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Another Day, Another Lie: NSA Spying was everywhere Email Print

By Devilstower
12/24/2005 12:00:32 PM EST

Just last Saturday, a snarling Bush gave a live address to say that he had indeed been going after domestic calls without a warrant, that he was going to keep doing it, and that Alberto said it was part of his powers so what are you gonna do about it?   Besides, Bush said that it was only affecting a few people.  You know, the bad guys.

Now it seems that the real scope of the spying was much larger than was admitted when Bush fessed up a week ago.

The NSA, with help from American telecommunications companies, obtained access to streams of domestic and international communications, said the Times in the report late Friday, citing unidentified current and former government officials.

So, rather than just targeting a few folks who were on the receiving end of calls from suspiscious numbers overseas.  
Since the Times disclosed the domestic spying program last week, President Bush has stressed that his executive order allowing the eavesdropping was limited to people with known links to al-Qaida.

But the Times said that NSA technicians have combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might lead to terrorists.

The volume of information harvested from telecommunications data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the paper said, quoting an unnamed official.

Can anyone really say they're surprised?


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Another Day, Another Lie: NSA Spying was everywhere | 3 comments (3 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
more will be tumbling out... (none / 0)
...about this, I'm sure. I hope outrage is one of the by-products.

The Albany Project. The best damned blog about New York State politics.

by NYBri on 12/24/2005 11:12:34 PM EST

The next obvious question: (none / 0)
If the NSA is monitoring large volumes of communications, there is one obvious question:  Why?

Data mining is only useful to look for preselected types of data or patterns, if I understand correctly.  Congress must subpoena the NSA and administration officials to find out, in no uncertain terms, to what purposes this program was set.  

The Bush administration has forfeited any expectation of being taken at its word.  Subpoena power and formal hearings are a must.  If Congress is unwilling to go about this, then the responsible members are in violation of their oath to uphold the Constitution.  It would be delicious to see Pat Roberts impeached next year along with Bush and Cheney.

by Dallasdoc on 12/25/2005 02:37:45 AM EST

And the next question after that.... (none / 0)
....would be, "What did the telecommunications corporations get in return for their cooperation?"

The Albany Project. The best damned blog about New York State politics.

by NYBri on 12/25/2005 09:30:46 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Another Day, Another Lie: NSA Spying was everywhere | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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