Listening In? Posted by James Lamond

ABC news reported today on an American intelligence program that has been spying on U.S. citizens, mostly military officers, journalists, and aid workers in the Middle East.  Many of the calls intercepted were soldiers from Baghdad’s Green Zone calling home to the U.S.  The report comes from two former military linguists that were assigned to the NSA and monitored calls themselves. 

The linguists describe the phone calls that they had to monitor and transcribe:

These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones.

The calls were personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism.

[American Soldiers] Calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses, sometimes their girlfriends, sometimes one phone call following another.

What disturbs me most- besides the complete violation of the civil liberties of our soldiers, journalists, and aid workers- is that it is hard to imagine how effective of a terrorist monitoring program this really is.  After the phone numbers were identified as aid organizations instead of blocking the numbers, the calls were continually intercepted and monitored.   I understand that the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders are dangerous- but I am sure that there are some higher priority groups out there.  This is really concerning.

As one NSA Analyst said

By casting the net so wide and continuing to collect on Americans and aid organizations, it's almost like they're making the haystack bigger and it's harder to find that piece of information that might actually be useful to somebody.You're actually hurting our ability to effectively protect our national security.

Gen. Hayden, now CIA director and formerly NSA director, claims that the intercepted phone calls are specifically targeted.  He testified before congress that:

It's not for the heck of it. We are narrowly focused and drilled on protecting the nation against al Qaeda and those organizations who are affiliated with it.

President Bush has assured America that the wiretapping program is targeted towards terrorists and suspected terrorists.  In 2006 he said:

This is a phone call of an al Qaeda, known al Qaeda suspect, making a phone call into the United States.

But according to those who were actually doing the listening, it is quite a different story.  One linguist recalls his co-workers sharing and passing around “salacious or tantalizing” phone calls that had been intercepted, including listening in on “pillow talk” or “phone sex.”  I mean come on- is this really a matter of national security?  How exactly does this keep us safe from terrorism? All the effort being put into monitoring personal phone calls by American troops and aid workers is effort that is not going into combating our real enemies.

Comments

[gregorbkny]

After so long it's still the defense of this administration: who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?

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