News
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In
at least 3 terrorism cases throughout
the U.S., defense lawyers have begun
appealing their clients’ convictions
on the grounds that evidence was
obtained by the NSA through illegal
means, or that legal evidence would
not have been obtained barring illegal
spying causing further investigation.
Though the outcomes of these
appeals have not yet been determined,
this form of defense could hamper the
government’s efforts to track down
and incarcerate suspected terrorists.
·
The
discovery of illegal tracking cookies
being distributed from the NSA website
has further damaged the credibility of
the already-doubted agency recently.
While the transmission of these
banned data trackers was ceased after
being brought to the attention of the
press in late December, it is unknown
exactly how much data was gathered by
this latest illegal operation.
For more information, please
see the related MSNBC article in the
Links section.
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The Issue At Hand
Recently,
the Bush administration has admitted
to authorizing, through executive
orders, NSA wiretapping and spying on
an unknown number of U.S. citizens in
order to defend against terrorism.
The legality of such spying has
been questioned as Executive Order
12333, the order which empowers the
NSA, states the NSA’s power as “foreign
signals collection.”
Complicating the situation
further, the questionably legal
information gained from this spying
has resulted in investigations and
even arrests of some individuals.
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