"The National Security Agency and other U.S. government organizations have developed hundreds of software programs and analytic tools to "harvest" intelligence, and they've created dozens of gigantic databases designed to discover potential terrorist activity both inside the United States and overseas...
The multi-billion dollar program, which began before 9/11 but has been accelerated since then."
* soto:
"OK, is this a case of word parsing, or did the USAT blow a major story, or be led into blowing a story?I first floated this theory when the story broke last week. The interesting thing is that it has taken the companies so long to get their denials on record - and also that the egadmin took some reasonably serious hits in the interim... but as CS noted in the comments:
[]
Which raises several questions:
1. Did the USAT get the story correct here, and are the companies parsing words to cover the fact that the NSA "took" the information with the company's knowledge through its own equipment tapping into the company's switches, instead of the legally-problematic act of the companies "giving" the data to the feds?
2. Was the paper set up by leaks from “sources” aiming to discredit not only the paper, but to use the resulting flame-out to bury something worse and additional coverage of the matter?
And if you don’t think this is possible, then I would remind you of Dan Rather and the TANG memos, as well as what Karl Rove did to J. H. Hatfield."
" this memo from the Dems in the HPSCI says:whaddya think?
"None of us misses the irony that leaks about the program are coming from the Executive Branch, not us. ""
7 comments:
While the whole thing stinks no matter which way the wind blows, from what I've read of the denials so far, there's at least some degree of parsing going on. The denials seem to revolve around contracts or agreements or 'bulk records'. All of them indicate they haven't 'provided' anything. In other words, loopholes you could drive a tank through.
Two thoughts:
- based on the AT&T whistleblower story not long ago, telco's don't have to provide any records, just access to the system and a room for the NSA to install their own gathering equipment.
- National Security Letters. You get one, you have to comply but you can't talk about it, you know. Unless your the FBI hunting them pesky leakers.
Meanwhile, the NSA (Hi, Gen. Hayden!) sticks to 'not confirming or denying', no shock, no reassurance, and the fun goes on.
I thought that the Swiftboat crowd was tipped off in advance on the Bush TANG story Dan Rather presented on 60 Minutes by a mole within CBS or from someone in the White House who received advance notice out of courtesy. That tip off was why they were prepared to pounce on the story's credibility almost immediately with their own phony claims about typewriters in the 1970's not being able to produce the documents CBS had been provided (in fact typewriters in that period DID produce documents with such fonts and typographical nuances).
The latest information about government spying on its citizens, and especially journalists, leads to me believe that more likely the Swiftboaters were given access to information obtained from a phone tapped by the FBI or NSA.
don - you are right - there appears to be some parsing going on - altho from my quick trip through the stories the language appears to be increasingly tightened up.
i still dont have a strong position on it
we might be able to discern some more from the way Tice's appearance is reported tomorrow...
ewastud - the TANG story was a remarkable piece of rat-fucking. i'm not exactly sure how it happened, but it was exquisite.
my *guess* is that the USAT story was actually intentionally fed into the media channels to inoculate against a story that is yet to come out...
For a little insight into what the NSA is really capable of and what they allude to when Bush says they are analysising data to look for terrorist activities and patterns, this ARS Technica post will inform and amaze... It contains a lot of acronyms and geek terms but the overall idea is easy to understand. Big Brother in a Big Way. Not at some future time with futuristic technology but in real time... Today...
ARS Technica :: link
Regards
- fc ( fatcat politics )
TelCo's could be parsing...
Or...
They could be lying because the the great decider told them they could...
Or...
It could be a third party
More from Robinson at HuffPo. The money quote:
Maybe Verizon and BellSouth didn't give the NSA our records after all. Maybe they gave them to someone who gave them to the NSA. A private contractor perhaps.
The whole Robinson piece is must read stuff, winding a nice thread from FL-2000 through ChoicePoint, Matrix and SeisInt.
(Blogger really needs an after-post edit function...)
thnx FC
thnx don - great piece by robinson - i've FP-ed it.
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