• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Furor Erupts Over Government Collection of Phone Records

Posted on: Thursday, 11 May 2006, 21:05 CDT

WASHINGTON _ Revelations that the government collected the phone-call records of millions of Americans touched off a political firestorm Thursday, prompting calls for a congressional investigation and fueling opposition to President Bush's choice for CIA director.

USA Today reported Thursday that at least three companies _ AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth _ turned over call records for tens of millions of their customers to the National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the Bush administration's war on terrorism. Another company, Denver-based Qwest, refused to cooperate because it questioned the legality of the government program.

Critics said the massive collection of phone records violates Americans' privacy and raises disturbing questions about the government's reach into personal lives.

"Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaida?" Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked. "If that's the case, we've really failed in any kind of a war on terror."

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would summon telephone company executives to a hearing that would examine how much customer information they supplied to the government.

"And we intend to pursue that to try to find out what's going on and whether it's constitutional," Specter said.

At a hastily arranged appearance before reporters, Bush insisted that everything the government is doing is legal.

"Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates," Bush said. He added assurances that the privacy of Americans is being "fiercely protected . . . We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."

The call logs didn't identify individual customers, the newspaper said, but government investigators could find that information easily by tracking down phone numbers that they consider suspicious.

The call logs are intended to help the government zero in on suspicious phone calls through a process known as data mining. Administration officials insist that the government doesn't eavesdrop on calls within the United States without warrants.

Bush established a secret surveillance program at the NSA without congressional approval shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The program targets communications between suspected foreign terrorists and individuals in the United States. Bush contends that government agents can eavesdrop on the domestic end of suspicious international calls without court-approved warrants. Many constitutional scholars, and some lawmakers in both parties, disagree.

The full extent of the administration's surveillance, data mining and similar programs isn't clear. Financial institutions have been reporting activities that they consider suspicious to the Department of Homeland Security. In one case, a Rhode Island retiree was flagged as suspicious after he made an unusually large payment _ $6,522 _ on his MasterCard.

In other cases, FBI or Secret Service agents have investigated e-mails or Internet postings that suggested possible threats to Bush or to national security.

The Pentagon launched a Total Information Awareness program to mine a wide variety of electronic databases, but Congress shut it down in 2003. However, former government officials said that the Defense Department merely shifted the program to the NSA's Advanced Research and Development Activity under code names that have included "Basketball""Genoa II" and "Topsail."

In 2004, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, reported that the government had or was developing more than 120 programs to collect and analyze large amounts of electronic personal data.

"It makes no sense to look at millions of phone records and not look at the kind of communications that terrorists actually use," said a former senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he has knowledge of numerous classified programs. "That means e-mail and Web sites, and it means all kinds of travel and credit card records, because (al-Qaida leader Osama) bin Laden uses couriers to deliver most of his messages."

Critics said turning over information about phone calls infringes on personal privacy even if the government doesn't listen to the conversations.

"As soon as you know what numbers somebody is calling, how many times, you know a lot," said Jim Harper, director of information policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian policy-research center. "They might be to your priest. They might be to your doctor. They might be to your paramour."

Harper, an expert on data mining and communications intercepts, said the NSA could apply the same methods to cellular phone calls and e-mail messages.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the revelations underscored the need for a full congressional investigation into NSA eavesdropping.

"The government is clearly tracking the calls and communications of millions of ordinary Americans and that's just plain wrong," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero.

"They want to be able to grab everything and then sift through what's of interest," said lawyer Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, another civil liberties group. "The idea is that you get everybody just to get a few. It just feels un-American."

The revelations reignited the debate about the NSA eavesdropping program and caused new problems for Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, the agency's former director who's now Bush's nominee to run the CIA. Hayden's role in developing and defending the secret surveillance program had been a sore spot with many lawmakers even before the latest disclosures.

"Enough is enough," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., calling for the Senate to reject Hayden.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a supporter of Hayden, said the new revelation could imperil Hayden's confirmation because "this program is of substantial concern to members, no question."

Hayden sought to tamp down opposition in private meetings with lawmakers Thursday. He declined to discuss NSA data collection.

"All I would want to say is that everything that NSA does is very carefully done, and that appropriate members of the Congress _ House and Senate _ are briefed on all NSA activities," he said between meetings.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the program "is lawful and absolutely necessary" and said members of his committee have been properly briefed about it.

"Calls for further oversight are unnecessary," Roberts said.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., a member of the intelligence committee who's been briefed about the secret NSA program, said Specter should back off.

"Do we want security . . . or do we want to get in a twit about our civil libertarian rights?" he said.

___

(c) 2006, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Knight Ridder Washington Bureau

More News in this Category