ThePoliticalCat: FISA: Whistleblower Alleges Government Monitored All Telecommunication

Whistleblower Mark Klein who worked for AT&T went on Keith Olbermann's program, Countdown, to allege that the government improperly spied on all traffic passing over the internet, Raw Story reports.

Appearing on MSNBC's Countdown program, whistleblower Mark Klein told Keith Olbermann that a copy of all internet traffic passing over AT&T lines was copied into a locked room at the company's San Francisco office -- to which only employees with National Security Agency clearance had access -- via a cable splitting device.

"My job was to connect circuits into the splitter device which was hard-wired to the secret room," said Klein. "And effectively, the splitter copied the entire data stream of those internet cables into the secret room -- and we're talking about phone conversations, email web browsing, everything that goes across the internet."

Everything. Every email you sent or received, every Internet phone call you made or received, every Web site or blog you visited or read, every comment you ever left on anyone else's site, every comment anyone left on yours ...

It's staggering. Stupendous. How much money did they spend doing this? Who reviewed these records? Did they look at people's business discussions? Do they have records of trade secrets? Did they spy on lovers' conversations? What does the Constitution have to say about this?

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

We have, apparently, a right to be secure in our persons, et cetera, against "unreasonable searches and seizures ... ." A search as broad as "every communication over the Internet" must surely violate this provision of the Constitution.

Oh, wait, I forgot - King George thinks it's just "a goddamned piece of paper." Well, there go our constitutional rights. Raw Story has the video.