Archive for the Politics Category
USAToday reports:
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, 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.
I guess Qwest is the only phone company that felt “uneasy” about handing over records without the proper warrants.
For more info, see:
The article @ USAToday
A bunch of related links @ Slashdot
The Department of Justice has decided to give up it’s investigation into the illegal wiretapping by the NSA. My guess is that it went something like this:
DOJ: Bad NSA, you’ve been wiretapping without warrants.
NSA: Yea, um, it’s for, um, the war on terrorists… yea, that’s it.
DOJ: Mmmmmmkay, we need to see some records then.
NSA: Sure, but you need security clearance.
DOJ: Ok, so, uh, we come to you for security clearance, right? So, we need clearance.
NSA: ‘Tuff.
Last week was pretty busy. There was the Senate Bill that may restrict freedom of the press:
"The bill would make it a crime to tell the American people that the president is breaking the law, and the bill could make it a crime for the newspapers to publish that fact," said Martin, a civil liberties advocate.
There was also an example of what this senate bill may be trying to avoid, as the Chicago Tribune discovered the identities of 2600+ CIA employees (some were even covert operatives), 17 aircraft, a couple dozen facilities’ locations, and of course phone numbers. How did they find out this juicy information, you ask? The Internet, of course. (Use Bugmenot.com for registration info.)
"At a minimum, the CIA’s seeming inability to keep its own secrets invites questions about whether the Bush administration is doing enough to shield its covert CIA operations from public scrutiny…"
And of course the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship…