Posted on 05/12/2006 3:10:38 AM PDT by SUSSA
BOSTON If the National Security Agency (NSA) is indeed amassing a colossal database of Americans' phone records, one way to use all that information is in "social-network analysis," a data-mining method that aims to expose previously invisible connections among people.
(snip)
That level of cooperation confirmed the fears of many privacy analysts, who pointed out that AT&T is already being sued in federal court in San Francisco for allegedly giving the NSA access to contents of its phone and Internet networks.
The suit, filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and based on documents from a former AT&T technician, says secret spying rooms and electronic-surveillance equipment were installed by the NSA in AT&T facilities in Seattle and several cities in California to monitor communications. The government is seeking to dismiss the case, citing "the military and state-secrets privilege," according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
(snip)
Social-network analysis would appear to be powerless against criminals and terrorists who rely on a multitude of cellphones, pay phones, calling cards and Internet cafes.
And then there are more creative ways of getting off the grid. In the Madrid train-bombings case, the plotters communicated by sharing one e-mail account and saving messages to each other as drafts that didn't traverse the Internet like regular mail messages would.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
safety first, i agree
collective...
When Craig Livingstone gets put in charge of this information you and some others around here will be whining about how could this happen.
"I don't like the idea of the govt prying deeper into my privacy. Better them than some Saudi terrorist though."
I don't think Achmed is interested in your phone calls.
It'll expose all the conference-calls between the MSM & the DNC.
It'll expose all the conference-calls between the MSM & the DNC.
My instant reaction is to rebel against anyone prying into my privacy. It is intuitively supposed by me as a freedom issue. On the other hand, I recognize national security requires a comprehensive monitoring of the landscape. I am most distressed that conservatives are now placed in the awkward position of having to argue for government intervention into matters of information privacy.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm NOT blaming that company for the OKC bombing. But that event is what those three words bring to mind.
If Quest wants to be in that same boat some day, God forbid, I think it needs its corporate head examined.
Paging the Dems....
Agreed. But all monitoring needs a very high degree of oversight. To many forget Filegate.
Have you ever asked yourself "why do we worry about loss of our privacy and freedoms after we have already lost them?"
This pales in comparison with the absolute loss of privacy and freedom when it comes to the IRS and Social Security Administration. As a matter of fact, whth the IRS you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent. And even after that, you will not be compensated for the costs and trouble caused you while defending yourself.
Believe it or not, the IRS spies on "suspects" in many more intrusive means and has the power to destroy you financially and mentally at their whim.
No one seems to address this breach of privacy and freedom.
Maybe we could use them to track down all the illegals, and then send black helicopters into their neighborhood to pick them up. Whisk them off to our top secret SPECTRE, I mean NSA (wink) bio-implant facility to implant special chips in their brain. Then send them back to Mexico. And when the our diabolical leader President Bush sends the electronic signal, they will overthrow the Mexican government, and Dick Cheny will take over for Vicente Fox, and all that oil will be ours, ours, ours! Yes, President Bush, taking over the world one oil rich country at a time.
I don't like the idea of the government listening to any of my boring phone conversations.
I know, I know, if I'm not saying anything wrong, I shouldn't mind.
We all know that "if" the government can abuse information gathered, they "will" abuse information gathered.
How "comprehensive" can it be if the phone companies (i.e. Bell South, Verizon, etc) DONT EVEN PROVIDE the govt. with any names or addresses associated with any numbers?? (check the USA article)
To me, this is no different than the govt. keeping track of letters from overseas that are sent to a known or suspected alQaeda terror cell in the USA.
Except in THIS case, the govt. doesn't even get the benefit of the ADDRESS on the front of the suspect letter.
Under this anti-NSA logic, the US should have gotten a court order before it began monitoring those Nazi submarines which came inside US territorial waters during WWII. After all, we don't want to violate those NAZI's inherent constitutional rights, now do we??
You hit that dead on. If the President were to take a Mulligan on this I am sure that we would all be happier if he had kept the entire matter as a FISA proceeding. This is one instance where form may be as important as substance. Conservatives could get really ripped if we appear as the agents wanting to repress the rights personal privacy in the interest of a big government. File gate, perhaps, most unfortunate.
I don' think the Clintons would hesitate one bit to use the NSA to retaliate against people who criticize them. And FReepers would be at the top of their list.
I'd rather someone collect my phone number than my grandchildren's bodies... Very small price to pay.
"Democrats were okay with Eschelon and Carnivore"
You are so right in this post.
I used to design cryptographic equipment for various "groups" in one of my former lives.
This has been going on for DECADES, and who knows how the Clinton/Gore machine used the info... maybe the same way they used FBI files?
Where was the outrage then?
We need good ELINT now more than we ever did during the cold war. The situation is MUCH more unpredictable.
These liberal idiots who "out" these intel tactics for political reasons will wind up with blood on their hands!
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