Q: What information is being collected?
A: The Guardian newspaper published a highly classified U.S. court order that allows the government access to all of Verizon’s phone records, for both domestic and international calls. That doesn’t mean the government is listening in, and the National Security Agency did not receive the names and addresses of customers. But it did receive all phone numbers with outgoing or incoming calls, as well as the unique electronic numbers that identify cellphones. This is the first tangible evidence of the scope of a domestic surveillance program that has existed for years but has been discussed only in generalities. It shows that, in the name of national security, the government sweeps up the call records of Americans who have no known ties to terrorists or criminals.
Q: How is this different from the NSA wiretapping that was going on under President George W. Bush?
A: In 2005, The New York Times revealed that Bush had signed a secret order allowing the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans without court approval, a seismic shift in policy for an agency that had previously been prohibited from spying domestically. The exact scope of that program has never been known, but it allowed the NSA to monitor phone calls and emails. After it became public, the Bush administration dubbed it the “Terrorist Surveillance Program” and said it was a critical tool in protecting the United States from attack. “The NSA program is narrowly focused, aimed only at international calls and targeted at al-Qaida and related groups,” the Justice Department said at the time. But while wiretapping got all the attention, the government was also collecting call logs from U.S. phone companies as part of that program, a U.S. official said Thursday.
Q: Why does the government want my phone records?
A: They’re not interested in your records, in all likelihood. But your calls make up the background noise of the global phone system. Armed with the nation’s phone logs, NSA computers have the ability to identify what normal call behavior looks like. And, with powerful computers, it would be possible to compare the database against computer models the government believes show what terrorist calling patterns look like. Once the government has narrowed its focus on phone numbers it believes are tied to terrorism or foreign governments, it can go back to the court with a wiretap request.
Q: Why just Verizon?
A: It’s probably not. A former U.S. intelligence official familiar with the NSA program said records from all U.S. phone companies would be seized, and that they would include business and residential numbers. Only the court order involving Verizon has been made public.
Q: What is the reaction in Congress?
A: Many members of Congress have known this was going on for years. “Everyone should just calm down and understand that this isn’t anything that’s brand new,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Thursday. “It’s been going on for some seven years.” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said the program helped thwart a “significant case” of terrorism in the United States “within the last few years.” But others expressed concern. “The fact that all of our calls are being gathered in that way, ordinary citizens in America, to me is troubling,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said.
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