Lawmakers Question Collection of Phone Records; Bush Says Privacy is ‘Fiercely Protected’

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WASHINGTON (AP) – Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans’ phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country.

Facing intense criticism from Congress, President Bush did not confirm the work of the National Security Agency but sought to assure Americans that their privacy is being “fiercely protected.”

“We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans,” Bush said before leaving for a commencement address in Mississippi.

The disclosure, reported in USA Today, could complicate Bush’s bid to win confirmation of former National Security Agency director Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA director. It also reignited concerns about civil liberties and touched off questions about the legal underpinnings for the government’s actions and the diligence of the Republican-controlled Congress’ oversight of a GOP administration.

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

“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,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

The telephone companies AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., and BellSouth Corp. began turning over records of tens of millions of their customers’ phone calls to the NSA 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 Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel in pursuit of what had transpired.

“We’re really flying blind on the subject and that’s not a good way to approach the Fourth Amendment and the constitutional issues involving privacy,” Specter said of domestic surveillance in general.

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.

Bush did not confirm or deny the USA Today report. But he did say that U.S. intelligence targets terrorists and that the government does not listen to domestic telephone calls without court approval. He said Congress has been briefed on intelligence programs.

He said it was important to fight terror and “we will do so within the laws of our country.”

Hayden, on Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers, told reporters: “All I would want to say is that everything that NSA does is lawful and very carefully done and that the appropriate members of the Congress, the House and Senate, are briefed on all NSA activities, and I think I’d just leave it at that.”

Claims about the existence of the program emerged earlier this year.

In January, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based interest group devoted to preserving privacy and free speech in digital media, alleged in a federal lawsuit that AT&T Inc. had given the NSA direct access to the records of the more than 300 million domestic and international voice calls and the huge volume of Internet data traffic it handles each business day.

AT&T Inc. includes the AT&T Corp. and SBC Communications, Inc.

The class action lawsuit asked a court to halt the collection of this data as an illegal invasion of the privacy of innocent persons.

The Justice Department told the court on April 28 it would seek to dismiss the case under the state secrets privilege, but it added that “the fact that the United States will assert the state secrets privilege should not be construed as a confirmation or denial of any of the plaintiff’s allegations, either about AT&T or the alleged surveillance activities.”

The foundation’s suit added that its evidence substantially confirmed a Dec. 25, 2005, Los Angeles Times story which said that since Sept. 11, 2001, “NSA has had a direct hookup into the database” at AT&T code-named “Daytona,” which “keeps track of telephone numbers on both ends of calls as well as the duration of all landline calls.”

On Capitol Hill, several lawmakers expressed incredulity about the program, with some Republicans questioning the rationale 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.

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, USA Today said.

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

Hayden already faced criticism because of the NSA’s secret domestic eavesdropping program. As head of the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005, 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.”

One big telecommunications company, Qwest Communications International Inc., has refused to turn over records to the program, USA Today said, because of privacy and legal concerns.


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