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5/11/2006
JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE FOR THE LEAKERS
CATEGORY: Government, Politics

There are apparently no limits to which the cadre of leakers who are working in our intelligence agencies will go to undermine legitimate national security interests in furtherance of their own, private agendas. The revelations in today’s USA Today about the massive collection of telephone numbers by the NSA - not eavesdropping on calls, not gathering people’s names or addresses – was leaked solely to discredit General Michael Hayden and derail his nomination for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The news that the NSA has information on billions of phone calls made by US citizens since 9/11 should not surprise anyone who has been following the NSA intercept program closely. Which is why lefties are going absolutely ballistic:

John Aravosis:

The phone companies were NOT required to turn over our records – Qwest refused – but AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth gave the Mein Kampf salute. Pigs.

Remember that little canard about making sure a terrorist was on one end of the line, and making sure it was an international call?

Not so much. In fact, the government’s goal is to get every phone record in the country – we’re talking a record of every phone call you ever make or receive.

I’m going to say it again. Encrypt your emails NOW:

And I might add…don’t forget to adjust your tinfoil hat, LOON.

Booman Tribune:

I’m not even going to pretend that I’m capable of digesting this and spitting out a rational response. A database of every call ever made? There really are no words. I don’t quite know when it was that we lost our way, though I doubt that it began when the worst president ever took office. No, the desire and the effort to subvert the rights of America’s citizens has manifested itself throughout our nation’s history, though the technology to do so on such a massive scale is relatively new. What the Worst President Ever has given us, is an executive branch which, through its actions, has demonstrated utter contempt for our nation, its citizens, our constitution and the basic morality which compels most of us, from a very early age, to try to speak honestly and act in the best interest of those around us. This is nothing but bad faith and contempt as far as the eye can see.

Um…yeah.

Matt Stoller blames big business:

Qwest refused to help? And Verizon and AT&T (which bought Bellsouth) acted as nice little sycophants? Wow. I always hated Verizon because of their customer service, and AT&T is run by a megalomaniac named Ed Whitacre who likes to destroy trees in his spare time. But I still assumed that cooperation with the government was mandatory. It’s not. These companies are aiding and abetting the NSA in illegal activity. And not only are they aiding and abetting the NSA, they are possibly engaging in illegal corporate behavior. That at least is how Qwest is reading the law.

I say we should nationalize the Telecoms!

Mcjoan from Kos:

Obviously, they’re fighting terror. Because every single American might just be participating in terrorism. So they really need to keep track of all of our phone calls. It’s obvious, right? Obvious, but not particularly legal, though since when has that stopped BushCo?

At least there are a few saner heads on the left. Kevin Drum:

The rules for collecting data about phone calls are different from the rules about listening in on the content of phone calls, so I don’t know what the legal situation here is. However, although most domestic carriers cooperated with the NSA, one of them didn’t: Qwest.

Mark Kleiman:

So now we know about the even nastier program that made BushCo so determined to cover up the warrantless wiretaps. The NSA has been compiling a master database of all telephone calls made in the United States: not the content, but who called whom and when.

What’s truly appalling is that I don’t think it’s even illegal. 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.

Still, I don’t think the voters are going to hold still for it. Not with a President the country already distrusts.

I think Mark underestimates the tolerance by voters for measures like this. While I think a case can be made on constitutional grounds that if argued correctly before SCOTUS could result in a ruling that the NSA intercept program was illegal (a very close call either way), I don’t think this aspect of data collection by the NSA even approaches the danger zone, a point made in the article in USA Today (not anywhere near the lead of course):

The government is collecting “external” data on domestic phone calls but is not intercepting “internals,” a term for the actual content of the communication, according to a U.S. intelligence official familiar with the program. This kind of data collection from phone companies is not uncommon; it’s been done before, though never on this large a scale, the official said. The data are used for “social network analysis,” the official said, meaning to study how terrorist networks contact each other and how they are tied together.

FISA doesn’t even enter into the discussion of whether the program is legal:

Paul Butler, a former U.S. prosecutor who specialized in terrorism crimes, said FISA approval generally isn’t necessary for government data-mining operations. “FISA does not prohibit the government from doing data mining,” said Butler, now a partner with the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, D.C.

