What spy agency might do with your telephone calls

The Seattle Times ^ | May 12, 2006 | Brian Bergstein

[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.

[SUSSA]

Because many who now call themselves conservatives are what we used to call “Rockefeller Republicans”. They aren’t small government conservatives or personal responsibility conservatives, or personal liberty conservatives, like Goldwater, Buckley, or Reagan.

They are big government conservatives. They are only conservative when compared to people like John Conyers.

Back in 1960 JFK was a liberal. Today he would be considered a right wing extremist by the Republican leadership. It just shows how far we’ve slid into the slime pit of big government socialism.

[spatso]

Okay, but, how do people who choose to be conservative, in terms of their own self understanding, fail to grasp the notion of freedom as an individual versus collective right. Liberals believe the government has a right to intrude because it protects a greater collective right. Conservatives are reluctant to endorse any government intrusion of individual freedom. Data mining does not bother me. Common sense tells me it is a security matter and I can live with the Courts authorizing this intrusion into my affairs. What bothers me is conservatives not recognizing how challenging a test this is for us.

[SUSSA]

Because under this new definition of “conservatism” rights are collective, not individual, and government isn’t the problem, it is the answer. It’s the same old New Deal/Great Society crap under a new name. In government New Speak old fashioned socialism in compassionate conservatism.

[Peach]

Use it in good health, Diana.

[RightWinger]

I've learned to be skeptical when the government tells me they are or aren't doing something.

Like I said, if the government can abuse it, they will abuse it.

[Enterprise]

Widespread abuses cannot exist without the cooperation of a corrupt media. If a President is corrupt, and the President appoints a corrupt Attorney General, there are limitless possibilities to harass and intimidate political opponents so long as a biased media ignores the abuses. That is what was happening on a huge scale in the Clinton Administration. And it will happen again in a future Clinton Administration. What is today is called "data mining" can turn into an enemies list in the future.

[SUSSA]

President Clinton and NSA head Livingstone assure the nation that data mining is only being used against terrorists. "Everything the NSA does is legal." Livingstone told the fawning nation.

[Enterprise]

Hee hee. If you can't trust Livingstone, well, who can you trust?