Wiretapping at its Worst

By Brian Beutler of Media Consortium, posted on Alternet.org:

In an Oct. 12 letter to Democratic lawmakers, Randal S. Milch, senior vice president and general counsel to Verizon, admitted that, in tens of thousands of instances over the last two years, his company has provided government officials with subscriber information without court orders. According to the letter, that information has included subscriber names and addresses, local and long-distance telephone connection records, and methods and sources of payment.

[...]

He argued [in 1995] that, [...] "It is impractical to identify a particular phone. This is perfectly in line with constitutional protections. After all, the right to privacy guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment is an individual's right to privacy; it is not an inanimate object's right to privacy. Roving wiretaps targeted at particular suspects rather than specific phones should not cause alarm."

Barr's testimony was cited in the House Report on the Comprehensive Antiterrorism Act of 1995 as justification for an expansion of federal wiretapping authority.

clickhereforallofit

Randal S. Milch is a scumbag. He claimed in 1995 it was okay to wiretap a phone because the Fourth Amendment doesn't guarantee a phone's right to privacy, what kind of lunacy is that? The kind that Congress eats up 24/7, even today.