Citizenfour Page #6

telephone or Internet sessions

simultaneously per one of these devices.

And they could collect at the rate

of about 125 gigabytes a second,

which is a terabit.

That's just each one of these devices.

That's for each one of these, yeah.

And how many Tumult machines

would there be, then?

Uh... per this, back then,

there were 20 sites,

there's 10 at DOD installations,

but these are all outdated.

We've expanded pretty rapidly.

But still 20 sites,

that's at least 20 billion.

This all needs to get out,

you know I mean?

It's like...

just in terms of understanding

the capabilities. It's so opaque.

It's not science fiction.

This stuff is happening right now.

No, that's what I mean, it's like,

the, the magnitude of it, and...

and, like, this is a pretty

inaccessible technical document,

but even this, like, is really chilling.

- Do you know what I mean?

- Yeah.

Yeah, I mean we should have...

we should be having debates about

whether we want governments...

I mean, this is massive

and extraordinary.

It's amazing.

Even though you know it,

even though you know that...

to see it, like,

the physical blueprints of it,

and sort of

the technical expressions of it,

really hits home

in like a super visceral way

that is so needed.

This is CNN Breaking News.

An explosive new report

is reigniting the concerns

that your privacy is being violated

to protect America's security.

It reveals a court order giving

the National Security Agency

blanket access to millions of Verizon

customers' records on a daily basis.

Earlier I had the chance to

conduct the first TV interview

with the reporter who broke

this story wide open:

Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian.

Congratulations on the scoop.

Explain for our viewers

why this is important.

It's important

because people have understood

that the law that this was done under,

which is the Patriot Act,

enacted in the wake of 9/11,

was a law that allowed the government

very broad powers

to get records about people

with a lower level of suspicion than

probable cause, the traditional standard.

So it's always been assumed

that under the Patriot Act,

if the government had even any suspicion

that you were involved

in a crime or terrorism,

they could get a lot of

information about you.

What this court order does

that makes it so striking,

is that it's not directed

at any individuals

who they believe or have suspicion

of committing crimes

or are part of a terrorist organization,

it's collecting the phone records

of every single customer

of Verizon business

and finding out every single call that

they've made, internationally and locally,

so it's indiscriminate

and it's sweeping.

It's a government program

designed to collect information

about all Americans, not just people

where they believe there's reason

to think they've done anything wrong.

Ah, it's, it's a tough situation,

you know, hearing that

the person that you love,

that you've spent the decade with,

may not be coming back.

What did they ask her?

Um, when was the last time she saw me,

where am I, um, what am I doing,

you know, what does she know about

my illness, things like that.

Uh...

so.

Yeah, they're um...

they're pretty solidly aware.

'Cause, uh...

I'm clearly not at home ill.

- Hello?

- Hello?

Hello, let me disconnect

from the Internet.

So, there's some news?

Yes, there was indeed some news.

I have config.

Today, I think,

maybe just a few hours ago?

What... what kind of people visited?

Uh...

An H.R. lady, I'm assuming from NSA

as opposed to,

uh, as opposed to Booz Allen,

because she was accompanied

by a police officer,

which means NSA police.

And they were planning

to break into my house,

which regular police don't do.

Does she live there?

Yeah, she lives there.

So I told her to cooperate fully...

I can't find my phone,

just one second...

You know, don't worry about herself.

You know what, I'll just

take out the stuff I wanna use...

Okay.

Okay, well look, I mean,

this is not a surprising development.

Nah, I know, I planned for it,

but it's just, you know,

when it's impacting them

and they're talking to you,

it's a little bit different.

Absolutely.

But it's possible that they just

noticed that you're missing.

I guess it's not really a possibility.

It is, but they're, I mean...

Um... Let me just get rid of this.

Sorry, I obviously was focused on

other things than appearance this morning.

How was... How did she react?

Was she relatively calm about it?

She's relatively calm...

Does she know anything about

what you're doing and why?

She has no idea.

And that's, I mean, I...

I feel badly about that, but that's

the only way I could think of where,

like, she can't be in trouble.

Did you just basically do a,

"I have to go somewhere

for reasons that I can't tell you

about" kind of thing, or...?

I just disappeared

when she was on vacation.

Um, and I left a note saying, "Hey, I'm

going to be gone for a while for work,"

which isn't unusual for me

in my business.

- Right.

- You know, so...

Okay, so let me ask you

a couple things just quickly.

Are they gonna be able to go into

your stuff and figure out what you took?

Um, in some kind of...

some sort of, like, peripheral senses,

but not necessarily...

- Not with great specificity.

- Yes.

Because I cast such a wide net.

If they do that the only thing

they're gonna do is have a heart attack

because they're gonna go,

"He had access to everything."

Yeah.

And they're not gonna know

what specifically has been done.

I think they're gonna start to

actually feel a little better,

although they're not gonna be wild

about this in any case,

when they see that the stories

are kind of cleaving to a trend,

you know, it's not like,

"Here's the list of everybody

who works everywhere."

Right.

I also think, you know, they're gonna

be paranoid in the extreme,

and assuming all kinds of

worst case scenarios,

which is gonna,

you know, I think make them

react in ways that probably aren't,

like, gonna be particularly

rational on their part.

But, at the same time,

there's... I do think

they're limited for the moment.

I agree, and I mean,

I had kinda time to set a stage

where we all enjoy at least

a minimum level of protection,

you know, no matter who we are,

who's involved in this,

you know, you're either a journalist,

or you're either out of jurisdiction,

so we have some time to play this

before they can really get nasty.

I think it's over, you know, the weeks

when they have times,

to get lawyers really sort of go,

"This is a special situation.

How can we interpret this

to our advantage?"

We... we see them do this

all the time, you know,

whether it's drones

or wiretapping or whatever,

they'll go, "Well according

to this law from the 1840s,

you know, with X, Y, or Z authority..."

But that takes time.

And that takes agreement...

And also, you know, I mean,

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote