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Carolyn Jewel outside her home in Petaluma. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat)
By SAM SCOTT
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
As a novelist, Carolyn Jewel never knows where her research will take her.
She’s studied the power of rail guns, war in Europe, and the history of Syria. And all along she corresponds with readers throughout the world, including from Islamic countries like Indonesia.
And she doesn’t want to worry how all that might look to an official peering over her shoulder, which is why the Petaluma author is taking on the government’s largest espionage service.
The single mother is lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the National Security Agency, claiming it scooped up copies of her calls and internet records and those of millions of others in violation of their Constitutional rights.
“We are supposed to be able to live our lives without worry that the government is looking in,” she said. “If they are, that’s wrong.”
The case, which was filed in September 2008, got new life two weeks ago when a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s dismissal.
The agency referred questions to the U.S. Department of Justice, which did in turn did not respond.
The NSA is the lesser-known, but larger, cousin of the country’s most prominent spy outfit — the Central Intelligence Agency. For decades, even its existence was secret.
But its power is vast. According to a story in the New Yorker magazine last year, the NSA has the capacity to intercept and download electronic communications equivalent in size to the contents of the Library of Congress every six hours.
Since 9/11, more of its focus has turned to domestic communications. In 2005, the New York Times revealed the agency was eavesdropping within the country without court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying.
President Bush acknowledged authorizing targeting communications where one party was believed to be a member of a terrorist organization.
Had it been in place prior to 9/11, some of the attackers would have been detected, he said.
“In this era of new dangers, we must be able to connect the dots before the terrorists strike,” Bush said in January 2006. “And this NSA program is doing just that.”
But others saw a indiscriminate dragnet that touched virtually everyone. Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, went public with his concerns about a secret room he said was installed by the NSA on the sixth floor of AT&T’s Folsom Street offices in San Francisco.
Klein had worked on circuits carrying the site’s Internet traffic, installing splitters that he said made copies of the rush of data for storage in the room.
He believed similar facilities were built at Internet hubs elsewhere, giving the government the ability to analyze each message passing through, he said.
“That’s a gross violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Klein said in an interview last week. “You learn in high school civics. They are not allowed to spy on you or seize your property without a warrant.”
AT&T declined comment.
Klein’s information helped the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based non-profit focused on digital rights, craft a pair of lawsuits, one against AT&T and the other against the government.
The foundation put out a call for plaintiffs who would have standing in the cases — Bay Area AT&T customers whose Internet traffic almost certainly fed through Folsom Street.
Jewel learned of their search from an email list and volunteered out of dismay at feeling subject to surveillance without cause.
Despite the modern sheen on the issue, Cindy Cohn, EFF’s legal director, sees it as no different than the colonists’ fight against general warrants granting British soldiers limitless law enforcement power.
“It’s a foundation of this country,” she said. “It appears our federal government has decided in the digital age they don’t have to abide by the rules and that’s important.”
Jewel and her supporters at EFF face long odds in the court. On the same day the case against the NSA was reinstated, the same judges upheld a ruling granting AT&T and other telecoms immunity for cooperating with the government.
EFF has yet to decide whether to appeal that decision. Cohn said she hopes to be back in court by February or March for the case against the NSA.
Jewel was delighted by the appellate court’s decision. It came just as she was putting the finishing touches on her latest book, an historical romance called “Not Proper Enough.”
It’s set in Regency England, an unsettled time of war when the full protections of citizenship extended only to some, she said.
“There were a lot of very similar issues,” she said.
You can reach Staff Writer Sam Scott at 521-5431 or at sam.scott@pressdemocrat.com.
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@Kirstin I totally agree with you, some other examples. Google SB510 and NDAA!!! Also here’s a link to another vehicle found last Nov. with 2 Fed. GPS tracking devices.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/gps-tracker-times-two/all/1
Another leftist trying to bring the security of the country down. Which of her calls were monitored? Which of her calls discussed bomb making or flying airplanes into buildings?
I would bet none. Why is she so afraid of being listen in on? There are safety nets in the NAS, warrants have to be obtained from real judges, etc. The real facts were not brought out in this article or the source of all of this, the New York Times article.
Who is opening her mail? Has she got any proof other than a New York Times article that miscontruded what the NAS is doing? I think not.
Articles like this one and the one in the NY Times do nothing except cause people to believe the evil government is destroying their privacy.
If they really want to be concerned, worry about your cell phone and computer tracking, Google, Facebook and all of the other software programs that are tracking where you are, what you buy, what you like, what you look up and where you spend your time and money.
Every time you vote for more taxes & more power for the Government to monitor & control our lives try to remember this…
YOUR GUY will only be in charge of that power for awhile.
In case you haven’t been around long enough to notice, our Government changes hands every several years or so.
They run it for awhile, then we run for awhile, etc…
So before you vote to give them more of our money, more of our liberty, just think of the worse scum political leader you know of and imagine THAT person handling the reigns of that power.
Are you REALLY going to be “OK” with Dick Cheney deciding if you get that Medical Procedure or NOT?
Did you really think that someone of that ilk will never be running Government Health Care when you cheered the passage of Obamacare?
THINK AGAIN!
Wiretapping is no different, except it only affects a very few people… for now.
