The White House is on the defense again after a report revealed that the National Security Agency has been collecting the phone records from Verizon customers after a top secret court order was issued in April.
The order was obtained by the British newspaper The Guardian, which also published the order in its entirety. According to the Guardian, the order shows how the Obama administration has been monitoring millions of Americans, even if they don’t have links to criminal activity.
Judge Roger Vinson of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court signed off on the order on April 25 and it gives the FBI the right to get the records over a three-month period that ends on July 19.
NBC News reports that the order requires “production of certain call detail records” to the FBI. Verizon, one of the largest cell phone service providers in the country, has to list the duration of calls and the numbers that made and received them. However, it does not cover the “name, address, or financial information of a subscriber or customer,” according to the order.
The Guardian notes that the order forces Verizon to hand over “all call detail records or 'telephony metadata' created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”
This news comes as the Justice Department has been under fire for requesting Associated Press reporters’ phone records and as drone use has come under scrutiny.
While the White House didn’t provide the Guardian with a statement before the paper published its report, the administration later acknowledged that it has requested the records. It called the practice “a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States,” reports Reuters.
In a statement to NBC, Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, slammed the order, calling for a Congressional investigation. She added, “The disclosure also highlights the growing gap between the public’s and the government’s understandings of the many sweeping surveillance authorities enacted by Congress.”
image: Wikimiedia Commons
