from Nov-09-07: http://www.democraticunderground.com...
I was told years ago that ALL fiber optic communication traffic was routed overseas so that "everything" was moved outside the protections of the law and Constitution and ANYTHING could be monitored. I thought the idea quite fantastic even though it came from a very reliable source that would know exactly such things. Then, the story of the fiber optic splitters hit my radar. I now see now how easily exactly that, routing ALL COMMUNICATIONS overseas, was accomplished.
Is that Bush's and the Telecom's HUGE crime hidden and covered-up behind this story?
If the telecoms get immunity, will it aid in covering up Bush's crime.
ABSOLUTELY! That is why it is so important to the Rs! Support = obstruction of justice.
Have we arrived at the point in the history of the Bushco junta where
laws passed and people nominated are part of crimes of obstructing justice?
AT&T Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity Is A Cover-Up
Spencer Ackerman - Nov 7, 2007 - http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/...
Earlier today we flagged that Mark Klein, who uncovered a secret surveillance room run by the NSA while employed as a San Francisco-based technician for AT&T, is in Washington to lobby against granting retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies. In an interview this afternoon, Klein explained why he traveled all the way from San Francisco to lobby Senators about the issue: if the immunity provision passes, Americans may never know how extensive the surveillance program was -- or how deeply their privacy may have been invaded.
"The president has not presented this truthfully," said Klein, a 62-year old retiree. "He said it was about a few people making calls to the Mideast. But I know this physical equipment. It copies everything. There's no selection of anything, at all -- the splitter copies entire data streams from the internet, phone conversations, e-mail, web-browsing. Everything."
Interview: AT&T Whistleblower Mark Klein on Bush's Illegal Surveillance and Retroactive Immunity
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There is more than one Internet. USG has its own stand-alone system, and that traffic is already secret.
The USG intelligence budget is massive, like $166 annually per person, so no problem there.
... we do not know precisely what happens to the duplicate optical transmission, but there is no effect on the original system or transmission. It continues on its normal route, but has been duplicated on a USG system, probably the military internet, and is transmitted somewhere. By overseas or offshore, the meaning is anywhere "outside US legal jurisdiction, somewhere where those reading John Kerry's 2004 e-mail and listening to his phone calls are not violating US law by doing so because US law does not apply there. That can be the Bahamas, Asia, or many other places.
There is more than adequate infrastructure to do this, no question there.
This thread is making a distinct point ... that ALL domestic communications are copied at the splitter and---the point here---routed outside US jurisdiction SO THAT US law no longer applies to those storing and examining everything, ALL COMMUNICATIONS. They can even say with a straight face that they obey the law WHILE they read our e-mail or listen to phone calls.
There is confusion, or better said, lack of information. Noone has shown where the communications are routed after the splitters make a duplicate transmission of ALL TRAFFIC on the optical networks. My informant told me this is what happens, and with far more detail than I am revealing.
... If 2 people in the USA, say Kerry and Edwards in 2004, are phoning each other, routing there traffic overseas does not make that an international call. However, if a copy of the call is routed overseas to a location outside of US jurisdiction, it would not be a violation of US law to listen to it.
That's the point of splitting ALL communications and sending the copy outside the USA. To circumvent the law and the Constitution.
... I can understand DC keeping mute on this, state secrets and all, but the question is like a massive FISA black hole noone seems to acknowledge. Where does all that stuff go, where is it now, who has access to it, etc., etc.?
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Klein, appearing on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann show
Senator Dodd speaks on the Senate Floor