Sunday, December 16, 2007
A public-private partnership to establish a surveillance state.
The New York Times reports:
The N.S.A.’s reliance on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before, according to government and industry officials, yet that alliance is strained by legal worries and the fear of public exposure.
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, according to several government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program remains classified.
Carpetbagger writes, “Perhaps ‘Terrorist Surveillance Program‘ was a poor choice.” Atrios adds, “I guess we lost the cold war after all.”
UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald: “More than anything else, what these revelations highlight — yet again — is that the U.S. has become precisely the kind of surveillance state that we were always told was the hallmark of tyrannical societies, with literally no limits on the government’s ability or willingness to spy on its own citizens and to maintain vast dossiers on those activities.”# posted by David @ Sunday, December 16, 2007 
