New USATODAY report shows NSA had collected Tens of Millions of Phone Calls

Does the NSA have the right to collect Millions of Conversations without a warrent?

  • Yes, this ability is vital in the war against Terror

    Votes: 10 41.7%

  • No, this a violation of Privacy. The Govornment must obtain a Warrent.

    Votes: 14 58.3%
  • Total voters
    24
mmarsh

mmarsh

Active member
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-11-nsa-reax_x.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/washington/12nsa.html?hp&ex=1147492800&en=b9f10d150ce41af6&ei=5094&partner=homepage


USAToday is reporting that the NSA has recorded the phone conversations of Tens of Millions of phonecalls from American citizens. The White House is facing a bi-partisan storm over this with some members of Congress threatening to subpena the executives of the major telephone executives as well as White House official in order to explain the incident. Other members are demanding an immediate criminal investigation over the affair.
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Ok, I voted no. I have a very hard time believing that 10 of millions are all related to the war on terror. The ability to record a conversation without a warrent would be already hard to justify if it were just one or two people. But we are talking about 10 of Millions of phonecalls! There is no way they can be all terror related, its simply impossible there are simply not that many terrorists in the world. Besides FICA (secret court that issues snap Federal warrents) is entirely pro-govornment. 95% of its decisions come on the side of government. The excuse "not having time to get a warrent" is simply BS.

This is nothing more than government espionage of its citizenry.
 
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Probably more than half the population of the country. Yeah but you know these things are regulated by the law ad all that, official figures are released but it's just the tip of the iceberg. The overwhelming majority of them are never going to be publicly recognized.
It is the way it most likely is in Italy.
 
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Here's some interesting facts on the NSA that I never knew. They may have been listening to us since the beginning of WWII. :shock:

ABOUT THE NSA
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As a nod to the secrecy of the National Security Agency, people have jokingly said that its acronym — NSA — stands for "no such agency," or even "never say anything." The agency, headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland, is the largest government spy outfit in the world.

Number of employees
30,000

Who they are
Mathematicians, linguists, engineers, physicists, computer scientists, engineers and other specialists and staff.

Budget
Classified

What it does
Cryptology, the science of making and cracking codes.
Making codes is referred to as "information assurance" in NSA language. This is the art of scrambling signals to prevent people from tapping into telephone signals and other communications.
For example, one of the NSA missions is to assure President Bush talks on a secure telephone line.
Cracking codes is referred to as "signals intelligence" at the NSA. This is the science of tapping into telephone conversations and other communications. It includes analysis of codes and the use of people who have a deep understanding not only of foreign languages but also cultures. This helps those people offer understanding of subtle layers, such as sarcasm, in foreign languages.

History
President Truman created the NSA in 1952 to bring military and civilian efforts under one roof. The agency was first headquartered in Washington, D.C., but moved a few miles away to Fort Meade in 1957 after fears of an atomic bomb swept the capital.
Other actions by the National Security Agency, or by U.S. military cryptologists who would eventually become part of the agency:

• During World War II, uncovered Japanese plans to attack U.S. forces on Midway Island, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. This allowed U.S. forces to defeat the Japanese there in 1942.

• Helped U.S. Army Gen. Walton Walker avoid enemy fire at the Pusan Perimeter in Korea in 1950.

• Offered evidence of Soviet-supported arms buildup in Cuba before and during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Interesting facts

• Produces 40,000 pounds a day in shredded documents.

• Has its own restricted exit off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. At the end of the ramp is a security booth and a guard who turns away motorists not employed by or officially visiting the NSA.

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If you want to annoy them, try saying everything you can related to terrorist plots and the location of Bin Laden on the phone and end the call with "Hello Mr. NSA do you know Sam Fisher?"
 
The problem with this is that only key words have to pop up for it to be intercepted...they may be using the words in casual conversation but it still picks up the trigger words...thats probably why there are tens of millions...
 
I have always been skeptical of this story of "specific words" (Bin Laden, White House, attacks, anthrax etc) that would be intercepted. I remember it all came out when they put out the Echelon story.
I mean millions and millions of people every single day mention those words on phone calls. It would be ridiculous. Imo all the calls are monitored and listened to. Otherwise I don't see how it could work.
 
So they just pick random calls and listen in?! Thats an invasion of privacy. It wouldnt be so bad if they did the word thing...but just randomly choosing calls and listening is bad.
 
China monitors 1.3 billion using only the firewall, word recognition software and 20,000 censors who read every piece of flagged email or web sites. It is VERY do-able. Nothing random about it. It is not flagged by solitary words but by combinations thereof occuring in proximity to each other. Its very easy to construct this sort of filter logic into a program.
 
Yes, this ability is vital in the war against Terror

They aren't listening to calls, just seeing where calls are going.

General Hayden (who headed the NSA) is coming up for confirmation to be head of the CIA.Is it a coincidence that USA Today comes up with this story at this time?

NO. Definitely NOT.

They have been working on this for a while, and sitting on the story until they thought it would be the most beneficial to their agenda to release it.

Pres. Bush came out and made a brief statement to say what the US gov't is doing and NOT doing to try to keep the US a safer place. He was NOT happy by the end of his statement and again expressed his displeasure with people revealing methods that his government is using to try to track down terrorists.

The majority of the media in the US are anti-Bush, anti-WOT, anti-America :cen: :cen: .

And most Countries, including Canada have such system in place.

:crybaby: :bang: Dont cry babies :p
 
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Im not crying. I agree wholeheartedly with the process. Just as long as they aren't listening to my calls even when I dont use key words like Bin Laden and terrorism and bomb...If they are listening to me calling my girlfriend, thats not fair. If they are listening to me when I accidently quote Meet The Parents, thats ok.
 
A new twist unfolds...
Cheney Pushed U.S. to Widen Eavesdropping


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/washington/14nsa.html?hp&ex=1147579200&en=9a442ce4901ab0c7&ei=5094&partner=homepage


This is precisely why I am against this wiretapping. Appearently Cheney wanted to record DOMESTIC calls as well. Thankfully NSA agents prevented him from doing so, appearently what Cheney wanted wasn't exactly legal. Again to me this is more proof that Bush used 9-11 as an excuse in order to monitor its citizenry.

Remember Ben Franklin's warning:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety".
 
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