E-mail surveillance renews concerns in Congress

National Security Agency's intercepts of Americans' phone calls and e-mail messages are broader than previously acknowledged, officials say.
(From The New York Times)

The story "E-mail surveillance renews concerns in Congress" published June 17, 2009 at 7:12 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[umbrae]

This is why every American should run their own mail server and encrypt all emails.

[Get_Bent]

"The NSA is believed to have gone beyond legal boundaries designed to protect Americans in about 8 to 10 separate court orders issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to three intelligence officials who spoke anonymously because disclosing such information is illegal."

So, it's illegal to speak about the NSA's illegal activities? That is a convenient piece of legislation (for the NSA...).

[RompStar_420]

Natzis!!!

[unknown unknown]

We've known for a long time that ineffective, or in this case virtually non-existent, oversight breeds abuse. Every single person responsible for carrying or enabling them to carry out this illegal surveillance should be removed from their positions, prosecuted, and jailed for a very long time. Terrorism should not be an acceptable excuse for flagrant violation of people's constitutional rights.

[catbutt5]

Wow.

I personally am less concerned with the possibility that someone may have read the business docs I sent to a salesperson or the joke e-mail I received from my sister or even someone reading the trickle of spam I get.
What truly sickens my stomach is how easy it is to get supposedly secret information out of our National Security Agency. What did the Times have to offer them? Lunch?
Certainly everybody has that limit where they feel they cannot allow things to continue, but reading a freakin' e-mail? You applied to the NSA of all places and THIS was your breaking point?!? James Bond would be ashamed.
I mean, if I'm walking down the street and I see someone getting mugged... I'll probably try to do something to help because I can't stand to see someone else being hurt. If on the other hand, I'm walking down the street and I see someone opening somebody else's mail, I'd probably keep walking.
Call it picking and choosing your battles if you will.
I can think of a dozen ways to exchange messages with complete security that do not use e-mail at all.
I won't list them because I'm not attempting to thwart national security like it's some sort of clever expose like the NY Times.
Note to the NSA: you have a bunch of f*****g losers working for you. Maybe you should send out that oath of secrecy to all employees again.