USA Today reprints old story from NY Times? (Drudge title; re NSA phone tracking)

The New York Times via Drudge ^ | December 23, 2005 | ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN

[xjcsa]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - 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.

[xjcsa]

Thoughts? It appears the USA Today story was recycled from this story from the NY Times.

[sageb1]

Thoughts? It was! I wondered this morning why it was treated as some new big deal.

[Republican Wildcat]

This is the same thing MSM did with the Rice memo and a number of other things - report previously reported news as new and make a scandal out of it. Incredibly dishonest, but not a surprise as they've done it so many times over the past few years.

[JennysCool]

Please note: There is an election coming soon. The MSM wants Democrats elected. They will recycle everything.

[Pikamax]

and wired.com ran a story last month concerning it because of a lawsuit with AT&T, all USAToday did was get a couple of anon sources to fluff it up.

[Gordongekko909]

*GASP* The MSM? Plagiarism? Say it ain't so!

[Wolfstar]

Incredibly dishonest, but not a surprise as they've done it so many times over the past few years.

And yet people want us to believe their polls. Gag!

[M1Tanker]

A Lie repeated often enough...

Of course, the left still refuses to print the NYT articles praising Clinton's Echelon system. The ACLU is trying to bury their monitoring of that system. It's like the left hit the "history erase" button in 2001.

President Bush's plan targets IP addresses of know terrorist computers and tracks where they are going. But the left twists the story into a mess and then plagiarizes itself....

This is sheer propaganda by the left... some things never change.

[Waco]

Also ta-da, on going under Der Klink. But don't say much about it, the IRS may call.

[ruschpa]

The media will do anything to portray this President in a poor light.

[Republican Wildcat]

Someone in the Senate also needs to go to the floor and call out Leahy and Specter for holding a news conference acting as though this was a new revelation as well.

[WOSG]

If that is a real question and not just a rehtorical setup, the answer is ... YES:

New York Times Dec 25,2005: "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."

[pacpam]

Lincoln had it right - "I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him."
--From the August 11, 1846 Letter to Allen N. Ford

[skimask]

Could it have been recycled because the DOJ dropped the inquiry into the NSA listening on terrorists due to security clearances that NSA was unwilling to issue to the DOJ lawyers?

[Berlin_Freeper]

The NYSlimes did the same exact rehashing an old story tactic shortly before the November 2004 Presidential election.

They rehashed an old story about weapons that had supposedly gone missing at an arms depot in Iraq and was allegedly being used by the terrorists against US Forces.

They tried to pin the blame for it on the Bush administration but the Pentagon moved quick to make soldiers available to reveal the facts about what really happened, which was basically nothing. It was a real non-story.

And of course there was cBS and their "fake but accurate" rehashed story about Bush and the National Guard story. That too turned out to be a big nothing.

Now we are seeing this same rehashing tactic being used by USA Today. Because they so desperately want to sink President Bush in their phony polls.

What has the left been constantly been charging against President Bush? The "he is the worst President in US History." And they so desperately desperately want to sink his approval rating so they can have the proof their deranged little minds require.

How many polls have we seen in the last weeks on President Bush? There have been so many you would think we are in the middle of the Presidential campaign again. Why is that? Because they smell blood and are in a frenzy and are so determined to squash Bush they are blatantly grabbing for every last thing they can throw at him, including rehashing old BS from the past as if it is a new controversy.

I expect what they will be driving down the most is their continuing nose dive in regards to their own circulation and ratings numbers.

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

Libs don't like secret military courts to prosecute known terrorists, but love secret grand juries who prosecute public officials of the the Republican party.

[OldFriend]

And the best part of all. Her thighness has weighed in with her thoughts on the matter.

She is disturbed by the violation of privacy of American citizens.

HELLOOOOO can we say 900 FBI files................