this is so excellent, i'm going to copy and paste the whole thing.

The new Lichtenblau, Risen, Shane piece on domestic spying deserves notice as it dispels with some myths.

Myth 1: "It's about terrorism"

To detect narcotics trafficking, for example, the government has been collecting the phone records of thousands of Americans and others inside the United States who call people in Latin America, ...

Myth 2: "It began after 9/11"

In the drug-trafficking operation, the N.S.A. has been helping the Drug Enforcement Administration in collecting the phone records showing patterns of calls between the United States, Latin America and other drug-producing regions. The program dates to the 1990s, according to several government officials, but it appears to have expanded in recent years.

and

Senior Justice Department officials in the Bush and Clinton administrations signed off on the operation, which uses broad administrative subpoenas but does not require court approval to demand the records.

and

In December 2000, agency officials wrote a transition report to the incoming Bush administration, saying the [N.S.A.] must become a “powerful, permanent presence” on the commercial communications network, a goal that they acknowledged would raise legal and privacy issues.

Myth 3: "This is only about international calls"

In a separate N.S.A. project, executives at a Denver phone carrier, Qwest, refused in early 2001 to give the agency access to their most localized communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls, according to people aware of the request, which has not been previously reported.

and

The agency, those knowledgeable about the incident said, wanted to install monitoring equipment on Qwest’s “Class 5” switching facilities, which transmit the most localized calls.

and

The officials, [a former telecom engineer] said, discussed ways to duplicate the Bedminster system in Maryland so the agency “could listen in” with unfettered access to communications that it believed had intelligence value and store them for later review. There was no discussion of limiting the monitoring to international communications, he said.

Myth 4: "This is secure"

The same lawsuit accuses Verizon of setting up a dedicated fiber optic line from New Jersey to Quantico, Va., home to a large military base, allowing government officials to gain access to all communications flowing through the carrier’s operations center. In an interview, a former consultant who worked on internal security said he had tried numerous times to install safeguards on the line to prevent hacking on the system, as he was doing for other lines at the operations center, but his ideas were rejected by a senior security official.

The last point is not obvious for non-technicians, but an unsecured fiber could be snopped at somewhere along the line. No operation center engineer would want to have such a line at all. It's like having three locks on the front door while leaving the backdoor wide open. A unsupervised line into a telecom's operation center is a hackers wet dream.

Tomorrow Senator Reid will introduce the Intelligence Committee N.S.A. bill to the Senate. It includes immunity for the telecoms who, despite the laws forbidding such, allowed the government to snoop on their customers.

Reid could instead introduce the Judiciary Committee bill that doesn't include immunity. But it looks like he was not careful enough in his private communications via phones and email. Now they have him by the balls.

There are several open lawsuits against the telecoms, which would reveal how much the U.S. government really spies on its people. With immunity, all will be terminated.

Senator Dodd promised to filibuster any bill that includes immunity.

He should be careful about what he says on the phone ... After all, he is living in a Surveillance State.

Posted by Bernhard on December 16, 2007 at 11:41 AM | Permalink

it's official: those of us who said it's all about domestic pseudofascism and control over political opponents (and then some) were proven fucking right. there is *no* excuse that a dem can offer for supporting it except the naked greed for this unconstitutional power. and money from the telcos, of course.

I just didn't think it was about ratfucking the entire population. Not cynical enough.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

...serving to motivate the Company owned and operated politicians.

Once every piece of electronic information gets monitored, think of the business advantages to be had!

To those that can pay- or otherwise own- the information.

Such free market solutions might be unethical or even illegal on the surface, but discriminating businessmen will surely be able to deal with such information discreetly.

There are endless feeding opportunities for the Old Ones in the 21st Century, Lambert!

No Hell below us
Above us, only sky