They Know Who We're Calling

New York Daily News -

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BY RICHARD SISK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Friday, May 12th, 2006

WASHINGTON - A new furor over Big Brother tactics erupted yesterday when it was revealed that the Bush administration has been tracking nearly every phone call in the country over the past five years.

The colossal secret database of phone calls, first reported by USA Today, prompted Democratic and Republican members of Congress to demand answers from the White House, and at least one Senate committee chairman promptly called for public hearings.

President Bush did not confirm the massive tracking program, but in a hastily arranged White House announcement tried to assure Americans he was protecting their privacy.

"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," Bush said.

"The government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. ... The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," the President said. He did not take any questions.

Bush defenders on Capitol Hill confirmed that the National Security Agency began collecting records of landline and cell phone calls shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and condemned leaks on the project.

"This is nuts," said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). "We are in a war, and we have got to collect intelligence on the enemy. And you can't tell the enemy in advance how you're going to do it."

But Democrats and several Republicans questioned the program's legality.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) said she was "deeply disturbed" by the disclosures.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that "when the average American hears that his or her phone records might have been used, they're going to say, 'What? What happened? How did they use it? What permission did they have to use it?'"

After 9/11, the NSA secretly contracted with AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth for the records on all calls made over the more than 200 million phones serviced by the firms. The Denver-based Qwest firm refused to turn over data on its 14 million phones.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino tried to downplay any sense of domestic spying.

"If you are calling to make reservations at a restaurant, and if you are calling your daughter at college or if you are calling to plan your wedding, the government has no interest in knowing about those calls," Perino said.

She said the government is only "interested in finding out if Al Qaeda is planning an attack in America."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the Judiciary Committee chairman, said he would subpoena the phone companies to appear before his committee.

"We're really flying blind on the subject and that's not a good way to approach the Fourth Amendment and the constitutional issues involving privacy," Specter said.

The uproar in Congress recalled the debate earlier this year of the NSA's eavesdropping without court approval on phone calls and e-mails between the U.S. and overseas where an Al Qaeda link was suspected.

The Justice Department claimed then that a Bush executive order allowed the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to be bypassed. The White House did not say yesterday whether an executive order had been signed for the phone record collection.

With Kenneth R. Bazinet

10 Things You Should Know About Phone Scandal

  1. What is the National Security Agency doing?

The government spy agency is collecting the telephone records of ordinary Americans and building a massive database of nearly every call made within the country. We're talking 200 million phone lines across the U.S. and billions of calls, including an untold number just in New York City.

  1. When did this start?

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to USA Today. The bigger question is, where does the NSA snooping stop? Because if they can track our calls, there's little to prevent them from reading our e-mails, text and video messages. Even Internet phone services that encrypt their calls could be vulnerable to Big Brother.

  1. Why is the NSA doing this?

Identify potential terrorists by tracking who talks to whom in personal and business calls, whether local or long distance. It's a process known as "social network analysis" that aims at identifying previously undetected connections between people.

  1. Are the feds listening in to our phone calls?

They claim they are not. But they are keeping track of who we call. The NSA records don't include names and addresses. But critics say identifying a caller from a phone number is a snap. They also question the government's rationale for doing this because terrorists can easily get off "the grid" by using pay phones, calling cards and Internet cafes. They can also cover their tracks by using disposable -- or a variety of -- cell phones.

  1. Which telephone companies turned over their records to the NSA?

Verizon -- with 7 million landline users just in New York State -- AT&T, and BellSouth Corp. cooperated with the feds. They are the nation's biggest telecommunications companies and provide local and wireless phone service to more than 200 million customers. But Qwest, which has 14 million customers in 14 mostly Western states, refused. Bell South said it refused also.

  1. What's President Bush's position?

Bush insists the feds are not "mining or trolling through the personal lives" of Americans. He says the NSA's actions are "lawful" and that he has briefed members of Congress.

  1. What does Congress say?

Many Democrats and some Republicans are outraged and are demanding answers. They suspect it may be unconstitutional and violate privacy rights. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has vowed to grill phone company honchos about the NSA snooping. But Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is defending the program as a necessary tool for fighting terrorism.

  1. What is the potential political fallout?

It could stall the confirmation of Bush's pick to run the CIA, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden. He was already taking flak for spearheading the NSA's electronic eavesdropping program on telephone calls and e-mails from within the U.S. to suspected terrorists overseas.

  1. So that's different from what we're finding out now?

Yes. That program involved the NSA tapping telephone calls and e-mails from within the U.S. to suspected terrorist overseas - without warrants. This NSA program keeps tabs on all of us - also without our knowledge.

  1. What happens now?

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) warned of a "major constitutional confrontation." The debate over civil liberties and the legal underpinnings for the Bush administration's actions has already begun. But the public is divided over how much privacy should be sacrificed in the name of safety from terrorism.

Corky Siemaszko

What the administration has said about domestic surveillance:

Jan. 23

Gen. Michael Hayden, deputy director of national intelligence: "This is not about intercepting conversations between people in the United States.

... This is focused. It's targeted. It's very carefully done. You shouldn't worry."

Jan. 25

President Bush: "This is a targeted program to intercept communications in which intelligence professionals have reason to believe that at least one person is a member or agent of Al Qaeda or a related terrorist organization. The program applies only to international communications."

Feb. 6 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: "Only international communications are authorized for interception under this program. ... To protect the privacy of Americans still further, the NSA employs safeguards to minimize the unnecessary collection and dissemination of information about U.S. persons."

Yesterday:

President Bush: "The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities. We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."

NSA spokesman Don Weber: "The NSA takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within the law."

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Way back in the 1960's when Electronic Switching Systems (ESS) were first being developed, telco's major complaint was that the telephone network had essentially gotten out of control; among other things, anyone who knew how the 'system' worked (and more people were find out every day about the old-style 'frames' and other apparatus; how ancient and unreliable it was becoming; and the various limitations of the 'system' where people who were less than honest were concerned, or people who were malevolent in their intentions, and telco finally had enough of it and said the entire system had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Now, what telco said to the public was there would now be all these new, modern conveniences such as 'call waiting', 'three way calling' and such, to smooth over their _real_ intention, which was to get a phone system which was totally under their thumbs for once. What telco did _not_ tell you was that no longer, to 'trace a call' did an operator have to call a tech to go back in the frames and spend 30-45 minutes looking around, only to after several minutes hear the sickening sound of the tandems collapsing; all he could do at that point was shrug his shoulders, turn around and walk away and tell the business office -- or whoever had ordered the trace -- that it failed but 'maybe tomorrow we can find out who the bugger is ... '. And ditto when the feds wanted something done; it was a real pain in telco's backside to have to run those jumpers around all over in the frames area. Now with ESS, it became a very simple matter to go see the nerd who was sitting at the terminal and ask him 'did X talk to Y today? When? How long? He could tell you in a few seconds who was doing what at any given time, and provide you with a print out of it as well.

So, while the smiling service rep was talking _you_ into purchasing a few of the new features 'which we are now equipped to provide in your calling area' the overall intent of ESS was a lot more nefarious. Why hell, we can even let the public in on certain subsets of these new toys such as 'return last call' and 'speed dialing' and charge them for those new conveniences also. By nickle-and-diming the subscribers for these new toys, we can even amortize a small portion of what it cost us to instll them. Should any of the customers get nosy and ask us, "just how do _you_ know who I talked to earlier today?" we just pass it off as a peculiar question and let it go at that.

No, ESS was not intended as a 'customer convenience'; it was intended to restore telco to the people who built it in the first place. PAT]

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Richard Sisk
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