Thu May 11 2006
Tens of Millions of Records Make It World's Largest Database
5/22: Sealed documents are leaked and published online. Wednesday, 5/24 will be a "Day of Outrage Against the NSA, AT&T, Verizon" in San Francisco, 12 noon at AT&T Park and 4 to 6 p.m. at 666 Folsom (between 2nd and 3rd). 5/17 Update: Judge Walker rules EFF can use evidence in lawsuit against AT&T; documents will be kept under seal.
On May 11th, 2006, it was reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans since September 11, 2001. The data has been provided by telecommunications giants AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. The companies are the nation's three biggest telecommunications companies; they provide local and wireless phone service to more than 200 million customers. A fourth company, Qwest, reportedly refused to provide the data willingly provided by the others without subpoenas. According to the report, this particular program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations, but last year, Bush admitted that he had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of people suspected of having links to terrorists when one party to the communication is in the USA. The full extent of that warrantless wiretapping has yet to be publicly determined. In this new revelation, the NSA claims the phone record data is being used in its fight against terrorism, although the millions of Americans whose telephone behavior is being tracked are not suspected of any crime. Telephone company customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of the NSA's program, the sources for the report said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information. Addressing the report shortly after its release, Bush strangely defended the program by saying, "Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates" and that American citizen's privacy is being "fiercely protected." He also said some members of Congress previously had been informed of the existence of the massive database program. While some Cogresspeople defended the program, others demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about the spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a "database of every call ever made" within US borders. Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel "to find out exactly what is going on."
