Can You Hear Me Now? Report Says NSA Seizing Phone Records From Verizon Customers

June 6, 2013

Last night, the Guardian reported that a U.S. FISA court instructed telecommunications giant Verizon to give the National Security Agency millions of records of its U.S. customers.

The copy of the court order, which was obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon to give the NSA records of customers’ calls from within the US and between the US and other countries.

As The Guardian states:

“The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.”

 

The report states that, though the contents of the calls are not being seized, “[T]he numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls.”

The order was issued on April 25th and expires on July 19th—it also specifically bars Verizon from confirming its existence.

In a month dominated by the Obama administration’s scandals, this will, no doubt, be added to the list.

Just a few weeks ago, the AP discovered a wide swath of phone records was secretly seized by the government in an attempt to uncover leaks. Then, it was uncovered FOX News reporter James Rosen was named as a “co-conspirator” by the DOJ after he ran a story based off a leak of classified information. Finally, just in the law few days, it was reported government officials used secret email addresses to conduct government business.

On top of all that, let’s not forget the IRS scandals and the controversy over Benghazi.

If you’re having trouble keeping them all straight, I don’t blame you. Keeping track of the “most transparent administration in history” can be quite confusing.