May 11 2006

Another Day, Another National Security Leak

*** Major Update: Mac Ranger has word those who leaked this story are known to authorities and this may be a political hit job ***

*** Major Update at the end – and make sure to check out the comments section for links (simply cursor over the name for the comment to find trackbacks) ***

Is anyone surprised the rogue CIA and their media counterparts are leaking more information and spinning it to sound really, really bad:

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.

Emphasis mine because there are wo things to note. First off most recordings related to a warranted search cover the innocent. Picture yourself as the target of a surveillance warrant (drugs, organized crime, terrorism – pick one) and then realize how many people you contact via phone and compter. You parents, siblings, children, neighbors all get monitored and their phone number and address recorded.

That is why there is a distinction in the law (though I am not sure I am using the exact legal terms here) between the target of a surveillance and the contacts of the target. Everyone gets swept up in a surveillance. That is why judges are the only ones authorized to make a person in America or an American a target of surveillance. That includes FISA and normal courts depending on the suspected crime or activity.

Now the NSA has two roles: one to monitor our enemies overseas (their legitimate, warrentless targets) and one to investigate communications in response to warrants from US courts. What this means is they monitor a lot of targets and sweep up a lot of information regarding innocent contacts with those targets. This role is clearly stated in the NSA response:

The White House would not discuss the domestic call-tracking program. “There is no domestic surveillance without court approval,”

This is the same FISA-leak all dressed up in different spin. This is not news except to those ignorant of how things work in the news corpse. The second item I highlighted is the proof of this point. To note the contact details (Name, number, address) of a legitimate target under surveillance is obvious. There is no listening to the conversation and no records retained on the conversation of innocent discussions. There is more proof later in the article:

The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

Why else monitor the calls? In fact, the reason to note contacts as innocent or suspicious is to whittle down who targets of surveillance are talking to who may be accomplices. These records are actually a record that these people are INNOCENT of any relationship with a possible crime.

Prior to 9-11 NSA would note who inside the US (or what American citizen) was in contact with our enemies while monitoring our enemies. If your neighbor had called Bin Laden prior to 9-11 the NSA would know (if they were listening in on Bin Laden) and note it. But prior to 9-11 they would retain that information and not distribute it within the government to law enforcement (who must submit permission for warrants to monitor Americans and people in the US). After 9-11 this changed. Now when the NSA gets a contact with one of their targets overseas they pass that to the FBI who investigates and, if concerned, takes a request to the FISA court for a warrant to monitor.

Same old story wrapped up in a different package and for one reason – Gen Hayden’s selection to head the CIA. Personally, I think the rogue CIA agents are fools to continue this game. This just exposes why Hayden must go, and why he should keep his uniform on. While in uniform he must do what the President orders (forget Rumsfeld). This is just a lame attempt to throw up disninformation. Here’s the sentence that pulls the facade off this hit piece:

In defending the previously disclosed program, 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.”

As a result, domestic call records — those of calls that originate and terminate within U.S. borders — were believed to be private.

Who believed this? Anyone who is ignorant or naive I suppose. Are these people saying we don’t record who is in contact with targets and then make sure these contacts are innocent and of no concern? And as I said, each contact gets some designation (probably innocent, not sure, probably a terrorist sympathizer) so these records identify who was deemed to be irrelevant and simply caught up in the monitoring. Like the airline employee who makes the ticket reservations for a terrorists flight.

Take special note of where the words ‘could’ ‘can be’ are used. These are speculations of what is possible – not what the article is claiming is being done. For example:

But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information.

See how the writer and those ’sources’ are trying to make it sound like this is being done. That is how they sneak propaganda into these articles. And it takes forethought and careful wording.

UPDATE: And here is why this reporting is dangerous. Of course the leftwing nuts want to point out the brave groups ’speaking to power’, so they alert the terrorists to shift all their communications over to Qwest because Qwest is not partnering with the NSA to help find potential 9-11 terrorists here in the country:

Among the big telecommunications companies, only Qwest has refused to help the NSA, the sources said. According to multiple sources, Qwest declined to participate because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants.

