Posted on 05/11/2006 10:25:46 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - President Bush did not confirm or deny a newspaper report Thursday that the National Security Agency was collecting records of tens of millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls.
"Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates," Bush said. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."
USA Today, based on anonymous sources it said had direct knowledge of the arrangement, reported that AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., and BellSouth Corp. began turning over records of Americans' phone calls to the NSA shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Bush said any domestic intelligence-gathering measures he's approved are "lawful," and he says "appropriate" members of Congress have been briefed.
The disclosure could complicate Bush's bid to win confirmation of former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA director.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country.
The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said he was shocked by the revelation about the NSA.
"It is our government, it's not one party's government. It's America's government. Those entrusted with great power have a duty to answer to Americans what they are doing," Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont.
The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel in pursuit of what had transpired.
"We're really flying blind on the subject and that's not a good way to approach the Fourth Amendment and the constitutional issues involving privacy," Specter said of domestic surveillance in general.
The companies said Thursday that they are protecting customers' privacy but have an obligation to assist law enforcement and government agencies in ensuring the nation's security. "We prize the trust our customers place in us. If and when AT&T is asked to help, we do so strictly within the law and under the most stringent conditions," the company said in a statement, echoed by the others.
Bush said that U.S. intelligence targets terrorists and that the government does not listen to domestic telephone calls without court approval and that Congress has been briefed on intelligence programs.
He vowed to do everything in his power to fight terror and "we will do so within the laws of our country."
On Capitol Hill, several lawmakers expressed incredulity about the program, with some Republicans questioning the rationale and legal underpinning and several Democrats railing about the lack of congressional oversight.
"I don't know enough about the details except that I am willing to find out because I'm not sure why it would be necessary to keep and have that kind of information," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., told Fox News Channel: "The idea of collecting millions or thousands of phone numbers, how does that fit into following the enemy?"
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said bringing the telephone companies before the Judiciary Committee is an important step.
"We need more. We need to take this seriously, more seriously than some other matters that might come before the committee because our privacy as American citizens is at stake," Durbin said.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., argued that the program "is not a warrantless wiretapping of the American people. I don't think this action is nearly as troublesome as being made out here, because they are not tapping our phones."
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 spokesman Don Weber said in an e-mailed statement that given the nature of the agency's work, it would be "irresponsible to comment on actual or alleged operations issues." He added, "the NSA takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within the law."
NSA is the same spy agency that conducts the controversial domestic eavesdropping program that had been acknowledged earlier by 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.
The report came as 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. Other meetings with lawmakers were still planned.
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.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., who has spoken favorably of the nomination, said the latest revelation "is also going to present a growing impediment to the confirmation of Gen. Hayden."
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.
Too much fantasy and Hollywood Movie thinking involved in this story, too little grasp of how things really work. The Govt has enough REAL bad guys to chase, they have no need nor desire to chase YOU. Even if they WANTED to a few thousand Govt Bureaucrats cannot chase every one of 300 million American Citizens. You have to become an object of suspicion before they come looking for you. They got too much to do and too little to do it with to waste time on little old Freeper A who happened to call the pizza joint where Terrorist C worked.
I agree...I was merely pointing out how the software works.
No problem! :)
afp is sleeping at the wheel, btw, nothing from them yet.
Actually, I agree with you. I think the Bush Administration is straight-up using the information collected by NSA to root out terror.
But you overlooked or ignored the larger point. What happens when the nanny-state Democrats take over and start using those records to root out people who order pizza more than once a week. Or look for Second Amendment types, or pro-life activists? If you think that won't happen, think back to the Clinton years and Waco or Ruby Ridge.
President Bush I trust to do what he says. The other guys...not so much.
I'm guessing this reporter doesn't think there are al-Qaida/terrorist cells in the US.
Or that their right to privacy outweighs any potential threat they may pose
What about our right to privacy?
You want the government to have a list of every phone call you make - when, to whom, and for how long, without a warrant, or even a remote suspicion that you might be doing something wrong? Is it their business who we call?
You say, "But I'm not doing anything wrong, so I have nothing to fear." Right now, you might be right. But you're injured nonetheless. Because once you've lost a right, getting it back is difficult. And the next guy in charge, or a guy several elections along, might not be someone you trust with that power.
Let's take it a step further - would you be in fact okay with the government actually listening in on your phone conversations without a warrant or even suspicion, keeping track of what you're talking about?
How about a little bit further - how's about the government actually watching you - tailing you when you go about your business, sitting outside your house 24/7 with cameras, listening devices etc.? Uncomfortable yet?
