Report alleges NSA surveillance of Verizon calls

For years, civil liberties groups have alleged that the United States was engaged in "dragnet" surveillance of Americans' phone calls. But because U.S. surveillance activity is shrouded in secrecy, they haven't had proof.

Now, they appear to. The Guardian newspaper reports that the National Security Agency has been demanding that Verizon produce calling records of all phone calls made in the United States.

The leaked legal order requires Verizon to produce, "on an ongoing daily basis," records of calls "between the United States and abroad" as well as "wholly within the United States, including local calls." The data sought by the NSA includes "originating and terminating telephone numbers," and the time and duration of each call. The order does not request the contents of the calls.

The four-page order is dated April 25 and signed by Judge Roger Vinson, of the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The order is based on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows law enforcement to obtain a wide variety of "business records," including calling records. Critics have long been wary of Section 215, which sets a threshold for obtaining records much lower than the "probable cause" standard required to get a search warrant.

Attorney Cindy Cohn of the civil liberties-focused Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that the kind of dragnet surveillance suggested by the Verizon order exceeds even the authority granted by the Patriot Act.

"Section 215 is written as if they're going after individual people based on individual investigations," she says. In contrast, the order leaked to the Guardian affects "millions and millions of innocent people."

The White House said late Wednesday that it had no comment, and attempts to reach Verizon for comment were unsuccessful.