Re: FBI Wants to Wiretap One of Every 100 Phones in Urban Areas

Thanks for this item!  Two little excerpts jump out at me.  They follow:

> Last year, federal and state courts authorized 1,154 wiretaps, of which 48 
> percent

[snip]

> "People are starting to say that seems awfully high," Dempsey said, noting 
> that
> the overall level of such surveillance activity is now a total of 20,000 
> to 25,000
> intercepts nationwide over an entire year.

So what is it?  1,154 wiretaps?  Or 20,000?

FBI Director Louis Freeh testified under oath to 1,157.  The FBI was asked
for the data to support those numbers.  The FBI refused to release them 
until the year 2002.

The FBI is being sued under FOIA to support Freeh's sworn testimony.  (Of
course, he used different numbers at different times....)

One last thing.

What's so special about the year 2002?  

     
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On Fri, 3 Nov 1995 clarkm@cnct.kom wrote:

> Thanks for this item!  Two little excerpts jump out at me.

Gee, I hope they didn't spook you too badly when they jumped out at you 
like that. I can tell you're a little jumpy.

> > Last year, federal and state courts authorized 1,154 wiretaps, of which
> > 48 percent
> 
> [snip]
> 
> > "People are starting to say that seems awfully high," Dempsey said, noting 
> > that
> > the overall level of such surveillance activity is now a total of 20,000 
> > to 25,000
> > intercepts nationwide over an entire year.
> 
> So what is it?  1,154 wiretaps?  Or 20,000?

Easy: both. 1,154 wiretaps, and 20K to 25K intercepts, which includes both 
wiretaps and other interceptions, i.e., recording which phone numbers you 
call but not actually listening to the conversations.

Get out of Dodge.

> FBI Director Louis Freeh testified under oath to 1,157.  The FBI was asked
> for the data to support those numbers.  The FBI refused to release them 
> until the year 2002.
> 
> The FBI is being sued under FOIA to support Freeh's sworn testimony.  (Of
> course, he used different numbers at different times....)

By whom is the FBI being sued? What is the case number? Who are the 
lawyers? What are their Bar numbers? How many times have they been 
disciplined for bringing frivolous suits?

> One last thing.
> 
> What's so special about the year 2002?  

Obviously, it is two elections from now, when the UN will invade the US 
to impose the rule of the Anti-Christ.

Oops, I wasn't supposed to say that.

- -rich

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clarkm@cnct.com writes:
> > Last year, federal and state courts authorized 1,154 wiretaps, 
[...]
> > "People are starting to say that seems awfully high," Dempsey said, noting 
> > that the overall level of such surveillance activity is now a total of 
> > 20,000 to 25,000 intercepts nationwide over an entire year.
> 
> So what is it?  1,154 wiretaps?  Or 20,000?

For one thing, many conversations on a line may be intercepted over time
after the initial wiretap order is given. Also wiretapping is not the only 
form of electronic surveillance that tends to get reported in these numbers. 

The official federal wiretap reports for the last several years place the
number of wiretaps in the neighborhood of 1,000+ in each of those years. 

Actually the number 20,000 sounds strange -- it seems too high merely to be
a total of surveillance orders/operations, yet far too low to count all
interceptions. I recently heard the total number of conversations intercepted
per year in the U.S. estimated on the order of 2,000,000. Some rather small
percentage of those were categorized as "incriminating". I suppose it might
have been 1%, which would work out to 20,000 incriminating intercepted calls
per year nationwide.

-Futplex <futplex@pseudonym.com>

> FBI Director Louis Freeh testified under oath to 1,157.  The FBI was asked
> for the data to support those numbers.  The FBI refused to release them 
> until the year 2002.
> 
> What's so special about the year 2002?  

Maybe he plans to retire and leave the country by then.. to find a more 
secure, less invasive Gov't to live under.. ;)

RobL
Rockford, Wa