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| NSA surveillance broader than previously acknowledged |
| 2005-12-24 |
| The National Security Agency has conducted much broader surveillance of e-mails and phone calls — without court orders — than the Bush administration has acknowledged, The New York Times reported on its website. 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. The story did not name the companies. 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-Qaeda. 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. The story quoted a former technology manager at a major telecommunications firm as saying that companies have been storing information on calling patterns since the Sept. 11 attacks, and giving it to the federal government. Neither the manager nor the company he worked for was identified. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #13 Michelle Malkin has a lot more. I haven't read it all but this quote from the NYT jumped out at me. What has not been publicly acknowledged is that N.S.A. technicians, besides actually eavesdropping on specific conversations, have combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might point to terrorism suspects. Some officials describe the program as a large data-mining operation. I'll suggest the eavesdropping on specific conversations bit has been made up by the reporter or relates to some thing other than the DM, because it would be like examining a single snow flake to see if there was enough snow to ski on, i.e. a complete waste of time. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-12-24 19:29 |
| #12 I sent you some help at paypal also. Good luck Fred and merry xmas. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2005-12-24 14:51 |
| #11 NY Times continues to work on behalf of the Islamist enemy. Pinch & co. breathed in the vaporized remains of their neighbors slaughtered on 9/11. I bet much of their leadership is even Jewish. How can they not understand what will happen if 'their' side wins? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2005-12-24 14:27 |
| #10 Shoot the leakers, shut down the NYT. Benedict Arnolds have no rights in the USA. |
| Posted by: Unoluck Thuger4056 2005-12-24 13:37 |
| #9 Google "david kahn traffic analysis". Legal. Long used. No personal data needed, no violation of rights. Thank you NYT for drawing attention to that again. Bastards. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2005-12-24 13:26 |
| #8 I'm sending you a little firewall contribution myself. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2005-12-24 12:55 |
| #7 Same here, Fred. PayPal. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-12-24 12:46 |
| #6 I wouldn't care if they date mined every citizens (and non-citizen) in the country. I also think Bush's ratings would go up if that were announced. Nobody had hit us since Sept 11 and the data mining hasn't effected my life in any noticable way. Go for it. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-12-24 12:01 |
| #5 "... in search of patterns ..." Does this require a warrant? Seems more like a 'stakeout'? "...quoting an unnamed official." Can't anybody keep their mouth shut? "The story quoted a former technology manager..." Who should soon take up residence at a federal penitentiary. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2005-12-24 11:41 |
| #4 "After Xmas, I'm buying a hardware firewall, which should cut out some of that crap, though this bunch uses IP cloaking. - Fred" Check your PayPal account in a couple of minutes, Fred. Hope it helps. Merry Christmas to all. Or Happy Hannukah. (Or Happy Whatever - your mileage may vary. ;-p) |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-12-24 11:41 |
| #3 combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might lead to terrorists = Data Mining |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-12-24 11:30 |
| #2 Those internet problems are hacker boy trying to access my Word Press files. Presumably they can be exploited. Since there aren't any, each request errors out. After Xmas, I'm buying a hardware firewall, which should cut out some of that crap, though this bunch uses IP cloaking. |
| Posted by: Fred 2005-12-24 11:22 |
| #1 Amazing! I actually beat Dan to a story. Must be because of the internet problems this morning. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2005-12-24 10:59 |