The caveat, he said, is that “personal identifiers” — such as names, Social Security numbers and street addresses — can’t be included as part of the search. “That requires an additional level of probable cause,” he said.

Since the only thing being collected are telephone numbers, it is doubtful that what the NSA is doing here even constitutes a “search” as it would be defined under the 4th Amendment.

Exactly what the NSA is doing with the records of billions of phone calls isn’t exactly clear according to the article:

“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.

Of course, the “detailed records” the government has probably include a phone number, and the date and time it was made, as well as who was on the other end. Technical details about which “switching station” the call was originally routed through would probably be available as well.

The article points out that it would be easy enough to retrieve your name and address if the government wanted to – a disturbing piece of information if you are a terrorist. Come to think of it, that aspect of the program should make everyone uncomfortable. Which leads us to the $64,000 question; is this program really necessary? Or are the spooks just playing fast and loose with the constitution for the hell of it?

The White House would not discuss the domestic call-tracking program. “There is no domestic surveillance without court approval,” said Dana Perino, deputy press secretary, referring to actual eavesdropping.

She added that all national intelligence activities undertaken by the federal government “are lawful, necessary and required for the pursuit of al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorists.” All government-sponsored intelligence activities “are carefully reviewed and monitored,” Perino said. She also noted that “all appropriate members of Congress have been briefed on the intelligence efforts of the United States.”

If “all appropriate members of Congress” have been told of this program (something we’ll surely find out in a few hours whether nor not that statement is factual) without a peep prior to this, I would guess that there are aspects to the program not contained in the USA Today story that make this part of the NSA intercept program a necessary adjunct to their efforts regarding overseas communications. And if it were possible to have a debate about the efficacy of these programs as they relate to our constitutional rights without the jaw-dropping idiocy from the left and right, it might be instructive and necessary to the health of the republic.

But these kind of debates just are not possible. Not with this President in office. Not with the kind of unreasoning hatred the opposition displays on a daily basis. Any kind of rationality displayed by the left is taken as treason and the offender is drummed out of the tin foil hat brigade forthwith (Senator Lieberman, call you office).

So we are stuck with the unsatisfying feeling that we can’t be 100% sure that the programs are necessary because the left refuses to engage on any level but the gutter – and that is not a level conducive to arguing the merits of anything.

As I mentioned at the top of this piece, this story has been leaked as a transparent attempt to embarrass General Hayden and stop his nomination. While it will probably cause outrage on the left and among that ever more curious contrarian Senator Specter, the brouhaha over this will pass and Hayden should still be on track for confirmation.

By: Rick Moran at 7:47 am
43 Responses to “JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE FOR THE LEAKERS”
  1. 1
    Hot Air » Blog Archive » Hayden goes wobbly? Pinged With:
    8:17 am 

    [...] Update: The pushback begins. Moran surveys some of the thoughtful, balanced reactions on the left to the NSA program, Stop the ACLU congratulates USA Today on its new powers of declassification, and Confederate Yankee asks, “Isn’t this what we’re paying them for?” [...]

  2. 2
    Stop The ACLU Trackbacked With:
    8:22 am 

    New NSA Leaks From USA Today

    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 e…

  3. 3
    The Strata-Sphere » Blog Archive » Another Day, Another National Security Leak Pinged With:
    8:27 am 

    [...] Update: Rick Moran has a good round up of the lemmings from the left – responding on cue. [...]

  4. 4
    Sister Toldjah Trackbacked With:
    8:33 am 

    The latest non-scandal scandal news involving the NSA

    Yet one more in a long line of hyped stories about the NSA and datamining. The USA Today breathlessly reports, starting off with an eye-catching headline:
    NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls
    The National Security Agency has been …

  5. 5
    Geek, Esq. Said:
    8:59 am 

    The $64,000 dollar question, in my opinion, is: who has access to this data and do you trust the government to use it properly? The NSA has revealed precious little about this question. However, with most of the country unwilling to take this administration at its word, this is going to be a real scandal. It was one thing when the government could spy on those other people. It’s another to find out that the government has a file on you.

    You can imagine the cries in conservative circles if Klintoon had authorized the collection of such information.

  6. 6
    Geek, Esq. Said:
    9:03 am 

    To put it another way:

    Should Karl Rove and Scooter Libby have had access to that data? How about John Bolton?

