Deceit

Bush's National Security Agency collected data from three major telephone companies on millions of calls by Americans, according to a new story by USA Today. Reaction was swift, both by the White House and by a growing number of concerned and outraged officials.

"First, our intelligence activities strictly target Al Qaeda and their known affiliates. Al-Qaeda is our enemy, and we want to know their plans," President Bush said in defense.

"Are you telling me tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaeda?" asked Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything."

But it wasn't just Democrats. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) will hold Judiciary Committee hearings. Many other Republicans, including conservatives, expressed disapproval and alarm.

General Michael Hayden, who oversaw this program, is the Bush nominee to head the CIA. His hearings will also likely focus on this story. As of Thursday, the White House insists it is going ahead "full steam" with the nomination. Hayden claims that appropriate members Congress has been informed of the program, but several key members--including Republicans--made statements suggesting they were surprised by the report. House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said, "I am concerned about what I read...I'm going to find out about this because I'm not sure why it would be necessary for us to have and keep that kind of information."

Editorial comment has been swift and savage. USA Today: The fact that the government is trying to track (but not wiretap) every call you make and every call you receive — at home or on your cellphone is, to say the least, disturbing.It means that your phone company (if you are a customer of AT&T, BellSouth or Verizon) tossed your privacy to the wind and collaborated with this extraordinary intrusion, and that it did so secretly and without following any court order."

"Ever since its secret domestic wiretapping program was exposed, the Bush administration has depicted it as a narrow examination of calls made by and to suspected terrorists. But its refusal to provide any details about the extent of the spying has raised doubts. Now there is more reason than ever to be worried — and angry — about how wide the government's web has been reaching, begins the New York Times. Later:

President Bush has insisted in the past that the government is monitoring only calls that begin or end overseas. But according to USA Today, it has actually been collecting information on purely domestic calls. One source told the paper that the program had produced "the largest database ever assembled in the world."

The government has stressed that it is not listening in on phone calls, only analyzing the data to look for calling patterns. But if all the details of the program are confirmed, the invasion of privacy is substantial. By cross-referencing phone numbers with databases that link numbers to names and addresses, the government could compile dossiers of what people and organizations each American is in contact with.

At this point no one knows how many calls were actually wiretapped. This news broke a day after Justice Department lawyers gave up their probe of the NSA warrantless wiretaps because they could not obtain the security clearance necessary to continue the investigation. Could even Joseph Heller have made this stuff up?

"I happen to believe we are on our way to a major constitutional confrontation on Fourth Amendment guarantees on unreasonable search and seizure,'' Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said.

UPDATE: Jack Cafferty on CNN:"We all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, cause he might be all that stands between us and a full blown dictatorship in this country."