BIG BROTHER IN BED WITH MA BELL?
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
Published: December 24, 2005
(NEW YORK TIMES) WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone
and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President
Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former
government officials.
The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is
much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the
American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said.
As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the
cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications,
the officials said.
The government's collection and analysis of phone and Internet traffic have raised questions among some law enforcement
and judicial officials familiar with the program. One issue of concern to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which
has reviewed some separate warrant applications growing out of the N.S.A.'s surveillance program, is whether the court has
legal authority over calls outside the United States that happen to pass through American-based telephonic "switches,"
according to officials familiar with the matter.
"There was a lot of discussion about the switches" in conversations with the court, a Justice Department official
said, referring to the gateways through which much of the communications traffic flows. "You're talking about access
to such a vast amount of communications, and the question was, How do you minimize something that's on a switch that's carrying
such large volumes of traffic? The court was very, very concerned about that."
Since the disclosure last week of the N.S.A.'s domestic surveillance program, President Bush and his senior aides have
stressed that his executive order allowing eavesdropping without warrants was limited to the monitoring of international phone
and e-mail communications involving people with known links to Al Qaeda.
What has not been publicly acknowledged is that N.S.A. technicians, besides actually eavesdropping on specific conversations,
have combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might point to terrorism suspects.
Some officials describe the program as a large data-mining operation.
The current and former government officials who discussed the program were granted anonymity because it remains classified.
Bush administration officials declined to comment on Friday on the technical aspects of the operation and the N.S.A.'s
use of broad searches to look for clues on terrorists. Because the program is highly classified, many details of how the N.S.A.
is conducting it remain unknown, and members of Congress who have pressed for a full Congressional inquiry say they are eager
to learn more about the program's operational details, as well as its legality.
Officials in the government and the telecommunications industry who have knowledge of parts of the program say the N.S.A.
has sought to analyze communications patterns to glean clues from details like who is calling whom, how long a phone call
lasts and what time of day it is made, and the origins and destinations of phone calls and e-mail messages. Calls to and from
Afghanistan, for instance, are known to have been of particular interest to the N.S.A. since the Sept. 11 attacks, the officials
said.
This so-called "pattern analysis" on calls within the United States would, in many circumstances, require a
court warrant if the government wanted to trace who calls whom.
The use of similar data-mining operations by the Bush administration in other contexts has raised strong objections, most
notably in connection with the Total Information Awareness system, developed by the Pentagon for tracking terror suspects,
and the Department of Homeland Security's Capps program for screening airline passengers. Both programs were ultimately scrapped
after public outcries over possible threats to privacy and civil liberties.
But the Bush administration regards the N.S.A.'s ability to trace and analyze large volumes of data as critical to its
expanded mission to detect terrorist plots before they can be carried out, officials familiar with the program say. Administration
officials maintain that the system set up by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not give
them the speed and flexibility to respond fully to terrorist threats at home.
A former technology manager at a major telecommunications company said that since the Sept. 11 attacks, the leading companies
in the industry have been storing information on calling patterns and giving it to the federal government to aid in tracking
possible terrorists.
"All that data is mined with the cooperation of the government and shared with them, and since 9/11, there's been
much more active involvement in that area," said the former manager, a telecommunications expert who did not want his
name or that of his former company used because of concern about revealing trade secrets.
Such information often proves just as valuable to the government as eavesdropping on the calls themselves, the former
manager said.
"If they get content, that's useful to them too, but the real plum is going to be the transaction data and the traffic
analysis," he said. "Massive amounts of traffic analysis information - who is calling whom, who is in Osama Bin
Laden's circle of family and friends - is used to identify lines of communication that are then given closer scrutiny."
Several officials said that after President Bush's order authorizing the N.S.A. program, senior government officials arranged
with officials of some of the nation's largest telecommunications companies to gain access to switches that act as gateways
at the borders between the United States' communications networks and international networks. The identities of the corporations
involved could not be determined.
The switches are some of the main arteries for moving voice and some Internet traffic into and out of the United States,
and, with the globalization of the telecommunications industry in recent years, many international-to-international calls
are also routed through such American switches.
One outside expert on communications privacy who previously worked at the N.S.A. said that to exploit its technological
capabilities, the American government had in the last few years been quietly encouraging the telecommunications industry to
increase the amount of international traffic that is routed through American-based switches.
The growth of that transit traffic had become a major issue for the intelligence community, officials say, because it
had not been fully addressed by 1970's-era laws and regulations governing the N.S.A. Now that foreign calls were being routed
through switches on American soil, some judges and law enforcement officials regarded eavesdropping on those calls as a possible
violation of those decades-old restrictions, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court-approved
warrants for domestic surveillance.
Historically, the American intelligence community has had close relationships with many communications and computer firms
and related technical industries. But the N.S.A.'s backdoor access to major telecommunications switches on American soil with
the cooperation of major corporations represents a significant expansion of the agency's operational capability, according
to current and former government officials.
Phil Karn, a computer engineer and technology expert at a major West Coast telecommunications company, said access to
such switches would be significant. "If the government is gaining access to the switches like this, what you're really
talking about is the capability of an enormous vacuum operation to sweep up data," he said.
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Dirty Lobbiest Pleas Out, Rats Out "Dozen" In Congress
(WASHINGTON POST) WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 - Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist under indictment for fraud in South Florida,
is expected to complete a plea agreement in the Miami criminal case, setting the stage for him to become a crucial witness
in a broad federal corruption investigation, people with direct knowledge of the case said.
One participant in the case said the deal could be made final as early as next week.
The terms of the plea deal have not been completed, and the negotiations are especially complicated because they involve
prosecutors both in Miami and in Washington, where Mr. Abramoff is being investigated in a separate influence-peddling inquiry,
participants said. Details of what he feels comfortable pleading guilty to are "probably largely worked out," the
participant said, while the details of the prison sentence are less resolved.
Some of the details are still "in flux," said a participant who, like others interviewed, was granted anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the talks.
"Anything can happen," the participant said, adding that the agreement could fall apart. Another person with
detailed knowledge of the case said that while negotiations were continuing, the deal could take longer than another week
to be settled.
But after a lengthy bargaining phase, Mr. Abramoff's lawyers and prosecutors in the Florida case appear closer to resolving
several of the central issues in the plea deal, in which the defendant would receive a reduced prison sentence - most likely
in the range of five to seven years, though that is fluid - in exchange for pleading guilty and agreeing to testify against
his former associates.
Mr. Abramoff was indicted in Florida on Aug. 11 on charges stemming from his purchase of a fleet of casino boats in 2000.
Prosecutors said Mr. Abramoff and a business partner, Adam Kidan, falsified documents and lied about their financing in order
to complete the purchase. Mr. Kidan pleaded guilty last week, leaving Mr. Abramoff to face six criminal counts and up to 30
years in prison as case's sole defendant.
At the same time, prosecutors in Washington have been sifting through evidence of what they believe is a corruption scheme
involving at least a dozen lawmakers and their former staff members, many of whom worked closely on legislation with Mr. Abramoff
and accepted gifts and favors from him. Although Mr. Abramoff is also in negotiations in that case, it is unclear whether
a settlement can be reached in time for both agreements to be announced at once.
Michael Scanlon, a close business associate of Mr. Abramoff in Washington who also worked on the SunCruz casino boat deal,
pleaded guilty in October in exchange for testifying in both inquiries. The case, being worked on by dozens of investigators
as part of a multiagency task force, has expanded in recent months to put senior Republican officials and prominent party
lobbyists under immense scrutiny.
(Go To Washinton Post Article)
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