USA Today Thursday 11th May 2006
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
By Leslie Cauley
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.
BBC News Monday, 8 May 2006, 13:38 GMT 14:38 UK
Profile: Michael V Hayden
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A number of lawmakers, including some from President George W Bush's Republican party, have voiced concern about Gen Hayden being a general with close ties to the military and his role in an eavesdropping programme criticised by both Democrats and Republicans as a violation of civil rights.
As head of the NSA - the American electronic eavesdropping organisation - the 61-year-old oversaw the programme, which allows for the monitoring of international calls and e-mails of terrorist suspects inside the US without a warrant.
It was ordered by President Bush after the 11 September attacks, but it was Gen Hayden who took the lead in publicly defending the policy after it was disclosed in the New York Times at the end of last year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4750377.stm
BBC News Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 00:26 GMT 01:26 UK
Hayden could face trouble ahead
By Adam Brookes, BBC News, Washington
President Bush has nominated an Air Force general, Michael Hayden, to be the next director of the CIA. 
The position came vacant at the end of last week, when Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly after less than two years in the role.
President Bush was effusive as he nominated Lieutenant General Michael Hayden to be the top man at the CIA.
"Mike has more than 20 years of experience in the intelligence field. He served for six years as director of the National Security Agency, and thus brings vast experience leading a major intelligence agency to his new assignment," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4752745.stm
The Gainesville Sun Friday, 12th May 2006
Congressional delegation questions NSA actions
By Cindy Swirko, Sun staff writer
Reaction ranged from questioning to strong denunciations from the region's congressional delegation to revelations that phone records of millions of Americans were secretly turned over to the National Security Administration.
Democrats and Republicans alike said they have serious questions about the action after reading details reported Thursday in USA Today.
Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, said she believes the military and intelligence agencies are strong and organized enough to defeat terrorists without turning the United States into an "Orwellian type dictatorship."
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060512/LOCAL/60512010/1078/news
The Times Friday 12th May 2006
Bush may have crossed the line by tracking every US phone call
By Tim Reid in Washington
President Bush faced new and potentially damaging allegations about the secret surveillance of Americans last night after reports that his Administration has covertly collected domestic phone records of tens of millions of citizens.
The report provoked outrage from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
In a sign of how seriously the White House viewed the potential fallout, Mr Bush appeared on television to read a hastily prepared statement in which he did not deny the allegations, but insisted that his Administration had not broken any laws.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2176605,00.html
In terms of communications intelligence analysis this network analysis being carried out against telephones in the US is the most fundamental aspect for begnning to collect such intelligence. It was the very first thing I learned at the start of my six months of training as a Radio Intercept Analyst Specialist for the USAF Security Service in September 1961. In that training we leaned to recreate communications' networks by callsign analysis based upon communications' traffic. The whole point of such activity is to glean as much information from communications without being able to read the content of the communications. It's called learning to read message externals along with the network reconstruction. Such analysis produces a wealth of information and is the foundation for all other communications intelligence work.
This is what NSA is now doing with the telephone communications in the US since 9/11. The callsigns are the telephone numbers themselves, and with NSA's massive computer technology power they can reconstuct and analyse "network" structures which lead to further analysis of all the externals such as call frequency, length and those involved in all telephone calls. Once all of this is established and specific targets are indentified as warranting further coverage, all the other activites come into play which then involve listening to the telephone calls in this case. Don't forget that NSA has ECHELON to also enable a dictionary search of massive amounts of such verbal traffic with computer technology. We have Katharine Gun to thank for exposing the abuse of this NSA and GCHQ facility against the United Nations delegates during a key Security Council vote there.
Such communications network analysis can be a useful tool for identifying and connecting cells if those involved use telephones for communication. Naturally, one assumes that this extends to Emails and other means of electronic communications. If one person in a cell is the only one who has contact with another cell or person above, this can lead to terrorist cell reconstruction and organisational knowledge. The reason for doing this activity is understandable, and the only way to make it useful is with blanket coverage. The problem is that all externals pertaining to telephone activity become subject to such coverage. Is the public willing to have all telephone calls monitored in this manner as a means to protect against terrorism?
