Tap Into America
Peter from Florida e-mails to remind us that this isn't your father's wiretapping we're talking about these days:
The "wiretap" of years past is used locally for specific telephone lines, but what is happening with al Qaeda is that the US and the UK are basically vacuuming up all communication (voice and data packages) that travel over the various international communication "lines" (fiber optic cables and transmissions to/from satellites) and the super computers of the NSA and GCHQ (the UK equivalent) sift through billions and billions of packages of data to find those coming from/going to certain people (al Qaeda in particular) of interest.
Also, it is IMPOSSIBLE for the NSA to NOT look at communication packages coming from Americans (or going to them) because they are mixed in with those of foreigners. When you talk on the telephone with someone in Rome your voice is sent in many data packages to the person in Rome over lines that are carrying data packages of thousands or millions of other people and computers at the very same time. You do not have a dedicated line to "tap".
If anyone with a technical background in this field has further information to share, we'd love to hear from you.
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