Comments on: ARE PARTS OF THE NSA TELEPHONE RECORDS STORY BOGUS?

By: Fastingrecords

Fastingrecords — Thu, 18 May 2006 16:02:04 +0000

“The Department of Justice says it secretly sought phone records and other documents of 3,501 people last year under a provision of the Patriot Act that does not require judicial oversight.”

52 tons of cocaine, enought to poison 37 million people.

By: DaveG

DaveG — Wed, 17 May 2006 21:46:56 +0000

What the hell is wrong with you people?

A question more aptly directed to the Pulitzer Committee, I think. That’s where the motivation is coming from.

By: MikeT

MikeT — Wed, 17 May 2006 19:06:35 +0000

If you think that’s bad, there’s a bill which is even worse. Far, far worse. It would propose that ISPs keep logs of all of your online activity for a long period of time so that law enforcement would have an easier time finding evidence. The link I provided has a bit of a technical explanation of how logging HTTP connection information would make an easily abused dragnet possible.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 17 May 2006 18:09:36 +0000

I think the program exists. It’s possible, given the precise wording of the denial statements, that the NSA could still have access to the data. Some of the waffle statements late last week followed by the carefully worded denials this week indicate to me the Telco’s are limiting their lawsuit exposure and protecting their business. The legality of handing over information like that is a gray area at best, and I think the companies want to make public denials to guard against lawsuits and the bottom line. I give a more detailed explanation on my site if anyone is interested.

By: Citizen DeWayne

Citizen DeWayne — Wed, 17 May 2006 17:47:17 +0000

…”the only public statements regarding the truth of the USA Today story are:
1) Joe Nacchioâ€™s lawyers
2) Verizon
3) BellSouth”

Yeah, that and every rightwing political operative explaining exactly why collecting phone logs is legal. The president did not deny the story Thursday morning in the spontaneous press briefing. Howard Feinman of Newsweek made a good catch in Tony Snow’s first press briefing where Snow says something like, “I’m not going to presume declassify it”– to which Feinman says– “woops, he just confirmed it.”

“five days is fast, particularly when the Legal Office is involved.”

If it’s one the guys at the top understand it’s stock price. They were crisis mode when, finally, they had to do something to protect the stock price. Who knows, it could be a clever ploy to reclassify the whole thing.

By: Scrapiron

Scrapiron — Wed, 17 May 2006 17:11:14 +0000

The media types are definetly hell bent to get more Americans killed. They have been since the 60’s and are now ran by totally anti-american leftist that are a product of the left wing liberal colleges. I try not to read anything (it’s all hype, lies or propaganda) from the antique MSM and if i do i know there is not one word of truth in any of their reports. This can be proven in 5 minutes of research on the internet. In 1980 the antique MSM made the statement that they ran the country and had for years, the government didn’t. Along came a man from Ca. as president and he sent them back to the woodshed and they haven’t printed/broadcast the truth since. They are in a panic to regain control of the country and will use any lie to make it happen. The democrats bow and scrape to them in their quest for a few crumbs.

By: crosspatch

crosspatch — Wed, 17 May 2006 16:11:12 +0000

So let’s see, we have unconfirmed reports from unnamed sources of alleged activities. Sounds to me like someone could have made it all up.

What upsets me is that they get a story wrong so they start grapsing at staws. Now they are trying to make an issue out of legitimate intelligence collection. Remember Iran just a week or two ago came out and said they had terrorist cells here just waiting to be “activated”.

It is NOT the job of the media to expose intelligence programs that are designed to root out domestic terrorist cells. The media seems hell bent to get more Americans killed.

Information on legal domestic intelligence collection operations MUST be kept secret. Just because someone tells a reporter, I am having a hard time understanding why the reporter feels obligated to report it. Doesn’t the reporter have a greater responsibility to their community? Don’t they feel any obligation to be part of the force that helps protect their neighbors and fellow citizens? Apparently these reporters believe that it is okay to put the lives of the population at risk in order to do political damage to the President. Maybe they think people will blame the government if we (God forbid) have another attack go undetected. I for one am going to blame the media for enabling the terrorists by informing them of our collection sources and methods.

To the journalism trade: What the hell is wrong with you people?

By: Non Partisan Pundit

Non Partisan Pundit — Wed, 17 May 2006 15:55:25 +0000

NSA Teleco Wiretap Denials

The NSA data-mining project continues to provide fuel for speculation by the media and bloggers. Over the past couple of days, Bellsouth, implicated in the USA Today NSA data-mining project, denied any involvement with the reported NSA program. Verizon…

By: DaveG

DaveG — Wed, 17 May 2006 15:23:48 +0000

what took them so long?

Have you ever worked for a large corporation? Have you ever worked for a large corporation that got large through acquisitions and mergers? In may experience, five days is fast, particularly when the Legal Office is involved.

By: MnZ

MnZ — Wed, 17 May 2006 15:05:53 +0000

Citizen DeWayne,

The only public statements by the Qwest camp came from Joe Nacchio’s lawyers (ex-CEO of Qwest). He is currently under indictment for insider trading.

So, in reality, the only public statements regarding the truth of the USA Today story are:

1) Joe Nacchio’s lawyers
2) Verizon
3) BellSouth

Two of the three deny the story…