Intelligence Surveillance Continues to Grow
What a surprise! There's more surveillance. Put that together with the push for RFID, and you have a government that would rather just get its information off of radio chips without the bother of having to go to court. Notwithstanding the fact that during 2004 only FOUR of 1758 orders were turned down. If that isn't rubber stamping, not sure what is.
Intelligence Surveillance Continues to Grow: "During calendar year 2004, 1,758 applications were made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for electronic surveillance and physical searches, and 1754 orders were granted, 94 with modifications by the court, according to the latest Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) annual report to Congress. The report covers wiretaps and secret physical searches inside the US for counterintelligence and counterterrorism. In 2003, there were 1727 applications and 1724 orders. Essentially all other information about FISA surveillances is classified."