Caller on Stephanie Miller show had a good point about FISA and warrantless wiretapping

[zbdent]

When you make a phone call for tech support ... you are likely talking with someone in a foreign country (despite the handbook where they have all the notes to chit-chat with you about local sports teams, etc.)

So ...

You ask AOL.com to help you with your password issues, you're on the list ...

You ask for help with your new TV ... you're on the list ...

You get the idea ...

[Ian David]

1. THAT WAS ME! (Ian from Brockton, Mass.)

I also said they can listen-in on all those calls to Sexy Russian Phone Sex operators.

[fascisthunter]

2. lol

[gasperc]

3. kinda neat, the DU small world

DU sees all, knows all. now if we can only figure out how to get out of Iraq, clean up the mortgage clusterfuck and save the planet from climate diaster. Man, we have work to do. Cheney was a one man wrecking crew.

[Ian David]

4. If you have a home dialysis machine, and you call the same tech support guy Bin Laden uses... n/t

[caledesi]

5. Good call! NT

[Ian David]

6. Thanks! n/t

[JDPriestly]

7. You call your daughter in France, you're on the list.

You call an old friend in Italy, you're on the list.

An attorney who is representing a foreign company in a trade dispute with the U.S. is on the list -- which means that the attorney client privilege of a party opposing the U.S. government is breached.

The same is true if a U.S. attorney is representing a person in a foreign country who is suing in the U.S. on a contract matter or any other matter including criminal charges.

Then there are the reporters whose communications with sources all over the world are, of course, known to the government. Talk about chilling free speech and a free press. If you were in a foreign country, would you be willing to speak critically of the U.S. government to a reporter located in the U.S.? I doubt it.

And what about the United Nations? Does the FISA Amendment permit the U.S. government to capture information about the communication of delegates and support staff for delegates to the U.N. if they are in the U.S.?

A patent attorney communicates with a client in Singapore or Taiwan about the details of a new invention -- on the list.

I am uncertain about the extent to which the Justice Department can listen in on the phone calls and read the e-mails of these individuals without really getting a formal warrant identifying the persons to be seized or the items to be searched, but this is not a good situation.

I remember seeing a YouTube video in which the speaker stated that the FISA eavesdropping can be foiled by savvy people who know how to set up their own secret forms of communication. If you are an expert on electronic communications, please explain whether that it is true that sophisticated individuals could circumvent the eavesdropping.