TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: A Storm is Brewing Over Phone Record Collection

A Storm is Brewing Over Phone Record Collection

Maxim Kniazkov (afp@telecom-digest.org)
Sat, 13 May 2006 12:06:32 -0500

by Maxim Kniazkov

US President George W. Bush has moved to quell a firestorm over his
government's secret collection of telephone records of tens of
millions of private citizens, insisting they were all needed to
"target Al-Qaeda."

But the latest controversy has already spawned a major lawsuit against
Verizon, one of the telephone companies involved, and members of
Congress expressed unease over what they see as gradual erosion of
privacy rights.

The lawsuit, filed in New York on Friday, seeks from Verizon five
billion dollars in damages, alleging the company has broken the law by
agreeing to provide the National Security Agency with telephone
records of its clients.

The plaintiffs argue phone companies should not cooperate with the
NSA, which specializes in electronic espionage, without a proper court
warrant based on well-grounded "suspicion of terrorist activity or
other criminal activity."

But in his weekly radio address on Saturday, Bush rushed to assure the
public the secret program did not target innocent private citizens.

"It is important for Americans to understand that our activities
strictly target Al-Qaeda and its known affiliates," he said.

But he gave no answer to questions raised on Capitol Hill as to why a
program with a purported narrow target would need such a massive
database.

The existence of the program was first disclosed Thursday by USA Today
newspaper, which said the database compiled by the NSA following the
September 11, 2001 attacks contained phone records of tens of millions
of Americans provided by AT and T, Verizon and BellSouth.

Officials would not provide any details on how the records were used.

But former government security experts and media reports indicated its
genesis lay in US phone numbers found on Al-Qaeda suspects captured
overseas.

These numbers, the experts said, immediately become the focus of the
NSA's attention, with the circle of surveillance growing exponentially
as calls are made to or from the numbers in question.

Specially designed computer programs watch for patterns in these
contacts and analyze them to make sure no terrorist cell is operating
within the United States.

Bush said the intelligence activities he had authorized were "lawful"
and members of Congress from both sides of the aisle had been
adequately briefed.

"The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our
activities," he insisted. "The government does not listen to domestic
phone calls without court approval."

The new controversy follows charges the president may have broken the
law when he authorized the NSA in the wake of 9/11 to conduct wiretaps
of international phone calls made by Americans suspected of terrorist
ties without a requisite court warrant.

But if the wiretaps put the White House on the spot, the new
revelations could mean a world of legal and financial trouble for the
phone companies.

The lawsuit in New York was filed under the 1986 Stored Communications
Act, which expressly forbids the companies from turning over client
records to the government without a warrant.

The statute also gives consumers the right to sue for violations of
the act and allows claims of at least 1,000 dollars for each
violation.

"If you've got 50 million people, that's potentially 50 billion
dollars," said Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University
and a former White House adviser on privacy issues.

The controversy could also complicated the confirmation process for
Air Force General Michael Hayden nominated on Monday to be the next
CIA director.

Republican Chuck Hagel, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
said Hayden, who headed the NSA when the surveillance programs were
put in place, had to answer many questions.

"He knows that hes not going to be confirmed without answering those
questions," Hagel warned.

Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Katherine Shrader: "Quest Ignored NSA Request"
Go to Previous message: Vientus: "Re: MySpace Hires Child Safety Expert From Microsoft"
Next in thread: Gordon Burditt: "Re: A Storm is Brewing Over Phone Record Collection"
May be reply: Gordon Burditt: "Re: A Storm is Brewing Over Phone Record Collection"
May be reply: Thomas Daniel Horne: "Re: A Storm is Brewing Over Phone Record Collection"
May be reply: Gordon Burditt: "Re: A Storm is Brewing Over Phone Record Collection"
May be reply: Linc Madison: "Re: A Storm is Brewing Over Phone Record Collection"
May be reply: Thomas Daniel Horne: "Re: A Storm is Brewing Over Phone Record Collection"
May be reply: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com: "Re: A Storm is Brewing Over Phone Record Collection"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page