Rhino
05-11-2006, 11:45 AM
Bush: Government is Within Law in Protecting Americans
Thursday, May 11, 2006
WASHINGTON — President Bush on Thursday denied that the U.S. government is operating outside the law in its intelligence gathering programs and he ignored charges in a newspaper report that the National Security Agency is tracking the calling patterns of millions of Americans.
"The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," Bush said from the Diplomatic Room of the White House. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."
In Thursday editions, USA Today reported that telephone calling patterns of millions of Americans are being tracked by NSA, with the help of three of the nation's largest telephone companies.
Officials at the NSA don't have records of customers' names, street addresses and other personal information, sources familiar with the program told USA Today. But advanced data mining techniques, and the wide availability of phone numbers, means NSA officials can easily look up who owns what numbers.
The program does not involve listening to or taping the calls. Instead it documents who talks to whom in personal and business calls, whether local or long distance, by tracking phone numbers dialed, the newspaper said. The hope is that the patterns could uncover terror-planning efforts.
"Our intelligence activities strictly target Al Qaeda and their known affiliates. Al Qaeda is our enemy and we want to know their plans," Bush said. "Second, the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. Third, the intelligence activities I authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat."
AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, which collectively have 200 million customers, all agreed to hand over calling lists of its customers when the program began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Denver-based Qwest, which provides local phone service to 14 million customers in 14 states in the West and Northwest, refused to participate due to concerns of the legal implications of handing over phone numbers to the government, USA Today reported............http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195094,00.html
Thursday, May 11, 2006
WASHINGTON — President Bush on Thursday denied that the U.S. government is operating outside the law in its intelligence gathering programs and he ignored charges in a newspaper report that the National Security Agency is tracking the calling patterns of millions of Americans.
"The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," Bush said from the Diplomatic Room of the White House. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."
In Thursday editions, USA Today reported that telephone calling patterns of millions of Americans are being tracked by NSA, with the help of three of the nation's largest telephone companies.
Officials at the NSA don't have records of customers' names, street addresses and other personal information, sources familiar with the program told USA Today. But advanced data mining techniques, and the wide availability of phone numbers, means NSA officials can easily look up who owns what numbers.
The program does not involve listening to or taping the calls. Instead it documents who talks to whom in personal and business calls, whether local or long distance, by tracking phone numbers dialed, the newspaper said. The hope is that the patterns could uncover terror-planning efforts.
"Our intelligence activities strictly target Al Qaeda and their known affiliates. Al Qaeda is our enemy and we want to know their plans," Bush said. "Second, the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. Third, the intelligence activities I authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat."
AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, which collectively have 200 million customers, all agreed to hand over calling lists of its customers when the program began shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Denver-based Qwest, which provides local phone service to 14 million customers in 14 states in the West and Northwest, refused to participate due to concerns of the legal implications of handing over phone numbers to the government, USA Today reported............http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195094,00.html