The National Security Agency has been engaging in massive dragnet spying on American internet traffic since 2001. It has been doing so, with the cooperation of major telecommunications carriers, such as AT&T, where a whistle-blower there provided evidence that the NSA has installed a splitter that was handing over wholesale voice and data traffic to the NSA for the purpose of data mining. The Electronic Frontier Foundation comments:"The undisputed documents show that AT&T installed a fiberoptic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails, web browsing, and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers, and provides those copies to the NSA. This copying includes both domestic and international Internet activities of AT&T customers. As one expert observed, 'this isn’t a wiretap, it’s a country-tap.'"
The EFF brought a lawsuit against AT&T for this wiretap in 2006, however, the case was dismissed in 2009 after the FISA Amendments Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2008, retroactively made all of this previously illegal wiretapping legal and provided retroactive immunity.
So, the wiretap remains. The NSA was never held accountable for committing illegal spying on Americans through legal and political maneuvering. Furthermore, previously illegal wiretapping is now legally sanctioned.
My questions are these: What is your opinion on the necessity of this type of domestic spying? Should we trust a government agency with this amount of unchecked power?
For more information on the AT&T splitter, check out this Frontline report.
