by Becky Akers
Becky Akers is a historian and freelance writer.
As we all know, thanks to USA Today, in 2001 the National Security Agency (NSA) pressured ATamp;T, Verizon, BellSouth, and Qwest to divulge call-detail records for their customers. Only Qwest refused, though Verizon and BellSouth now claim inaccuracies in reports that they helped the Feds spy on us. Whether you called from your home, cell, or office phone, whether you dialed next door, Netcong, or the Netherlands, the NSA apparently knows what number was dialed and the duration of the call. These records don’t include names or street addresses, but — comforting thought — the government could match that information with the call-details any time it pleases. It's the largest database ever assembled in the world, an unidentified source told USA Today. The newspaper went on, The agency's goal is lsquo;to create a database of every call ever made’ within the nation's borders, this person added.
Why? Because, as President Bush explained, Al Qaeda is our enemy, and we want to know their plans. But we ordinary Americans shouldn’t worry: the same government that rifles our luggage at the airports has been fiercely protect[ing] our privacy from the NSA. We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans, the President claimed with breathtaking disregard for the facts. Our efforts are focused on links to al Qaeda and their known affiliates. Apparently, President Bush is as confused about the meanings of focused and al Qaeda’s known affiliates as his predecessor was about the meaning of is.
And so the administration once again trots out its favorite false dichotomy: the American people can be safe or they can be free. We must allow the Feds to scrutinize our bank transactions and the books we check out of libraries, or the terrorists win. But the country is no safer because the NSA knows I chat with my father every evening. And imagine what they’ll make of my Thursday calls to Amir's Falafel, when Amir knocks a dollar off his take-out Mediterranean Meal.
The NSA holds the dubious distinction of being the largest government spy agency in the world — an honor the naive might have attributed to Communist China’s secret police. The bureaucracy's annual electric bill alone amounts to $21 million, though the rest of its budget is, of course, classified. Said silence, on budgets and everything else, renders ironic the Feds' assiduous attempts to get up close and personal with us. The State presumes a right to know the most intimate details of our lives, yet basic facts about its activities are off-limits to us. We can't even ask the NSA to confirm its collection of our phone records: Given the nature of the work we do, it would be irresponsible to comment on actual or alleged operational issues, Don Weber, a senior spokesman, told USA Today. Naturally: when does government ever come clean about its abuses? Therefore, Weber blithely continued, we have no information to provide. The folks at the NSA are takers, not givers, and they’re not alone in their reticence.
So we're supposed to nod understandingly when secretive officials root around in our affairs. Indeed, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) chided the shrinking violets: What are people worried about? What is the problem? Are you doing something you're not supposed to?
The government hastens to assure us that it is only collecting information: it hasn’t actually eavesdropped on our conversations — yet. But neither the NSA nor the administration can be accused of an excessive devotion to truth. In fact, from the first revelations on December 16 about the NSA's spying on us, the government has changed its story. On January 25, while visiting NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, President Bush announced , The [surveillance] program applies only to international communications. In other words, one end of the communication must be outside the United States. Now, six months later, we learn that the president's statement was misleadingly narrow; it doesn’t matter whether we’re calling Afghanistan or Akron: the Feds in some manner are snooping through all our calls and have been for five years. They don’t even bother with a warrant, for goodness' sake. How can we be sure they aren't listening to our domestic conversations?
Reporters Monitored
Then again, eavesdropping may not be required since the administration is already intimidating journalists with call-detail records alone: A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources. ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls, Ross and Esposito wrote on ABC's The Blotter website. Our reports on the CIA's secret prisons in Romania and Poland were known to have upset CIA officials. The CIA asked for an FBI investigation of leaks of classified information following those reports. That should silence confidential sources as well, cloaking Leviathan in even greater secrecy.
The government claims it's fighting al Qaeda, not us. But USA Today quotes its sources as saying that collecting call-detail records on over 200 million Americans is a way to identify, and monitor, people suspected of terrorist activities. Are you telling me tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaeda? Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) demanded. Nope, Senator, more like hundreds of millions. These are . . . Americans who are not suspected of anything.
Monitoring peaceful people as they go about their lives does nothing to stop terrorism and everything to promote a police state. As dangerous as Osama bin Laden may be, he can’t hold a candle to Big Brother.