Bush defends spying after NSA database report

The NSA has “access to records of billions of domestic calls,” USA Today said. Although customers’ names and addresses are not being handed over, “the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information,” it said.

NBC: Agency mastering data ‘in real time’
NBC News intelligence analyst Bill Arkin has compiled a list of databases and software used by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. Arkin has mined the unclassified contract data for NSA and the agencies to determine what kind of databases NSA is interested in.

Arkin reported that there are hundreds of software projects to learn how to analyze hundreds of billions of transactions.

The multibillion-dollar effort since Sept. 11 involves hundreds of contracts and as many as 50 companies, Arkin said. The contracts are mainly for overseas data mining, but with so much integration of data, the distinction is less and less easy to find, he said. Arkin noted one database contains 800 million names worldwide.

"NSA is learning how to crunch data in real time. It does them no good to have Verizon back up the truck and unload the tapes. It needs a live feed from the server. It also needs the ability to be able to crunch those numbers," he told NBC News investigative producer Robert Windrem.

‘Where does it stop?’
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sounded incredulous about the newspaper report and railed against what he called a lack of congressional oversight. He argued that the media was doing the job of Congress.

“Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaida?” Leahy asked. “These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything. ... Where does it stop?”

The Democrat, who at one point held up a copy of the newspaper, added: “Shame on us for being so far behind and being so willing to rubber-stamp anything this administration does. We ought to fold our tents.”

Phone companies respond
The phone 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.

Among major U.S. telecommunications companies, only Qwest Communications International Inc. has refused to help the NSA program, the paper said.

Qwest, with 14 million customers in the Western United States, was “uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants,” USA Today said.

It said the three companies cooperating with the NSA “provide local and wireless phone service to more than 200 million customers.”

MORE FROM SECURITY

Security Section Front

Investigators: Fort Hood suspect acted alone Profile of Fort Hood suspect emerges Cheney blasts probe of CIA interrogations Men held after 9/11 get $1.26 million Security Section Front   Add Security headlines to your news reader: