The US Is Intercepting Everyone, Even Those Who Aren't Suspects

Just like the ECHELON system, or even a more developed one, this system is capable of intercepting and storing everything that is said on any remote communication system.

Everything is recorded, even — and this is the key difference — what may seem innocent today but could turn out to be not so innocent later. It had been talked about for a while among intelligence analysts. Now, with the investigations on the bombing during the Boston Marathon, a whole new window is opening onto Big Brother society. These investigations are almost showing that science fiction has turned into reality and that American security agencies are already recording and storing everything that is said on the phone or through a computer on U.S. soil.

One person to realize this fact and to raise the issue is one of the most accurate observers of security technologies, Glenn Greenwald, from the Guardian. While carefully reading the U.S. news and listening to an interview with Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, Greenwald realized that some elements didn’t add up. During their investigation on the Tsarnaev brothers, U.S. authorities have been using phone calls between Tamerlan — the brother who was killed during the search — and his American wife, Katherine Russell. The problem is that, at the time of the conversations, neither Tamerlan’s nor Katherine’s phone was being tapped. So, where were the calls coming from? Clemente, the former FBI agent, answered that question when he said to CNN: “We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation.” When faced with the stupor of the journalist, he added, “Welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.”

This is the dream of every investigator but also the worst nightmare for any privacy guarantor. This represents a giant cauldron from which, even after years, helpful sentences can be recovered. Analysts have been certain for a while that the Israeli government uses such a system with these services. However, Israel is a small country and has very particular security requirements. The fact that this would be possible in a country with 300 million inhabitants and the most intense traffic the world was inconceivable until now. Unless we imagine a parallel world of mathematicians and cyberanalysts miles and miles ahead of official knowledge.

As a matter of fact, the signs of a rapidly changing technological world had been gathered: from the news on the superstructure under construction by the National Security Agency in the middle of Utah, which will go into operation next September, to the development of the analysis programs necessary to filter the huge amount of data stored, thanks to Einstein 1 and Einstein 2 software. Most importantly, the new system is capable of relating to cloud computing — data storage in collection centers that have capacities calculated in petabytes and zettabytes. Now the intuition of Glenn Greenwald puts public opinion in front of the eternal dilemma once again: If technological progress allows you to listen to just about everything, what are the limits that the law should establish to an invasion of privacy? Barack Obama, who in 2010 interfered with Saudi Arabia’s efforts to ban Blackberry communications because they could hardly be intercepted, had radically changed his opinion even before the bombs in Boston, requiring all manufacturers of hardware and software systems to have back doors and access points that allow security agencies access to communications. The new terrorist attack now seems intended to give even less voice to the diehard defenders of privacy.

*Editor’s Note: This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.