NYT: Mining of Data Prompted Fight Over Spying

[babylonsister]

Mining of Data Prompted Fight Over Spying


By SCOTT SHANE and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: July 29, 2007


WASHINGTON, July 28 — A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former officials briefed on the program.

It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate. But such databases contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans, and their examination by the government would raise privacy issues.

The N.S.A.’s data mining has previously been reported. But the disclosure that concerns about it figured in the March 2004 debate helps to clarify the clash this week between Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senators who accused him of misleading Congress and called for a perjury investigation.

The confrontation in 2004 led to a showdown in the hospital room of then Attorney General John Ashcroft, where Mr. Gonzales, the White House counsel at the time, and Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff, tried to get the ailing Mr. Ashcroft to reauthorize the N.S.A. program.

Mr. Gonzales insisted before the Senate this week that the 2004 dispute did not involve the Terrorist Surveillance Program “confirmed” by President Bush, who has acknowledged eavesdropping without warrants but has never acknowledged the data mining.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/washington/29nsa.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp&adxnnl=0&adxnnlx=1185657540-jmEmhvKd9r1coUh0Pj+J5A&oref=slogin

[aquart]

1. That includes Congress, doesn't it?

And all the CEOs.

[nebenaube]

2. awk self delete

[flyarm]

3. gee and how about a presidential race with John Kerry..how good would that data be??

and how much of this data mining was done of John Kerry's campaign????????

and the NYTimes sat on this info before the election!!

when will we ever get the truth from these fuckers???????

when we have noooooooo democracy left????????

fly

[Stalwart]

4. Eavesdropping and Data Mining So Closely Tied

"The senators’ comments, along with those of other members of Congress briefed on the program, suggested that they considered the eavesdropping and data mining so closely tied that they were part of a single program. Both activities, which ordinarily require warrants, were started without court approval as the Bush administration intensified counterterrorism efforts soon after the Sept. 11 attacks."

Eavesdropping if they are listening in on a real time conversation. Data Mining if the are listening to a previously recorded conversation (or reading previous email). Both described in the above quote as ordinarily requiring a warrant. However look at the time line: Eavesdrop in real time where there is a warrant in hand or obtained within a certain time. Data mine from a data base of all recorded conversations or email content from which specific communications are selected for monitoring (in accordance with a warrant) from all the communications of all (or selected) citizens that were previoulsy stored without a warrant because none of them would be looked at until a warrant was obtained.

The implication here is that the government is recording citizen communication content and storing them. Probably anonymizing the communications until the time comes to associate the person with what they said or wrote based on a warrant to do so.

Its like google. It has to store a vast amount of information because it does not know what I will ask for tomorrow. Today, I don't even know what (or who) I want to ask about tomorrow.

Do you think that the government is doing this? I do and it will hit the fan when it is made public. I can smell the fear.

[burythehatchet]

5. first of all, I would first suspect that NYT is engaging in damage control

for the misadministration.