Terrorism & Security
posted May 12, 2006 at 11:20 a.m.

Left and right question NSA spying program

Bush says there is no danger to privacy but many lawmakers want more information.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

The uproar over the revelation that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been keeping a huge database of almost every phone number called by Americans inside and outside the country, brought a series of strong condemnations from both the left and the right Thursday, in both the media and by politicians. Editor and Publisher reports that editorials at the nation's leading newspapers, both from the left and the right, condemned the program and said what the goverment was doing " undermines US freedoms and threatens us all."

From the right, the Chicago Tribune editorial page on Friday opined, "This sounds like a vast and unchecked intrusion on privacy. President Bush's assurance Thursday that the privacy of Americans was being 'fiercely protected' was not at all convincing.....Based on the newspaper's reporting, this effort appears to go far beyond any surveillance effort that would be targeted at terrorist operations.
"At first blush this program carries troubling echoes of Total Information Awareness, a proposed Defense Department 'data-mining' expedition into a mass of personal information on individuals' driver's licenses, passports, credit card purchases, car rentals, medical prescriptions, banking transactions and more. That was curbed by Congress after a public outcry. It seems the people who wanted to bring you TIA didn't get the message."

The Boston Globe said it was time for the president to come clean with the American people, and for politicians to establish legal frameworks for collection of vast amounts of information about Americans.

The lack of public outrage after the revelation that overseas calls were being tapped without the court warrants required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] suggests that Bush succeeded in persuading most Americans that the bugging was not aimed at them. The newly disclosed practice, however, does include the telephone records of ordinary Americans. Congress, which has so far acquiesced in skirting FISA, should now force the administration to explain this data-mining. If Congress decides it is worthwhile, it must establish a legal framework for it.


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The Chicago Tribune reports that the White House reacted defensively to the news about the collection of domestic phone records. President Bush called a hasty news conference where he tried to assure the American people that "the NSA did not randomly invade the privacy of Americans who subscribe to AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth phone services."

"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," Bush said. "Our efforts are focused on links to Al Qaeda and their known affiliates . . . .As a general matter, every time sensitive intelligence is leaked, it hurts our ability to defeat this enemy."

Bloomberg reports, however, that lawmakers from the left and the right are demanding more information from the White House about the program. They said they would also demand answers about the program from Gen. Michael Hayden, the White House's pick to head the CIA.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, Chairman Arlen Specter demanded that executives from the three phone companies testify before Congress about their agreement to turn over customer data. "I am determined to get to the bottom of this," said Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, who added that he will subpoena the telephone companies if they decline to appear before his committee voluntarily. Specter said the report "does not raise concern in my mind about General Hayden, but I think it underscores the need for judicial review" of the NSA's domestic eavesdropping.

The White House strongly defended Gen. Hayden yesterday, saying " we're full-steam ahead on his nomination." The Associated Press also offers an analysis of what the White House and the NSA might do with the vast amounts of data it is collecting on Americans.

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.
Social-network analysis has gained prominence in business and intelligence circles under the belief that it can yield extraordinary insights, such as the fact that people in disparate organizations have common acquaintances. Companies can buy social-networking software to help determine who has the best connections for a particular sales pitch.

AP also reports that experts say that "who you are calling often says more than what you are saying." And while the NSA has refused to comment, these same experts believe that it's not only landline communications that the NSA is using to do social-network analysis. "Other forms of communication, including cellphone calls, e-mail and instant messages, likely are trackable targets as well, at least on international networks if not inside the United States." USAToday, who broke the original story Thursday about the massive datebase, reports Friday that the collection of the data may not violate the Fourth Amendment's privacy guarantees, but it could violate federal surveillance and tgelecommunications laws.

Despite all this, the Washington Post reports that a poll conducted Thursday night shows that a majority of Americans supports the NSA program to collect phone data information, perhaps believing that the dangers of terrorism matter more than personal privacy.