Crossposted from Stop The ACLU

Update: Bush responds.

Bush said any domestic intelligence-gathering measures he’s approved are “lawful,” and he says “appropriate” members of Congress have been briefed. The disclosure could complicate Bush’s bid to win confirmation of former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA director.

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. Obviously they decided that there wasn’t already enough damage done to national security.

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. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews. “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. For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others. The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said. The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret.

It isn’t secret anymore, now is it? If you read the entire thing you could easily be left with the impression that the government has gathered all kinds of personal information on you, studied your calling habits, etc. These phone companies went along with the government’s request for phone records. These are records that the phone companies keep anyway, that are often called upon in court cases. No one has been listening in on domestic phone calls, they are only collecting a database of what numbers called other numbers. Since Qwest is the only company that refused to work with the government on the matter without a FISA warrant, we should be seeing a mass flocking of the paranoid left over to this company. That might not be such a good idea however. This leak may have just tipped some terrorist to exactly what communications in America are more vulnerable. I’m trying to figure out what the big deal is. We will watch this news fizzle out just like all the other NSA news. Even some that distrust the President are acknowledging that no laws are being broken here.

If memory serves, Title III doesn’t cover what used to be called “pen registers.” USA Today suggests that the companies may be violating the Communications Act of 1933 by giving the information, but the NSA doesn’t seem to be breaking any laws by receiving that information.

There is a little more NSA news today that I found quite amusing for the simple fact that it drives the left crazy. NSA won’t grant Justice Department lawyers required security clearance. Heh.

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. “We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program,” OPR counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey’s office shared the letter with The Associated Press.

So, the DOJ is dropping the investigation. Prepare for lots of ACLU whining. I’m with Macsmind on this one:

Ok, ask yourself a question. Who in the hell is going to give a bunch of DOJ lawyers security clearances to probe, when all through the NSA story and the Plame Game, whenever a story was written in the MSM it was based on lawyers “close to the investigation”, who leaked out the information. Sorry, simply can’t trust these dolts to keep a secret. Yet this isn’t anything new. Again, FDR and past presidents felt the same way towards not only lawyers but members of congress who then - just as now - can’t seem to keep secrets to themselves.

So, why is all of this news coming out about the NSA now? Well, of course it is an orchestrated effort, and it is only the beggining. It is going to get a lot uglier as Bush tries to get Gen. Hayden approved to run the CIA. AJ Strata hits the nail on the head.

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.

Rightwing Nuthouse takes a look at the paranoid left’s reactions. I can’t wait to hear the ACLU’s reaction.   

Said Jay777 @ 11:13 am | Permalink   

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