When Gen. Michael Hayden’s confirmation hearings start for CIA director you can expect more fireworks than expected due to a new twist that has now leaked out via this story:
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.
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.
The motivation is a good one but the fact that it’s just leaking out — yet one more detail — and shows the government’s surveillance programs are even bigger than many Americans expected should mean Hayden will face some additional questions at his hearings.
And he should also face a few, due to the story below.
UPDATES: The key on this is clearly going to be whether this becomes strictly a partisan issue, or is allowed to become one, or whether bipartisan eyebrows and voices are raised due to this news report. Another question: how will this play with conservatives?
Will all of them feel it really is not that huge a deal to collect phone data because it isn’t (we are told) individual calls being recorded and that the goal (to thwart potential terrorists) is important? Or will some conservatives feel that it sets a dangerous precedent and that there need to be checks in place?
If there are checks in place, how will the story below play with non-Democrats who want some kinds of controls on government? Clearly, parts of the government are now being roped off as beyond scrutiny.
The key on whether this becomes one more election issue or a big national issue is not going to be with what Democrats say but how this plays with key Republicans, particularly ones who are independent minded. And how will this impact Hayden’s hearings?
Could this be a report that leads to complications for his confirmation? The answer will lie in the REPUBLICANS’ response to this latest development. Another point: we’ve repeatedly stressed here that the administration suffers from credibility problems which comes from statements that later prove to be untrue. But a credibility problem also stems from info that later seeps out that shows full candor had not been exercised earlier. This will NOT help the administration’s credibility problems — and will likely lead to more erosion among its independent voter support.
The key questions are going to be: what was this program’s goal and was the trade-off in liberty worth it? Are there any potential abuses and are there checks in place (besides “trust us.”) And, politically, will conservatives feel this pushing of the envelope (yet again) is justified or will they want to see more controls on the growth of the federal government and its expansion of its role in privacy issues?
Also:
—Arlen Specter has called for more info:
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he will call executives from AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. to testify about a report that the telephone companies gave U.S. government officials phone records of millions of Americans.
The committee must “find out exactly what is going on,” said Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican.
Questions: (1) will they? and (2) have they in the past?
—USA TODAY questions and answers about the program
“The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., would not confirm the existence of the program. In a statement, he said, ‘I can say generally, however, that our subcommittee has been fully briefed on all aspects of the Terrorist Surveillance Program. … I remain convinced that the program authorized by the president is lawful and absolutely necessary to protect this nation from future attacks.’â€?
Roberts, of course, will begin hearings next week on CIA director-nominee Gen. Michael Hayden, who ran the NSA when the program was launched. Expect the topic to come up .
—Leahy is frustrated over what is basically Congress’ abandoning vigorous oversight:
The ranking Democrat on the committee, Patrick Leahy, says he’s angry that Congress will, in his words, “rubber stamp” anything done by the Bush administration.
—The White House says it’s all within the law and is what’s needed to protect Americans from terrorist attacks. (Will it be implied to defend this that those who raise questions don’t want to protect Americans from terrorist attacks? Stay tuned…)
NOTE: Due to travel today we won’t be able to do a roundup on this story. So please READ ALL TRACKBACKS to this post for other views.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.