U.S. Helps Mexico Intercept Phone Calls and E-Mail

The Mexican government is stepping up its program to intercept phone calls and e-mails from its citizens, using expertise, money and equipment from the United States, the Los Angeles Times reports today. New president Felipe Calderon, a conservative with close ties to the Bush administration, wants to change the Mexican constitution to give authorities the power to spy on citizens without a court order. Sound familiar?

Calderon claims the violent drug trafficking gangs in Mexico justify the expanded government powers. Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency will install a new $3 million system made by Verint Systems, Inc., in Melville, NY, and paid for by the U.S. State Department. The system will track cellphone users.

The LA Times reviewed the paperwork on the new surveillance contract and determined that the two governments plan to share information collected on snooping missions. Mexican wiretap info could find its way into U.S. courts. Here's the relevant section from the story:

"It's unclear how broad a net the new surveillance system will cast:
Mexicans speak regularly by phone, for example, with millions of relatives living in the U.S. Those conversations appear to be fair game for both governments. Legal experts say that prosecutors with access to Mexican wiretaps could use the information in U.S. courts.
U.S. Supreme Court decisions have held that 4th Amendment protections against illegal wiretaps do not apply outside the United States, particularly if the surveillance is conducted by another country,
Georgetown University law professor David Cole said."

Although the system has been publicly advertised as a means to combat drug gangs, it seems like its uses could easily be expanded to encompass, say, a certain immigration problem that has recently bedeviled Congress.

Photo: Eddie Quinones