FBI collecting phone records of millions
7 Jun 2013 12:16 AM GMT
The White House defended US government’s need to collect telephone records of American citizens, calling such information ‘a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats’, after a British newspaper reported US has been collecting telephone records of millions of Americans under a top secret court order.
While defending the practice, a senior Obama administration official did not confirm the report which appeared in Britain’s Guardian newspaper. The order was granted by the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court on 25 April 25 and is good until 19 July, the newspaper reported.
The order requires Verizon, one of America’s largest telecommunications companies, on an ‘ongoing, daily basis’ to give the national security agency information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within US and outside. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to publicly discuss classified matters. Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said on Wednesday the company had no comment to make. NSA too had no immediate comment. Verizon listed 121 million customers in its first-quarter earnings report this April, 98.9 million wireless customers, 11.7 million residential phone lines and about 10 million commercial lines. The court order didn’t specify which type of phone customers’ records were being tracked.
Under the terms of the order, the phone numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as are location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered, Guardian said.
The official said, ‘On its face, the order reprinted in the article does not allow the government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls.’ The broad, unlimited nature of records being handed over to NSA is unusual. FISA court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets. NSA's unwarranted wiretapping during the George W Bush administration after the 11 September, 2001, attacks was very controversial.
While defending the practice, a senior Obama administration official did not confirm the report which appeared in Britain’s Guardian newspaper. The order was granted by the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court on 25 April 25 and is good until 19 July, the newspaper reported.
The order requires Verizon, one of America’s largest telecommunications companies, on an ‘ongoing, daily basis’ to give the national security agency information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within US and outside. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to publicly discuss classified matters. Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said on Wednesday the company had no comment to make. NSA too had no immediate comment. Verizon listed 121 million customers in its first-quarter earnings report this April, 98.9 million wireless customers, 11.7 million residential phone lines and about 10 million commercial lines. The court order didn’t specify which type of phone customers’ records were being tracked.
Under the terms of the order, the phone numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as are location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered, Guardian said.
The official said, ‘On its face, the order reprinted in the article does not allow the government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls.’ The broad, unlimited nature of records being handed over to NSA is unusual. FISA court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets. NSA's unwarranted wiretapping during the George W Bush administration after the 11 September, 2001, attacks was very controversial.
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