USA Today: Pre-9/11 records help flag suspicious calling

[sabra]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-22-nsa-template_x.htm

Pre-9/11 records help flag suspicious calling

WASHINGTON — Armed with details of billions of telephone calls, the National Security Agency used phone records linked to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to create a template of how phone activity among terrorists looks, say current and former intelligence officials who were briefed about the program.

The template, the officials say, was created from a secret database of phone call records collected by the spy agency. It has been used since 9/11 to identify calling patterns that indicate possible terrorist activity. Among the patterns examined: flurries of calls to U.S. numbers placed immediately after the domestic caller received a call from Pakistan or Afghanistan, the sources say.


...

The officials, two current U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the program and two former U.S. intelligence officials, agreed to talk on condition of anonymity. The White House and the NSA refused to discuss the template or the program.

...

Calls coming into the country from Pakistan, Afghanistan or the Middle East, for example, are flagged by NSA computers if they are followed by a flood of calls from the number that received the call to other U.S. numbers.

[w4rma]

1. 911! 911! Their all purpose excuse for everything. (nt)

[QuettaKid]

3. So for instance. . . .

lets say the ISI is calling Porter Goss pre-911, is that considered suspicious? Bastiges, every last one of them.

[Peter Frank]

18. Yes...

Pakistani intel played a critical role in the lead up to 911. It was communicating with our government while channeling money to Atta.

Let's see those records.

[Triana]

2. Prop-O-Ganda...?

...put out by the White House to try to get us to sell out more of our civil rights and privacy to bu$hco and to ellicit the response of:

"Oh well then this NSA spying is just A-OK then! Wonderful!" (kool-aid drinker response)

I'm not buying it. Pollyanna doesn't live here. Wrong number.

[xultar]

13. I wonder who had to spread'em for punishment.

[seemslikeadream]

4. since 9/11 - I think not

BEFORE


ABLE DANGER

[Toucano]

5. What constitutes a "flood" of calls?

So now would-be-terrorists could simply daisy chain their calls or space them out to avoid detection.

Since the database contains no "personally identifiable information", it's just a masturbatory exercise anyway. LOL!

[Bridget Burke]

10. When Uncle Ali calls from Karachi to say that Grandma is very sick....

Young Ali, who got the call, begins phoning every family member in the USA. And they begin phoning each other. Who has time to visit the old country? Can they afford it? Do other relatives need to contribute? What messages should be carried? Is that old family rumor true? Who needs some cooking supplies from the bazaar?

Sounds like a terrorist cell to me!

[Toucano]

21. Exactly. And since it's not "personally identifiable" we'll just have to

round up every Arab in the country.

Better safe than sorry, you know?

[StrafingMoose]

6. Sibel Edmonds's story destroys this premise...

IMO, the NSA had the whole 9/11 operation's blueprint and chose to do nothing. I wonder why... ? :eyes:

[nolabels]

14. The splinter groups that were spawned from the CIA operations in..........

Afghanistan (which some say still were working with some of the same folks after they splintered)makes me think it would foolish to take any of it seriously unless it could be verified some how.

It is obvious the military-industrial-security complex is and or was looking for a new boogie man after the collapse of the soviet block. Thank goodness time has been asset for public and this seeming plot (they want to call a war) is starting to look more and more half-baked every day.

One could also remember they spy on the rest of us at the risk of their own peril, they have much more to lose than they could ever gain. If information was the end all in having controlling power, encyclopedia publishers would been in the drivers seat a long time ago :shrug:

[KansDem]

15. I agree...

Bush was spying pre-9/11. He was forewarned about Osama and al Qaeda. How he "missed" their calls prior to 9/11 is the crime of the century and should be investigated.

[JDPriestly]

7. Trouble is Trouble Comes From Unexpected Directions

First it was the extreme right wing blowing up the Oklahoma building. We chased those guys down and tried to prevent that from happening again. While our backs were turned, Al Qaeda infiltrated the U.S. So the next blow came from al Qaeda. In response, Bush invested an enormous amount of American time and money into fighting Al Qaeda. Then came Katrina. A disaster that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. The next problem is just as likely to be caused by something entirely different. That is how life works. So now NSA is studying the communications of terrorists. Meanwhile, our nation is being subverted from the inside by an overzealous administration obsessed with keeping secrets, silencing the press and grabbing power. The real danger at this point the desire to remain safe at all times. Our own paranoia is hurting us worse than anything else.

[Minnesota Libra]

8. Who are these idiots trying to convince? Us or them?? I, for one,.......

....don't buy a word of it. First of all, the 9/11 planning was in the making for at least two years before that day. Second, don't these idiots know that "the terrorists" figured out long time ago that the US was monitoring phone calls/Internet and have already changed their communication habits/codes??

Other than the Faux News crowd who is this directed to??

[truthisfreedom]

9. announcements of marriage, babies, deaths... from now on will be carried

by pidgeons?

what an idiotic piece of prop-agenda.

[Bridget Burke]

11. Especially since that sort of call will prompt other calls!

Friends & family in the USA need notification. Who will send presents? Who will go to the wedding? Likely, people who haven't talked in a while make contact once again. So even more calls ensue.

Arrest them all! Including Grandma.

[xultar]

12. Buhwawawawawawawawawawa!

[msanthrope]

16. 9/11, Everybody Drink!!! n/t

[peacetalksforall]

17. It's obvious. Drop any friendship or business dealings with anyone

who knows anyone in the Middle East and the Indian Sub-Continent.

Divder tactics. Bigotry runs wild because these people have no boundaries and place no limitations on their arrogant agenda arrogantly executed.

You will be a target and who knows how erroneously your association may be interpreted knowing the utter contempt and lack of education of the PNAC rule of this country.

[ladjf]

19. What about the airline stock "puts" on 9-10?

[Supersedeas]

20. so if you receive phone call from Sis in Germany regarding birth of child

and you call all the relatives to update them--you are marked as a Terrorist.

Merica has become Bushinterland