Skippy, I’m no leftist and yet I think we can defend our country from terrorists and still manage to protect the constitutional rights to which we are entitled. The federal government has gone too far in many respects in the name of phantom “security.” The fact is that total security is a myth. There certaintly are many legitimate actions the government can and should take to prevent terrorism, but we Americans can’t wall ourselves up in a police state for the sake of fears. Let’s control the borders, for sure. Let’s continue intelligence gathering overseas. Let’s keep an eye on those who fit potential risk profiles, but let’s not treat every person in the U.S. as though they were suspects, not in telephony, not in airports, not on the Internet.
By the way, did you miss these recent (and some not so recent), unconstitutional developments?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Government-Versus-the-Peop-by-michael-payne-120107-459.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/26/AR2010112604290.html
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/287435/anti-obamacare-brief-explained-mario-loyola
http://www.krusch.com/real/unconstitutional.html
I intend to live in a nation that respects, not tramples on, my natural freedoms. You?
I’m all for protecting our rights. I’m likewise pretty sure that our entire anti-terrorism apparatus is a complete waste. But even if this lady wins and a court issues some kind of order… does anyone believe that’s the end of the story? Will the Echelon computer be turned off? All those spooks go home? All that equipment scrapped? The files deleted? Papers shredded?
What does this person win or accomplish? In London they have cameras everywhere. They have employed thousands of cops to monitor and evaluate them. They have computers scanning every license plane and mailing out tickets to people for any violation the cameras detect. It’s as close to a total automated police state as is currently possible given our technology.
It hasn’t reduced crime a bit. It does provide some good evidence for criminal prosecutions. However, they don’t have the court or jail capacity to follow up even if they wanted to. The 777 bombers were caught on camera from their homes to the explosions. The images and the transcripts of their mobile phone calls didn’t change a thing.
Evil men flee even when no one pursues. This lady is probably just making a point. As pointless as the effort and success might be. We can all come out from hiding behind the potato chip aisle. Our chance to be a hero has long since passed.
I’m sure there were more than 2 responses to this, I responded. Today’s WSC censor doesn’t want negative responses to this lady & her ridiculous lawsuit.
Time to call Halifax media and complain about the censorship on this page by the “tolerant” liberals.
So Ms. Jewel is going to court to insist that the US Constitution actually is a suicide pact.
Apparently the biggest fans of Big Govt re: healthcare, welfare, redistribution of wealth, etc. are outraged that we might want to know what folks with ill-intent are plotting.
OK, we’ll do it your way.
No surveillance; no call-checks; no visas; no borders; nothing to infringe upon your sacred right to privacy.
From now on you will all have to defend yourselves from danger in all its forms.
You purists will have to avail yourselves of Amendment #2, or live s defenseless life.
Sarcasm aside, no-one has been harmed by any Patriot Act or wireless wiretapping, except actual bad guys.
Leftist whining and their crocodile tears for our “lost” rights ring hollow when the only place you cannot protest is in front of an abortion mill.
Domestic Surveillance is here now. Thank you Ms. Jewel for taking them on. In October new satellites were sent up to gather data on virtually everything. Check out STAR Community Index. Check out miniature flying surveillance devices that can go in and out of windows. Check out drones. The government’s rule of thumb on spying is the “no trespass” guideline which says that if you don’t physically trespass onto private property then everything else is permitted.
Unfortunately, the resolution from space is now phenomenal, they can see everything having a dimension of 3 feet in size with excellent resolution. People are more than 3 feet in size. Also with heat sensitivity, they can literally see movements inside a home and will know if anyone is home and how many people are in the house.
All of this is unconstitutional. they are not allowed to spy on US citizens period. But they are doing it and in a big way.
Total surveillance is being used to create an inventory of everything on earth. Air, land, water, people, animals, plants, energy resources, buildings, etc. etc. George Orwell’s prophesies are now coming to pass, he just didn’t get the date right. Total information equals Big Brother.
We are entering a dangerous time where the technology is so sophisticated that they can surveil us with or without our knowledge or consent.
Yes or no… was Carolyn Jewel ever talking to terrorists?
So, for no reason whatsoever she got wiretapped? The NSA got suspicious because of her Johnny Unitas haircut?
No one is interested in the content of your phone calls. I’m never excluded from banal pone calls. I wish they’d wiretap those people in the movie theater texting continuously.
I can’t even go to a urinal in peace. They guy in the stall right next to me says “How ya doin?” and I absent-mindedly reply “fine” before I even realize he’s got one of those bluetooth earpieces and he’s talking on the phone while going to the bathroom.
I’m picturing the Echelon computer sifting through all this stuff. Did she read in her customer agreement (the 300 page disclaimer) where they disclose that they will reveal details to the government under certain circumstances about the content of her Internet traffic? I’m sure it’s all disclosed and she “consented.”
Really, have any of you actually read that stuff? Have you or anyone you know personally ever been arrested or searched under the Patriot Act? Has anyone in the entire nation ever been prosecuted under the Patriot act? Who?
Guess what. This is much ado about nothing. If you think the government or the Press Democrat is listening in, stage conversations for them to overhear. Provide them with “secrets” you want revealed or publicized.
And if you are, quit plotting crimes on the phone or via email. No worries then.