NSA phone data collection far more limited than had been disclosed [View all]

[mimi85]

By Ken Dilanian
February 7, 2014, 7:58 p.m.

WASHINGTON — Although U.S. intelligence officials have indicated since last summer that the National Security Agency was vacuuming up nearly every American telephone record for counter-terrorism investigations, officials acknowledged Friday that the spy agency collects data from less than a third of U.S. calls because it can't keep pace with cellphone usage.

In a speech last month, President Obama called the bulk collection of telephone records the most controversial part of the debate over security and privacy sparked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaks of classified material. Obama announced plans to impose greater judicial review on the program and to limit how it can be used.

But the NSA operation now seems far less pervasive than it appeared, raising questions about whether it is as essential a terrorist-fighting tool as the NSA and its supporters have argued. Rather than sweeping in all U.S. call records, officials said, the NSA is gathering toll records from most domestic land line calls, but is incapable of collecting those from most cellphone or Internet calls. The details were first disclosed by the Washington Post.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the program remains classified, said they did not correct the public record because they did not want to tip off potential adversaries to obvious gaps in the coverage. "We didn't want to tell the bad guys to go out and get a cellphone," one senior intelligence official said.

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http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nsa-phones-20140208,0,486129.story#ixzz2slRyK3fW