NSA's Warrantless Wiretaps -- INTRODUCTION
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NSA's Warrantless Wiretaps
WARRANTLESS WIRETAPS:
How NSA Does It
Jerry Nelson, Ph.D.
Feb06, revised 28Apr2011, 18Jun2012
INTRODUCTION Hello, everyone. At the end of 2005, the New
York Times revealed the government's warrantless wiretapping program.
The National Security Agency (NSA) is tapping
American's
phones without first getting a judge to pass judgment on the need to
invade a citizen's privacy. No judge was ever asked for a
wiretap warrant. A special court was available, called the FISA
court (Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act court). Laws passed by Congress
required the President to go to this court, but he did not.
The
President said that we were at war, he was the Commander in Chief,
and he didn't have to obey laws or do what the Legislative
Branch
legislated. He used fancier language, but that's the gist.
The
Executive Branch has refused to tell very many Congressman very much
about how the NSA system works. The
secrecy seemed pointless to me, since any good technologist could
figure it out. So I did. Not
even your elected representatives could find out what I
am about to tell you. Ever written to someone in Congress? It's not hard to write to Congress people -- there are links at the
bottom for finding out who represents you. A Congressperson
will
always answer a constituent. These other Congresspeople are
also
easy to find and very important: Democracies are not conquered. Democracies do not end when
outsiders force them into subjugation. Democracies end when
their
citizens vote for a strongman who promises to protect them. Here is how the National Security Agency is protecting you.
--jerry 1May06 |
1. HOW THE NSA WARRANTLESS WIRETAP
SYSTEM WORKS
An Educated Guess
Nothing in your piece is contrary to my technical knowledge of
encryption, telephony, voice recognition or data mining techniques.
I found it lucid, compelling and informative. Thanks for that.
--Edward Youngs,
Bell Labs, Bellcore/Telcordia, US West.
2. MINI-TUTORIAL:
THE NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURES for VOICE and for DATA COMMUNICATIONS
Jerry,
Great papers,
and required reading
for anyone who wants to start getting serious about this field.
--Tim (Prof. Timothy Wu)
Columbia Law
School
NSA campus, Ft. Meade, MD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank Kent Gladstone, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC),
for a critical reading of both manuscripts.
Many critical comments and corrections from Brad Howard
have made the Mini-Tutorial a better adventure for anyone who follows his path.
FURTHER
INFORMATION
For
information on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act itself, the court that administers it, and many related links, see
the
Federation of American Scientists:
http://fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/
Technical terms
defined
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeraFlops
To
look up any Representative in the House of Representatives ("The
House") or any Senator in the Senate:
http://www.house.gov/
http://senate.gov/
To find your particular Representative and two Senators:
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/dbq/officials/?lvl=C
top How NSA does it Mini-Tutorial on telecom networks and the Internet home
Feb06, revised 1May06; 9Jun06; 26Sept06; 28Oct08; 29Apr11 CongressionalCtteeMemberListLinks
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