Qwest’s refusal to participate has left the NSA with a hole in its database. Based in Denver, Qwest provides local phone service to 14 million customers in 14 states in the West and Northwest.

USA Today just tipped off the terrorist how to avoid detection and put the people in Qwest’s areas in danger because now it is known those areas have the least protection and should be targeted! What are these people THINKING! Someone needs to go to jail.

Update: Rick Moran has a good round up of the lemmings from the left – responding on cue.

Update: As Druge points out, the liberal fringe forgot to get all upset when their hero Clinton was establishing a much more invasive and legally shakey system during his term. Clinton’s system actually checked CONTENTS, not just who was talking to whom.

Update: Group Intel has a good explanation of how things really work when people are reviewing phone records and searching for terrorists. As much as KoS would wish otherwise, I am afraid he is completely irrelevant to the NSA’s mission to protect America.

54 responses so far

54 Responses to “Another Day, Another National Security Leak”

  1. Stop The ACLUon 11 May 2006 at 7:56 am

    New NSA Leaks From USA Today…

    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.
    The National Security Agency has been secretly collecti…

  2. Sister Toldjahon 11 May 2006 at 8:30 am

    The latest non-scandal scandal news involving the NSA…

    Yet one more in a long line of hyped stories about the NSA and datamining. The USA Today breathlessly reports, starting off with an eye-catching headline:
    NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls
    The National Security Agency has been …

  3. HaroldHutchisonon 11 May 2006 at 8:39 am

    Wait until the Pelosi Democrats take over (thanks for nothing, conservatives). This will look like peanuts compared to that.

  4. lucon 11 May 2006 at 9:00 am

    The information published by USA Today is really “repackaged old news” as the same information was circulating in the blogosphere when the original NSA leak by the Times was published. Obviously, somebody is trying to stir the pot in response to Gen Hayden’s selection to head the CIA. But, what else is new?

    Unfortunately, this tactic of repeating ad nauseam the same half-truths seems to be effective in reducing support for President Bush.
    Is it not what has happened with the public perception of the war in Iraq? After endlessly repeating that the war is “lost” when it is actually practically won, are not now public opinion pols showing that a majority of respondents believe the war is lost?

    What adjective other than CRIMINAL would you apply to the MSM?

  5. Liberty and Justiceon 11 May 2006 at 9:03 am

    Just Checking On Your Phone Calls…

    Members of Congress should be able to check up on the government. They should ensure that the NSA is not breaking the law. At this moment, that seems to be quite impossible for Congress to do. [...] AJ Strate from The Strata-Sphere supports the NSA on …

  6. RightWinged.comon 11 May 2006 at 9:11 am

    Today’s Bogus/Manufactured NSA Anti-Civil Rights Story…

    ***UPDATE*** Both sides of the blogosphere are weighing in. The left is looney as ever, you’ve got to scroll down to see what the DailyKOS has to say. Outside the Beltway sums the media spin of this up in one……

  7. The American Streeton 11 May 2006 at 9:13 am

    Trust No One…

    This government trusts no one, not even itself. George Bush’s NSA won’t give George Bush’s Justice Department security clearances to review possible abuses. And the government is analyzing the records of most every phone call you make.

  8. GroupIntelon 11 May 2006 at 9:27 am

    NSA Expose…

    Scary piece on NSA’s supposed evils in USA Today this morning. Will have a more thorough treatment up later today, but in the mean time, allow me to do my bit for the environment and recycle another post that should provide some insights and bala…

  9. Kitty Litteron 11 May 2006 at 9:48 am

    SURRENDER, REPUBLICANS…

    AJ Strata reports Another Day, Another National Security Leak: USA Today just tipped off the terrorist how to avoid detection and put the people in Qwest’s areas in danger because now it is known those areas have the least protection and should be ta….

  10. trentk269on 11 May 2006 at 9:57 am

    The left has always gotten its panties into a bunch when anyone but them exercises power.

    It’s wrong for the government to track foreign terrorist contacts in the U.S., but it’s OK for gays or Islamists or femiNazis to show up in school and tell your kids what to think.

    It’s wrong for the military to aggressively respond to terror cells abroad which are armed to the teeth, but it’s OK to bring terrorists into this country to attend college.

