Former bow-tie clad tucker shocked, SHOCKED about NSA spy story:

[CAG]

Breaking from USA Today:

"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.

"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."

Tucker didn't look to happy and was in no mood to 'splain this one.

[BillZBubb]

1. Bow tie boy couldn't come up with an excuse so quickly.

Give him a day or two to get the RNC talking points and he'll have it covered. He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

[jschurchin]

2. You know what get's me.

Is that people didn't think this was going on. When the illegal wiretapping story first broke I was like, Oh shit they are listening to everyone. We are being spyed on day and night by our own fucking government.

I guess in their eyes we are ALL terrorists.

[tonekat]

3. Yep, this misadministration...

...has nothing but fear of and contempt for it's own citizens. Disgusting.

[laheina]

20. Yup.

That's what I thought too. If you give these arses access, they have no moral or ethical compunction to limit themselves.

[SharonAnn]

4. Hmmm, so much for the right to privacy, etc. in the US Constitution

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[CAG]

11. Unfortunately, a good portion of the 31% will think its great that * has

been doing this. I wonder if they think it would be that great if a democratic president would authorize this type of activity?

[UpInArms]

5. Hi CAG! Great Article and thanks for posting it --- but

you need to edit your opening post title to:

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

and include the link

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

more from that article:

One major telecommunications company declined to participate in the program: Qwest.

According to sources familiar with the events, Qwest's CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, was deeply troubled by the NSA's assertion that Qwest didn't need a court order — or approval under FISA — to proceed. Adding to the tension, Qwest was unclear about who, exactly, would have access to its customers' information, and how that information might be used.

<snip>

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal directly to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers.

"They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA also rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

[Old and In the Way]

6. Well, this ought to be could for another 2 point loss.

Man, Bush is methodical. He's now pissing off the anti-immigrants, now he'll lose a few of the privacy rights folks. I think he's determined to leave Office with the country totally united....against him.

[deadparrot]

8. He *is* a uniter, after all.

;)

[Swamp Rat]

9. He's gonna go down hard...

[jsamuel]

7. Exactly as I suspected, but knew all along

it is the only thing that makes sense. The only reason they would not go through FISA is because they don't want to have to get 50 million warrants, because they know they would never get them.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Tucker didn't vote in 2004

He admitted that on his show the other day.

If I had had any respect for him before hearing that, I wouldn't have any now. But fortunately for him, I thought he was a twit even before I heard him say he didn't vote.

[seabeyond]

12. Project Echelon has been around since the 90's... is this what it is

i put it on another board. i need to know if this is significant news or old stuff. gonna get attacked if it is old stuff. sounded like hot stuff

[CornField]

13. They tried to do this with Echelon, but were shot down -- in 2004

The program was dubbed "Total Information Awareness" and it relied on technolgy first put forth by Eschelon (which has been around since the early 1960s -- during the cold war). The TIA program was officially cancelled by Congress in 2004.

Further, the Echelon program was more of a scanning program -- like a web search to find key words and/or phrases.

What is being discussed here is wrong on several levels even if it was brought about by the original Echelon system.

[seabeyond]

14. thanks cornfield you know what you are talking about

i read the article and will re read but what i got was it was just gathering information like number and address.... where or what in particular takes this beyond. will look up total information awareness. appreciate that tip

[CornField]

15. No problem

Even with Echelon, US agencies were generally prohibited from spying on people inside the US (FISA restrictions) and other western countries' intelligence services faced similiar restrictions.

That being said, critics often stipulated intelligence agencies went around such restrictions by having one nation point Echelon at the other and vice-versa. That is, Country A would spy on citizens in Country B. Country B would spy on citizens in Country A. The intelligence agencies of the two countries would then exchange information. This, however was never proven to be the case.

I was at a function and was told the following information (I haven't had time to fact check, but I trust the source enough to pass it along at the very least as a searching point.): The NSA in the US exploys roughly 40,000 people and has a budget of almost $4 billion. The Canadian equivalent (CSE - Communications Security Establishement) employs under 1,000 people and has a budget of just over $100 million.

[linazelle]

16. Now if they can just turn over the calls from Abramoff to Bush...

[Guaranteed]

17. This is about as close to 1984 as we've gotten.

Perhaps it's as close as we could feasibly get.

[Catrina]

18. I'd like to reward Qwest for taking a stand against this ~

I wonder if all US Citizens could now sue the Bush administration for this abuse of their constitutional rights? Or, is it better to sue individually? 50,000 lawsuits would send a message that when they break the law, they will pay dearly.

This is a huge violation of the contract we have with the phone companies we pay for service, imo. I do believe there is grounds for millions of lawsuits. I will call Verizon tomorrow and ask them if they have allowed the government to spy on its customers. I hope they are inundated with phone calls and complaints and cancellations ~

Now we know what we only suspected. I assumed that this criminal administration was spying on its own citizens and have told everyone I know that when we are on the phone, we may have company. I think they thought I was paranoid.

[Justice Is Comin]

19. IN deed.

Look at what they told them to do--go to the FISA court. NSA told them no, because FISA MAY NOT AGREE !!! ....Duh, yeah.

Feingold ought to take this and shove it right up Haydens rectum. He'll be sitting right there like a trapped rat. Explain this one baldy.