Domestic Surveillance Court Approved All 1,506 Warrant Applications in 2010

www.wired.com

The secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved all 1,506 government requests to electronically monitor suspected “agents” of a foreign power or terrorists on U.S. soil last year, according to a Justice Department report released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The two-page report, which shows about a 13 percent increase in the number of applications for electronic surveillance between 2009 and 2010, was obtained by the Federation of American Scientists and published Friday.

“The FISC did not deny any applications in whole, or in part,” according to the April 19 report to Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada).

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Aftergood notes that the figures, whether they amount to rubber-stamping or not, do not account for the warrantless monitoring program President George W. Bush adopted in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks. Under the Terror Surveillance Program, exposed in 2005 by The New York Times, the government conceded it was eavesdropping — without warrants — on the electronic communications of Americans if they were communicating with somebody overseas believed linked to terrorism.

The Justice Department report, meanwhile, said the FBI issued 24,287 “national security letter” requests last year on 14,212 people, “a substantial increase from the 2009 level of 14,788 NSL requests concerning 6,114 U.S. persons,” Aftergood wrote in a blog post. In 2008, there were 24,744 requests regarding 7,225 people.

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National security letters are written demands from the FBI that compel internet service providers, credit companies, financial institutions and others to hand over confidential records about their customers, such as subscriber information, phone numbers and e-mail addresses, websites visited and more.

They do not require court approval, and the FBI need merely assert that the information is “relevant” to an investigation, and anyone who gets a national security letter is prohibited from even disclosing that they’ve received one.

Ok I really hope I am not the only one who finds this article disturbing. I find it odd that these requests have increased 13% in 2010! who knows how many are going to be approved this year especially after the OBL news earlier this week. I just don't like the fact that these people can just request someone to be monitored and not give a reason to why they are being monitored. All I see when reading this is that the patriot act gives TOO much power to the feds and infringes on our right to privacy.

But hey we got to be safe right? we need to just take abuses at the airports, or be monitored unknowingly because you may have said something or are a member of an organization that undermines the status quo. (Look up SPLC)

I am glad information like this is being revealed but I still have a odd feeling about it.

Kind of like that feeling when you think they are giving us a crumb of truth when in reality there is a ultra-deep program going on that we are not really even told about.

You know, that feeling where you sense the most likely scenario is 100x worse than what they are admitting...

reply to post by muzzleflash


Exactly!

There is more to than meets the eye.

Just giving this thread a bump. a few flags and just one reply.

I want to hear others thoughts on this. This is just a possible tip of the ice berg. They are revving up their searches and wiretaps... who knows how many per year are going to be monitored by 2021... but if this keeps going, we will probably all be monitored at one point in time or another... its just a matter of when.

So 14,000 people were suspected of terrorism? Cut me a break, I've read that al qaeda only numbers around 100 people total so why would 14,000 US citizens need to be snooped on? Seems like this Patriot Act has about used up its usefulness and now it is more dangerous than helpful.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin's Contributions to the Conference on February 17 (III) Fri, Feb 17, 1775



Ron Paul 2012 !!!

Originally posted by againuntodust
So 14,000 people were suspected of terrorism? Cut me a break, I've read that al qaeda only numbers around 100 people total so why would 14,000 US citizens need to be snooped on? Seems like this Patriot Act has about used up its usefulness and now it is more dangerous than helpful.

That's the thing.

They have been snooping on everyone. 300+ million Americans.

We know this. There has been enough information revealed through the years to know this is a totally likely scenario to consider.

14,000 sounds like a joke to me. A smoke screen covering up the reality that we are all being watched (at least electronically in passive ways).