    And it’s wrong for any of us to criticize Islam (the religion of peace) but it’s OK for any and every left-wing whack job in the country to draw cartoons of Jesus nailed to the cross with an erection.

  11. Flopping Aceson 11 May 2006 at 9:57 am

    The New CIA Leak…

    Surprise surprise. Another leak from someone inside Government, cough CIA cough, just as Gen. Hayden is set to go up for confirmation hearings to lead the CIA.
    The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens …

  12. ivehaditon 11 May 2006 at 10:04 am

    All this tells me is that these people want us to lose. They hate America.

    Our votes will count this November…and we don’t ever want a single one of them in any form of power.

  13. The Sandboxon 11 May 2006 at 10:13 am

    More “Good” Leaks…

    Though I’m sure this latest leak of NSA programs will again be a good leak that the media loves, I’d like to make something clear: The government, in keeping us safe, has done and will continue to do many things…

  14. NSA – Leaking in the USA Today…

    Just when I was about to go off on this new “leak”, AJ Strata and Rick Moran beat me to it….

  15. A Blog For Allon 11 May 2006 at 10:40 am

    The Latest Leak…

    USA Today is reporting a new NSA program based on new leaks of classified information. Doesn’t that strike anyone the least bit odd?…

  16. The Political Pit Bullon 11 May 2006 at 10:43 am

    Disgust And Hopelessness…

    Why don’t we just throw in the towel now? Let’s tell the terrorists all of our national security secrets, give them control of our nukes, turn the United States into an Islamofacist state, and call it a day. Allah Akhbar…….

  17. Sensible Momon 11 May 2006 at 11:18 am

    Data Mining…

    It’s called data mining. They have computer programs that take the data and look for patterns. Joe Blow at the NSA isn’t listening in on phone conversations or looking at your phone records unless, of course, you’ve fallen into a pattern of contac…

  18. Church and Stateon 11 May 2006 at 11:20 am

    If A Democrat Were President……

    …He’d be hailed a hero for analyzing phone call patterns to detect terrorist movement….

  19. roonent1on 11 May 2006 at 12:39 pm

    Folks,

    This is exactly why we can not abandon the republican party while we fight this war on terror. People whom think we should set an example with Bush and the GOP because of some policies differences are very short-sighted.

    Policies differences do not matter if you are dead. We face an enemy that the world has never seen because they can obtain and are trying obtain weapons that could kill 100,000’s of innoncent people, including elderly, women and children.

    First off, I will go on the record as a proud conservative that thinks POTUS Bush is a great president and a good man. We are lucky to have him during these times. NO PRESIDENT during our history has had to deal with so many big important issues during their tenure.

    To PEGGY NOONAN and La Shawn Barber and other conservatives that want Bush impeached or for the GOP to lose power so they will learn a lesson. GROW TFU. You guys make me sick. You are acting so darn spoiled and it is disgusting.

    If we lose power to the dems, you will rue the day you played your damn games. The courts, including the supreme and legislation that has been enacted to advance our conservative agenda will be set back many years. You will have no one to balme but yourselves. How are you going to pay for gas when your taxes go up and the economy is wrecked and unemployment rises?

    Peggy, please do not carry on as being a sweet nice lady anymore because you truly are not. I have decided there is literaly no difference betwen you and Hillary except registration and agendas. You are both fake individuals. With a friend like you, you do not need an enemy. La Shawn barber, you are just ignorant.

    Yes, as you can see, I am very upset because the idea of taking your marbles and going home because you are not getting everything you want is truly ridiculous. Every relationship, yes we have a relationship with this administration, is difficult. There is give and take with any good relationship. If all you want is to take and when things do not go your way, you opt out, a realtionship fails. Noonan, Barber and others – if you are currently in a successful relationship you know what I am talking about. Maybe you should think about trying that same formula with POTUS Bush and the GOP.

    Abdandoning POTUS Bush during these times does not reflect on him but you. Long after POTUS Bush is gone, we will remember your actions. If you stay home or vote third party in Nov. and we lose power, I hope the agenda of the dems affects you guys allot more than my family and me.

