US Surveillance

The ACLU reports on the state of government surveillance in the US since 9/11. Prior to 9/11 the federal government conducted spying on a "targeted suspicion" model where "first came the suspect, then the surveillance". After 9/11 the spying program was reversed; the government "vacuumed up info about everyone...in the hopes of finding someone who had done something wrong". The National Security Agency (NSA) monitors "American's telephone calls, emails, web activity and financial records". It seems that there are three methods of gathering info with the use of "warrantless wiretapping". First, is the use of "fusion centers", which are state centers of info collection that is shared with federal law agencies which includes "info about local crimes and 'suspicious activity'". Second, are the use of National Security Letters which are used to gather info from Internet service providers, banks and credit card companies from consumer records. Third, the FISA Amendments Act which is the law that "essentially legalized the NSA's warrantless spying program".

(Source: "The mass surveillance of Americans" by Anthony D. Romero, executive director ACLU. Civil Liberties: The American Civil Liberties Union National Newsletter dated Summer 2009)