Bush says U.S. not 'trolling through personal lives'

[gldstwmn]

Best headline yet!


http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/...rds/index.html
USA Today reports NSA building massive phone records database

Thursday, May 11, 2006; Posted: 1:44 p.m. EDT (17:44 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Thursday the government is "not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans" with a reported program to create a massive database of U.S. phone calls.

"Our efforts are focused on links to al Qaeda and their known affiliates," Bush said. "The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities."

Bush was responding to a USA Today report Thursday that three telecommunication firms provided the National Security Agency with domestic telephone call records from millions of Americans beginning shortly after the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Bush did not specifically mention the newspaper's report.
In response to the USA Today article, NSA spokesman Don Weber issued a statement saying, "Given the nature of the work we do, it would be irresponsible to comment on actual or alleged operational issues; therefore, we have no information to provide.

"However, it is important to note that NSA takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within the law."

Lawmakers concerned
Members of Congress expressed concern Thursday about the report. (Watch angry senator say "Shame on us" -- 3:56)

"It's our government, government of every single American -- Republican, Democrat or independent," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "...Those entrusted with great power have a duty to answer to Americans what they are doing."

In the House, Majority Leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, "I'm concerned about what I read with regard to the NSA database of phone calls. ... I'm not sure why it's necessary to us to keep and have that kind of information."

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said he would call on representatives from the companies named in the USA Today story, AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, to testify.

Conservatives defend program
However, during a morning session, Republican members of the committee defended the legality and necessity of such a database.

The USA Today report said the program did not involve the NSA "listening to or recording conversations," a point that Sen. Jeff Sessions touched on.

"No recordings and no conversations were intercepted here, so there was no wiretapping here," Sessions said.

"The president after 9/11 told the American people he was going to use the powers given to him to protect this country. ... It's not a warrantless wiretapping of the American people."

Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona also faulted the revelation of the program as harmful to national security.

"This is nuts," Kyl said. "We are in a war and we've go to collect intelligence on the enemy and you can't tell the enemy in advance how you are going to do it. And discussing all of this in public leads to that."

But Leahy, a vocal critic of the wiretapping program, praised the USA Today report, saying "it's a sorry state" that the committee will have to call on the telecom companies for the information.

"We have to do that because our own government won't answer questions," Leahy said. "Neither this committee nor any committee in the House or in the Senate has gotten adequate answers. ...

"The press is doing our work for us and we should be ashamed."

Hayden visits canceled
The report comes at an awkward time for CIA director nominee Gen. Michael Hayden, whom President Bush named this week to replace Porter Goss as head of the spy agency. Hayden, whose confirmation hearings begin next Thursday, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005.

Boehner said he thought that Hayden will "have a lot more explaining to do."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California -- who supports Hayden's nomination -- said the information will "present a growing impediment" to his confirmation, a development she said she regretted.

Facing Senate confirmation hearings before the Senate Intelligence Committee on May 18, Hayden's meeting today with Sens. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, were canceled.

The report comes months after the Bush administration came under criticism on Capitol Hill for ordering an NSA surveillance program, that allowed communication to be monitored between people in the United States and terrorism suspects overseas without a court order.

Hayden headed the NSA when the wiretapping program was launched in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

President Bush has argued that the resolution authorizing military action after the 9/11 attacks, along with his authority as commander-in-chief of the military, give him the power to initiate the program without a court order, as a 1978 law requires.

The Justice Department has been denied security clearances for access to information, which prompted it to drop an investigation into the program.
Last month, a former AT&T technician said in a sealed court document filed in federal court that the company cooperated with NSA to install equipment for "vacuum cleaner surveillance" of e-mail messages and Internet traffic, according to his lawyer.

Attorney Miles Ehrlich of Berkeley, California, told CNN that his client, Mark Klein, said there is a special room inside an AT&T building in San Francisco that is entirely controlled by NSA personnel and contains equipment that can sift through large amounts of Internet traffic.

[strandinthewind]

I know - I was like way to go CNN!!!!!!!

