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Glenn Greenwald makes an excellent observation on the recent coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing:
Shocking? Certainly! But if you've been reading this space long enough, it shouldn't be surprising. Back in 2005, the New York Times reported that US intelligence services were wiretapping every IM, phone call, email and other communication to hit our pipes. Presumably that means the entire Internet at some point. And in fact, I think it's worse than reported. As I stated then, based on my education and experience in developing similar technologies for a company that's now part of Symantec, it's entirely feasible for the US government to subject every phone call and other sound-based communication on the planet to phoneme analysis and look for phoneme patterns that might indicate terrorist activity. The technology is clunky, but will improve over time. It will stop countless attacks and save countless lives. But I can guarantee you that once people really understand what this technology is doing, they'll try to rededicate it to other purposes, such as busting drug rings....or destroying the privacy screen that forms the basis for Roe v Wade and Connecticut v Griswold....
On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:
BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?
CLEMENTE: "No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It's not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.
BURNETT: "So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.
CLEMENTE: "No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not."
"All of that stuff" - meaning every telephone conversation Americans have with one another on US soil, with or without a search warrant - "is being captured as we speak".
Shocking? Certainly! But if you've been reading this space long enough, it shouldn't be surprising. Back in 2005, the New York Times reported that US intelligence services were wiretapping every IM, phone call, email and other communication to hit our pipes. Presumably that means the entire Internet at some point. And in fact, I think it's worse than reported. As I stated then, based on my education and experience in developing similar technologies for a company that's now part of Symantec, it's entirely feasible for the US government to subject every phone call and other sound-based communication on the planet to phoneme analysis and look for phoneme patterns that might indicate terrorist activity. The technology is clunky, but will improve over time. It will stop countless attacks and save countless lives. But I can guarantee you that once people really understand what this technology is doing, they'll try to rededicate it to other purposes, such as busting drug rings....or destroying the privacy screen that forms the basis for Roe v Wade and Connecticut v Griswold....
