24/7 Spies

The big news today, obviously, is the lid coming off the NSA's monitoring of our phone calls. USA Today broke the original story this morning, detailing that the NSA has been keeping track of phone calls of AT&T, Versizon, and BellSouth customers (turned over to them by those phone companies), but by now you can pretty much read about it at the news outlet of your choice. We've been aware of the broad strokes of this program for a while, and the Bushies have insisted that they're only listening in on overseas calls, but these new details involve collecting information about as many calls the feds can get.

"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.

The Prez himself was so panicked about this that he rushed out only hours after the story broke to reassure us that everything was above board. "First, our international activities strictly target al Qaeda and their known affiliates. Al Qaeda is our enemy, and we want to know their plans." But we're not talking about international activities here, this is a domestic issue. "Second, the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval." Perhaps not, but this is about collecting who we called and how long we talked to them. "Third, the intelligence activities I authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat." A few people in Congress have begged to differ; and let's don't forget that this is an administration that has theorized that if the President does it, it isn't illegal. "Fourth, the privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities." That obviously goes without saying. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans." No, they're just going through the data about who we called when and for how long.

It's worth noting that the three phone companies went along with the program and turned the information they had about their customers (i.e., us) over to the government without warrants. It's worth noting that Qwest, which services telephones in the West and Northwest, resisted government advances to turn over their data. I don't know if that means most of the terrorist cells currently hiding within this country will now move to the West and Northwest, but at least that would get them out of the other parts of the country.

My favorite headline today is from the Scripps Howard News Service: "Conservatives Shocked [Shocked!] by NSA Phone Program."

It's getting late, or I'd look up the raft of editorials in both the conservative and liberal press denouncing this latest wrinkle in domestic surveillance. I may put together a list of links tomorrow (or better still, someone else will, and I'll link to it). I will note that, although it would've been put together before this latest revelation and so isn't related, Bush has finally dropped below 30% in the polls, as the latest Harris Poll clocks his job approval rating at 29%.