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Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls
newsmax.com ^

Posted on 12/18/2005 7:21:35 PM PST by doesnt suffer fools gladly

Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls

During the 1990's under President Clinton, the National Security Agency monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon.

On Friday, the New York Times suggested that the Bush administration has instituted "a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices" when it "secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without [obtaining] court-approved warrants."

But in fact, the NSA had been monitoring private telephone conversations on a much larger scale throughout the 1990s - all of it done without a court order, let alone a catalyst like the 9/11 attacks.

In February 2000, for instance, CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft introduced a report on the Clinton-era spy program by noting:

"If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country's largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called Echelon, and it's run by the National Security Agency."

NSA computers, said Kroft, "capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world."

Echelon expert Mike Frost, who spent 20 years as a spy for the Canadian equivalent of the National Security Agency, told "60 Minutes" that the agency was monitoring "everything from data transfers to cell phones to portable phones to baby monitors to ATMs."

Mr. Frost detailed activities at one unidentified NSA installation, telling "60 Minutes" that agency operators "can listen in to just about anything" - while Echelon computers screen phone calls for key words that might indicate a terrorist threat.

The "60 Minutes" report also spotlighted Echelon critic, then-Rep. Bob Barr, who complained that the project as it was being implemented under Clinton "engages in the interception of literally millions of communications involving United States citizens."

One Echelon operator working in Britain told "60 Minutes" that the NSA had even monitored and tape recorded the conversations of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Still, the Times repeatedly insisted on Friday that the NSA surveillance under Bush had been unprecedented, at one point citing anonymously an alleged former national security official who claimed: "This is really a sea change. It's almost a mainstay of this country that the NSA only does foreign searches."


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 60minutes; bobbarr; echelon; homelandsecurity; mikefrost; nsa; patriotleak; wiretapping; x42
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To: doesnt suffer fools gladly
Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls

But I'm sure that Bubba had a MUCH better reason for doing this than
Dubya did.
Like not having to spend money on 1-900 calls.
81 posted on 12/18/2005 8:50:18 PM PST by VOA
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To: earplug

get educated on what the FISA laws allows (there is a thread on it) regarding these matters. if you want to post this "Bush should be impeached" stuff, go over to DU, they have a daily thread on it.


82 posted on 12/18/2005 8:52:32 PM PST by oceanview
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To: harpu

Excellent find!


83 posted on 12/18/2005 8:52:36 PM PST by Grampa Dave (Link to Great TV ad re rat traitors and their words re Iraq: http://www.gop.com/Media/120905.wmv)
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To: earplug

Impeached for following the law? Read 50 USC 1802. So what should we do with clinton's doing the same thing to spy on U.S. citizens (which IS illegal), which Bush DID NOT do, as the NY Times ADMITTED in their book preview.

Silly lib's. Too stupid to check the facts before spewing your lies.


84 posted on 12/18/2005 8:58:59 PM PST by 7mmMag@LeftCoast
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To: VeniVidiVici
"Does foreign searches"? What the heck does that mean? This is so bull****.

Why is that so hard to understand? Any comm channel that originates outside the US or has a destination outside the US is a "foreign search" to use your parlance. It has been on-going for decades by the NSA. It started by intercepting the USSR/Commies communicating with their "operatives" in the US and other foreign locations. This is for comm. The same rules apply to visual surveillance - CIA is foreign only and the FBI is domestic. The FBI can tap your phone or PC with a court order. The CIC has the responsibility to protect us from foreign enemies and we have never used court orders to carry that out - the CIC has the full responsibility. If you are a foreign person inside the US you should just possibly expect your phone just might be tapped if you are using "key words or phrases".

85 posted on 12/18/2005 9:04:41 PM PST by p23185 (Why isn't attempting to take down a sitting Pres & his Admin considered Sedition?)
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To: 7mmMag@LeftCoast
So what should we do with clinton's doing the same thing to spy on U.S. citizens (which IS illegal), which Bush DID NOT do, as the NY Times ADMITTED in their book preview.