  7. 7
    Rick Moran Said:
    9:05 am 

    Geek:

    I am troubled by the pattern of behavior of this Administration in that they constantly seek to roll up to the line of legality and bump against it. I suppose being at war can be used as a justification but I share some of your concerns. Taken individually, each of these national security measures could be considered reasonable and proper. But when you place them side by side, an somewhat different pattern emerges – one that this country is desperate for a debate over.

    I point out the problems with having a debate – no rational opposition. Which makes your comment regarding Clinton fairly true.

  8. 8
    Michelle Malkin Trackbacked With:
    9:07 am 

    NEWSFLASH: NSA DOING ITS JOB!

    USA Today tries its hand at scare-mongering today with a piece on NSA analysis of phone call patterns and data that private phone companies AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth collect: The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation…

  9. 9
    RightWinged.com Trackbacked With:
    9:12 am 

    Today’s Bogus/Manufactured NSA Anti-Civil Rights Story

    ***UPDATE*** Both sides of the blogosphere are weighing in. The left is looney as ever, you’ve got to scroll down to see what the DailyKOS has to say. Outside the Beltway sums the media spin of this up in one…

  10. 10
    Hallfasthero Said:
    9:12 am 

    Sorry, but I have to part ways here. Personal information is just that – personal. I honestly don’t care if they have “external information” only. They don’t have any right to it. Where does this stop after all? Nothing like this ever starts without being pushed further than intended. They crossed this line without any court order and without permission. So we am supposed to trust that they won’t take this further because they have been so honorable and forthright so far? Who is being naive here? Understand that I am not attacking anyone here on this blog (not that I imagine anyone was terribly worried what I thought), but you can’t ignore the sensitivity of this issue. This is starting to enter into peoples personal day-to-day lives.

    Here is another thing that you need to look at. If collecting iformation like this IS illegal. Any information obtained becomes fruit of the poisonous vine. The tragedy here is that any information they get, they cannot use to prosecute. And let me take that a step further. Any lawyer defending a major criminal case that could have involved wiretapping et al and which have nothing to do with this data-mining project can pursue the exact same line of defense. Contending they knew to tap their client because of information illegally obtained.

    Sounds silly but I will bet you anything that is coming.

    I pity ATT, BellSouth, et al. They have legal problems now, the government doesn’t. When all is said and done, they mace face damages in the multi-millions. State laws are not kind to this sort of thing and barring a coup by the fed over state rights, they are going to lose big.

  11. 11
    UrbanGrounds » Blog Archive » NSA Datamining Phone Calls Pinged With:
    9:26 am 

    [...] Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House thinks that this story was leaked now for one reason only: The revelations in today’s USA Today about the massive collection of telephone numbers by the NSA - not eavesdropping on calls, not gathering people’s names or addresses – was leaked solely to discredit General Michael Hayden and derail his nomination for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. [...]

  12. 12
    Hallfasthero Said:
    10:03 am 

    Sorry about the typo in my entry – the 2nd line in the last paragraph should read “...they may face damages in the multi-millions.”

    Carry on.

  13. 13
    CatoRenasci Said:
    10:09 am 

    Hmmm. Let’s see. Why is this so disturbing? Aren’t the telecommunications companies already storing the information they have given to the government? Is the information significantly less prone to abuse in private hands? I don’t think so. While it’s possible that once upon a time, good records of who called whom did not exist, they have existed for a long time – as long as there have been telephone bills, at any rate. And, ever since billing was computerized, say around 1955 or so, the information has been in computers, and presumably stored. The availablity of cheap memory and fast access to that memory may have made it easier to mine the information, but it has always been available to law enforcement.

    I simply don’t understand why liberals think that having copies of the information already in private hands in government computers – with legal safeguards that probably don’t exist in the private sector – means big brother is now watching where before we were all in a state of innocent privacy.

    One commentator said (I hope ironically,but I doubt it) “nationalize the telecoms” – right, that would solve the problem by making all of the information government property. Very good.

  14. 14
    Pajamas Media Trackbacked With:
    10:10 am 

    “NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls”

    Lots of blog commentary on the report in the USA Today after the jump….

  15. 15
    Rick Moran Said:
    10:16 am 

    Cato:

    My comment about nationalizing telecoms was indeed satire. Stoller thinks that because AT&T et al cooperated with the government in the program that they should be damned, which is silly reasoning.

