RYAN SINGEL, WIRED - Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic
foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top
secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.
You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months
later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and
orders you to forget you ever saw it.
By all accounts, that's what happened to Washington D.C. attorney
Wendell Belew in August 2004. And it happened at a time when no one
outside a small group of high-ranking officials and workaday spooks knew
the National Security Agency was listening in on Americans' phone calls
without warrants. Belew didn't know what to make of the episode. But
now, thanks to that government gaffe, he and a colleague have the
distinction of being the only Americans who can prove they were
specifically eavesdropped upon by the NSA's surveillance program.
The pair are seeking $1 million each in a closely watched lawsuit
against the government, which experts say represents the greatest
chance, among over 50 different lawsuits, of convincing a key judge to
declare the program illegal.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72811-0.html?tw=wn_index_1
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foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top
secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.
You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months
later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and
orders you to forget you ever saw it.
By all accounts, that's what happened to Washington D.C. attorney
Wendell Belew in August 2004. And it happened at a time when no one
outside a small group of high-ranking officials and workaday spooks knew
the National Security Agency was listening in on Americans' phone calls
without warrants. Belew didn't know what to make of the episode. But
now, thanks to that government gaffe, he and a colleague have the
distinction of being the only Americans who can prove they were
specifically eavesdropped upon by the NSA's surveillance program.
The pair are seeking $1 million each in a closely watched lawsuit
against the government, which experts say represents the greatest
chance, among over 50 different lawsuits, of convincing a key judge to
declare the program illegal.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72811-0.html?tw=wn_index_1
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