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5-11-06 NSA Spying Program |
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It is outrageously shocking to hear that the NSA has complied the largest database in the history of the planet, in order to log every phone call made by every American. The ‘Orwellian’ ramifications of this action are clearer than crystal. A simple cross reference of a phone number will yield not only the identity of the caller but everyone they contacted. The Government cannot be granted the right to determine just who in this country has contacted organizations such as the NRA, Air America Radio, the ACLU, or just who has communications with any entity that is not deemed ‘friendly’ to the Federal Government. Furthermore, the potential for political blackmail is blatant. The fact that the telecommunications company not involved, Qwest, has stated they refused to cooperate with the NSA due to the fact that, not only, did the agents refuse to go to the FISA court to obtain a warrant, they threatened Government contracts if Qwest would not participate in turning over the phone records of Americans. When Qwest agreed to capitulate if the NSA provided a letter from the Attorney General, at the time John Ashcroft, stating this matter was necessary for national security, Ashcroft said no. John Ashcroft refused to sign off on the NSA’s program. The NSA went ahead with the gathering of information anyway upon President Bush’s authorization; although nothing in the Constitution grants the President the right to either ignore the laws created by the Congress that he chooses or to circumvent the FISA courts bypassing the Judiciary. In addition t he story of that 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 must be reported on as a headline story however; somehow, it’s barely whispered. Perhaps this obstruction is being dramatically overshadowed by the new phone call database story. Although only briefly mentioned, in the final paragraphs on the second page of the new Phone call database story, the NSA’s refusal to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation needs to be investigated. Excerpt: The NSA's domestic program, as described by sources, is far more expansive than what the White House has acknowledged. Last year, Bush said he had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and international e-mails of people suspected of having links to terrorists when one party to the communication is in the USA Sources, however, say that is not the case. With access to records of billions of domestic calls, the NSA has gained a secret window into the communications habits of millions of Americans. Customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of NSA's domestic program, the sources said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information.
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