Letters to the Editor
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Domestic phone call intercepts
I wish I had saved the sources, but within two months after 9/11, I read a number or articles in newspapers and on the internet which said:
- ALL electronic communications within the United States are scanned and recorded by the National Security Agency. All worldwide communications are as well, but the articles talked specifically about domestic telephone and internet communications.
- Everything is initially scanned by the NSA computer systems, which are programmed to look for certain "hot" words or phrases. (I'd give examples, but then the NSA would send Homeland Security around to investigate/"disappear" me.)
- Messages which "trip" the computer programs are then disgorged to real, live NSA workers who analyze the messages, then send them on if they warrant further action.
The articles read as if someone (or some agency) was trying to reassure the American people that every effort was being made to monitor domestic, as well as worldwide, communications in order to fight the "War on Terrorism."
So rest easy, everything you send or receive (including this message) is being intercepted and computer scanned. Don't worry at all about how easy it would be to program the computers to "trip" certain political views, or certain information that would provide blackmail fodder, or certain financial information to enable insider trading, or.....