Surveillance warrants? Nah, far too tricky, we don’t bother with them
30/04/2009 – by TelecomTV One
In the US, documents have been released showing that a former federal prosecutor who is running for governor of New Jersey on a Republican ticket approved the surveillance of American citizens via their mobile phones without bothering to go through all that tiresome business of having to get warrants to permit various agencies to conduct the spying, writes Martyn Warwick. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has published papers confirming that during his time in charge of the US Attorney General’s Office for the state of New Jersey, Christopher Christie convinced and cajoled judges to approve and permit the surveillance of private American citizens by federal authorities without producing the necessary evidence of a crime taking place, as is required by US law.
Mr. Christie was US Attorney for New Jersey between 2001 and December 1, 2008 when he resigned to “follow a political career”. If he secures the Republican Party’s primary in June, in a later election he would be set to fight the current governor, Jon Corzine, a Democrat.
Christie used his power and influence to persuade judges to ignore the strictures contained in a US Justice Department ruling that prosecutors must obtain “probable cause” warrants before conducting surveillance on individuals via location and call data obtained from mobile phones.
The documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act show that rather than go down the more rigorous route of applying for a warrant and adducing all the probable cause evidence required to be brought forward for examination before such a warrant is issued, Christie went through the much easier “court orde”r process 98 times between September 11, 2001 and November 30, 2008.
The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation as pursuing a lawsuit against various states and federal agencies over alleged breaches of legal requirements for the tracking and surveillance of cell phone users.
