Fully Domestic Calls Were Deliberately Monitored by NSA
Wed Dec 28, 2005 at 02:40:02 PM PDT
So says Insight Magazine - a publication of the conservative Washington Times, in
this article.
The lead of the story is that monitoring has been nearly completely ineffective, since al Qaeda operatives long since ceased using telephones and email to communicate their plans.
But buried deep in the article is the revelation that contrary to administration claims, this NSA monitoring has not been restricted to international communications.
More below the fold:
First, the lead of the article:
U.S. law enforcement sources said that more than four years of surveillance by the National Security Agency has failed to capture any high-level al Qaeda operative in the United States. They said al Qaeda insurgents have long stopped using the phones and even computers to relay messages. Instead, they employ couriers.
"They have been way ahead of us in communications security," a law enforcement source said. "At most, we have caught some riff-raff. But the heavies remain free and we believe some of them are in the United States."
So all this trashing of civil rights is for very small gain in security.
The article goes on to emphasize how all this is legal and no warrant could possibly be needed (what do you expect - it's the Washington Times after all).
Then comes the bombshell:
The sources provided guidelines to how the administration has employed the surveillance program. They said the National Security Agency in cooperation with the FBI was allowed to monitor the telephone calls and e-mails of any American believed to be in contact with a person abroad suspected of being linked to al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
At that point, the sources said, all of the communications of that American would be monitored, including calls made to others in the United States.
(emphasis mine)
This stands in stark contrast to the claims of the administration that this only involved international calls, for instance when General Hayden said:
There's always a balancing between security and liberty. We understand that this is a more -- I'll use the word "aggressive" program than would be traditionally available under FISA. It is also less intrusive. It deals only with international calls. It is generally for far shorter periods of time. And it is not designed to collect reams of intelligence, but to detect and warn and prevent about attacks. And, therefore, that's where we've decided to draw that balance between security and liberty.
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