Can you hear me now, NSA?

I like to keep it local on Concerned Citizen, but this report does have a local angle.

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren’t suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: The NSA record collection program

“It’s the largest database ever assembled in the world,” said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA’s activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency’s goal is “to create a database of every call ever made” within the nation’s borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

USA Today

Bellsouth, my local provider, is part of this abridgement of my Constitutional rights. I will be checking with our local ACLU to see if they plan to participate in a class-action suit.

One of the reasons I’ve pushed for local control of communications vis-a-vis a municipal network is to protect our Chapel Hill citizenry from such affronts.

There is a hero in this story:

One major telecommunications company declined to participate in the program: Qwest.

According to sources familiar with the events, Qwest’s CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, was deeply troubled by the NSA’s assertion that Qwest didn’t need a court order — or approval under FISA — to proceed. Adding to the tension, Qwest was unclear about who, exactly, would have access to its customers’ information and how that information might be used.

[ UPDATE: ]

I’ve contacted the following organizations:

Comments

4 responses to “Can you hear me now, NSA?”

  1. Robert P Avatar

    Qwest. Funny, considering all the trouble they were in not so long ago.

  2. Administrator Avatar
    Administrator

    Kind of crazy that QWest is the stand out. “And a crook will set them free…”, though I believe the fraud case is still wending its way throw the courts.

    Maybe the QWest CEO, already in the frying pan, realized he didn’t want to jump into the fire.

    As I posted a few moments ago, the quisling telcos face billions in fines and lawsuits – it makes QWest’s $3 billion restatement seem trivial.

  3. brenda banks Avatar
    brenda banks

    friday is freedom day for me.satellite being
    installed and firing bellsouth as my telephone
    service and internet connection.
    cant wait
    br3n

  4. Jim Crawford Avatar
    Jim Crawford

    I have never been so afraid for my freedom and liberty as I am now that I have had the displeasure of working with a faction of Home Land Security known as the F.L.E.T.C. (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) in Charleston S. C.
    I would have never believed that a group could so equally match Germany’s Nazi Party in this free country, controlled and governed by the constitution and bill of rights, I was sadly wrong.
    From my two years working with this group I realized that whomever created and maned this group was “stacking the deck” with hard line right wing conservatives that believe that all Americans are potential enemies and that the average American is not smart enough to decide his or her own life’s choices. A group that doesn’t even trust the U. S. Military because the service men and women did not go through Home land Security’s back ground check policy.
    This group spent hundreds of man hours destroying the reputation of a group called the NCCC or Americorp. For the simple reason that they were made up of left wing conservatives. You may ask how I know this, I witnessed it with my own eyes. I quit my job because I could not work with a group that’s soul purpose is to “cut the fat from the Constitution” and to dictate liberty. I heard the senior F.L.E.T.C. personnel state things like we will get those” hippy fags”, referring to the students of NCCC, off our base within a year, and they did.
    Please never stop fighting I will not and many more
    Jim.

Leave a Reply