How about reading your mail without your knowledge? Just to make sure you're not corresponding with Osama, or the next Mohammed Atta, or something.
Even a bit further - how about government agents bugging your house without a warrant, without suspicion? Oh, but they're not using the recordings for anything. They promise.
Oh - and they might go through your things while they're in there planting the listening devices. Just to make sure you're not up to something, you know. Strictly routine.
After all, you don't have anything to hide, do you?
SW
The BushBots are replicating. Run for your lives!
Wait a sec, is it determined to be legal only depending on who is in power? either its legal or it isn't.
i love these so-called patriots who say, "spy on me! i have nothing to hide!" those who say that must be TERRIFIED. i live in NYC and i'm just not scared enough to give the government whatever it wants. get a backbone folks.
Qwest, preferred telecommunication carrier of Jihadists.
Press Traitors and Idiots..., Now the Jihadis know they can avoid detection by running their e-mails and calls through Denver,
It is legal to listen to conversations with Al Qaeda.
Congress did declare war on Al Qaeda.
It is legal to listen to conversations with non-citizens.
Non-citizens are not Constitutionally protected.
Which category are you in?
You may want to consider this quote from the nominee for Director ofthe CIA, General Hyden:
"I have met personally with prominent corporate executive officers. (One senior executive confided that the data management needs we outlined to him were larger than any he had previously seen). [...] And last week we cemented a deal with another corporate giant to jointly develop a system to mine data that helps us learn about our targets."
http://www.nsa.gov/releases/relea00072.html
Yes, the government is very interested in this data!
In fact, they are so interested that they make note of it and keep it forever, so that at any time, anyone in the Government can look at a record of every single person whom every single American ever called or from whom they received a call. It doesn't take a professional privacy advocate to find that creepy, invasive, dangerous and un-American.
Come on people, do you really trust tomorrow's (as yet unknown) political leaders?
NOT ME!
The values being expressed by some on this thread are truly scary!!
Those "tomorrow's leaders" that you worry about MIGHT be Islamofacist leaders if we DON'T do this...
I will NOT take that chance..
gundog: here here!!!
I meant.... snidely whiplash above. :-)
*Those "tomorrow's leaders" that you worry about MIGHT be Islamofacist leaders if we DON'T do this...*
I agree with half of what you said... they may be facist but of the homegrown variety... and they will have your number and everyone you have called for years (doctor, lawyer, counselor, ex-girlfriend, maybe a out of favor political leader...).
I'm all about W and him being the man. I trust him.
However I am not willing to give up ANY of my privacy.
So now what do we do?
It *is* legal, but it shouldn't be. That's my point. I don't like the fact that the NSA knows what numbers I've dialed. But for now this sort of activity is legal, and I believe President Bush because he's got a track record of honest.
You and both know how government incrementalism works. Today it's terrorists. Tomorrow it's smokers, gun collectors and religious people. It needs to be stopped now.
Does Harry Reid have another handwritten letter filed stating his opposition while publicly playing the suprised law maker?
Nobody is being spied on.
They are taking al queda calls from the middle east to the u.s.
Then they take the call at the recieving end in the u.s and see who that person is talking too.
Before 9/11 wouldn't you have wanted to connect the calls from the middle east to atta and then who is he talking to.
9/11 commission said fisa acts to stop communication. Fisa blocked us from looking at moussawi's computers. Agents need to be able to act.
I am getting tired of the media equating tracking terrorists for domestic spying.
The same media that blamed bush for 9/11 and we had a commission is now blaming him for trying to stop attacks.
Enough is enough.
You can't fight the war on terror with this media.
Now these terrorists just have to use quest to discuss their plans.
The next mohammed atta can use quest to attack america.
And guess who will be blamed because the terrorists took advantage and attacked america.
Bush will be blamed. If he tries to stop attacks he gets blamed and if we get attacked bush gets blame.
Time for Bush to resign because the media is not letting him govern.
If we are attacked the media is going to have hell to pay.
I reject that arguement whenever I hear it regarding background checks for firearm purchases, so I know where you're coming from. But these conversations are detected by filters and I doubt that the feds have time to sort through a tenth of what they capture.
You want the government to have a list of every phone call you make - when, to whom, and for how long, without a warrant, or even a remote suspicion that you might be doing something wrong? Is it their business who we call?
All they need is probable cause and a warrant will be issued. All they'll get is bored and some wisecracks on FR.
You paint a picture of a govrrnment run amok...and I concur. So what? It's been that way for awhile and it's only gonna get worse. Keep yer powder dry and yer head down.
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