The CIA's Campus Spies
The CIA's Campus Spies. By DAVE H. PRICE ... A new test program that is secretly
placing CIA agents in American university classrooms for now operates ...

Using 'Patriot Act' FBI Spies On 30,000 Citizens A Year
Free Internet Press, NY - 7 hours ago
... who are not alleged to be terrorists or spies. The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national ... calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans. ...
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