Terrorists Convicted With Help of NSA E-mail Intercepts

A Schneier blog post notes that three would-be bombers were recently convicted in the UK thanks in large part to e-mail communication that was intercepted by the US National Security Agency. This was the second time the men had faced criminal charges; in the first trial, the prosecution was unable to make part of their case because they didn't yet have the e-mail evidence. "Although British prosecutors were eager to use the e-mails in their second trial against the three plotters, British courts prohibit the use of evidence obtained through interception. So last January, a US court issued warrants directly to Yahoo to hand over the same correspondence." The BBC posted a number of e-mails used as evidence in the trial. The communication is coded, and some of it looks like what you might find in your spam folder, but the article also provides the prosecution's explanation of what they mean.

Someone set us up the viagra

[i_ate_god]

10% off (10 days left) all pharmaceutical products (bombs), including viagra (dirty bomb) to help make your lover scream with pleasure (explode).

10 days left till dirty bombs explode! EVERYBODY PANIC

Withheld

[RiotingPacifist]

The reports i saw gave the impression that the US simply refused to let the prostitution use the evidence the first time (but the evidence had already been collected).

Re:Law?

[rolfwind]

In keeping with your analogy, a cop illegally searches your house and finds weed, you go to court and the evidence is thrown out, but, having been arrested for smoking weed in public at the same time and now knowing you have weed in your house and coincidentally knowing you use facebook, the cops subpoena Facebook without using the found weed, just your having been arrested in public to get the warrant. Facebook sends them the stuff on your account which includes pictures of the weed in your house. The pictures are still valid, untainted evidence.

In subpoena-ing facebook, have they gotten probable cause without relying on the illegal search to obtain that knowledge in the first place?

P.S. I don't have weed in my house, but I do have weeds on my lawn. Can the government come and confiscate them?

Re:OMFG !! You ARE NEXT !!

[Beardo the Bearded]

That's the rumour. According to the tinfoil hat brigade; Canada, Australia, the UK, and the US all monitor each other's traffic. That way, when asked, each country can honestly say,

"We do not, and have never, monitored the correspondence of any of our citizens without a warrant. We do occassionally intercept communications of foreigners."

For what it's worth, I've had the same sig since 1998. I joke that someone in the UK is employed full-time just to read my email. Sadly, nobody reads my email except for my sysadmin.

The emails remind me of an old Law and Order episode when they're listening in to a would-be hitman:

"You got the shirt?"

"Yeah."

"You got the bullets for the shirt?"

Re:Withheld

[R2.0]

"I don't know if thats an accurate correction, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between prosecutor and whore in a lot of places."

Of course there is - even a whore doesn't want to fuck everybody.

Re:OMFG !! You ARE NEXT !!

[Beardo the Bearded]

Okay, thanks. I've updated my sig ... a little.

Re:Woo woo

[6Yankee]

Hot single NSA girls, you have my number.

Re:What???

[Anonymous Cowpat]

chaining your self to the metal detector

Impractical - you'll never get the end of the chain through the detector without it going off.