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What spy agency might do with your telephone calls
The Seattle Times ^
| May 12, 2006
| Brian Bergstein
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 ...
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: bush; data; nsa
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1
posted on
05/12/2006 3:10:41 AM PDT
by
SUSSA
To: SUSSA
somebody has an old spy vs spy cartoon somewhere :)
2
posted on
05/12/2006 3:12:21 AM PDT
by
kinoxi
To: SUSSA
Die of boredom?
"How are you?"
"Fine"
"And how are you?"
"Fine."
"How's Cynthia?"
"Good."
"And the boys?"
"Fine."
"Did you have a nice weekend?"
"Yes."
"Did you do anything?"
"No."
3
posted on
05/12/2006 3:32:59 AM PDT
by
OpusatFR
To: SUSSA
And, if Hell freezes over this summer, then it must be global warming.
Do these people have NOTHING better to do than write BS articles that speculate what the NSA might be doing with all of those phone records?
Isn't there something better going on than this? If this is the best they have today, why not dredge up more Abu Ghraib nonsense?
4
posted on
05/12/2006 3:34:22 AM PDT
by
DustyMoment
(FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
To: DustyMoment
"Isn't there something better going on than this? If this is the best they have today, why not dredge up more Abu Ghraib nonsense?"
That story will be recycled again eventually assuming the coup d'etat hasn't been accomplished by that time.
5
posted on
05/12/2006 3:40:44 AM PDT
by
passeryby
To: DustyMoment
Oh, they could have fun with my records.
By the time the prosecutor tries to bring that tangled spider web into something that resembles an "Evil Web" the jury would have nodded off and be drooling on themselves.
6
posted on
05/12/2006 3:43:58 AM PDT
by
PeteB570
(Guns, what real men want for Christmas)
To: kinoxi
To: SUSSA
I don't like the idea of the govt prying deeper into my privacy. Better them than some Saudi terrorist though.
Here's yet another officially classified program ratted out by a traitor. Someone better go to jail.
To: SUSSA
Correct me if I am wrong, but since the phone companies are private companies, they are free to do what they want with the records. (Example: My credit card company allowed me to "opt out" of sharing my information with others, instead of allowing them to be sold to third parties)
They can also refuse to cooperate, like Quest Communications did.
Where is the illegality here?
9
posted on
05/12/2006 3:46:44 AM PDT
by
RangerM
To: OpusatFR
Die of boredom?lol!
You beat me to it!
:-)
To: philman_36
11
posted on
05/12/2006 3:47:46 AM PDT
by
kinoxi
To: RangerM
They can also refuse to cooperate, like Quest Communications did. Quest. The preferred telecommunications company of terrorists everywhere...
12
posted on
05/12/2006 3:49:46 AM PDT
by
mewzilla
(Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
To: DustyMoment
It's an old story, one that's been around since 2000 when Steve Croft at 60 Minutes did a job on Aeschelon, developed and implemented in the Clinton Admin.
NY TIMES did similar send up last December.
In between there's been spotted coverage, pegged to "privacy", and the selective outrage of the looney left.
The only reason the MSM is pushing it like a NEW revelation is to sabotage the nomination of NSA head Michael Hayden to CIA cheif.
13
posted on
05/12/2006 3:50:22 AM PDT
by
plangent
To: kinoxi
Don't get me wrong, I'm not much in favor of such a program if it is as comprehensive as it's being made out to be, but I'd rather have it in place right now than see another 9-11 take place.
Ya always have to consider such things being in the wrong hands.
A snowball rolled off the top of a hill becomes a really big snowball by the time it gets to the bottom of the hill.
To: PeteB570
Oh, they could have fun with my records. They could indeed. Ever mis-dial a number? How do you know the number you got didn't belong to a kiddie-porn distributor, or the bar where the local Aryan Brotherhood hangs out? And you are now 'linked' to them.
15
posted on
05/12/2006 3:51:50 AM PDT
by
Grut
To: SUSSA; All
This, from the blogosphere:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/
NSA Accused of Protecting U.S. From Terrorists
Liberals are jumping up and down about USA Today's publication of another leak relating to the National Security Agency. Michelle Malkin has a good roundup of reaction to the story. I'd add just a few comments...it's interesting to juxtapose the NSA stories--this one plus the Agency's international terrorist surveillance program--with this account of a report earlier today by Britain's Intelligence and Security Committee on the subway bombings in London last July: link: 252 comments
I received the following from a retired spook;
I am SO SICK of hearing about the NSA!! I worked for the NSA for 20 years as a Naval Cryptologist (1981-2001), and I worked at NSA for over 3 years! It used to be a super secret agency that no one really knew anything about, and let me tell you - the intell gathered helped keep this country safe FOR DECADES!
The thing that killed us was what Clinton did! Not being able to share info with the other agencies..
Now, the f#ckin liberals would rather put us all into GRAVE DANGER because they hate Bush, than keep America's secrets - SECRET. Like an idiot friend said, "why is the govt keeping 9-11 tapes secret?" I told him - because we don't want the f#ckin terrorists to know what we know! (about them, their methods, lingo, etc) - but the asshole thinks the gov't is doing it to keep Americans in the dark. What a d!ck!
For my 20 years, NSA was on the up-and-up and we don't / didn't listen to American's comms! We collected data against enemy targets!!!! The enemy is out there and we used to be able to listen to his sh!t, but the libs are ruining it - for political reasons - the A$$HOLES!
Like I said, I'm so mad - the liberals keep giving the enemy our intelligence, that took forever to get, I'm just so mad. SECRET.
Spoken like a true sailor (which I love) and a true America (which I adore and respect.) Thank you soldier.
More bad news for Americans from Stop the ACLU here;
In an attempt to rekindle the scaremongering of the paranoid left, USA today has taken upon itself to "declassify" more classified information about programs aimed at protecting us. Obviously they decided that there wasn't already enough damage done to national security.
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.
"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.
You must read it all. Jay explains;
It isn't secret anymore, now is it? If you read the entire thing you could easily be left with the impression that the government has gathered all kinds of personal information on you, studied your calling habits, etc. These phone companies went along with the government's request for phone records. These are records that the phone companies keep anyway, that are often called upon in court cases. No one has been listening in on domestic phone calls, they are only collecting a database of what numbers called other numbers.
Since Quest is the only company that refused to work with the government on the matter without a FISA warrant, we should be seeing a mass flocking of the paranoid left over to this company. That might not be such a good idea however. This leak may have just tipped some terrorist to exactly what communications in America are more vulnerable.
16
posted on
05/12/2006 3:52:08 AM PDT
by
backhoe
(A Nuke for every Kook- what Clinton "legacy...")
To: backhoe
Since Quest is the only company that refused to work with the government on the matter without a FISA warrant, we should be seeing a mass flocking of the paranoid left over to this company.And not just the paranoid left.
17
posted on
05/12/2006 3:56:30 AM PDT
by
mewzilla
(Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
To: mewzilla
The preferred telecommunications company of terrorists everywhere...
cut to business office to man on phone: Yeah, boss, we got it. If any of them stand firm and refuse then we monitor their calls through satellite transmissions or other means already covered under the law. Got it. /imagination
To: SUSSA
19
posted on
05/12/2006 3:57:26 AM PDT
by
Peach
To: philman_36
I have three words: Ryder rental truck.
Now what does that make you think of?
I think Quest's board needs its colective head examined.
20
posted on
05/12/2006 3:58:59 AM PDT
by
mewzilla
(Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
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