Judge deals NSA defeat on bulk phone collection

A federal judge says the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone records violates the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches. The judge put his decision on hold pending a nearly certain government appeal.

Judge deals NSA defeat on bulk phone collection

Nice...finally the NSA gets dealt a blow. Lets see if this one sticks.

Don't know much about this judge except he was appointed by Bush and has been a part of a few controversial rulings in the past with Guantanamo and other terrorist related cases. He has also been involved in some high level tobacco cases.

I think it will be VERY interesting to see where this case goes and if anything is really done.

And who is going to monitor the NSA

reply to post by mikell


Whistleblowers when they can't go through the normally channels of command to report unethical organisational behaviour.

But its a good sign at last after all these months since this story broke that change for the better is not only ''attainable' but there is support for it to be even 'possible'.

God Bless America

Sadly, this will likely go nowhere. Even if the NSA gets "shut down," we all know what that means--it'll just get put on the long, long list of blackops projects on the shadow government's payroll. Until we the people completely walk away from this corrupt system, until we stop feeding it our time, money, and consent, these infringements of our liberties will only continue.

The game is rigged, folks. Until we walk away from the table and refuse to keep playing, nothing will ever improve.

(But it is heartwarming to see that not all federal judges are complete establishment goons... at least not all the time.)

oxford
reply to post by mikell

 

Whistleblowers when they can't go through the normally channels of command to report unethical organisational behaviour.

God Bless America

Bingo...and I think the Snowden blows will keep coming. Seems to be a very planned out release of the info on his part. Seems to be waiting until something is refuted then releases the next set of docs to show that they are yet again lying.

therealguyfawkes
Sadly, this will likely go nowhere. Even if the NSA gets "shut down," we all know what that means--it'll just get put on the long, long list of blackops projects on the shadow government's payroll. Until we the people completely walk away from this corrupt system, until we stop feeding it our time, money, and consent, these infringements of our liberties will only continue.

The game is rigged, folks. Until we walk away from the table and refuse to keep playing, nothing will ever improve.

(But it is heartwarming to see that not all federal judges are complete establishment goons... at least not all the time.)

I have to agree that I am happy to see that this judge is not playing the game. I do think this is a politically motivated move on his part. I can see him coming out like a knight in shining armor for the people over this one if it goes anywhere. He could play this card for years to come.

Nice...the article was just updated. I want to read his 68 page opinion on this. I like his style. Seems that he will be a proponent for the people. Finally someone in the position to really do something and does it.

The Fourth Amendment typically requires 'a neutral and detached authority be interposed between the police and the public,' and it is offended by 'general warrants' and laws that allow searches to be conducted 'indiscriminately and without regard to their connections with a crime under investigation,'" he wrote.

He added: "I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary invasion' than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely such a program infringes on 'that degree of privacy' that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. Indeed I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware 'the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,' would be aghast."

The Obama administration has defended the program as a crucial tool against terrorism.

But in his a 68-page, heavily footnoted opinion, Leon concluded that the government didn't cite a single instance in which the program "actually stopped an imminent terrorist attack."

"I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism," he added.

He entered an order to bar the government from collecting "any telephony metadata associated with their personal Verizon accounts" and requiring the government to "destroy any such metadata in its possession" collected through the program.

reply to post by Vasa Croe


Only 1% has been released as far as I am aware, the horror!

nuff said

Here is the link to the ruling but the website is getting so hammered with hits right now it will not come up. If anyone can get to it through another source please post a link. I want to read this thing.

68 Page NSA Ruling

reply to post by Vasa Croe

I do think this is a politically motivated move on his part. I can see him coming out like a knight in shining armor for the people over this one if it goes anywhere. He could play this card for years to come.

And he could have a mysterious "heart attack" or car accident. Still as remarked earlier, it's good to see that not all of them are under the thumb of the spooks and crooks.

Maybe he better do a quick scan of his hard drive while he's at it just in case some mysterious illegal porn appears. I'd put nothing beyond the black-baggers.

"With their personal Verizon accounts"

I am thinking careful wording makes this apply to Larry Klayman and Charles Strange's accounts and metadata only for now as the 4th amendment issue goes' to appeal.

The courageous thing would have been an injunction for everyone unless and until an appeal changed ruling.

Ha...the judge calls the NSA program "almost Orwellian" in his docs. I am reading the file over now. While I am no lawyer I do think that even if this only applies to these two in the case that this will open the door for many others to follow suit.

I tried to create a new thread but for some reason the page is just blank. I just signed up after reading from a different site that a company I worked for is involved with Boundless Informant....in fact the company seems to be a major player.

I am sorry if this is off topic...I just posted it in the first NSA thread I could find.

The company name was DRTI(Digital Receiver Technology Incorporated), formerly known as Utica. They made these products called DirtBoxes (DRTBOX) that sit there and collect phone call data. They are called Dirtboxes because "they collect dirt on people."

I was an intern there and they did something I felt very uncomfortable with. They had something called "product training" where a racist (very hateful towards Middle East) army guy briefly explained how the product worked (I should have listened closer to this). After this, they had us learn to use the product.

DRTBOX used a program called Alaska which was the interface where you can literally see hundreds of active phone calls in a list(probably anything from nearest tower). You double click a phone call and can instantly hear one end of a cellular conversation.

The army guy told us to play around with the software.....essentially a group of 40 interns was told to randomly conduct illegal cell surveillance on live phone calls. I know they were live because we were told they were live and also the people we listened to were talking about a bad storm that was occurring at that moment.

The company DRTI was sold to Boeing a few years ago and a new company has been formed. If there is interest in information on the new company, I can tell more via private messaging.

I am kind of amazed that I worked for a company that sold NSA the devices they use to conduct this illegal worldwide surveillance.

In this area alone are at least 2 other companies that now build the exact same equipment. URS and Thales are ones I know of.

People need to be aware of the fact that there are many people and companies out there that are cooperating with and helping the NSA right under your noses.

a reply to: SlipStreams

Hey! I'd love to talk more about your experience as an intern with DRT — email me:

s * h * a * w * n * at muckrock dot com ?

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I got a sneaky sneaky suspicion that snowmen is doing exactly what is orders of him..

In today's techno ninja military age if someone really had what snowden claims he wouldn't be getting very far. I've watched enough snowden vids to know he's not as good as we are being led to believe. Maybe he's just crazy lucky and somehow skirted under the radar but last time I checked most people were only able to really get away with that when they are supposed too.. Especially if they got this treasure trove snowden claims. The earth and moon have been moved to recover documents long before we had any of the capabilities we have now. If they reallllllyyy want you.. They got you.

It all just seems so obvious what he leaks too... If anyone didn't know they recorded phone calls after like 1991.... They probably don't need to worry about it. Idk I could be wrong and I hope I am. I hope he's got the goods, it all just seems so convenient.


Edit to add: just realized this was just dug up from the grave....carry on. My first venture into the BAN forum.

I hate to be so cynical but frankly, it doesn't matter how many judges ever rule that this is wrong and unconstitutional or whatever. I've seen enough since 2001 to know the majority of citizens in this country don't even believe in the Constitution or BOR. And it's getting worse. Those who never wanted people to have any rights to begin with can smell the defeat in the air.

They will keep trying. They'll keep coming. Every wave will weaken the resistance in some way or will find another weakness that wasn't obvious.

And finally, what we know now is this. It only takes one 9/11 to knock everything off balance and cause millions of people to lose their minds. More than anything else, now that the enemies of freedom know this, they have found a critical weakness. Most of the citizens of this country will give up anything for the promise of safety. Most of them would have gradually given it all away anyway, just for convenience.