FBI Data Transfers Via Telecoms Questioned
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 8, 2008; Page A03
When FBI investigators probing New York prostitution rings, Boston organized crime or potential terrorist plots anywhere want access to a suspect’s telephone contacts, technicians at a telecommunications carrier served with a government order can, with the click of a mouse, instantly transfer key data along a computer circuit to an FBI technology office in Quantico.
The circuits — little-known electronic connections between telecom firms and FBI monitoring personnel around the country — are used to tell the government who is calling whom, along with the time and duration of a conversation and even the locations of those involved.
Source: Washington Post
