Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations.

[Minimalist]

Sad to say, Divi Tiberio, it is your friendly internet companies who are voluntarily cooperating there....after having been given certain assurances.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigat...print.html

PRISM was launched from the ashes of President George W. Bush’s secret program of warrantless domestic surveillance in 2007, after news media disclosures, lawsuits and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court forced the president to look for new authority.

Congress obliged with the Protect America Act in 2007 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunized private companies that cooperated voluntarily with U.S. intelligence collection. PRISM recruited its first partner, Microsoft, and began six years of rapidly growing data collection beneath the surface of a roiling national debate on surveillance and privacy. Late last year, when critics in Congress sought changes in the FISA Amendments Act, the only lawmakers who knew about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.

The FISA amendments act of 2008 gave retroactive immunity to AT&T for its past "cooperation." As a matter of fact, that is about the only provision of the act that I can recall even had some strenuous opposition.

The time to bitch and moan about this shit was when it was enacted. By now it is a tad late.