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Politics : FREE AMERICA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (5735)	5/11/2006 12:44:35 PM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 14758

I'm for profiling. The US gets attacked by foreigners and then the government starts monitoring citizens? * * *

To: michael97123 who wrote (5735)	5/11/2006 1:14:05 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14758

Where's the 4th? Mark Levin And Another Thing . . . 05/11 11:26 AM It is difficult for me, at this stage, to see how the NSA data-mining program—which is aimed at discerning communication patterns to track potential terrorist activities—is nearly as intrusive as the Echelon program, which has been in place for years without much fanfare. Here's what USA Today writes, in part, about the NSA program: <<< The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.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. >>> {Emphasis added] More here. usatoday.printthis.clickability.com This is data-mining, i.e., a universe of information is collected by businesses and analyzed by the NSA in an attempt to discern some kind of pattern. Without knowing more, I don’t see how this triggers Fourth Amendment issues. Among other things, there’s no expectation of privacy. Our phone records are the property of the phone companies, which are third parties. Even if these records were subpoenaed by the government in the course of a criminal investigation, we have no constitutional basis to challenge it. What's perplexing to me is that the Echelon program, which is content-oriented, has been in place for years without much offense to most politicians, let alone Americans. Yet, here's how CBS News reported, in part, on that program: <<< Everywhere in the world, every day, people's phone calls, emails and faxes are monitored by Echelon, a secret government surveillance network. >>> More here. cbsnews.com As long as this information is not used in a criminal context, there appears to be no constitutional violation. However, this is far more intrusive than the NSA’s data-mining activites. levin.nationalreview.com