    Shame, shame on you.

  20. Zenakuon 11 May 2006 at 12:39 pm

    “To note the contact details (Name, number, address) of a legitimate target under surveillance is obvious.”

    Are you being purposely misleading, or are you honestly too dense to follow the issue? How is a database noting call details for *every* call made by or to *every* customer of AT&T, Verizon, and Bellsouth associated with “a legitimate target under surveillance?”

    By your logic, picking up a telephone makes one a legitimate target.

  21. AJStrataon 11 May 2006 at 12:46 pm

    Zenaku,

    Dense? I just read the story correctly. There was no accusation this database covered every call made. In fact, the claim was it was a database of calls the monitored. And if all the calls they monitored were legal and, in most cases, covered under a warrant, then these calls all relate to legal surveillance.

    I guess I am just really, really careful to read the article, and not read into the article.

  22. roonent1on 11 May 2006 at 12:54 pm

    To those I offended with my above post, I apologize to you. I however will not apologize to Noonan or Barber for directing my comments to them.

    If you attack POTUS Bush, you have to understand you are fair game to receive rebuttal from those of us willing to stand by him.

    I stand by my comments. AJ if I am out of line, I apologize to you. Someone had to say ith though.

  23. AJStrataon 11 May 2006 at 1:09 pm

    ROONENT1,

    You didn’t bother me.

    AJStrata

  24. az redneckon 11 May 2006 at 1:17 pm

    ROONENT1:

    I agree with you. Remember Perot and 8 yrs of Clinton!

  25. smh10on 11 May 2006 at 1:27 pm

    Roonett1:

    Great piece..could not agree more. Not a day goes by when I don’t question why more Conservative elected officials do not suport this President both in word and deed.

    As for Peggy, I believe she will never see another Presient as great as Reagan and while he was a great Patriot and good President, his challenges were minimal compared to what this President has had to face. .

    AJ you are mentioned in the Powerline story today on the new leak if in fact you haven’t read yet this morning. Nice to see your work being repeated on great blogs.

  26. KCon 11 May 2006 at 3:04 pm

    Ah, yes. The traitorous press hurting Bush at every turn, at the expense of the GWOT!
    Now the enemy knows that their call data is being recorded, and can take…er….evasive measures(?)…um… anyway, let’s throw the reporters and leakers in jail!

    Except when they leak something beneficial to the Administration like:

    Plame was working on Iran Nukes
    Oh well, life through the looking glass goes on…

  27. KCon 11 May 2006 at 3:06 pm

    Is HTML formatting allowed?

  28. ivehaditon 11 May 2006 at 3:08 pm

    Roonenti, excellent post. Thank you for standing up for the President.
    George Bush is one of the greatest presdents we have ever had, imho.
    I,too, am sick of these “your way or the highway” people and they are growing in number it seems. But so are those of us who agree with you…
    We will have to fight hard to keep the dems out of power…but we will succeed!

  29. ivehaditon 11 May 2006 at 3:16 pm

    …that should be “my way or the highway”, LOL!

  30. Blue Crab Boulevardon 11 May 2006 at 3:18 pm

    The Problem With Leaks…

    I see USA Today has a story, written completely around leaked information, about a secret NSA program. I also see that the blogosphere is exploding about this. Opinions are predictable, of course. There is much rage on the left. One pictures …

  31. Sueon 11 May 2006 at 3:19 pm

    KC,

    You might want to find a source besides David Shuster to link to. Most of us know he reads tea leaves.

  32. Riehl World Viewon 11 May 2006 at 3:19 pm

    NSA Story: Why Bush Is To Blame…

    Today’s NSA story is the second, or possibly third iteration of the communication’s monitoring meme, which is probably more about political battles, especially over the CIA, than anything else. The target is more likely Hayden than it is at Bush,…

  33. KCon 11 May 2006 at 3:24 pm

    OK – Intelligence Sources Say Plame Was Working On Iran

  34. KCon 11 May 2006 at 3:50 pm

    USA Today just tipped off the terrorist how to avoid detection and put the people in Qwest’s areas in danger because now it is known those areas have the least protection and should be targeted! What are these people THINKING! Someone needs to go to jail.

