Pop quiz: Do you think the FISA amendment gives the NSA authority to collect on phone calls of US citizens?
It sure does, my favorite gay-basher, though it's kind of a loophole. It's supposed to only target communications of Non-US persons abroad. As Obama said, it "does not apply to any U.S. person." Because that would need a warrant, right?
"same way it's always been," just like "when we were growing up and watching movies, you know, you wanted to go set up a wiretap, you've got to go to a judge, show probable cause..."
So, the only way Americans' communications would be collected (or listened in on) would be if they're communication with that targeted terrorist, right? Not so either. Basically any foreign communication, under your precious FAA, can be collected, listened to, stored. Surely once the discovery of non-terrorist communication including Americans (i.e. no threat to anyone), the NSA destroys that information post-haste, right? Yeah, not so there either. As a matter of fact, communications two 'hops' out from "targeted" communications gets to be collected, even further increasing the collection of Americans' information, including phone calls. What do you guys call that? Incidental collection? Oh yeah, and if there's any question to it, Analysts get to listen to the call (and automatically store). Did you get that? Analysts can listen, based on their own beliefs about the contents of a call, calls WHOLLY within the United States. Feel free to gay-bash me or call me an ignorant non-gvt-worker, but NSA ANALYSTS CAN LISTEN TO CALLS WHOLLY WITHIN THE US. And it's legal. Did you get that? It's Legal, which, to you somehow validates it. Man, they must really love you at your work. You follow the line unquestioningly, eh?
Oh, hey, let's not forget the en masse, indiscriminate collecting of phone records either. We have yet to see the SECRET court ruling allowing this. Maybe you can give us a peek, Chaos? I'd love to hear why this is also legal and everyone knew about it, especially since multiple legislators (you know, those doing the oversight), have flatly said that the NSA cannot listen to an Amercian's phone call without a warrant.
Are you still trying to say that because it's "legal", it is justified. There are plenty of suits challenging the constitutionality of FISA, FAA, and PA, either in part or in whole.
You keep going on about how I don't know since I'm not a government worker like you. You think your little corner of the government gives you this immense insight into how all other administrations and bureaus work. I think that gives you more tunnel vision than anything. I've seen it all the time in all sorts of jobs, professions, and companies.
So what part exactly are you not understanding? Elected officials lying, Analysts listening in on wholly domestic calls, secret court orders enabling en masse communication collections of Americans, what? These are the points I've been making, with citations, and your retort is to call me a faggot. Too bad - I think a lot of your posts have merit when you're not resorting to being an asshole.
