http://www.itnews. <http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=55895&r=rss> com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=55895&r=rss US court allows warrantless web spying By Iain Thomson, 10 July 2007 14:52 AEST Security
Tinfoil hats for all. The US government has won a legal victory that could pave the way for the official monitoring of phone and email communications without the need for warrants. Three judges at a Cincinnati court reached a majority decision that the programme was within the limits of the constitution, and that inspecting people's email and phone conversations is allowable. The US government had argued that it needed the powers to monitor terrorist suspects. "We are deeply disappointed by today's decision that insulates the Bush Administration's warrantless surveillance activities from judicial review and deprives Americans of any ability to challenge the illegal surveillance of their telephone calls and emails," said the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). "It is important to emphasise that the court today did not uphold the legality of the government's warrantless surveillance activity. "Indeed, the only judge to discuss the merits clearly and unequivocally declared that the warrantless surveillance was unlawful. We are currently reviewing all our legal options, including taking this challenge to the US Supreme Court." ACLU and others brought the case, arguing that spying on citizens had been banned in 1978. The dissenting judge argued that this case was in breach of that ruling but the majority ruled that, as the plaintiffs had not personally been affected, the case must fail. The Senate Judiciary Committee is currently investigating the programme and has subpoenaed records from the White House relating to the case. Copyright C 2007 vnunet.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
