US court approved around 2,000 spying requests in 2012

According to a recent report published by the Justice Department, the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court quietly rubber-stamped 1,856 requests last year.
 
The 2012 figures represent a 5-percent increase from the previous year, when no requests were denied either.
 
“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,” the report read.
 
It noted, “Of these, 1,789 applications included requests for authority to conduct electronic surveillance.”
 
According to the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which took effect in 1978 and was expanded under the former US President George W. Bush administration, the US government can intercept Americans’ phone calls and e-mails without a probable-cause warrant as long as one of the parties to the communication is overseas.
 
In February, the American Civil Liberties Union sought to litigate the US administration and nullify the law.
 
However, the Supreme Court ruled that since none of the decisions taken by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are public and the American Civil Liberties Union has no means to show it has been targeted by the FISA Act, their motion must be dropped.
 
David Kris, a former top anti-terrorism attorney at the Justice Department, wrote in the 2012 edition of National Security Investigations and Prosecutions that while the FISA Amendments Act gives the US government domestic spying power, it simply ignores accountability.