    As for the rest of your comment, the mischief making potential of government always exceeds that of private businesses. AT&T can’t put you in jail.

  16. 16
    DaveG Said:
    10:21 am 

    If you want to object to this, then you have to also object to entire litany of data-mining of “personal” data that occurs every second of every day.

    Do you have a “loyalty” card at your grocery store? If so, every purchase you make is recorded, tracked, and analyzed. Do you use an ATM? Every transaction is recorded, and in many cases, your photo is taken as well. Use a credit card? Do the math on that yourself – it’s pretty easy to think of nefarious schemes that could come from knowing every single financial transaction you have made in the past decade.

    Get real, people. This is a very small tip of a very large iceburg, and unless you’re willing to go live on a commune in North Dakota and be entirely self-sufficient, get over it.

  17. 17
    Macmind - Conservative Commentary and Common Sense Trackbacked With:
    10:27 am 

    NSA - Leaking in the USA Today

    Just when I was about to go off on this new “leak”, AJ Strata and Rick Moran beat me to it.

  18. 18
    A Blog For All Trackbacked With:
    10:40 am 

    The Latest Leak

    USA Today is reporting a new NSA program based on new leaks of classified information. Doesn’t that strike anyone the least bit odd?

  19. 19
    The Political Pit Bull Trackbacked With:
    10:44 am 

    Disgust And Hopelessness

    Why don’t we just throw in the towel now? Let’s tell the terrorists all of our national security secrets, give them control of our nukes, turn the United States into an Islamofacist state, and call it a day. Allah Akhbar….

  20. 20
    Super Fun Power Hour Trackbacked With:
    11:07 am 

    Data Mine at NSA

    Eager to publish a photo of Bush CIA nominee, Gen. Michael Hayden with a scary sounding story of NSA “violations of privacy,” USAToday has published a shocking expose. Well, ok it isn’t really shocking. Or much of an expose, considering its been fai…

  21. 21
    diamond Said:
    11:10 am 

    Rick: I am trying to remember back, in the klinton era, wasn’t there a program called Conivore? Was it based in France or Great Briton and it was to spot listen to our phone calls. Key phrase or words would trigger a flag on it and later listened to to determine the subject.
    There was also another, drop-in program but I have no clue what the name of it was or where located.
    Gee, someone is trying to keep us from voting this Nov, by drowning us in LEAKS! We are fools if it works and we don’t go and vote and VOTE ofter!

  22. 22
    Political Satire Fake News - The Nose On Your Face Trackbacked With:
    11:10 am 

    USA Today Reveals Secret NSA Program, Currently Breathing American Citizens Hardest Hit

    USA Today released the details of a formerly secret National Security Agency program earlier today when one of their articles revealed that that agency has been tracking telephone calls, analyzing the data and searching for call trends that might prevent

  23. 23
    The Unalienable Right » NSA: Can you hear me now? Pinged With:
    11:56 am 

    [...] Others: Blogger Rick Moran has a convenient roundup of the typical hysterical reaction from the BDS sufferers of the left-blogosphere. Few surprises there. [...]

  24. 24
    Scrapiron Said:
    11:57 am 

    The looney left has outdone itself on this one. Aren’t at least half of the American people smart enough to know that what the left is hyping is an impossible task? Selecting certain words by computer and kicking that call out may be possible, but listening to billions of phone calls daily, give me a break. The government would have to hire everyone in the country to monitor and analyze the calls and they would still fall behind and nothing would be accomplished.
    The only result i see from the whole ‘lie’ is that the people in Co. are now in the most danger (the terrorists now know what phone service and what area of the country has the least protection) and from what i’ve seen in the past, destruction of the entire state along with Ca. wouldn’t be a great loss.

  25. 25
    Conservative Thinking Trackbacked With:
    12:20 pm 

    New NSA Leaks

    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 t…

  26. 26
    Pissed Off Spook Said:
    12:21 pm 

    Rick,

    There are a couple of issues here. First the legality of the program. It’s obviously a gray area. It looks like the NSA is making a legal distinction between collecting and storing information and actually using it. For example, the NSA vacuums up all this data on phone traffic in the US and stores it. No one actually sees or uses 99% of the data, and probably no one ever will. Therefore, the NSA people are saying it’s not a search, it’s just stored data. Accessing the data is another question. Does that then become a search? It’s hard to tell. The legal system has not kept-up with the capabilities of our intelligence collection systems, especially with regard to communications. We will see similar problems in the next few decades with imaging satellites as they gain resolution and coverage increases. If a spy satellite happens to capture a crime, will that evidence be allowed in court? It’s just one of many interesting questions brought on by our growing technology.

