Kerby Anderson

Andrew McCarthy begins his commentary with these words: “During the Obama years, the National Security Agency intentionally and routinely intercepted and reviewed communications of American citizens in violation of the Constitution and of court-ordered guidelines implemented pursuant to federal law.” This claim is backed up with a FISA-court opinion and investigative research that have been done over the last few months.

There are two problems. The first is the incidental collection of data from Americans that occurs when intelligence agencies target one suspect and pick up information from an American citizen. But that is a small problem compared to what is called “upstream collection” of information.

Andrew McCarthy explains that, “it is not possible to capture a single e-mail related to a single target” so the NSA “must capture packets of e-mail data—which includes lots of e-mails beside the targeted e-mail.” That means your communications “are being seized and subjected to inspection” without any warrant or probably cause.

Now you might think that isn’t a problem since you aren’t calling or writing to anyone who would be a potential terrorist or criminal suspect. But that doesn’t mean that your communications won’t be accessed and analyzed. Not only do the intelligence agencies look for communication to and from a target, but they also look for communication about a target. Again, this is done with a warrant or probable cause.

I can remember telling my radio listeners during the years when President Bush was in office not to be concerned about intelligence agencies listening to your phone calls or reading your e-mails. I assured them that they were looking for terrorists and criminals and would not be monitoring your communications. Well, it appears that at least during the Obama administration, that illegal surveillance has been taking place. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.