If NSA Spying Not A 'Dragnet,' What Were They Doing?

#1 (**permalink**) 09-23-2008, 04:34 AM

This was not a driftnet. This was not dragnet.

The government doesn't and didn't have a massive computer listening
into phone calls and emails inside the United States listening for
keywords. That technology you've seen in movies like the Bourne
Identity -- we don't use that.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...-spying-n.html

#2 (**permalink**) 09-24-2008, 06:11 AM

On Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:38:49 +0200, Anonymous Remailer wrote:

> This was not a driftnet. This was not dragnet.
>
> The government doesn't and didn't have a massive computer listening
> into phone calls and emails inside the United States listening for
> keywords. That technology you've seen in movies like the Bourne
> Identity -- we don't use that.
>
> http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...-spying-n.html

What was the government doing -- if not a keyword dragnet -- that led
the top ranks of the Justice Department, including then Attorney General
John Ashcroft, and the head of the FBI Robert Mueller to threaten to
resign en masse?

One suspects it has something to do with purely domestic communications,
which don't come close to falling into the grey zones of the complicated
rules about when the government does and does not need a court order to
wiretap.

Anyone have any hypotheses. or better yet, documents?

--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJVydzNJrno