The FBI is Being Ridiculous, or Privacy Shmivacy

Today's Washington Post reveals that Verizon provided data to the federal government without a warrant at least 720 times between January 2005 and September 2007. The FBI's administrative subpoenas requested not only "information identifying...a person making a call, but [also] the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called." Luckily, Verizon does not keep that kind of information.

Warrantless surveillance has as much to do with 9/11 as Saddam Hussein did.

Joseph P. Nacchio, former CEO of Qwest, the telecommunications company that refused to participate in the NSA's warrantless surveillance program, said that the NSA first approached him six months before 9/11, according to a recent WaPo article. Not only does this discredit the Bush administration's claim that 9/11 was "the main impetus for" implementing the surveillance program, but also the fact that the warrantless surveillance prevents terrorist attacks. If other telecom companies were contacted when Qwest was, then the program failed to prevent 9/11.