[irishgrl]

However, during a morning session, Republican members of the committee defended the legality and necessity of such a database.

Ya know, if they keep this up, they'll practically HAND OVER controll of the Congress to the Dems.

and then there's this:

The report comes at an awkward time for CIA director nominee Gen. Michael Hayden, whom President Bush named this week to replace Porter Goss as head of the spy agency. Hayden, whose confirmation hearings begin next Thursday, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005.

Boehner said he thought that Hayden will "have a lot more explaining to do."

Talk about a circus!!!!

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

Ya know, if they keep this up, they'll practically HAND OVER controll of the Congress to the Dems.

Speaking of which - did you see this article today:

Poll: Democrats lead GOP by double digits

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A CNN poll released Wednesday may continue the anxiety for the GOP, showing Democrats with a 14-point advantage over Republicans among registered voters asked their preferences in this year's midterm elections.

The poll, conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corp., found that 52 percent of respondents who were registered voters said they were leaning toward voting for a Democrat, while 38 percent said they were leaning toward a Republican.

Ten percent said they didn't know how they would vote or that they would choose a candidate not from the two major parties. (Watch what is pulling down the president's approval rating -- 2:07)

Among all Americans, the poll found 50 percent leaning toward Democrats, 37 leaning toward the Republicans and 3 percent intending to vote for non-majority candidates. Ten percent had no opinion

The poll, based on telephone interviews with 1,021 adult Americans between Friday and Sunday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. (View the poll results -- PDF)

Republicans are suffering politically, the poll suggested, because nearly half of the Americans interviewed said they think the country is on the wrong track.

Forty-six percent of respondents said they believed things were going well and 53 percent said they felt things were going badly. Two percent had no opinion. The question had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The figures are nearly reversed from what a similar CNN poll found in February, when 51 percent of respondents said they thought things were going well and 47 percent said things were going badly.

Republicans enjoy a 29-seat majority in the House and a 10-seat majority in the Senate, but political watchers say those majorities, especially the one in the House, may be threatened.

Democrats would need to pick up 15 seats to regain the House and six seats to take control of the Senate.

Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 3 Republican official in the House, told CNN he isn't worried about his party losing power.

"Between now and [the midterm elections], the Democrats are going to be forced to define what they're for," said Blunt, who is the majority whip.

"That's going to work to our advantage as it works to our advantage to have a chance to explain what we're for."

Congressional Republicans have also been weighed down by the public's low opinion of President Bush's job performance.

A CNN poll released Monday found Bush's approval rating was 34 percent -- an uptick of 2 percentage points from the most recent CNN poll in late April. (Full story)

The president's disapproval rating was 58 percent, down 2 points from the previous poll. (View Bush's latest approval numbers)

The poll, also done by Opinion Research Corp., was based on interviews of 1,021 adults. Both shifts are within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

More than half of those who disapproved of Bush's job performance -- 56 percent -- said the war in Iraq was the reason. (Read the full poll results -- PDF)

Thirteen percent said the recent increase in gas prices had fueled their displeasure. Twenty-six percent gave other reasons.

Because that question was asked only of those who disapproved, it had a different sampling error -- 4 percentage points.


Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/...oll/index.html

_______________________________________________________

I assume I am not threadjacking - if so, Goldie - let me know and I will delete, etc.

[golddustdragon]

[QUOTE=irishgrl]Ya know, if they keep this up, they'll practically HAND OVER controll of the Congress to the Dems.

QUOTE]

Not that it will make things better. The Dems are just as guilty as the repugs in this mess.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Speaking of which - did you see this article today:

Poll: Democrats lead GOP by double digits

I did and amen to that.

[irishgrl]

[QUOTE=golddustdragon]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

Ya know, if they keep this up, they'll practically HAND OVER controll of the Congress to the Dems.

QUOTE]

Not that it will make things better. The Dems are just as guilty as the repugs in this mess.

Wrong. If you want to start talking about DEGREE, the REPUGS are WAAAAAAY worse. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY worse.

they've controlled both houses of Congress and the White House and look how far this country has fallen. And in such a short time too......... Its a DAMN shame.