New figures released by the Justice Department show that a US federal court allowed the government to search or monitor citizens almost 2000 times in 2012, a 5% increase on the previous year.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the government to intercept Americans’ phone calls and e-mails without a probable-cause warrant. 1,856 requests were granted last year.
According to PressTV the report claims that the use of domestic surveillance was “for foreign intelligence purposes” and goes onto say:
“The 1,856 applications include applications made solely for electronic surveillance, applications made solely for physical search, and combined applications requesting authority for electronic surveillance and physical search.
“Of these, 1,789 applications included requests for authority to conduct electronic surveillance.”