AMERICAN FUTURE

As you can tell from my previous post, I believe that a lot of people—in particular, politicans and media types—are needlessly overwrought about the NSA database. I’ve decided to build a database of my own on who is saying what and whether and when sanity will return. I’LL BE FREQUENTLY UPDATING THE DATABASE BY ADDING NEW ITEMS AT THE TOP OF THE POST AND RENUMBERING THE TITLE OF THE POST. SO CHECK BACK FREQUENTLY. The cynics out there might think this is an effort at a reader retention program. They’d be right. Come back anyway. It should be interesting.

As with the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program, the law here is murky. Although both Mr. Bush and the telephone companies insist they have behaved strictly in accordance with the law, it isn’t clear how the companies could have turned over records of more than a trillion calls without violating consumer privacy laws. What is clear is that a surveillance program of enormous magnitude, involving not just al-Qaeda suspects but also the presumptively private data of almost all Americans, appears to have taken place with no public debate, no judicial review and only the slightest congressional oversight. Americans have no understanding of what, if any, controls exist on this information, with its massive potential for abuse. They do not know how the NSA or other government agencies are using it. Consequently, the public—and Congress—have no sense of how to measure the program’s supposed contributions to the war on terrorism against the very considerable dangers of such an operation. We don’t contend that data-mining is illegitimate . . . But a giant government database detailing which phone numbers called which other phone numbers—the NSA data, according to USA Today, do not include people’s names or addresses or the contents of their communications—is a massive intrusion on personal privacy . . . Is there any basis for confidence that telecommunications companies are not also turning over Internet traffic data wholesale? Congress urgently needs to examine the full range of NSA domestic surveillance . . . The goal must be to modernize the rules of anti-terrorism surveillance within the United States, allowing for the uses of new technologies unimagined when Congress wrote current law but insisting on proper limits and systemic judicial and legislative oversight.

12. New York Times editorial:

Now there is more reason than ever to be worried — and angry — about how wide the government’s web has been reaching . . . The government has stressed that it is not listening in on phone calls, only analyzing the data to look for calling patterns. But if all the details of the program are confirmed, the invasion of privacy is substantial. By cross-referencing phone numbers with databases that link numbers to names and addresses, the government could compile dossiers of what people and organizations each American is in contact with . . . What we have here is a clandestine surveillance program of enormous size, which is being operated by members of the administration who are subject to no limits or scrutiny beyond what they deem to impose on one another. If the White House had gotten its way, the program would have run secretly until the war on terror ended — that is, forever . . . The Senate should call back Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and ask him — this time, under oath — about the scope of the program. This time, lawmakers should not roll over when Mr. Gonzales declines to provide answers. The confirmation hearings of Michael Hayden, President Bush’s nominee for Central Intelligence Agency director, are also a natural forum for a serious, thorough and pointed review of exactly what has been going on.

11. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt., ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee):

Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaida? These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything. ... Where does it stop?

10. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan., Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman):

I remain convinced that the program authorized by the president is lawful and absolutely necessary to protect this nation from future attacks.

9. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.):

Enough is enough. It is long overdue for this Congress to end the days of roll-over and rubber stamp and finally assert its power on behalf of the American people to advise and consent before General Hayden becomes (CIA) Director Hayden.

8. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif., member of the Judiciary Committee):

[It’s] fair to say that what was in the newspaper this morning is not content collection. ... Nonetheless, I happen to believe we’re on our way to a major constitutional confrontation on Fourth Amendment guarantees of unreasonable search and seizure.

7. Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis., member of the Judiciary Committee):

That the government may be secretly collecting, and using data mining to analyze, the phone records of millions of law-abiding Americans, as reported in the press today, is a frightening prospect. ... It is time for the administration to come clean with Congress and the American people.

6. Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colo.):

I have long been concerned about the NSA’s domestic spying program and today’s media reports only reinforce that concern. I also laud Denver-based Qwest Communications for its decision not to share private information with the NSA.

5. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore):

What has happened in the last 24 hours raises questions in my mind about (Hayden’s) credibility for the job. He is the architect of the program. He comes to the intelligence committee, says how concerned he is about privacy. .... This is not what the public thought this program was all about.

4. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.):

I’m not sure what they’re gathering there, but the privacy thing to me is absolutely important to our democratic society.

3. Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio, House Majority Leader)

I am concerned about what I read with regard to NSA databases of phone calls.

2. Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio, chairwoman of the House Republican Caucus):

While I support aggressively tracking al-Qaida, the administration needs to answer some tough questions about the protection of our civil liberties.

1. Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.)

If these allegations are true and the activities were being conducted under General Hayden while he was in charge of NSA then the administration should withdraw his nomination to be director of the CIA until Congress has full answers about the nature, reach, and legal basis of this program.