What's That Tapping Sound?

May 12, 2006

Hotline After Dark -- What's That Tapping Sound?

Solving crimes on "CSI," solving the latest wire tapping scandal on cable.

The fallout from the USA Today story on the NSA's phone call database continued last night. NPR's Liasson: "The interesting thing to me about this story is that the New York Times must be feeling pretty bad today because this was -- they did several stories about this quite a while ago" ("Special Report," FNC, 5/11).

Snip...

MSNBC's Olbermann: "The good news, if you lost Aunt Gertrude's number, or that of the girl you met, maybe the NSA has it in your file" ("Countdown," 5/11).

MSNBC's Scarborough: "Memo to the president and congressional leaders who signed up on this lousy program -- We don't trust you anymore" ("Scarborough Country," 5/11).

CNN's Cafferty: "We better all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter ... because he might be all that is standing between us and a full-blown dictatorship in this country" ("Situation Room," 5/11).

Snip...

Newt Gingrich: "I'm not going to defend the indefensible. ... I'm prepared to defend a very aggressive anti-terrorist campaign, and I'm prepared to defend the idea that the government ought to know who's making the calls, as long as that information is only used against terrorists, and as long as the Congress knows that it's underway. But I don't think the way they've handled this can be defended by reasonable people. It is sloppy" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 5/11).

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL): "It is an embarrassment to think that members of Congress didn't know, weren't brought into the loop, didn't have a basic understanding of what we are trying to achieve" ("PZ Now," CNN, 5/11).

more...

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/05/hotline_after_d_28.html

Massive phone-call tracking fuels furor

Friday, May 12, 2006

By RON HUTCHESON and JAMES KUHNHENN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

Snip...

Full extent unclear

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 bin Laden uses couriers to deliver most of his messages."

more....

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2OTMzNTk0JnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==