[Infowarrior] - Bush to Address Reports About NSA Activity

[Richard Forno]

Bush to Address Reports About NSA Activity
May 11 11:45 AM US/Eastern
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/11/D8HHLOF00.html

By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush
administration Thursday about a report that the government secretly
collected records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of
every call made within the country.

The White House said President Bush would speak to the issue. Bush was to
comment before leaving for a commencement address at Mississippi Gulf Coast
Community College in Biloxi.

The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said he was
shocked by the revelation.

"It is our government, it's not one party's government. It's America's
government. Those entrusted with great power have a duty to answer to
Americans what they are doing," Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., and BellSouth Corp. telephone
companies began turning over records of tens of millions of their customers'
phone calls to the National Security Agency program shortly after the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said USA Today, citing anonymous sources it
said had direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen
Specter of Pennsylvania, said he would call the phone companies to appear
before the panel "to find out exactly what is going on."

The companies said Thursday that they are protecting customers' privacy but
have an obligation to assist law enforcement and government agencies in
ensuring the nation's security. "We prize the trust our customers place in
us. If and when AT&T is asked to help, we do so strictly within the law and
under the most stringent conditions," the company said in a statement,
echoed by the others.

The White House defended its overall eavesdropping program and said no
domestic surveillance is conducted without court approval.

"The intelligence activities undertaken by the United States government are
lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans from terrorist attacks,"
said Dana Perino, the deputy White House press secretary, who added that
appropriate members of Congress have been briefed on intelligence
activities.

On Capitol Hill, several lawmakers expressed incredulity about the program,
with some Republicans questioning the rationale and legal underpinning and
several Democrats railing about the lack of congressional oversight.

"I don't know enough about the details except that I am willing to find out
because I'm not sure why it would be necessary to keep and have that kind of
information," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News Channel: "The idea of
collecting millions or thousands of phone numbers, how does that fit into
following the enemy?"

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said bringing the telephone companies before the
Judiciary Committee is an important step.

"We need more. We need to take this seriously, more seriously than some
other matters that might come before the committee because our privacy as
American citizens is at stake," Durbin said.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., argued that the program "is not a warrantless
wiretapping of the American people. I don't think this action is nearly as
troublesome as being made out here, because they are not tapping our
phones."

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 which numbers are called, the newspaper said.

The NSA and the Office of National Intelligence Director did not immediately
respond to requests for comment.

NSA is the same spy agency that conducts the controversial domestic
eavesdropping program that has been acknowledged by President Bush. The
president said last year that he authorized the NSA to listen, without
warrants, to international phone calls involving Americans suspected of
terrorist links.

The report came as the former NSA director, Gen. Michael Hayden _ Bush's
choice to take over leadership of the CIA _ had been scheduled to visit
lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday. However, the meetings with Republican
Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were
postponed at the request of the White House, said congressional aides in the
two Senate offices.

The White House offered no reason for the postponement to the lawmakers.
Other meetings with lawmakers were still planned.

Hayden already faced criticism because of the NSA's secret domestic
eavesdropping program. As head of the NSA from March 1999 to April Hayden
also would have overseen the call-tracking program.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has spoken favorably of the nomination,
said the latest revelation "is also going to present a growing impediment to
the confirmation of Gen. Hayden."

The NSA wants the database of domestic call records to look for any patterns
that might suggest terrorist activity, USA Today said.

Don Weber, a senior spokesman for the NSA, told the paper that the agency
operates within the law, but would not comment further on its operations.

One big telecommunications company, Qwest, has refused to turn over records
to the program, the newspaper said, because of privacy and legal concerns.

___

Associated Press Writers Katherine Shrader and Elizabeth White in Washington
and AP Business Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this
report.