Report, Rinse, repeat (The NSA data mining story)

Granddaddy Long Legs ^

[cchandler]

It looks like the NSA is back in the news again, only this time it's because of the startling revelation that they've been data-mining.

Shocker!

As always, Bill Keller's New York Times is all over the breaking news......again.

Here's an excerpt:

The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former government officials.

The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said.

As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said.

The government's collection and analysis of phone and Internet traffic have raised questions among some law enforcement and judicial officials familiar with the program. One issue of concern to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has reviewed some separate warrant applications growing out of the N.S.A.'s surveillance program, is whether the court has legal authority over calls outside the United States that happen to pass through American-based telephonic "switches," according to officials familiar with the matter.

The Democrats in Congress are up in arms about this recent allegation of Presidential wrongdoing. The only problem is that this article isn't recent; it's from December of 2005.

[Mr. K]

I wonder if they will point out that this was signed into law by clintoon and supported by the all dem congress (before he lost control to republicans!)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See this and then ask yourself ....Why don't we want to use our Public Communicaations Network against the Terrorists...:

Connecting the Dots -- Tracking Two Identified Terrorists

[theDentist]

"I wonder if they will point out..."

"They" being the MSM or the Republican Party?
Answer: Neither.