I would venture a guess that this same type of telephone monitoring today is being carried out by GCHQ and other like organisations throughout the world if they have the data access and money. This why the security services in the UK and Europe want the telephone records to be maintained by telcos for a length of time. The foot in the door is to claim that it is a valuable tool to be able to determine who suspects have contacted in order to determine associations. This has proven itself invaluable. However, the next step comes along when the intelligence organisations want to be pre-emptive by identifying in advance those suspect terror networks through communications analysis alone. It appears that NSA has made this step forward and has been doing it for some years which has just been brought to the public's attention by USA Today.
This is what NSA did against the Soviet Union and Chinese Communists during the Cold War with regard to military communications. During the Cold War with dedicated efforts against military targets who were clearly a threat, all of this communications analysis based upon intercepted communications from the air waves was necessary and essential to national security. NSA through the military communication intelligence services (USAF Security Service, Naval Security Group, Army Security Agency and others) surrounded the Soviet Union and China with intercept sites, aircraft platform missions and ships to intercept all communications possible and process that information. This was legitimate in my experience since I participated in this effort from the time the Berlin Wall went up in 1961 through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of JFK and was discharged having served honourably as LBJ won election in 1964.
"1962 - . . . Intelligence processed by the USAFSS Airborne Reconnaissance Program provided the first significant intelligence data concerning the extent of Soviet involvement in Cuba. The United States Air Force Security Service deployed an Emergency Reaction Unit (ERU) to Key West, Florida, to provide tactical support. Also, the command increased its Cuban Airborne Reconnaissance Program coverage from one to three aircraft." Air Intelligence Agency (AIA) History 1960. USAFSS evolved into the AIA.
"Largely secret until now, the bomber overflight and ferret missions were the dark underside of the Cold War, an invisible hot war in which the lives of more than two hundred silent warriors were lost and more than forty American aircraft were shot down." (James Bamford Body of Secrets, Arrow Books (Random House), 2002, p 38.)
However, with the threat from terrorism after 9/11 the tried and true communication intelligence techniques from NSA are being used against US domestic telephone communications. This is a horse of a different colour. The question is whether or not this is legal, warranted and necessary. Now that this activity is out in the open at the time when Michael Hayden, a former DIRNSA (Director NSA) for six years, is going before the US Congress for confirmation hearings as CIA Director, the public and its elected representatives can fully debate and consider this action by the NSA and its implications for Michael Hayden's qualifications for leadership of the CIA. I believe that a key question which has to be answered is how will the public be able to redress grievances when this activity is abused against innocent people? This and many related problems have to be sorted out. The domestic population of the US is not exactly a foreign military for which the NSA was originally chartered, but, then again, terrorists are not foreign military organisations as the London bombings of last July revealed since these were British citizens and civilans. It's a tough time with tough questions that need to be addressed and answered.
The Guardian Friday 12th May 2006
US phone firms gave spy agency records of billions of calls
By Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
· Bush denies wiretaps of citizens were illegal· Eavesdropping may derail appointment of CIA chief
George Bush tried desperately yesterday to defuse the news that the three biggest telephone firms in the US provided the National Security Agency with the records of billions of calls made by Americans.
The revelation that the warrantless wiretapping authorised by President Bush was far more sweeping than the administration has admitted could derail the confirmation of Michael Hayden, a former director of the agency, as new CIA chief.
Covered in a report by the paper USA Today, the story also reopens questions about whether Mr Bush acted illegally in authorising taps on Americans without court oversight. USA Today reported that since the September 2001 terror attacks, AT&T Corp, Verizon Communications Inc, and BellSouth Corp had been providing the agency with detailed records of the calls made by their 200 million customers, both international and domestic.