That is the summary statement from the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, regarding NSA and FISA Programs and U.S. Citizen's 4th Amendment rights ...
http://intelligence.house.gov
History and Jurisdiction
The United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) is a committee of the United States House of Representatives, currently chaired by U.S. Congressman Mike Rogers (Michigan). The HPSCI is charged with the oversight of the United States Intelligence Community, which includes the intelligence and intelligence related activities of 17 elements of the US Government, and the Military Intelligence Program.
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence --
NSA FISA Programs
Committee Links and Documents:
The 4th Amendment Expectation of Privacy
• The Supreme Court has long held that we do not have a 4th Amendment expectation of privacy in information we voluntarily publish to the public. They do not have a 4th Amendment expectation of privacy in records created by businesses based upon information voluntarily turned over to the business, including the numbers dialed to make or receive a telephone call.
• This isn’t the legal reasoning of the intelligence community. This is the law of the land as handed down by the Supreme Court. And it has been well-settled law for over 30 years.
• In Smith v. Maryland, the Supreme Court held that law enforcement's collection of telephone numbers called from a particular telephone line was not a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and thus no warrant was required.
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• And it’s the long-standing procedure used by law enforcement every day in criminal investigations. Telephone toll records do NOT require a warrant in criminal investigations because they are not protected by the 4th amendment.
• Despite this, Congress chose to require a court order for telephone call data records in intelligence investigations
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• And Section 215 orders can only be used to obtain the same type of data that can be acquired through a grand jury subpoena.
• And let’s be clear here, the metadata program at issue here does NOT involve any collection of the content of a person’s telephone calls. THAT, unlike telephone call data records generated by the phone companies, would require a warrant.
Oh, really? "Phone Content" is not collected, filtered, cataloged, analyzed, and watched?
Yeah but, what about ... those days when we had to watch what words -- what Key-words -- we spoke over the telephone? For fear of triggering some sort of "Homeland Alert" ...
We're sure are glad those days are over ... aren't we?
Our recent hair-on-fire history is filled with many twist and turns, some of which have decidedly ventured outside the bounds of 4th Amendment cautions, constraints, and protections ... despite (or because of) the best intentions of Congress.
Russell D. Tice (born 1961) is a former intelligence analyst for the U.S. Air Force, Office of Naval Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Security Agency (NSA). During his nearly 20 year career with various United States government agencies, he conducted intelligence missions related to the Kosovo War, Afghanistan, the USS Cole bombing in Yemen, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. In December, 2005, Tice helped spark a national controversy over claims that the NSA and the DIA were engaged in unlawful and unconstitutional wiretaps on American citizens. He later admitted that he was one of the sources that were used in The New York Times reporting on the wiretap activity in December 2005. [...]
Tice was terminated by the NSA in May 2005, just days after publicly urging Congress to pass stronger protections for federal intelligence agency whistleblowers facing retaliation. In September 2005, the inspector general issued an unclassified report that found "no evidence" to support Tice's claims.[citation needed]
In December 2005, Tice alleged the NSA and the DIA were engaged in unlawful and unconstitutional conduct against the American people, and helped spark a national controversy. Tice stated that the activities involved the Director of the NSA, the Deputies Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations, and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and were conducted via very highly sensitive intelligence programs and operations known as Special access programs (SAP), more commonly referred to as 'black world' programs, or 'black ops'. Tice was a technical intelligence specialist dealing with SAP programs and operations at both NSA and DIA.[citation needed]
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In a press release issued by the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition on December 22, 2005,[3] Tice explained the public aspect of his charges, stating that,
"As a Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) officer it is continually drilled into us that the very first law chiseled in the SIGINT equivalent of the Ten Commandments (USSID-18) is that Thou shall not spy on American persons without a court order from FISA. This law is continually drilled into each NSA intelligence officer throughout his or her career. The very people that lead the National Security Agency have violated this holy edict of SIGINT."
On December 23, 2005, the Austin American-Statesman, reported Tice's allegations that spying on Americans may involve a massive computer system known as ECHELON, which is able to search and filter hundreds of thousands of phone calls and e-mails in a matter of seconds.
