US gov't records all phone calls, ex-FBI agent claims

The United States government may be playing Big Brother to the hilt - by recording your phone calls and getting access to them anytime it wants.

 

At least this was the claim of Tim Clemente, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation counterterrorism agent, in an interview on CNN.

 

"(W)elcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not," he said, according to a report on UK's The Guardian.

 

He indicated this could be the case of Katherine Russell, 24, the American widow of deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

 

Anonymous government officials had been quoted in earlier reports as saying they are zeroing in on phone calls between Russell and Tsarnaev before and after the attack.

 

"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," Clemente said.

 

He said every digital communications Americans have on US soil "is being captured as we speak," with or without a search warrant.

 

Digital communications may also mean emails, online chats and the like, and are supposedly automatically recorded and stored and accessible to the government after the fact.

 

Previous indications

 

The Guardian report cited some previous indications that would bolster Clemente's claim.

 

It noted former AT&T engineer Mark Klein had disclosed telecom firms had set up a special network to let the National Security Agency get full access to data about telephone calls and the content of email communications.

 

Klein said the NSA system virtually "vacuumed up" Internet and phone-call data from ordinary Americans "with the cooperation of AT&T."

 

Also, The Guardian noted The Washington Post in 2010 had said collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications —daily.

 

Abuse

 

The Guardian also cited periodic reports of serious abuse, noting Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall had warned Americans would be "stunned" to learn what the US government is doing in terms of secret surveillance.

 

Meanwhile, the Guardian said a new poll suggests Americans are increasingly growing concerned about erosions of civil liberties in the name of terrorism.

 

"Even those people who claim it does not matter instinctively understand the value of personal privacy: they put locks on their bedroom doors and vigilantly safeguard their email passwords," it said. — TJD, GMA News