    LOL!!! Thanks for the laughs, AJ! I guess we can expect a rash of terrorist attacks in CO, NM, AZ, UT, etc. thanks to QWEST and those leakers.
    Put QWEST’s execs in jail!

  35. Lindataon 11 May 2006 at 4:26 pm

    The link re the Clinton’s “much more invasive and legally shakey program” simply describes the international portion of the NSA monitoring operation (perhaps with an earlier codename) that you obviously approve of Bush using. The article discusses the idea that NSA is using and developing technology that could be turned on American citizens. Obviously you approve of Bush doing that, too. Would you be so approving if you were critical of the government in power? I believe not – your ability to criticize Clinton for the very same program you praise Bush for simply means IOKIYAR.

  36. topsecretk9@AJon 11 May 2006 at 4:26 pm

    Sue

    I think KC was better off relying on Shuster…

  37. jonniegon 11 May 2006 at 4:34 pm

    Warrantless wiretaps and expensive taxpayer-funded intrusions into business and personal affairs, burning international bridges, and dissing field operations personnel is the way to go. What we need are more computers storing more noise.

    It’s a great idea. Tim McVeigh and Eric Rudolph were not ethnic studies professors, after all… And 32% is a minority. The right wing in this country does not have a pristine record with terrorism – perhaps we should be spying on fundamentalist congregations.

    After all, wiretap blackmail almost worked for *Reverend* Martin Luther King in the early 1960s.

  38. AJStrataon 11 May 2006 at 4:37 pm

    Lindata,

    I never criticized Clinton. In fact, you read slowly you will see I said the left never complained when their leader Clinton had a much more invasive program (because Echelon does review content). And you have no proof Bush is targeting Americans – and my posts points out the difference between a target and a contact.

    Nice demonstration of reading comprehension skills there.

  39. Terryeon 11 May 2006 at 4:40 pm

    Roonenti:

    I was not offended and in fact I agree with you.

    And as far as Peggy Noonan is concerned, that woman needs to retire. These same people with this mindset would tear Reagan up too. When Reagan gave millions of illegals amnesty did conservatives threaten to sit out the next election? Did Reagan build a wall? Can we imagine that he would even have considered such a thing? The only wall I remember Reagan talking about was one he wanted torn down. And then of course there was Iran/Contra. Imagine the reaction if Bush traded arms for hostages.

    No, these people are the ones who have changed. They have turned Reagan into something he never was and they have abandoned their own president today when the truth is most of them were around in politics for years before Bush got to Washington…and just what were they doing for all those years?

    Truman said once that we should have a Department of Columnists to run the country since they think they do already.

  40. Sueon 11 May 2006 at 4:44 pm

    Top,

    A case of pick your poison, Shuster or Raw Story.

  41. KCon 11 May 2006 at 4:54 pm

    “Shuster or Raw Story” –

    Ah, so I see how things work here now. Don’t like the story, say something bad about the source. So by that rationale, I can singlehandedly dismiss any link to: Fox News, Washington Times, etc.? Nevermind that. Are you seriously implying that:

    1. Plame was not covert
    2. Plame was not working on Iran
    3. She was not outed by the administration in the form of a leak to the press? This being the “liberal” media who sat on the story until after the election?
    4. Regardless of whether she was working the Iran beat, if she was covert, that whomever leaked her identity from within the administration did not commit a crime?

    Please let me know. But I think I already know the answer.

  42. ReidBlogon 11 May 2006 at 4:56 pm

    Live free or dial…

    The Dear Leader must protect us by monitoring whom we call, just as he must watch us when we gather, to ensure that we are not supporting al-Qaida……

  43. clariceon 11 May 2006 at 5:09 pm

    Plame was NOT covert. The public record is clear on that.
    She wasn’t working on Iran. More horse puckey.
    She was not outed by the Administration and no one has been charged with that probably because the person who did is being protected by Fitz/

  44. KCon 11 May 2006 at 5:23 pm

    Who woulda thunk it, Clarice:

