"Good evening viewers, our special guest tonight is, 'none of your business,' from the Ministry of Truth.

Minister NYB, would you care to clarify certain concepts that people may be having difficulty with.

"My pleasure, we all know that 'Peace is War,' 'Freedom is constant Surveillance, and democracy is indefinite detention without charge, trial or due process.'

Yes, but how do those policies separate the administration from organised crime?

Well, the short answer is they don't, but you have forgotten the 52nd statute, 'CRIME IS LAW'

O, of course, how silly of me!

Yesterday, in a disturbing report published on CNET, newdocuments obtainedby EPIC revealthat Obama administration officials have authorized a newgovernment program involving the interception of communications onInternet service providers, including AT&T—one of the keyplayers in the NSAwarrantless wiretapping program. 

Under long-standing federal law, the government needs to uselegal process to compel service providers to hand over customercommunications, yet reportedly, the government is promising thesecompanies they will not to prosecute them for violating USwiretapping laws if they hand over the information voluntarily.And the secret surveillance authorization seems quite broad,touching on huge swaths of private, domestic activity:

The secret legal authorization from the Justice Departmentoriginally applied to a cybersecurity pilot project in which themilitary monitored defense contractors' Internet links. Sincethen, however, the program has been expanded by President Obamato cover all critical infrastructure sectors including energy,healthcare, and finance starting June 12.

CNET reported also that the National Security Agency (NSA) andDepartment of Defense were “deeply involved in press for thesecret legal authorization” further underscoring widespreadworries that the military may be given access to Americans’personal information through cybersecurity operations.  Thereport comes as Congress is debating CISPA, a dangerousbill that carves a “cybersecurity” loophole in all our privacylaws.

While we are still sifting through the more than thousand pagesof documents—obtained by EPICPrivacy through the Freedom of Information Act and posted totheir website—the most controversial aspect of this programseems to be that the government has not used legal process toobtain Internet traffic from AT&T and other ISPs involved inthe program. Instead, the Justice Department has handed them whatthe Justice Department calls a “2511 letter”—named after a section ofthe Wiretap Act—which purports to immunize them fromprosecution.

Section 2511 makes it a crime to wiretap—intercept electroniccommunications—with some exceptions, like a properly issuedwarranted. It provides no exception for a letter from the JusticeDepartment. CNET reported an industry representative told them"the 2511 letters provided legal immunity to the providers byagreeing not to prosecute for criminal violations of the WiretapAct. It's not clear how many 2511 letters were issued by theJustice Department."

Beyond what CNET reported, we still need to analyze these newdocuments to determine how pervasive this surveillance is and itsimpact on the American public. We are currently reading them overand will have a more detailed analysis soon.