Bush denies Spying Infringing on Americans' Privacy

BUSH DENIES SPYING INFRINGING ON AMERICANS' PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Matt Spetalnick and Andy Sullivan]
President George W. Bush denied on Thursday the government was "trolling through" Americans' personal lives, despite a report that a domestic spy agency was collecting phone records of tens of millions of citizens. Defending his administration's espionage program, Bush said intelligence activities he had authorized were lawful and the government was not eavesdropping on domestic phone calls without court approval. But Democrats and Republicans alike demanded an explanation after USA Today reported the National Security Agency was secretly amassing phone records from phone companies to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist plots. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who was nominated by President Bush on Monday as director of the CIA, headed the NSA from 1999 to 2005 and would have overseen the call-tracking program.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID...
* President Bush Discusses NSA Surveillance Program
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060511-1.html
* Gathering data may not violate privacy rights, but it could be illegal
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060512/1a_coverside12_dom.ar...
* Did The NSA Break The Law?
The NSA's call database was taken in stride by the national security community, which all but assumed that the NSA was up to such data mining after it was revealed last December that the spy agency was intercepting calls made to or from suspected terrorists abroad. Section 222 of the 1934 Communications Act forbids phone companies from giving out data on the calling patterns of their customers. But telecom experts say the law wasn't designed to address national security issues.
http://www.forbes.com/home/businessinthebeltway/2006/05/11/nsa-wiretap-b...
* Bush defends spy program after new disclosure
http://news.com.com/Bush+defends+spy+program+after+new+disclosure/2100-1...
* Bush Is Pressed Over New Report on Surveillance
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/washington/12nsa.html
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* Bush Seeks to Quell Storm Over Telecom Monitoring
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114736085710650220.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
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* Data on Phone Calls Has Been Monitored
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR200605...
* Bush says privacy protected; others tell of ‘spider web' use
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060512/1a_lede12_dom.art.htm
* New Furor Over NSA Phone Logs
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-nsa12may12,1,194339...
* White House Won't Confirm or Deny It Tried to Stop 'USA Today' Story
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...

CONGRESS 'FLYING BLIND' ON NSA ISSUE, SOME SAY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Ronald Brownstein and Maura Reynolds]
Since the first revelations about the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance, the struggle over information about the program has been as contentious as the debate over the wiretapping itself. For months, Democrats in Congress have accused the White House of stonewalling questions about the program and have charged that Republicans have failed to press hard enough for answers. Some GOP senators joined in the complaints that Congress had been left too much in the dark. Those disputes appeared to be waning this spring. But they were reignited Thursday with the report in USA Today that the NSA has secretly collected the phone call records of millions of Americans. That report instantly renewed calls from lawmakers in both parties for the administration to answer questions about the range of surveillance activities it has undertaken since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "We're really flying blind on the subject, and that's not a good way to approach … the constitutional issues involving privacy," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). The debate over whether enough members of Congress know enough about the surveillance seems likely to spill into the confirmation hearings for Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the former NSA director whom President Bush has nominated to run the CIA. But the rekindled argument also is likely to complicate the push from Sen Specter and other Republicans for legislation providing explicit legal authority for the NSA warrantless surveillance. The new disclosure about the scope of surveillance has hardened Democrats' conviction that Congress knows too little about the NSA's program to set rules for it.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-assess12may12,1,...
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* Lawmakers Call for Hearings
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR200605...
* New NSA Revelations Highlight Need for Congressional Oversight
[SOURCE: Center for Democracy and Technology]
Today's revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly compiling the telephone and Internet records of millions of innocent Americans sends the clearest signal yet that Congress must demand details on the full extent of the administration's domestic spying program. A story in today's USA Today details how the NSA, working with major phone providers, has created a massive database that tracks the phone communications of ordinary Americans. CDT believes that the program described in the article is illegal.
More on NSA Surveillance: http://www.cdt.org/security/nsa/20060203gonzalez.pdf

AS TECH ADVANCES, PRIVACY LAWS LAG
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joseph Menn and James S. Granelli]
Never has it been so easy to know so much about so many. Thursday's disclosure that three of the nation's biggest telephone companies gave customer calling records to the National Security Agency again demonstrates that technology is rewriting the rules of privacy faster than the law can adapt. And with their powerful database programs tracking a massive amount of personal details of Americans' daily lives, a growing number of companies find themselves sandwiched between the privacy expectations of their customers and the national security demands of the federal government. "It's so easy to say yes," said technology security expert Bruce Schneier. "The government sings a patriotic song, and you want to do what's right. We all want to band together." With the rise of lightning-fast ways to collect, collate and distribute digital data, county sheriffs, credit card companies and even nosy neighbors can dig up private information. But in many cases it is the federal government that has been looking over the public's virtual shoulder.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-techsnoop12may12,1,...
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* Disclosure of program reignites the debate on liberty vs. security
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060512/1a_cover12x.art.htm

'CLIMATE HAS CHANGED' FOR DATA PRIVACY
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Paul Davidson]
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, airlines, websites and Las Vegas hotels have divulged private customer information to federal authorities hunting for terrorists or criminals. “The climate has changed, and many companies give less weight to the privacy interests of their customers,” says David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Yet privacy advocates say the new case is more egregious because phone records are afforded even greater protections and the information was obtained without a warrant. “It's an inexcusable violation of the trust we place in the phone company to maintain the privacy of communications,” says Kevin Bankston of advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation. The group sued AT&T in January for aiding the National Security Agency in eavesdropping.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20060512/1b_bizprivacy12.art.htm
* What phone companies have to say
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20060512/phonequotes12.art.htm
* Cable firms: Law protects customers
Leading cable operators say a 1984 federal law would stop them from handing customer calling records to the National Security Agency the way AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20060512/1b_cableprivacy12.ar...

