Boston Bombing Investigation Reveals Government Surveillance of Phone Calls
Sari Horwitz, a writer from the Washington Post reporting on the investigation of Katherine Russell, the wife of the deceased Boston bomber, inadvertently mentioned in an article that federal officials had access to the content of phone calls Russell tried to make to her husband when she learned of his involvement in the incident. Buried inside the fifth paragraph of the Post's report was this: "Officials said that Russell called her husband when she saw his photograph on television — following the FBI’s release of the pictures of the suspects…."
Almost immediately Erin Burnett, the host of CNN’s Outfront, wanted to know how the government knew. Aren't phone calls supposed to be private? She interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counter-terrorism agent on May 1, asking:
Is there any way … they [the federal investigators] can try to get the phone companies to give that up … It’s not a voice...
