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Obama Aims to Wiretap Skype, Facebook, Blackberry, the Entire Internet

[September 27, 2010]

Obama Aims to Wiretap Skype, Facebook, Blackberry, the Entire Internet

Originally posted on VoIP & Gadgets Blog, here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/internet/obama-aims-to-wiretap-skype-facebook-blackberry-the-entire-internet.asp.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a high-level meeting on Sudan during the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN on September 24, 2010 in New York. UPI/Monika Graff Photo via Newscom

Things just went from bad to downright scary under the Obama Administration. According to the StarTribune.com:

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications -- including encrypted e-mail transmitters such as BlackBerry, social networking websites such as Facebook and software that allows direct "peer-to-peer" messaging such as Skype -- to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.

The legislation, which the Obama administration plans to submit to Congress next year, raises fresh questions about how to balance security needs with protecting privacy and fostering technological innovation. And because security services around the world face the same problem, it could set an example that is copied globally.

Isn't that just grand? President Obama campaigned on closing Gitmo, giving terrorists Constitutional rights (including Miranda), and here he is stripping away U.S. citizens' Constitutional rights. When he was campaigning for President, he vowed to stop so-called "warrantless" wiretaps. Instead, he fully embraced wireless wiretapping. In fact, the Obama legal team argued in a federal lawsuit, that judges lack the authority to enforce their own rulings in classified matters of national security.

Though today's news points to "warrant-based" wiretaps and not warrantless, you have to consider how difficult it is to obtain a warrant. The answer is, when it comes to the NSA, CIA, and FBI, the bar is set pretty low. At least in my conspiratorial opinion. I don't trust the gvernment. Granted, I'm not doing anything wrong, and in theory, allowing "Big Brother" to watch over the Internets might catch some criminals and terrorists. But is that the America I want to live in? No thanks. That is not the kind of "change" I can believe in.

Tags: big brother, congress, obama, president, skype, wiretaps Related tags: constitutional rights, obama administration, obama, security