Point, Click ... Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates

POINT, CLICK ... EAVESDROP: HOW THE FBI WIRETAP NET OPERATES
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Ryan Singel]
The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act. The surveillance system, called DCSNet, for Digital Collection System Network, connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, Internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected. DCSNet is a suite of software that collects, sifts and stores phone numbers, phone calls and text messages. The system directly connects FBI wiretapping outposts around the country to a far-reaching private communications network.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/08/wiretap

* Congress to revisit expanded spy law next week
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
Congressional Democrats don't plan to waste much time in revisiting a temporary expansion of federal eavesdropping law that has met with hostility in privacy and civil liberties circles. The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Wednesday afternoon said it plans to hold a hearing on September 5 -- that is, the day after politicians return from their August recess--to begin exploring, well, changes to the changes to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, better known as FISA. According to committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), the move is in part a response to misgivings by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She has said the last-minute changes approved by Congress earlier this month in response to Bush administration pressure are "unacceptable" and warrant near-immediate "corrective action."
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9768532-7.html