EVER-EXPANDING SECRET
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Ever since its secret domestic wiretapping program was exposed, the Bush administration has depicted it as a narrow examination of calls made by and to suspected terrorists. But its refusal to provide any details about the extent of the spying has raised doubts. Now there is more reason than ever to be worried — and angry -- about how wide the government's web has been reaching. What we have here is a clandestine surveillance program of enormous size, which is being operated by members of the administration who are subject to no limits or scrutiny beyond what they deem to impose on one another. If the White House had gotten its way, the program would have run secretly until the war on terror ended -- that is, forever. Congress must stop pretending that it has no serious responsibilities for monitoring the situation. The Senate should call back Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and ask him -- this time, under oath -- about the scope of the program. This time, lawmakers should not roll over when Mr. Gonzales declines to provide answers. The confirmation hearings of Michael Hayden, President Bush's nominee for Central Intelligence Agency director, are also a natural forum for a serious, thorough and pointed review of exactly what has been going on. Most of all, Congress should pass legislation that removes any doubt that this kind of warrantless spying on ordinary Americans is illegal. If the administration finds the current procedures for getting court approval of wiretaps too restrictive, this would be the time to make any needed adjustments. President Bush began his defense of the NSA program yesterday by invoking, as he often does, Sept. 11. The attacks that day firmed the nation's resolve to protect itself against its enemies, but they did not give the president the limitless power he now claims to intrude on the private communications of the American people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/opinion/12fri1.html
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* Opinions from around the country
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060512/opline12.art.htm
* Editorials, from Right and Left, Hit Latest NSA Shocker
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...
* NSA has your phone records; ‘trust us' isn't good enough
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060512/edit12.art.htm

MORE DOMESTIC SPYING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] When the New York Times revealed the National Security Agency's domestic wiretapping program late last year, President Bush assured the country that the operation was carefully limited to international calls, targeted only al-Qaeda suspects and did not involve snooping on law-abiding Americans. That turns out to be far from the whole truth. In addition to intercepting certain international calls, USA Today reported yesterday, the NSA after Sept. 11, 2001, began assembling a database of records of domestic calls. It attempted to keep track of all phone calls made in the United States and use them in an elaborate data-mining operation. The agency did not go to any court for approval. Rather, it simply asked several major telecommunications companies to turn over huge volumes of call data. With the exception of Qwest, which balked for legal reasons, the companies did so. As with the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program, the law here is murky. The Washington Post doesn't contend that data-mining is illegitimate. With appropriate controls and oversight, it has a role to play in modern intelligence and law enforcement. But a giant government database detailing which phone numbers called which other phone numbers -- the NSA data, according to USA Today, do not include people's names or addresses or the contents of their communications -- is a massive intrusion on personal privacy. Congress urgently needs to examine the full range of NSA domestic surveillance. These latest revelations show the error of well-meaning attempts to legislate concerning the NSA's wiretapping program by senators lacking a comprehensive sense of what it is and how it fits into the agency's larger domestic activities. The goal must be to modernize the rules of anti-terrorism surveillance within the United States, allowing for the uses of new technologies unimagined when Congress wrote current law but insisting on proper limits and systemic judicial and legislative oversight. This cannot begin to happen without a sustained congressional effort to find out what the NSA is doing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR200605...
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* An Easy Call: Lying
At least now we know that the Bush administration's name for spying on Americans without first seeking court approval -- the "terrorist surveillance program" -- isn't an exercise in Orwellian doublespeak after all. It's just a bald-faced lie.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR200605...
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* The General and the Telephone Companies
Reed Hundt writes: "No one should imagine that what NSA has done, if reports are accurate, is normal behavior or standard procedure in the interaction between a private communications network and the government. In an authoritarian country without a bill of rights and with state ownership of the communications network, such eavesdropping by people and computers is assumed to exist. But in the United States it is assumed not to occur, except under very carefully defined circumstances that, according to reports, were not present as NSA allegedly arm-twisted telephone companies into compliance."
http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/29743

IS ANY PHONE CALL OFF-LIMITS?
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Gen Michael Hayden, President Bush's nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, may want to call off his charm offensive with members of Congress. The Air Force general isn't likely to make much headway after the revelation that the National Security Agency, which he used to head, not only eavesdropped on telephone conversations and e-mail messages of Americans suspected of ties with foreign terrorists, it also induced telephone companies to turn over the records of billions -- that's with a "b" -- of domestic calls. Even under the Patriot Act, there are judicially supervised rules on how investigators may use technology -- known as "pen registers" and "trap and trace" -- that monitor telephone traffic without actually listening in on conversations. So the legality of this program is debatable at best. Congress, which has shown no backbone for challenging the previously revealed NSA program, must press the administration to explain and try to justify this much more pervasive operation. By now no one in (or out of) Congress should have any faith in the administration's assurances about either its actions or its intentions under this program. As another president once observed: Trust, but verify. Congress needs to fill in the blanks.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-nsa12may12,1,1008...
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