    “Conservative columnist Max Boot calls Joseph Wilson a “liar,” and claims that Plame’s status was not “covert” at the time of her outing in the Novak column because she had been working in Virginia for more than five years.[173] Although he left the CIA in 1993, Larry C. Johnson attempted to clear up the confusion surrounding Plame’s status in a column responding to Max Boot: “The law actually requires that a covered person ’served’ overseas in the last five years. Served does not mean lived. In the case of Valerie Wilson, energy consultant for Brewster-Jennings, she traveled overseas in 2003, 2002, and 2001, as part of her cover job. She met with folks who worked in the nuclear industry, cultivated sources, and managed spies. She was a national security asset until exposed by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.”[174]”

    Sounds like she was undercover to me. I assume Larry C. Johnson, a registered Republican who voted for Bush is wrong?

    This blog is absent any honest debate.

    Good night, y’all.

  45. MerlinOS2on 11 May 2006 at 5:27 pm

    All spin and hype here. If you sit down for a rational moment of thought you will conclude that data mining of all phone calls and data calls is done every day. How do you think the phone companies make decisions where to put new switching centers. They don’t just flip a coin or throw darts at the map. When the company offered you flat rate long distance for a fixed fee, they knew how many would benefit from it.
    Just wait and you will hear soon how many calls were made on Mother’s Day.

  46. Robertoon 11 May 2006 at 6:11 pm

    With a warrant.
    With a warrant.
    With a warrant.
    With a warrant.

    Keep repeating it until it gets through your thick skull.

    It’s OK for the government to eavesdrop or track the phone calls of Americans…
    …With a warrant.
    With a warrant.
    With a warrant.
    With a warrant.

    Sorry, I don’t trust the authorities to do what’s right.

    It’s the main reason I’m against gun control.

    BTW, isn’t Rove still on the payroll?

  47. Terryeon 11 May 2006 at 6:46 pm

    Roberto:

    They are not listening into conversations and they do not have to have a warrant in all cases.

  48. Lindataon 11 May 2006 at 7:50 pm

    Are you implying that Bush has stopped monitoring international content?

  49. Chickenhawk Expresson 11 May 2006 at 8:04 pm

    They Have Already Started in on Hayden…

    It didn’t take long for the vultures on the left to start circling CIA Director nominee Hayden after the disgusting leak of MORE NSA intelligence information. One day there is going to be a Congress member “death by trampling” in the rush to get fac…

  50. MerryJ1on 11 May 2006 at 9:51 pm

    Ooops! Where did all the trolls come from?

    And, golly, Larry Johnson is a Republican who voted for Bush? So, maybe he was the one who sabotaged the Kerry campaign? Heh.

    AJ, looks like you’ve got a whole new bunch of “fans.” I’m fully confident you’ll handle ‘em (darn, I forgot to pick up a new popcorn popper).

    Merry

  51. crosspatchon 11 May 2006 at 10:08 pm

    Come on folks, all they are doing is collecting TELEPHONE NUMBERS. They aren’t collecting names, addresses, monitoring calls, etc. So just calm down. What they appear to be doing is that if a terrorist or terrorists are talking to people in the US, we are looking at who those people are talking to. If, say, 5 of them all appear to talk to a third number, THEN they go get the warrant to get more information on the third number such as name, address, etc.

    At this point they aren’t collecting squat that cound invade anyone’s pivacy. I hereby give my permission for the government to know my phone number. I will go even better and if they want my name too, they can have it.

    Hey people, did you know that there is a vast conspiracy to publically divulge people’s name, address, and phone number to anyone that wants it? You can obtain this listing free of charge. It’s called the white pages.

    The NSA is collecting less information about you than one could obtain from directory assistance in the majority of cases.\

    This is such a non-issue it isn’t even funny. What chaps my ass the most, though, is that the same people that would obstruct this collection are the same ones that would criticize a failure to connect the dots in case of a future attack.

    They are playing a game of “Let’s see if you can still connect the dots after we hide all the dots from you”. What absolute myopic morons the left is on this issue. How many people have to die? Wasn’t 3000 in NY enough? We aren’t talking about government listening to peoples phones here, we are talking about them building a database of numbers.