    First off, I have no knowledge or access to this program. But let me tell you what I think they’re doing with it based on my experience in the IC. It’s what we would call traffic analysis. First we start with a huge and comprehensive database of all the calls in the USA for the last 5 years. I don’t know for sure, but this database probably only contains the meta-data on the calls – things like the number called, duration of call, time, etc. I doubt, and certainly hope, that the actual contents of the calls are not collected, though that capability is certainly available and feasible. To me, that would be a gross violation of the Constitution.

    Now, the NSA gets the phone number of some terrorist operating in the USA. They can then search this database and retrieve the information on every single phone call placed by that number. Any phone numbers the terrorist called will also have their numbers searched, and pretty soon you’ll have a big historical network of phone and data traffic that revolves around one particular phone number. After analyzing that network, requests for wiretaps, searches, and other procedures can be conducted against the phone numbers and their owners who are associated with the terrorist phone number.

    Obviously, this can be an extremely valuable tool. This also isn’t new. The NSA has been doing similar stuff for years. Just read James Bamford’s book (published in 1983) called the “Inside the Puzzle Palace.” It’s the first book written on the NSA and it’s an amazing piece of investigative journalism, especially considering when it was written. ATT was colluding with the NSA for decades on similar projects, though much more limited in scope, as the technology for the current program only came available in the late 90’s.

    Although I think this database is a great tool for terrorism, much care must be taken to keep its use legal. There is always a strong attraction to take tools like this and start applying them to many other areas for which they’re not intended. Oversight is the key. These types of programs must have oversight from Congress to ensure they stay legal and don’t stray from their legal, intended mission.

  27. 27
    The New Editor Trackbacked With:
    12:29 pm 

    Just Another Day at the Office for the Leakers

    Rick Moran:
    There are apparently no limits to which the cadre of leakers who are working in our intelligence agencies will go to undermine legitimate national security interests in furtherance of their own, private agendas. The revelations in today’s USA

  28. 28
    DaveG Said:
    1:31 pm 

    These types of programs must have oversight from Congress to ensure they stay legal and don’t stray from their legal, intended mission.

    You’re right, of course, but I question whether Congress can be trusted as the overseer. I find Congressional corruption to be heads and shoulders over anything coming out of the Executive branch. We need (if it’s even possible anymore) non-partisan oversight.

  29. 29
    protein wisdom Trackbacked With:
    1:55 pm 

    "NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls"

    More attempts by our "adversarial" press (and their leak-happy counterparts in the CIA) to gin up controversy, this time, presumably, to try to scuttle the appointment of Gen Michael Hayden and DCI. From USA Today:The National Security Ag…

  30. 30
    Pissed Off Spook Said:
    2:15 pm 

    You’re right, of course, but I question whether Congress can be trusted as the overseer. I find Congressional corruption to be heads and shoulders over anything coming out of the Executive branch. We need (if it’s even possible anymore) non-partisan oversight.

    You’re right of course, but who else can do it? The executive has done a good job of keeping the judicial branch away from these things by using classification and other techniques to keep them out of the courts. Like it or not, Congress is the only hope we have for oversight.

  31. 31
    Blind Mind’s Eye » The NSA knows who you’re calling, big deal Pinged With:
    3:21 pm 

    [...] Right Wing Nut House. [...]

  32. 32
    Citizen DeWayne Said:
    3:58 pm 

    President Issues None Denial—Denial

    Red flags went up at the White House this morning when the USA Today splashed the headline:

    “NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls”

    In a spontaneous press conference this morning president Bush said, “We’re not mining or trolling though the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.’’ This a classic example of the none denial—denial. No one accused the administration of “mining or trolling the personal lives of…Americans.” What the USA Today article says is a huge data base of our personal phone records are being mined for possible connections to terrorists supposedly.

