NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
Updated 5/11/2006 10:38 AM ET

REACTION

From the White House:
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.

From Capitol Hill:
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., 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 latest report 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 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.

Source: The Associated Press



NSA SURVEILLANCE

NSA has massive database of Americans'
phone calls


OFFICIAL WORDS ON SURVEILLANCE

Bush
administration officials have said repeatedly that the warrantless surveillance
program authorized by President Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is
carefully targeted to include only international calls and e-mails into or out
of the USA, and only those that involve at least one party suspected of being a
member or ally of al-Qaeda or a related terror group.

Some comments
related to what the administration calls the "Terrorist Surveillance Program,"
and surveillance in general:


Gen. Michael Hayden, principal deputy
director of national intelligence, and now Bush's nominee to head the CIA, at
the National Press Club, Jan. 23, 2006:

"The program ... is not a drift
net over (U.S. cities such as) Dearborn or Lackawanna or Fremont, grabbing
conversations that we then sort out by these alleged keyword searches or
data-mining tools or other devices that so-called experts keep talking about.

"This is targeted and focused. This is not about intercepting
conversations between people in the United States. This is hot pursuit of
communications entering or leaving America involving someone we believe is
associated with al-Qaeda. ... This is focused. It's targeted. It's very
carefully done. You shouldn't worry."


Senate Judiciary Committee
hearing, Feb. 6, 2006:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: "Only
international communications are authorized for interception under this program.
That is, communications between a foreign country and this country. ...

"To protect the privacy of Americans still further, the NSA employs
safeguards to minimize the unnecessary collection and dissemination of
information about U.S. persons."

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.: "I don't
understand why you would limit your eavesdropping only to foreign conversations.
..."

Gonzales: "I believe it's because of trying to balance concerns
that might arise that, in fact, the NSA was engaged in electronic surveillance
with respect to domestic calls."

By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: The NSA record collection program

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret.

More @ http://tinyurl.com/poz4j www.usatoday.com

OK so we're going to have every phone call made in the US recorded in a data base, to what end? Even if you have a computer key on only certain words used during phone conversations then you still have a huge number of calls that might or might not be about terrorist activity. This is like hunting quail and you jump 20 quail all at once. Which quail do you shoot? You have only moments to decide which quail you will shoot. The same is true of Intel gathering. You must decide which Intel is of importance so you can focus your efforts on it. All Intel is time sensitive and what is important today may having no meaning at all tomorrow.

It seems to me that NSA is spreading their net on a very wide basis and that very well may be the reason we have had so many Intel failures in the recent past.

Do I care if my phone conservations are being logged by NSA? No I don't because I don't say anything on the phone I would not type here or tell anyone in person.