mc mark's post with a little more detail. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/11/nsa.phonerecords.ap/index.html USA Today: NSA building massive database of phone records Thursday, May 11, 2006; Posted: 10:35 a.m. EDT (14:35 GMT) Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, wants hearings on the phone records database. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government has been secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls in an effort to build a database of every call made within the country, it was reported Thursday. AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth telephone companies began turning over records of tens of millions of their customers' phone calls to the National Security Agency program shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said USA Today, citing anonymous sources it said had direct knowledge of the arrangement. The White House defended its overall eavesdropping program and said no domestic surveillance is conducted without court approval. "The intelligence activities undertaken by the United States government are lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans from terrorist attacks," said Dana Perino, the deputy White House press secretary, who added that appropriate members of Congress have been briefed on intelligence activities. On Capitol Hill, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel "to find out exactly what is going on." Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the panel, sounded incredulous about the program and railed against what he called a lack of congressional oversight. He argued that the media was doing the job of Congress. "Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al Qaeda?" Leahy asked. "These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything ... Where does it stop?" The Democrat, who at one point held up a copy of the newspaper, added: "Shame on us for being so far behind and being so willing to rubber stamp anything this administration does. We ought to fold our tents." The program does not involve listening to or taping the calls. Instead it documents who talks to whom in personal and business calls, whether local or long distance, by tracking which numbers are called, the newspaper said. The NSA and the Office of National Intelligence Director did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NSA is the same spy agency that conducts the controversial domestic eavesdropping program that has been acknowledged by President Bush. The president said last year that he authorized the NSA to listen, without warrants, to international phone calls involving Americans suspected of terrorist links. Hayden's Capitol Hill visits canceled The report came as the former NSA director, Gen. Michael Hayden -- Bush's choice to take over leadership of the CIA -- had been scheduled to visit lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday. However, the meetings with Republican Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were postponed at the request of the White House, said congressional aides in the two Senate offices. The White House offered no reason for the postponement to the lawmakers. Hayden already faced criticism because of the NSA's secret domestic eavesdropping program. As head of the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005, Hayden also would have overseen the call-tracking program. The NSA wants the database of domestic call records to look for any patterns that might suggest terrorist activity, USA Today said. Don Weber, a senior spokesman for the NSA, told the paper that the agency operates within the law, but would not comment further on its operations. One big telecommunications company, Qwest, has refused to turn over records to the program, the newspaper said, because of privacy and legal concerns. Inquiry into eavesdropping killed Meanwhile, the Justice Department has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the NSA refused to grant its lawyers the necessary security clearance. (Full story) The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-New York, on Wednesday saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers' role in the program. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the terrorist surveillance program "has been subject to extensive oversight both in the executive branch and in Congress from the time of its inception." Roehrkasse noted the OPR's mission is not to investigate possible wrongdoing in other agencies, but to determine if Justice Department lawyers violated any ethical rules. He declined to comment when asked if the end of the inquiry meant the agency believed its lawyers had handled the wiretapping matter ethically. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Leahy's hearing will do no good, because apparently the NSA can shut down any investigation of its operations it wants. So this makes the FISA court all the more important. Since nobody can really investigate whether the NSA is acting appropriately or not, there is one tiny sliver of protection between the American citizens and this govt. agency. There is only tiny operation in the whole country that can instigate the slightest bit of oversight regarding the NSA, and the is the FISA court. I can't believe some people are actually arguing against having that one razer thin layer of protection in place.
the fact that general hayden was director of nsa during all this makes his nomination to director of cia even more scary. i would again ask any of our neocon friends, was bush lying when he said a phone tap requires a court order and that nothing has changed? i think he was.
Easy to do! Just refuse to grant security clearance to lawyers and "bam!" no investigation. 72 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS JOIN LAWSUIT AGAINST WIRETAPS... DEVELOPING......
WOW!!! This USA Today story must have hit a nerve! Jr just called an emergency press confrence to deny the report.
It's only about two and a half minutes. But it's not as much as what he said, but how he looked saying it. Shifting from side to side, eyes darting around the room, not focused. the transcript After September 11, I vowed to the American people that our government would do everything within the law to protect them against another terrorist attack. As part of this effort, I authorized the National Security Agency to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. In other words, if al Qaeda or their associates are making calls into the United States or out of the United States, we want to know what they're saying. Today, there are new claims about other ways we are tracking down al Qaeda to prevent attacks on America. I want to make some important points about what the government is doing and what the government is not doing. First, our intelligence activities strictly target al Qaeda and their known affiliates. Al Qaeda is our enemy, and we want to know their plans. Second, the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. Third, the intelligence activities I authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat. Fourth, the privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities. We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans. Our efforts are focused on links to al Qaeda and their known affiliates. So far, we've been very successful in preventing another attack on our soil. As a general matter, every time sensitive intelligence is leaked, it hurts our ability to defeat this enemy. Our most important job is to protect the American people from another attack, and we will do so within the laws of our country. Thank you.
****ing liar. I hope someone calls him out on this bull****. Homer: Ah, not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working. Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad. Homer: Thank you, honey. Lisa: By your logic, this rock keeps tigers away. Homer: Oh? How does it work? Lisa: It doesn't work. Homer: Uh-huh. Lisa: It's just a stupid rock. Homer: Uh-huh. Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around here, do you? [pause] Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock! FUD.
Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled. In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more. Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused. The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events. http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_05_07_atrios_archive.html#114736323736491111
Damn. We have Verizon. Looks like we need to switch to a provider that gives a damn about our rights under the Constitution, unlike the President and the GOP leadership. Keep D&D Civil.
Seems AG Gonzales may have lied under oath when testifying to congress a few weeks ago about the NSA wiretaps. ------------------- NADLER: Number two, can you assure us that there is no warrantless surveillance of calls between two Americans within the United States? GONZALES: That is not what the president has authorized. NADLER: Can you assure us that it's not being done? GONZALES: As I indicated in response to an earlier question, no technology is perfect. NADLER: OK. GONZALES: We do have minimization procedures in place... NADLER: But you're not doing that deliberately? GONZALES: That is correct. http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000622.php
So, American Express, Chase, Bank One, my landlord, Verizon, Vonage, Cingular, ConEd, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have my social security number, address, phone number, hair color, eye color, mother's maiden name, the city of my birth, the name of my first pet, my listening and buying preferences, and the circumference of my penis, and will sell all this information to all comers. But a government agency that collects and analyzes signals intelligence? I dunno about that...
been wondering where you were today. Problem is you offered that information to those folks. NSA didn't ask for your phone records. They just started doing it. Nevermind that the chimp in charge has apparently been caught in a lie once again.
you know mark, living in jackson heights, where if someone is worried about WMD it's probably because they ate too much curry the night before, you can indulge in a little frivolity or feigned outrage regarding security. but in a target zone with kids, i don't have the luxury of being quite so blase. there are people trying to kill us, and it would be nice to see someone, anyone, on the left who took the threat seriously. i can't say bush is always right, but the democrats are most assuredly always wrong on this issue. they'll remain a minority party until the grow a pair.