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ECHELON -- wikipedia.org
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The system has been reported in a number of public sources.[6] Its capabilities and political implications were investigated by a committee of the European Parliament during 2000 and 2001 with a report published in 2001,[5] and by author James Bamford in his books on the National Security Agency of the United States.[4] The European Parliament stated in its report that the term ECHELON is used in a number of contexts, but that the evidence presented indicates that it was the name for a signals intelligence collection system. The report concludes that, on the basis of information presented, ECHELON was capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks (which once carried most Internet traffic) and microwave links.[5]
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And about that footnote [
5]:
Schmid, Gerhard (2001-07-11). "On the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system), (2001/2098(INI))" (pdf - 194 pages). European Parliament: Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System. Retrieved 2013-01-05.
The EP report, can be found buried in another dust-bin of history; No doubt a report that few bothered to read, in our haste to put out all those hairy-fires ...
everywhere.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Session 1999 - 2004
FINAL A5-0264/2001
PAR1 11 -- July 2001
REPORT
on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial
communications (ECHELON interception system) (2001/2098(INI))
Rapporteur: Gerhard Schmid
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3.3.2. Scope for the automatic analysis of intercepted communications:
the use of filters ...................... 35
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3.3.2. Scope for the automatic analysis of intercepted communications: the use of filters
When foreign communications are intercepted, no single telephone connection is monitored on a targeted basis. Instead, some or all of the communications transmitted via the satellite or cable in question are tapped and filtered by computers employing keywords -- analysis of every single communication would be completely impossible.
It is easy to filter communications transmitted along a given connection. Specific faxes and e-mails can also be singled out through the use of keywords. If the system has been trained to recognise a particular voice, communications involving that voice can be singled out[21]. However, according to the information available to the rapporteur the automatic recognition to a sufficient degree of accuracy of words spoken by any voice is not yet possible. Moreover, the scope for filtering out is restricted by other factors: the ultimate capacity of the computers, the language problem and, above all, the limited number of analysts who can read and assess filtered messages.
When assessing the capabilities of filter systems, consideration must also be given to the fact that in the case of an interception system working on the basis of the 'vacuum-cleaner principle' those technical capabilities are spread across a range of topics. Some of the keywords relate to military security, some to drug trafficking and other forms of international crime, some to the trade in dual-use goods and some to compliance with embargoes. Some of the keywords also relate to economic activities.
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5.6. Information from authors and journalists specialised in this field
5.6.1. Nicky Hagers book
The ECHELON system was first described in detail in the book "Secret Powers -- New Zealands role in the international spy network," published in 1996 by the New Zealand author Nicky Hager.
He draws on interviews with more than 50 persons who were employed by the New Zealand intelligence service, GCSB, or otherwise involved in intelligence activities. He also analysed a wide range of documents from national archives, newspapers and other published sources. According to Hager, the global interception system is referred to as ECHELON, and the network computers as ECHELON Dictionaries.
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Hager says that interception of satellite communications is the core activity of the current system. The interception by ground stations of messages sent via Intel satellites -- the first global satellite communication system[94] -- began in the 1970s. Such messages are then searched by computer for specific keywords and/or addresses in order to filter out the relevant communications. Surveillance activity was later extended to other satellites, such as those of Inmarsat[95], which concentrated on maritime communications.
In his book, Hager points out that the interception of satellite communications represents only a small, albeit important, part of the eavesdropping system, for there are also numerous facilities for monitoring microwave and cable links, although these are less well documented and their existence is more difficult to prove, since, unlike ground stations, they are rather inconspicuous. ECHELON is thus synonymous with a global eavesdropping system.
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(Got to wonder how far Voice-Recognition software has progressed in a decade? Hmmm?)
Hey, I remember those Bush-Strikes-Back ECHELON days. Back when I had to watch my words, when talking to my friends and family on the phone. Couldn't even use the words referencing the current events of the day, because THAT might trigger some 'Keyword Filter', and get us re-routed to some bored 'Black Ops' analyst.
The uneasy joke at the time was, 'You never know WHO might be listening in ... and if you are listening now by the way, 'I haven't done anything wrong.' ... we're just talking about 'current events', OK?"
My, how quickly we forget. Good thing those days are gone, eh?
And good thing, these guys haven't forgotten. These 'good guys' have been dutifully collecting, filtering, cataloging, analyzing, and watching -- those otherwise still yet "undisclosed" DNI/NSA capabilities, to {cough} "protect our freedoms":
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) -- NSA Spying News Articles
It's really all their fault, by the way -- For being so damn FOI pro-Constitution. How do they expect the NSA to do their warrant-less jobs, anyways?
With all that Citizen-based Sunlight in their squinty faces ... ???