Links: NSA's Database of Americans' Phone Calls

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NSA Has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls

By Leslie Cauley

USA Today

Thursday 11 May 2006

See Full Story:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051106J.shtml

or

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

Questions and Answers: The NSA Record Collection Program

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made - across town or across the country - to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret.

Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated Monday by President Bush to become the director of the CIA, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005. In that post, Hayden would have overseen the agency's domestic call-tracking program. Hayden declined to comment about the program.

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See Full Story:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051106J.shtml

or

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm

RELATED LINKS

Justice Department Drops Probe of Domestic Spying

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051106Z.shtml

The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

…AND…

Congress Demands Phone Records Answers

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051106R.shtml

Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country.

ENDS