Unintended consequences of the Verizon telephonic metadata FISA court order

Way back in another time, there was a leak and a newspaper article telling the world that Osama bin Laden's satellite phone was being tracked. That phone immediately ceased operation, and bin Laden was no where to be found.

So now we learn that a FISA court has ordered Verizon's phone records be turned over to the government. That was classified information, but it was such an outrageous intrusion on Americans' rights that someone thought the public should know about it. If the court order had not been such an overreach -- all calls wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls -- then we probably never would have heard about it.

Non-terrorist Verizon customers will probably wait out their contracts. But you can be sure that any terrorist using Verizon will dump the phone in favor of a burner phone.