According to Countdown with Keith Olbermann the NSA is spying on everyone and has access to ALL communications!

The article also explains that journalists were a group that were targeted. we can only assume that every protest group in the country is as well.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whistleblower_Bushs_NSA_targeted_reporters...

Just another reason to encrypt everything you fucking do!

The ACLU has uncovered documents via the Freedom Of Information Act that detail how the FBI has been using their "Triggerfish" program to track and monitor cell phones without the aid of telephone companies or warrants.  

Triggerfish is a fake cell phone tower that intercepts phone calls, keeps MIN (phone number) ESN (electronic serial number) and location information, and then forwards the call to the actual cellphone tower.  I really hope one of these things turns up on ebay ;)

According to the ars technica and the ACLU:

"Triggerfish can be deployed 'without the user knowing about it, and without involving the cell phone provider.' That may be significant because the legal rulings requiring law enforcement to meet a high 'probable cause' standard before acquiring cell location records have, thus far, pertained to requests for information from providers, pursuant to statutes such as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and the Stored Communications Act."

And according to the FBI's Electronic Surveillance Manual (attached below):

Although section 2703(d) generally applies only to stored
communications, nothing in that section requires that the
provider possess the records at the time the order is executed.
Moreover, use of such an order does not improperly evade the
intent of the CALEA prohibition. Section 2703(d) court orders
provide greater privacy protection and accountability than
pen/trap orders by requiring (1) a greater factual showing by law
enforcement and (2) an independent review of the facts by a
court.  Indeed, the very language of the CALEA prohibition -
limiting its application to information acquired solely pursuant
to the authority for pen registers and trap and trace devices" -
indicates that Congress intended that the government be able to
obtain this information using some other legal process.
 

This indicates that the FBI intends to use this to subvert the normal proccess of obtaining a warrant that would be needed for a normal "trap and trace" phone tap.

You can read the ACLU's uncovered documents at: http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/gen/37748res20081112.html

You can download the FBI's electronic surveillance manual at: http://www.hackbloc.org/~flatline/elec-sur-manual.pdf

http://www.historyofphonephreaking.org/docs/yipl-fbi.pdf

Very silly and should be taken seriously

"Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire."
-Abbie Hoffman