    Remember a few weeks ago how you were all angry about loony liberals not putting the word “illegal” in front of the word immigrant and insisting you were just being adamant that the law be enforced. Well that is exactly the issue here as to whether or not these wire taps are legal. I’m sorry, but we just cannot take the presidents word for it. And, there no way any of you can say this is all perfectly legal, because no one knows exactly what is happening.

  33. 33
    Brian Said:
    4:43 pm 

    Wow, lots of naïveté and self-delusion going on here. Where to begin…

    Is the information significantly less prone to abuse in private hands? I don’t think so.

    The private sector is limited in its use of data by laws and contractual privacty agreements with you, the volunteer customer. With government, you are not a volunteer, you have no contract, and apparently they are unbounded by laws.

    While it’s possible that once upon a time, good records of who called whom did not exist, they have existed for a long time … [T]he information has been in computers, and presumably stored… [I]t has always been available to law enforcement.

    Yes, but always through a court-granted warrant. What the government is now doing is saying, “we don’t want to have to show evidence to a judge, so just give us the entire database up front, and we’ll decide for ourselves which numbers we’ll investigate; but don’t worry, we’ll be good.” You would F-L-I-P O-U-T if Clinton said that.

    I simply don’t understand why liberals think that having copies of the information … in government computers … means big brother is now watching…

    I share your bewilderment. It used to be, a mere 5 years ago, that conservatives held most dear the notions of limited government and keeping government out of our lives. How ironic that conservatives would now abandon these ideals out of fear.

    Do you have a “loyalty” card at your grocery store? If so, every purchase you make is recorded, tracked, and analyzed.

    Yes, by a private entity, with whom I voluntarily associate, and whose sole purpose bound by contract and law is to sell me more stuff. But my supermarket won’t jail me for having suspicious milk-buying behavior. Yes, I know… truly milk-law abiding citizens wouldn’t have to worry…

  34. 34
    Citizen DeWayne Said:
    4:57 pm 

    That was supposed to be Non-Denial-Denial.

  35. 35
    Brian Said:
    5:15 pm 

    Those who base their defense of this program on Bush’s good-guy trust-me assurances that the government is not actually listening in on calls should pay more attention to what the government is actually doing.

    AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers’ phone calls, and shunted its customers’ internet traffic to data-mining equipment...

    “While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet (AT&T’s internet service) circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal,” Klein wrote….

    The secret room also included data-mining equipment called a Narus STA 6400, “known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets

    One of the documents is titled “Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco,” and is dated 2002. The others are allegedly a design document instructing technicians how to wire up the taps

    A “tap” is for listening in on conversations. If all the government wanted to do was data mine call sources and destinations, they wouldn’t need “taps”, and they wouldn’t need to split phone signals into specialized processors.

    Don’t put your loyalty to Bush ahead of American ideals and your own intelligence.

  36. 36
    The Zero Point Trackbacked With:
    8:02 pm 

    USA Today’s Gift To The Terrorists

    It is becoming increasingly clear that, aside from terrorists, the groups most anxious to destroy America are journalists and a cadre of politically motivated intelligence community personnel.We had planned to talk about this latest leak of intelligenc…

  37. 37
    Chickenhawk Express Trackbacked With:
    8:03 pm 

    They Have Already Started in on Hayden

    It didn’t take long for the vultures on the left to start circling CIA Director nominee Hayden after the disgusting leak of MORE NSA intelligence information. One day there is going to be a Congress member “death by trampling” in the rush to get fac…

  38. 38
    Jon Swift Trackbacked With:
    3:00 am 

    The NSA Code

    The NSA contends that they are simply looking for “patterns.” In fact, the kinds of patterns NSA analysts are looking for may be the key to winning the War on Terror.

  39. 39
    DocMartyn Said:
    7:04 am 

    I doubt that the NSA has enough memory to recored a minor fraction of phone calls. What it can do is look at the times, duration, caller and callee locations. This way they can examine the interconnections betwwen individuals. This will allow them to track the networking between people. They get one bad guy, they can examine just who he was in contact with, and then follow their trails, and so on.
    The British, through GCHQ, have done this for decades and it has been very useful in tracking the IRA and similar groups. Pity they didn’t extend it to possible Islamic terrorists. Just how do you think the FBI/CIA can stop a home grown terrorist group, like the group in the UK which bombed four London targets, if you don’t track EVERYONE? Or at least be able to track their assistors and cheerleaders after an outrage?

