The Other NSA Surveillance Program?:
Those who were following the NSA domestic surveillance story back in January will recall that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales strongly hinted that there was another surveillance program out there that remained top secret. Well, it looks like that program may now have been leaked, too. Thursday's USA Today breaks the story:
Thanks to an anonymous commenter for the link.
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.For more on the program, see here.
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans โ 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.
For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made โ across town or across the country โ to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.
The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.
Thanks to an anonymous commenter for the link.
This may be b/c I am a computer scientist, and I am well aware that everything we do is being scanned and analyzed frequently by private companies. AT&T is analyzing our call patterns, Google is analyzing our mail and internet searches, and everyone is analyzing our credit card purchases. Does it really hurt me if the NSA gets in on the act?
What we need to be doing is to prevent IRS agents from snooping on their neighbors' tax files, not preventing computers from doing broad pattern recognition. I'm much more afraid of abuses by government employees going through paper files than of anything they can do with computers.
If this is unlawful, I'm glad we have the heroic NY Times taking a principled stand against the encroaching police state, but I hope they are prepared for yete another leak investigation. Of course if it is lawful, it will be another nice disclosure of an intelligence program which AQ and other terrorist elements will no doubt heed, and adjust to accordingly. Not that the possibility of lawfulness should cross our minds, since it sounds like such a juicy soundbit against the administration.
Yes! For one thing, Google and AT&T can't lock you up if they feel like it. Is this point really so difficult to grasp? The state has a lot of power, including -- in the present case -- the claimed power to detain and "render" anyone it feels is a threat to national security, all without much in the way of court oversight. Couple that to a gigantic database whose analyses will certainly produce false positives. Do you care yet?
As of right now we do not know if this is even true and if it is at least partially true how the program is run and what it tracks. Wonder if the sources were sending in theinformation from a Kinko copy shop in Texas.
I'm sure General Hayden would like to know.
IIRC, something like this was discussed during the initial round of wire-tapping disclosures. My recollection is that 'switch log' data such as this is not subject to wire-tapping regulations, though it probably is subject to ordinary search warrants.
The requirements for such court orders are quite permissive, requiring only "a certification by the applicant that the information likely to be obtained is foreign intelligence information not concerning a United States person or is relevant to an ongoing investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such investigation of a United States person is not conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution."
However, it appears from the USA Today story that no such court orders were issued or sought. It seems risible to pretend that even the standard of "relevant to an ongoing investigation" could be stretched to include every call made by every person in the country every day.
Neither can the NSA. Nor, really, can any other government agency without some evidence that can be presented to a court without disclosing the existence of a secret program.
But does the Administration share your view--if, say, the person has been designated an "enemy combatant"?
Unless Bush declares you an enemy combatant.