NYT: Spy operation larger than WH said (telecomm network backdoor access)

[ProSense]

December 24, 2005
Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN


snip...

The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said.

snip...

What has not been publicly acknowledged is that N.S.A. technicians, besides actually eavesdropping on specific conversations, have combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might point to terrorism suspects. Some officials describe the program as a large data-mining operation.

snip...

The use of similar data-mining operations by the Bush administration in other contexts has raised strong objections, most notably in connection with the Total Information Awareness system, developed by the Pentagon for tracking terror suspects, and the Department of Homeland Security's Capps program for screening airline passengers. Both programs were ultimately scrapped after public outcries over possible threats to privacy and civil liberties.

snip...

Historically, the American intelligence community has had close relationships with many communications and computer firms and related technical industries. But the N.S.A.'s backdoor access to major telecommunications switches on American soil with the cooperation of major corporations represents a significant expansion of the agency's operational capability, according to current and former government officials.

Phil Karn, a computer engineer and technology expert at a major West Coast telecommunications company, said access to such switches would be significant. "If the government is gaining access to the switches like this, what you're really talking about is the capability of an enormous vacuum operation to sweep up data," he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/politics/24spy.html?pagewanted=2

[DBoon]

1. Phil karn works for Qualcomm

That is the "major West Coast telecommunications company".

He has also been a strong critic of government restrictions on cryptography

[snowbear]

2. Wow... Keep the pressure on NY Times !!!

Maybe they feel they need to make up for all the screw-ups (holding this story, Judith Miller's bogus headlines, etc...)

Thanks for sharing that article!

[renaissanceguy]

6. Damn straight, they better keep it up.

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues/472476

[Dunvegan]

3. Yes...data mining a la TIA technology...

...filtering...backdoors...data intercepts...phone intercepts...e-mail intercepts.

We'll finally find that *hush-hush* TIA *hush-hush* is the big secret at Homeland Security.

And even if low level agents think it's being used for anti-terrism...Crashcart is using it for his own purposes.

[Pachamama]

4. TIA is alive & thriving!

And Oracle Databases are hummin away, putting summaries and profiles together on each and every one of us.

Wanna bet? And CEO Larry Ellison has been one of the biggest fans of a nat'l id card too... :eyes:

[Justice Is Comin]

5. I think the NYT has considerable damaging

information it hasn't released yet. They're going to do it in a drip drip drip manner. Don't forget they were called to the White House and begged not to publish. They know every dirty rotten apple in the barrel.

I think they want to make this stretch out in a painful way. I couldn't be happier about it myself.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

9. Maybe as the rats desert the ship we can finally get some clarity

on things like:

9/11
anthrax
Gannon
Katrina death toll

[Doctor_J]

13. Bingo!

You're on it Phoebe. I would like to find out about all of these things and RatherGate and Plame and Smirk's debate box and all the rest of the mayhem we've been living with for 5 years.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. Who has committed the greatest "shameful act" now?

I guess that would be George W. Bush who has turned a gigantic spying network inward on ALL of the citizens in the US.

As he himself stated , "the first check is my oath to uphold the Constitution." I guess we can scratch that one from the list.

He lies boldly, he lies frequently, he lies without conscience or fear of reprisal. Could we at this point remove the phrase "misled"
from our dialogue about this?

Impeach now! This is far too great to wait for another hackable election. We should impeach him and then clean up the election problems pronto. I think paper ballots with humans counting are more secure and accurate than electronic voting.

[enough]

8. kick

[tavalon]

10. Kicked for the Christmas Eve crowd

and recommended since I want people to know the bastards brought back TIA under cover of fucking night. Those goddamn bastards need to rot in hell.

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. And this surprises you because?

Haven't you known it all along? Maybe only somewhere deep down? I have. Goes right along with the library books.

[RazzleDazzle]

12. Well, a number of DUers got this right, didn't they?

How to turn domestic calls into international calls. (Worldcom, route thru Canada)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5669978

Domestic Taps Smoking Gun? WorldCom Routed US-to-US Calls Through Canada!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2326724