Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

They've Got Your Number

UPDATE II: The reason I have Salon premium: Peter Daou. This is a must read: We Are Frogs in Slow-Boiling Water, Watching Our Constitution Die

UPDATE: 72 members of Congress join battle against wiretaps (see amicus brief).

The man who wants to be the CIA director has been very busy. Verizon, BellSouth
and AT&T are the means by which General Michael Hayden has been secretly
spying on Americans. Secretly spying illegally, let me add. It's doubtful this
is what Harry Truman had in mind when he created the NSA back in 1952. Of course,
the telcos aren't commenting on the program, which is massive.

“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. For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others. The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said. NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

However, one company, Qwest, was very uneasy about the NSA's program and refused
to take part in it. Let's just say the people at NSA got rough.

The NSA, which needed Qwest's participation to completely cover the country, pushed back hard. Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled. In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more. Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused. The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. “

General Michael Hayden, the mastermind of this illegal domestic wiretapping
program should not head the CIA. That he obviously doesn't understand the meaning
and the importance of the Constitution is the leading reason why this is so.

(graphic via)