    Oh, and a database of hundreds of millions of names, addresses, and phone numbers is available for free from phone companies. They aren’t even linking these numbers to white pages entries. Give it a break. Anyone that comes out against this runs the risk of looking like a complete and total moron who is interested only in political activism but hasn’t bothered to give the issue a moment of thought.

    This just goes to prove that 50% of the population is below the median intelligence level. This story is designed to push emotional buttons and that is it. There is a word for it. It’s called agitprop.

  52. Robertoon 11 May 2006 at 11:02 pm

    Crosspatch sets everyone straight.
    Because he knows exactly what’s going on.
    Because he is privvy to the inside dope.
    Because he lives in America, not the old Soviet Union.
    And in America, we have open government.
    Where we can be sure the government is on the “up and up”.

    Except when we don’t force them to be on the “up and up”.

  53. crosspatchon 12 May 2006 at 12:35 am

    Roberto, it isn’t a political issue for me. It is an issue of right and wrong. The choice is very clear.

    The people they are monitoring are people in this country that are talking to known terrorists overseas. The question of “so who else are they talking to?” is one that comes quite naturally and not answering that question is irresponsible. In this case, NSA isn’t even looking at who, they are looking only at telephone numbers that were dialed. So they have a list of phone numbers dialed by someone in this country that also talks to known terrorists. I have not one iota of issue with that. In fact, if something were to happen down the line and I found out they COULD have had that information and didn’t get it, I would be livid because it would have been irresponsible for them NOT to get that information.

    For the life of me I can not see why this is even being debated. The collection of phone numbers by someone who is dialing known terrorists does not infringe a bit. Someone had better be finding out who the terrorists are in this country and who they are talking to. If fact, Iran has said in the open that they have terrorist cells in this country that they could activate. Those cells need to be found and eliminated.

    I am getting quite tired of hearing patsies for the left who would thow away the lives of their fellow Americans to make a political point. It is sick. It is insane. This has nothing to do with whether or not someone supports the President or the Republicans or a nominee for DCI, it is about the security of this country and that includes people of ALL political stripes. Democrats were killed in the twin towers, in the Pentagon, and in those planes. I don’t want to see any more Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, whatever, get killed.

    Al Qaeda isn’t going to stop attacking us if a Democrat is elected. They tried to blow up one of the twin towers while a Democrat was in office. 9/11 was planned, staffed, and trained for while a Democrat was in office and long before anyone knew who the next president was going to be. In fact, the polls at the time suggested it would be another Democrat. They don’t care! It is time people got it through their heads that this is not a domestic political issue. They don’t care who is in office. They are going to kill as many of us as they can as often as they can. Interfering with investigations like this has the potential to get many more people killed.

    Those sources and methods are used by all presidents regardless of party. To expose them takes them out of the hands of the next president. These kinds of exposures can not be undone later when the next guy takes office, they are permanent damage. They educate the enemy and cause them to take countermeasures that make gathering information on their activities more difficult. The people that leaked this information are not patriots in any sense of the word. They are selfish criminals that don’t care if their fellow citizens die as long as they get to push their agenda. And make no mistake, these are the kinds of loose lips that do indeed get people killed by allowing an enemy to be a little more successful, allowing to evade detection, alowing them to remain in the woodwork.

    This is NOT a political matter for me. It is a security matter that might result in my loved ones, neighbors, neighbors’ loved ones, or God forbid, yours being killed because we weren’t able to detect and stop an attack before it happens.

    To put this in a political perspective is to expose one’s total lack of understanding of how important even a small piece of information can be. Again, we are not talking about monitoring people’s calls here. We are not talking about wiretaps. What we are talking about basically is a look at someone’s phone bill who happens to be in contact with known terrorists so that maybe we can place some other terrorists into the “known” column. Again, it is not a pro or anti Bush administration issue, it is a pro or anti United States of America issue and the security of our community in the face of people who would wish to kill us and have not only said so repeatedly, they have DONE it.

  54. ordion 12 May 2006 at 4:16 am

    jonnieg,

    FYI

    *Reverend* Martin Luther King was wiretapped by Bobby Kennedy when he was John F Kennedy’s Attoney General.

    They were both Democrats.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.