Should we be able to listen to your international calling card calls?
Bush tries to put out the fire. Will the government is still listening to your international prepaid phone calls!
But not at CleverCalling....
Bush asked to explain phone data collection
By Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane The New York TimesFRIDAY, MAY 12, 2006
WASHINGTON Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike are demanding answers from the Bush administration about a report that the National Security Agency has collected records of millions of domestic phone calls, even as President George W. Bush assured Americans that their privacy is "fiercely protected."
"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," Bush said before leaving for a commencement address in Mississippi on Thursday. "Our efforts are focused on links to Al Qaeda and their known affiliates."
The president sought to defuse a tempest on Capitol Hill over an article in USA Today reporting that AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have turned over tens of millions of customer phone records to the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But Bush's remarks appeared to do little to mollify members of Congress, and several leading lawmakers said they wanted to hear directly from administration officials and telecommunication executives.
The USA Today report could not be independently confirmed, and some former intelligence officials questioned the accuracy of some details.
But neither Bush nor any other administration figure explicitly denied the account, which suggested that the security agency's surveillance and data-mining operations in the United States go further than previously acknowledged and rekindled the controversy about domestic spying.
Several lawmakers predicted that the new disclosures would complicate the confirmation hearings this coming week for General Michael Hayden, formerly the head of the security agency, as the president's nominee to lead the CIA.
The New York Times first reported in December, a week after its initial disclosure that the president had authorized eavesdropping without warrants, that the security agency had gained the cooperation of U.S. telecommunications companies to get access to records of vast amounts of domestic and international phone calls and e-mail messages.
The agency analyzes communications patterns, the report said, and looks for evidence of terrorist activity at home and abroad.
The USA Today article on Thursday went further, saying that the agency had created an enormous database of all calls made by customers of the three phone companies in an effort to compile a log of "every call ever made" within this country.
The report said one large phone company, Qwest, had refused to cooperate because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants.
Some Republicans, including Representative Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House intelligence committee, defended the agency's activities and assailed the report. Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, said the report "threatens to undermine our nation's safety."
"Rather than allow our intelligence professionals to maintain a laser focus on the terrorists, we are once again mired in a debate about what our intelligence community may or may not be doing," he said.
But many Democrats and civil liberties advocates said they were disturbed by the report, invoking images of Big Brother and announcing legislation aimed at reining in the security agency's domestic operations. Fifty-two members of Congress asked the president to name a special counsel to investigate the agency's domestic surveillance programs.
Some leading Republicans also raised concerns. Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who leads the Judiciary Committee, said the reported data-mining activities raised serious constitutional questions and that he planned to seek the testimony of telephone company executives.
The House majority leader, John Boehner of Ohio, said he wanted more information on the program because "I am not sure why it would be necessary to keep and have that kind of information."
In his remarks, Bush did not directly confirm or deny the existence of the data-mining operation, but he said that "as a general matter, every time sensitive intelligence is leaked, it hurts our ability to defeat this enemy."
Seeking to distinguish call-tracing operations from actual eavesdropping, the president said that "the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval."
The records involved include phone numbers called, time, date and direction of call and other details but not the words spoken, according to telecommunications experts. Customers' names and addresses are not included in the companies' call records, though they could be cross-referenced to obtain personal data.
An expert on the law of electronic surveillance, Kenneth Bass 3rd, a former Justice Department counsel, said that if access to the call database was granted in response to a national security letter issued by the government, "it would probably not be illegal, but it would be very troubling."
Bass said the program resembled Total Information Awareness, a Pentagon data-mining program shut down by Congress in 2003 after a public outcry.
The National Security Agency refused to discuss the report, but said in a statement that it "takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within the law."
Democrats said they would use the new disclosures to push for more answers about the agency's domestic activities from Hayden at his confirmation hearing, set for Thursday.
WASHINGTON Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike are demanding answers from the Bush administration about a report that the National Security Agency has collected records of millions of domestic phone calls, even as President George W. Bush assured Americans that their privacy is "fiercely protected."
"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," Bush said before leaving for a commencement address in Mississippi on Thursday. "Our efforts are focused on links to Al Qaeda and their known affiliates."
The president sought to defuse a tempest on Capitol Hill over an article in USA Today reporting that AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have turned over tens of millions of customer phone records to the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But Bush's remarks appeared to do little to mollify members of Congress, and several leading lawmakers said they wanted to hear directly from administration officials and telecommunication executives.
The USA Today report could not be independently confirmed, and some former intelligence officials questioned the accuracy of some details.
But neither Bush nor any other administration figure explicitly denied the account, which suggested that the security agency's surveillance and data-mining operations in the United States go further than previously acknowledged and rekindled the controversy about domestic spying.
Several lawmakers predicted that the new disclosures would complicate the confirmation hearings this coming week for General Michael Hayden, formerly the head of the security agency, as the president's nominee to lead the CIA.
The New York Times first reported in December, a week after its initial disclosure that the president had authorized eavesdropping without warrants, that the security agency had gained the cooperation of U.S. telecommunications companies to get access to records of vast amounts of domestic and international phone calls and e-mail messages.
The agency analyzes communications patterns, the report said, and looks for evidence of terrorist activity at home and abroad.
The USA Today article on Thursday went further, saying that the agency had created an enormous database of all calls made by customers of the three phone companies in an effort to compile a log of "every call ever made" within this country.
The report said one large phone company, Qwest, had refused to cooperate because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants.
Some Republicans, including Representative Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House intelligence committee, defended the agency's activities and assailed the report. Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, said the report "threatens to undermine our nation's safety."
"Rather than allow our intelligence professionals to maintain a laser focus on the terrorists, we are once again mired in a debate about what our intelligence community may or may not be doing," he said.
But many Democrats and civil liberties advocates said they were disturbed by the report, invoking images of Big Brother and announcing legislation aimed at reining in the security agency's domestic operations. Fifty-two members of Congress asked the president to name a special counsel to investigate the agency's domestic surveillance programs.
Some leading Republicans also raised concerns. Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who leads the Judiciary Committee, said the reported data-mining activities raised serious constitutional questions and that he planned to seek the testimony of telephone company executives.
The House majority leader, John Boehner of Ohio, said he wanted more information on the program because "I am not sure why it would be necessary to keep and have that kind of information."
In his remarks, Bush did not directly confirm or deny the existence of the data-mining operation, but he said that "as a general matter, every time sensitive intelligence is leaked, it hurts our ability to defeat this enemy."
Seeking to distinguish call-tracing operations from actual eavesdropping, the president said that "the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval."
The records involved include phone numbers called, time, date and direction of call and other details but not the words spoken, according to telecommunications experts. Customers' names and addresses are not included in the companies' call records, though they could be cross-referenced to obtain personal data.
An expert on the law of electronic surveillance, Kenneth Bass 3rd, a former Justice Department counsel, said that if access to the call database was granted in response to a national security letter issued by the government, "it would probably not be illegal, but it would be very troubling."
Bass said the program resembled Total Information Awareness, a Pentagon data-mining program shut down by Congress in 2003 after a public outcry.
The National Security Agency refused to discuss the report, but said in a statement that it "takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within the law."
Democrats said they would use the new disclosures to push for more answers about the agency's domestic activities from Hayden at his confirmation hearing, set for Thursday.
Should we be able to listen to your international calling card calls?
Bush tries to put out the fire. Will the government is still listening to your international prepaid phone calls!
But not at CleverCalling.... Sponsored by Pingo
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