The US Government Can (Lawfully) Read Your Emails

The Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. government has obtained a controversial type of secret court order to force Google Inc. and small Internet provider Sonic.net Inc. to turn over information from the email accounts of WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum

Here’s where I’m personally touched by this story: I met Jacob Applebaum (@ioerror) a few days ago. He was present in the Tunisia Arab bloggers meeting and gave very important workshops on security and online safety to Arab bloggers, dissidents and journalists who wanted to learn how to be anonymous online.

Now we wake up to read that the US federal government can lawfully read the emails some of us might have exchanged with him? What message will this send to the bloggers who were present in that meeting? The irony is that some of us thought he was excessively paranoid. Now we understand why.