Big Brother records EVERY phone call you make. CNN says.

Big Brother's big plastic ear can hear you.

I have for quite a while now been saying, without any proof mind you, that the US government records and stores every single thing that goes across American servers and American wires. I believed it to be true because A) they can and B) that's the kind of people we have working in government these days.

Now I have some backup.

On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two [Katherine Russell, the 24-year-old American widow of the deceased Boston bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev]. He quite clearly insisted that they could:

BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?
CLEMENTE: "No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It's not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.
BURNETT: "So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.
CLEMENTE: "No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not."

"All of that stuff" - meaning every telephone conversation Americans have with one another on US soil, with or without a search warrant - "is being captured as we speak".

Taken alone, one ex-FBI guy talking tough on CNN could be anything. However we have had a lot of other people come out and say the same thing, that the American government alphabet soup types have been collecting and storing every single email, phone call, web surfing request, Google search and etc. You name it, they've got a record of it.

With the active compliance and support of the phone companies, software companies, hardware companies, ISPs and etc. Google and Apple both have minute-by-minute records of everyplace your Android or Apple device is. Apple records and stores every Siri search request. They say you can turn that stuff off (and I have!) but come on, would any of us be shocked and appalled to find out that it doesn't -really- turn off? Or that it can be turned on remotely by a government official?

So, I just thought it was worth telling y'all that EVERY DAMN WORD you utter into an electronic device gets stored forever, by people who are not your friends. That's not tinfoil hat, that's the fact Jack. I speculate that they've been doing it for at least the last ten years too. That would be my wild-assed guess. Could be quite a bit longer for all I know, they have had all the money in the world to do it for a really long time. Technically I suppose its been possible since Regan left office.

Canada? Yes, us too. I would not be shocked to find that the RCMP has been quietly recording everything without telling anyone. The Americans probably record us anyway. Because they can.

Oh, by the way. We know for a fact that -any- phone can be turned on remotely and used as a listening device. Yours, the one the guy you're talking to has in his pocket, or some lady next to you. If you're out in public, they can hear you if they want.

Just sayin'.

The Phantom.