Yahoo CEO Mayer: we faced jail if we revealed NSA surveillance secrets(theguardian.com)
theguardian.com
Yahoo CEO Mayer: we faced jail if we revealed NSA surveillance secrets
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/11/yahoo-ceo-mayer-jail-nsa-surveillance
Remember when some were saying how whistleblowers should just "go through the official channels". Yeah, what channels, when as soon as you try to say anything you're put in prison?
It used to be hard to believe that the government would ever try something as foolish as undermining/attacking the 1st amendment, and if anything, it would be the last one to fall (this is America, after all!) Yet, this sort of stuff has been going for years with hundreds of thousands of NSL's being given to Americans.
If NSL's are so important for an investigation, and there's really a danger of ruining a very important investigation, then it should be specifically approved by a judge - on a different document, and not as part of a footnote from another warrant.
But even then, the person under the gag order should automatically be released from it 12 months later. If the FBI wants to extend that period, then they should be asking the judge for an extension. Anything less than this seems very unconstitutional to me.
That being said, I still think there's a whole lot more these companies could've done. If these multi-billion and global corporations can't speak up, how can a single individual? I think they failed the country and the American society (at the very least) by not speaking up early on.