Are You a National Security Threat?

If you have been deemed to be of interest to any government, don't expect anyone to let you know you're being investigated.  The FBI has issued thousands of requests every year for information held by Google and Microsoft, and nobody can reveal who or what is being investigated.  I read a story in PC Magazine  that portrayed the number of requests as trivial, why it's barely .02% of all users.  That may sound like practically nothing, but the numbers are frightening to me. 

"Microsoft received 75,378 requests for user data in 2012 from U.S. and foreign governments, and fulfilled a little over 80 percent of the requests"  they go on to say "The requests potentially impacted 137,424 accounts ... Interestingly, the bulk of requests came from foreign governments, with just a mere 11,073 requests from the U.S. government." 

May I quibble with the use of the word "mere" in describing over 11,000 requests in 2012?  That's about 30 requests a day in the US that they claim are necessary to protect the country.  That sounds like an extreme number to me, and much more indicative of fishing expeditions rather than targeted investigating.  We'll never know who those people are, but given the rate of charges being filed, maybe twenty or so a year, they're casting a pretty wide net. 

See this article discussing terrorism cases brought to trial in the 10 years following 9/11.  "Of the nearly 200 most serious terrorism cases brought to court since the September 11 attacks, some 178 have ended in convictions, either through a guilty plea or a jury's decision, according to an Associated Press review of government documents and interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys." .

"Critics say the conviction rate is boosted by the Justice Department's overly broad definition of terrorism, as well as reluctance by jurors to acquit on such serious charges, and defendants' acceptance of plea bargains because of fear of going to trial.".

A Federal judge just ruled that the FBI use of "National Security Letters" were unconstitutional, but the Obama Administration will appeal that.