PHONY PHONE FLAP
NSA JUST DOING ITS JOB
By MICHELLE MALKIN
NEW YORK Post Opinion
May 12, 2006 -- IT'S never too early to start angling for a national security-undermining Pulitzer Prize. Yesterday, USA Today scraped the bottom of the Beltway leakers' barrel for a scare-mongering story about a secret counterterrorism program that collects phone-call data.
Well, it used to be secret.
So what if spilling the beans about all of our highest-level efforts to monitor al Qaeda operatives undermines the War on Terror, eh, fellas? Anyway, all the cool kids in elite journalism are doing it. Why should The Washington Post and New York Times get all the glory, right?
And thus, USA Today tapped its anonymous, loose-lipped, illegally leaking sources and breathlessly disclosed a classified data-collection agreement between private phone companies AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth and the National Security Agency. According to the newspaper's piece (a naked attempt to derail former NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden's nomination as CIA chief):
<<< "The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews." >>>
Note, please: "This program does NOT involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations."
They're looking at massive amounts of numbers and phone-call patterns, not eavesdropping on teenage lovers' quarrels or your neighbor's pizza order or Susan Sarandon's heart-to-hearts with Cindy Sheehan.
And: "The spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity."
Translation: The counterterror experts at the NSA are - gasp - doing their job. And - to their credit - some American companies are stepping up to the plate to help them.
The paper admits the kind of data collection involved is not new. The Clinton administration's Echelon program was far more intrusive.
President Bush made clear yesterday:
"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives
of millions of innocent Americans. Our efforts are focused
on links to al Qaeda and their known affiliates. So far
we've been very successful in preventing another attack
on our soil."
Nevertheless, the civil liberties Chicken Little are screaming "Bushitler!" on cue. What they should be screaming for are the heads of the blabbermouths endangering all of us by running to the fifth-column press when they don't get their way in Washington. But you can never find the leak-decriers when you need them, can you?
Prediction: To the dismay of the USA Today prize-seekers and fear-stokers, most Americans won't react to their precious scoop by hysterically throwing their cellphones into the nearest lake and calling for President Bush's impeachment.
I, for one, will be sure to continue to do business with Verizon, in support of its willingness to cooperate with the government to prevent another 9/11.
In fact, I think I'll pick up the phone and give them a call right now. And if you're listening, NSA: Thank you.
malkin@comcast.net
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