  40. 40
    DaveG Said:
    7:16 am 

    Don’t put your loyalty to Bush ahead of American ideals and your own intelligence.

    That’s a fair request, as would be the request that those with knee-jerk opposition to any policy instituted by the Bush adminstration not let their hatred get in the way of seeing that it is very possible that these programs are 1) vetted by at least somewhat competant lawyers and leading legsislators, 2) are in the interest of saving American citizens lives, and 3) shouldn’t be disseminated by cynical, opportunistic media outlets.

    It’s a two-way street, and given the potential consequences of revealing our defensive tactics to a ruthless and patient enemy bent on the destruction of our entire way of life, I find the willful leaking of these details to be a reprehensible act.

    Am I wearing blinders? Maybe, but I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that these programs are abusing our incredibly elastic “right to privacy,” which has quite frankly been so stretched out of any reasonable semblance to our Constitutional rights by decisions like Roe v. Wade that I don’t know what it’s supposed to look like anymore anyway.

  41. 41
    Right Wing Nut House » THE HYSTERICAL DRAMA QUEENS OF THE LEFT Pinged With:
    7:55 am 

    [...] VINCE AUT MORIRE VODKAPUNDIT WALLO WORLD WHAT ATTITUDE PROBLEM? WIDE AWAKES WIZBANG WUZZADEM THE HYSTERICAL DRAMA QUEENS OF THE LEFT IRAN USING “THE SCALI GAMBITIN POTENTIAL NUKE TALKS THE COUNCIL HAS SPOKEN TAKE OFFTHE 9/11 TINFOIL HATS JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE FOR THE LEAKERS WHO SAYS THE DEMOCRATS DON’T HAVE ANY NEW IDEAS? A COMEDY OF ERRORS AHMADINEJAD AND HIS LIBERAL TALKING POINTS REPRIEVED! “THE LAST HURRAHFOR THE EVIL ONE “DEAR GREAT SATAN,…” HUGH HEWITT: KOOL AID DRINKER OR SAGE OF SAGES? CONNECTING THE GOSS DOTS AN EXERCISE IN CIRCULAR LOGIC JUST HOW DYSFUNCTIONAL ARE OUR INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES? GOSS IS GONE RUMSFELD’S FOLLY THE COUNCIL HAS SPOKEN VENGENCE IS THE LORDS: JUSTICE IS OURS IN MOUSSAOUI CASE FISKING JAMES BOWMAN’S REVIEW OF U-93 STRONG WEEKDAY SHOWING FOR U-93 (UPDATED 5/4) THE INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY OF THE OPEN BORDERS CROWD NET NEUTRALITY: A REAL CONCERN OR LIBERAL SCHEMING? THE GATHERING STORM THE RANK IDIOCY OF TBOGG ISRAELIS BELIEVE IRAN CLOSER TO NUKES THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT “24″ (57) ABLE DANGER (10) Bird Flu (5) Blogging (80) Books (7) CARNIVAL OF THE CLUELESS (66) CHICAGO BEARS (9) CIA VS. THE WHITE HOUSE (23) Cindy Sheehan (12) Ethics (53) General (277) Government (38) History (53) IMMIGRATION REFORM (7) Iran (24) KATRINA (26) Katrina Timeline (4) Marvin Moonbat (14) Media (77) Middle East (24) Moonbats (46) NET NEUTRALITY (2) Open House (1) Politics (176) Science (14) Space (12) Supreme Court (19) War on Terror (105) WATCHER’S COUNCIL (44) WORLD POLITICS (40) WORLD SERIES (14) Admin Login Register Valid XHTML XFN 2 Responses to “THE HYSTERICAL DRAMA QUEENS OF THE LEFT” [...]

  42. 42
    MB Civic » Prozac for Republicans? Pinged With:
    8:04 am 

    [...] Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House blames those who slipped a reporter the information: [...]

  43. 43
    RightWinged.com Trackbacked With:
    9:23 am 

    USA Today NSA Story A Rehash Of December 2005 NY Times Story

    ***SCROLL FOR UPDATES*** (h/t Drudge) The media is still buzzing, and will continue to buzz, over the recently leaked NSA phone call data collection program, until they’re able to create a new bogus scandal to attack the president with. What…

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