RE: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations.
June 9, 2013 at 10:10 pm
(June 9, 2013 at 10:00 pm)Minimalist Wrote: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...33&ft=1&f=
Quote:December 2005: The New York Times reports that the National Security Agency is secretly eavesdropping on telephone calls and emails of Americans communicating with people outside the United States, without seeking warrants from the FISA court. What becomes known as "warrantless wiretapping" began in 2002 under a presidential order. Critics call it unconstitutional, but the Bush administration says it's legal.
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March 2006: Congress votes to renew the Patriot Act, although lawmakers voice concerns about the government's broad powers to conduct surveillance and collect data.
Right. No one knew.
Did we know that the NSA had backdoors into 9 major internet companies? Did we know, before a few days ago, that FISA was issuing warrants to telecommunications carriers to compel them to turn over bulk call metadata? Do we now know the scope of domestic surveillance?
No one is claiming that no one knew anything. We didn't (and probably still don't) know the extent of it - and we should.
