Bill Clinton signed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in 1994, which basically created the hardware that would make possible centralized wiretapping of the public switched telephone network. Those of us at the time who said this was an abuse waiting to happen have been subsequently vindicated.

The NSA doesn't use CALEA equipment (to my knowledge; no one in a telco would have sufficient security clearance to administer these "warrants"; certainly not the mom and pop outfits). NSA has their own "technical means" (which, FWIW, might include that facility at the AT&T office in Ess Eff, but that's not CALEA equipment).

Cheers,

"As I said, I lived through it AND have read everything about it since."

How many languages can he speak and/or read?

Bet he can't do this one: "Ahhn yo hee kahh say yoh"

;-)

Cheers,

arne: WTF does Moussaoui's laptop have to do with FISA?!?!?

I'm surprised that you don't know this. FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It is designed to facilitate the collection of foreign intelligence. FISA warrants for search and surveillance are much easier to get than standard criminal warrants. Indeed, it authorizes warrantless surveillance of persons who are "agents of a foreign power". It also defines anyone engaged in international terrorism as an agent of a foreign power. A normal criminal warrant requires probable cause and a specific description of what is expected to be found by the search, but with the information available about Moussaoui's terrorist connections it would have been dead easy to get a FISA warrant to search the computer. The middle management yahoo who wouldn't apply for the warrant did so on the advice of the FBI's lawyers who clearly did not understand the FISA requirements and did not realize that the criteria for a FISA warrant had been met.

AND spying on the home front.

Now that we are seeing just how extensively the administration sought to convert the Department of Justice into a partisan political tool, I am even more concerned about the unknown surveillance programs.

It seems well within the pattern of behaviors and attitudes revealed so far in the DOJ scandal for them to have turned these "ears" on their domestic political opponents. In fact, at this point, I'd be surprised to discover they hadn't used these programs for their own partisan advantage.

What Does It Mean??

"I'm sure it's some variation of "Please go fuck your mother in the ass", but still, it would be nice to see even a limited translation!"

Sorry about that. Not to be rude, but there's nothing in there whatsoever about either mothers or asses, let alone f*cking any permutations thereof.

I expected that the Genocidal Shark-Jumping Torture-Loving Polyglot would have been happy to show off his linguistic chops and translate for the others. My bad. Apologies for having FTT.

[arne]: WTF does Moussaoui's laptop have to do with FISA?!?!?

I'm surprised that you don't know this. FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It is designed to facilitate the collection of foreign intelligence. FISA warrants for search and surveillance are much easier to get than standard criminal warrants. Indeed, it authorizes warrantless surveillance of persons who are "agents of a foreign power". It also defines anyone engaged in international terrorism as an agent of a foreign power. A normal criminal warrant requires probable cause and a specific description of what is expected to be found by the search, but with the information available about Moussaoui's terrorist connections it would have been dead easy to get a FISA warrant to search the computer. The middle management yahoo who wouldn't apply for the warrant did so on the advice of the FBI's lawyers who clearly did not understand the FISA requirements and did not realize that the criteria for a FISA warrant had been met.

Oh, OK. In Rowley's testimony I posted earlier, they were asking for a "criminal" warrant to search the laptop.

I got a bit confused on the scope of FISA; I was thinking of 50 USC Chapter 36, Subchapter 1 (§§ 1801-11), and was not aware of Subchapter 2 (§§ 1821-1829).

FWIW, 50 USC § 1822(a) provides for physical searches without even a court order.

Thanks for the correction.

Cheers,

Ironic that the Post-Production Director, Chris Fournelle, of this particular Frontline program is married to Connie Fournelle, one of the key persons involved in the multitude of TIA-spinoff data mining projects in the defense and intelligence agencies through her position at a defense contractor.