Welcome to the Police State. I had no idea so many Americans were talking to Al Qaeda.
Remember
that little canard about making sure a terrorist was on one end of the
line, and making sure it was an international call? Not so much.
In fact, the government's goal is to get every phone record in the
country - we're talking a record of every phone call you ever make or
receive.
I'm going to say it again. Encrypt your emails NOW:
THE NSA AND YOU....USA Today's
Leslie Cauley has a major story today about the NSA's program to
collect data not just on international calls, but on purely domestic
calls as well.It started right after 9/11:
"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.
....Last year...Bush insisted that the NSA was focused exclusively
on international calls. "In other words," Bush explained, "one end of
the communication must be outside the United States."
....Sources, however, say that is not the case. With access to
records of billions of domestic calls, the NSA has gained a secret
window into the communications habits of millions of Americans.
Customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are
not being handed over as part of NSA's domestic program, the sources
said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be
cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information.
The rules for collecting data about phone calls are different from the rules about listening in
on the content of phone calls, so I don't know what the legal situation
here is. However, although most domestic carriers cooperated with the
NSA, one of them didn't: Qwest.
According to sources
familiar with the events, Qwest's CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, was
deeply troubled by the NSA's assertion that Qwest didn't need a court
order — or approval under FISA — to proceed. Adding to the tension,
Qwest was unclear about who, exactly, would have access to its
customers' information and how that information might be used.
....The NSA told Qwest that other government agencies, including the
FBI, CIA and DEA, also might have access to the database, the sources
said. As a matter of practice, the NSA regularly shares its information
— known as "product" in intelligence circles — with other intelligence
groups. Even so, Qwest's lawyers were troubled by the expansiveness of
the NSA request, the sources said.
....Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's
lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to
the sources, the agency refused.
This should add even more excitement to Michael Hayden's confirmation hearings to run the CIA, shouldn't it?
There is a simple solution. If the White House will allow all of us
to listen to all of their calls, then they can listen to ours.
Seems fair and balanced to me.
Above the Law: Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Inquiry NSA won’t grant Justice Department lawyers required security clearance
AP:
The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless
eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to
grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to
probe the matter.
The inquiry headed by the Justice Department’s
Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep.
Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., on Wednesday saying they were closing their
inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice
lawyers’ role in the program...
Great. We're going to need voice scramblers in BushWorld. Fantastic. "Hello", "Yeah, Delivery", "I wanna large pepperoni"
THE NSA AND YOU.... USA Today's
