OT- Is this America anymore?- NSA collecting secret Database

[Guest guest]

Boy this made my bad day even worse.....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/11/nsa.phonerecords.ap/index.html

USA Today: NSA building massive database of phone records

Thursday, May 11, 2006; Posted: 11:13 a.m. EDT (15:13 GMT)

Sen. Leahy, D-Vermont, wants hearings on the phone records

database.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional Democrats demanded answers from

the Bush administration Thursday about a report that the government

secretly collected records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to

build a database of every call made within the country.

" It is our government, it's not one party's government. It's

America's government. Those entrusted with great power have a duty

to answer to Americans what they are doing, " said Sen. Leahy

of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

AT & T, Verizon and BellSouth telephone companies began turning over

records of tens of millions of their customers' phone calls to the

National Security Agency program shortly after the September 11,

2001, terrorist attacks, USA Today reported, citing anonymous

sources it said had direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The telephone companies on Thursday declined to comment on national

security matters, and would say only that they are assisting

government agencies in accordance with the law.

" We have been in full compliance with the law and we are committed

to our customers' privacy, " said Bob Varettoni, a spokesman for

Verizon.

The White House defended its overall eavesdropping program and said

no domestic surveillance is conducted without court approval.

" The intelligence activities undertaken by the United States

government are lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans

from terrorist attacks, " said Dana Perino, the deputy White House

press secretary, who added that appropriate members of Congress have

been briefed on intelligence activities.

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, the chairman of

the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would call the phone

companies to appear before the panel " to find out exactly what is

going on. "

Before the latest report, Specter said the committee " has been

unable to perform our constitutional oversight responsibilities to

determine the constitutionality of the program. "

Leahy sounded incredulous about the latest report and railed against

what he called a lack of congressional oversight. He argued that the

media was doing the job of Congress.

" Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved

with al Qaeda? " Leahy asked. " These are tens of millions of

Americans who are not suspected of anything ... Where does it stop? "

The Democrat, who at one point held up a copy of the newspaper,

added: " Somebody ought to tell the truth and answer questions. They

haven't. The press has done our work for us and we should be

ashamed. Shame on us for being so far behind and being so willing to

rubber stamp anything this administration does. We ought to fold our

tents. "

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said bringing the telephone companies

before the Judiciary Committee is an important step.

" We need more. We need to take this seriously, more seriously than

some other matters that might come before the committee because our

privacy as American citizens is at stake, " Durbin said.

The program does not involve listening to or taping the calls.

Instead it documents who talks to whom in personal and business

calls, whether local or long distance, by tracking which numbers are

called, the newspaper said.

The NSA and the Office of National Intelligence Director did not

immediately respond to requests for comment.

NSA is the same spy agency that conducts the controversial domestic

eavesdropping program that has been acknowledged by President Bush.

The president said last year that he authorized the NSA to listen,

without warrants, to international phone calls involving Americans

suspected of terrorist links.

Hayden's Capitol Hill visits canceled

The report came as the former NSA director, Gen. Hayden --

Bush's choice to take over leadership of the CIA -- had been

scheduled to visit lawmakers on Capitol Hill. However, the meetings

with Republican Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and

Murkowski of Alaska were postponed at the request of the White

House, congressional aides in the two Senate offices said.

The White House offered no reason for the postponement to the

lawmakers. Other meetings with lawmakers were still planned.

Hayden faced criticism because of the NSA's secret domestic

eavesdropping program. As head of the NSA from March 1999 to April

2005, Hayden also would have overseen the call-tracking program.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, who has spoken favorably of the

nomination, said the latest revelation " is also going to present a

growing impediment to the confirmation of Gen. Hayden. "

The NSA wants the database of domestic call records to look for any

patterns that might suggest terrorist activity, USA Today said.

Don Weber, a senior spokesman for the NSA, told the paper that the

agency operates within the law, but would not comment further on its

operations.

One big telecommunications company, Qwest, has refused to turn over

records to the program, the newspaper said, because of privacy and

legal concerns.

Inquiry into eavesdropping killed

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has abruptly ended an inquiry into

the warrantless eavesdropping program because the NSA refused to

grant its lawyers the necessary security clearance. (Full story)

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or

OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-New York, on Wednesday

saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance

their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers' role in the program.

Justice Department spokesman Roehrkasse said the terrorist

surveillance program " has been subject to extensive oversight both

in the executive branch and in Congress from the time of its

inception. "

Roehrkasse noted the OPR's mission is not to investigate possible

wrongdoing in other agencies, but to determine if Justice Department

lawyers violated any ethical rules. He declined to comment when

asked if the end of the inquiry meant the agency believed its

lawyers had handled the wiretapping matter ethically.