The revelation that the federal government is in fact spying on all Americans is disturbing and poses a very important ethical issue. Attorneys must keep all communications between client confidential. Now there is evidence that communication is not secret, but is being monitored, full time, by the federal government. And no, there is no government exemption. Quite the contrary, if a criminal attorney knew that his phones were bugged by the feds, he would have an obligation to protect his clients to protect them.
Years ago, a handful of whistleblowers sounded like crackpots when they described hidden, secret rooms next to internet providers that were used to capture a duplicate of all internet data and information. These whistleblowers were of course destroyed. Well, now these whistleblowers are vindicated. But will they be compensated for their lives…destroyed because they revealed the truth?
From Huffington Post:
NEW YORK “” Former employees of the National Security Agency say the publishing of a court order asking Verizon to hand over all its phone calling records for a three-month period opens a new window on an operation that has been in place for years and involves all major U.S. phone companies.
“NSA has been doing all this stuff all along, and it’s been all these companies, not just one” William Binney told news program Democracy Now on Thursday. “They’re just continuing the collection of this data on all U.S. citizens.”
Binney, who worked at the NSA for almost 40 years, left the agency after the attacks of 9/11 because he objected to the expansion of its surveillance of U.S. citizens.
British newspaper The Guardian late Wednesday released an order from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, requesting Verizon to give the NSA the details on every phone call on its landline and wireless networks on a daily basis between April 25 and July 19.
Binney estimates that the NSA collects records on 3 billion calls per day.
