27 Million FISA Phone ‘Sessions’ Tapped in 2006

The FBI’s software for recording telephone surveillance of suspected spies and terrorists intercepted 27,728,675 sessions [in 2006].Twenty-seven million is a staggering number given that the FBI only got 2,176 FISA court orders in 2006 from a secret spy court using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.According to the math that means each court order resulted in 12,742 “sessions,” all in regards to phone, not internet, surveillance.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has been around since the 1970’s. Its basic premise is that it allows US intelligence to spy on officers of foreign intelligence agencies in the US. Somehow the powers that be have found a way to expand it (through the Patriot Act) - drastically- to include citizens of the US and foreign countries under the guise of counter-terrorism.

Supporters of this new breed of FISA taps immediately cite the fact that a secret court order is required, “it’s not like they’re tapping everyone they want to.” Moreover, that the amount of people who have their phones tapped is very small, “it’s not like they’re tapping everyone.” Both points, according to this writer, are bullshit.

Firstly, the court order is obtained behind closed doors, with no public oversight, except for the people who made the law in the first place, congressmen. The public therefore is encouraged to accept that the process is just even though we have no way to empirically verify that it is so. What is the standard of proof for a warrant to be issued? That question cannot be answered.

Secondly, we the public are not even sure what a warrant constitutes. For example, if a warrant is issued to tap person (A) and person (A) speaks with person (B), does person (B) also get their phone tapped? Said figure of equally vague ’sessions’ suggests that this must be the case. “FISA watchers have long wondered whether FISA warrants covered more than one person.” In other words, how many degrees of separation does the FBI get with one warrant? That question cannot be answered.

Justifying something on a proportional scale is much akin to the notorious ’slippery slope’ argument. It’s an intellectually simple argument that can be made to support anything. Certainly, terrorism is a threat, but let’s not exchange our liberties for a sense of security. There is no proof, after all, that FISA does make us safer. Dwight Eisenhower had something to say about this conundrum though:

If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.

First off, Dwight Eisenhower is my hero.
Anyway..
Although I can understand the arguments presented by supporters of FISA, my answer comes as a simple quote (I think I read it in the editorial section of Newsweek):

“Just because I have nothing to hide is no reason I should be willing to give up a Constitutional Right afforded me by my forefathers.”

Only one of my grandparents was born in America. All three others lived in constant fear till the day they died that the government was watching them; their psyches paid the price. Those other three were raised in Third Reich Germany.

Although countless times in the past America has been forced because of war to seize and examine mail, this recent abuse of the Patriot Act and laws surrounding it seems to present a new danger. It is not that I fear my phone, mail or internet being tapped, or even that I don’t believe that it might at times help people or save lives. Rather, it is that I fear that it will set a precedent that will allow a greater abuse of our Constitutional Rights as well as sowing in Americans a “Big Brotheresque” image of our Government.
Don’t let a wiretapping scandal like Watergate explode into America like a cancerous tumor.

FYI: DHS wants to start using satellites now.

Satellite-Surveillance Plan Aims to Mollify Critics

WASHINGTON — After delaying a domestic satellite-surveillance program for more than two months, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff expects to finalize a new charter for it this week, a move that attempts to quell civil-liberties concerns and get the program back on track.

Did I do the math correctly?
27728675 / 2176
= 12742.957261029

12742.957261029 / 6
= 2123.8262101715
If so this could mean that each of the 2123 targets made 6 phone calls each ?