So as Bush stated the disclosure of the classified program is illegal, can't the DOJ force the NYT reporter/journalist to divulge who the leaker is? If a law is broken (and no more proof is needed here, like in Flame's case) can't the DOJ go directly to the leaker and arrest him, with a subsequent trial? And if that is true than I want nothing less than handcuffs for "Pinchy" Sulzberger also - what he has done by "giving the secret to the islamofacists" is nother less than Ethel and Julius Rosenberg did for the Commies. The only difference is the Rosenbergs sent their data clandestinely, but Pinchy published it in his paper. Pinchy should get the same treatment for his traitorous behavior as the Rosenbergs got - a good FRYING!

86 posted on 12/18/2005 9:18:41 PM PST by p23185 (Why isn't attempting to take down a sitting Pres & his Admin considered Sedition?)
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To: generally
"Holy Moley! Does the MSM know about this?:

Well, CBS certainly does, because "60 Minutes" covered the story in 2000, before Bush was president.
87 posted on 12/18/2005 9:25:34 PM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: msf92497

And after they step in it they will lick their shoe soles clean.


88 posted on 12/18/2005 9:32:20 PM PST by F.J. Mitchell (Dems tell so many lies and damned lies they can't remember which switch was which.)
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Bookmarked.


89 posted on 12/18/2005 9:41:27 PM PST by AmeriBrit (HILLARY's1974 Watergate Crimes: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/925684/posts)
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To: generally
Holy Moley! Does the MSM know about this?

SeeBS did the story! Does that qualify?

90 posted on 12/18/2005 10:18:16 PM PST by beyond the sea (Murtha: Redeployment - What .......Surrender? --- Victory is not a strategy.)
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To: doesnt suffer fools gladly; hipaatwo; Eagle9; Boyd; Wallaby
OH MY (60 minutes Echelon exposed transcript Feb 27th, 2000)

We were talking about this on FR back in 1999, but nobody paid much attention. We were also called a lot of names back then - "kooks" and "tinfoil hatters", but some of us developed really thick skins as a result. :-)

The words that can get you spied on

Hackers Ascend Upper 'Echelon'

91 posted on 12/18/2005 10:22:31 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: generally; msf92497

See my post directly above. Stories were out in newspapers and WIRED in 1999, but nobody much paid attention to them.


92 posted on 12/18/2005 10:23:23 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: edpc
Echelon does actually date back to earlier in the Cold War.
93 posted on 12/18/2005 10:25:01 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: RegulatorCountry; Theresawithanh; Eagle9
See my post above.

We're talking about the FR Jam Echelon Days over here.

94 posted on 12/18/2005 10:26:22 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: scott7278

See my posts above. We've been talking about this on FR for years now - certainly pre-dating the current administration.


95 posted on 12/18/2005 10:27:17 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: harpu
We're also talking about it over here.
96 posted on 12/18/2005 10:28:21 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: NotJustAnotherPrettyFace

Ha! You're quick !


97 posted on 12/18/2005 10:30:58 PM PST by Eagle9
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To: p23185
Does foreign searches"? What the heck does that mean? This is so bull****.

Why is that so hard to understand?

I'm on your side. If you check out my posts I've been against this bogus bs from the beginning.

It is not "my" parlance, it is theirs. And it proves my point that they have no idea what they are talking about when they can't even call it what it is. They guess and they are not even doing a very good job at that.

98 posted on 12/18/2005 10:41:27 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (What? Me worry?)
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To: Eagle9
Doing my best to link the threads ;-). Sometimes it's hard to keep up with them all, esp. when a really hot topic is involved. Of course they're in denial over at the DUmmyboard about all this being in existance before the current Bush administration.
99 posted on 12/18/2005 10:42:05 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: Eagle9; backhoe

Now that you mention it (well, your post made me think of it), I'm pinging one of FR's outstanding linkmasters, Backhoe, to this thread.


100 posted on 12/18/2005 10:43:11 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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