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.
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.
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.
ROONENT1,
You didn’t bother me.
AJStrata
ROONENT1:
I agree with you. Remember Perot and 8 yrs of Clinton!
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.
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…
Is HTML formatting allowed?
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!
…that should be “my way or the highway”, LOL!
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 …
KC,
You might want to find a source besides David Shuster to link to. Most of us know he reads tea leaves.
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,…
OK – Intelligence Sources Say Plame Was Working On Iran
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!
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.
Sue
I think KC was better off relying on Shuster…
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.
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.
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.
Top,
A case of pick your poison, Shuster or Raw Story.