The Key News Articles

• Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts
  This is the Dec. 16, 2005 New York Times article that revealed the domestic NSA wiretapping. [Editor's Note: Interviews with authors James Risen and Eric Lichtblau about this and other stories, and analysis of their effect on national security can be found on FRONTLINE's News War Web site.]
• NSA Has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls
  On May 11, 2006, USA Today reporter Leslie Cauley broke the story that with cooperation from most of the major phone companies, the NSA had been secretly collecting Americans' phone calls in a huge database in order to analyze call patterns to try and detect terrorist plots. A May 22 follow-up story detailed how the NSA had created a template based on the phone records of the 9/11 hijackers.
• TIA Lives On
  Shane Harris revealed in this article for National Journal how the Pentagon's controversial Total Information Awareness (TIA) program "was stopped in name only"; elements of it have been incorporated into other intelligence agencies' efforts to create an early-warning system to detect terrorist threats.
• Surveillance Net Yields Few Suspects
  According to this February 2006 Washington Post story, fewer than 10 percent of the phone calls listened to by the NSA have yielded enough suspicion to justify further surveillance. One implication, according to the article: "National security lawyers, in and out of government, said the washout rate raised fresh doubts about the program's lawfulness under the Fourth Amendment, because a search cannot be judged 'reasonable' if it is based on evidence that experience shows to be unreliable."

 

The President's Domestic Surveillance Program

• President Bush's Press Conference About the NSA's Warrantless Wiretapping Program
  At this Dec. 19, 2005 press conference, President Bush publicly responded to the New York Times story published several days earlier reporting that the NSA was wiretapping some domestic phone calls without approval from the FISA court. The president confirmed the existence of such a program, emphasizing its strict limitations and the oversight measures in place. But he used language that made it clear he was discussing only one particular program involving phone calls with one international caller.
• What American Intelligence and Especially the NSA Have Been Doing to Defend the Nation
  Gen. Michael Hayden, the former director of the NSA, gave this address at the National Press Club on Jan. 23, 2006 to defend the warrantless wiretapping program. With the caveat that he would have to speak carefully to avoid disclosing classified information, Hayden described a very limited program targeting suspected Al Qaeda contacts, "not a drift net" that could ensnare innocent Americans. He later confirmed that his words in this speech were chosen carefully to refer to only the program the Times had uncovered and were not a blanket description of the NSA's methods.
• Letter from Senator Rockefeller
  Here is a copy of the handwritten letter Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) sent to Vice President Cheney in July 2003, expressing concern after a briefing on the program. "Given the security restrictions associated with this information, and my inability to consult staff or counsel on my own, I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse these activities," he writes. [Note: This is a pdf file; Adobe Acrobat required.]
• Listening For Terrorists: Surveillance Programs -- Lessons Learned and the Way Ahead
  The purpose of this February 2007 discussion at the Heritage Foundation was "to fairly provide both sides of a responsible discussion and debate on the efficacy, appropriateness and legitimacy of the program, the lessons that can be learned from its implementation, and the way forward for the Congress and the administration."

 

Data Mining

• Data Mining: An Overview
  Updated in January 2007, this Congressional Research Service report explains the basics of data mining, which "has become one of the key features of many homeland security initiatives." According to CRS, data mining "represents a difference of kind rather than degree" when compared to other ways of analyzing data, in that it "can be used to examine several multidimensional data relationships simultaneously." The report also discusses major data-mining projects in the national security arena, including DARPA's Total Information Awareness (renamed Terrorism Information Awareness) and the NSA's terrorist surveillance program. [Note: This is a pdf file; Adobe Acrobat required.]
• Effective Counterterrorism and the Limited Role of Predictive Data Mining
  When Las Vegas casinos wanted to screen prospective employees for links to crime, they turned to software written by a programmer named Jeff Jonas. But in this December 2006 Policy Analysis for the libertarian Cato Institute, Jonas and Jim Harper argue that "data mining is not well suited to the terrorist discovery problem." Jonas also maintains a blog which he calls "a collection of thoughts and resources on privacy and the information age." [Note: Full text of the article available as a pdf file; Adobe Acrobat required.]
• Data Mining: Federal Efforts Cover a Wide Range of Uses
  The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) -- "the audit, evaluation and investigative arm of Congress" -- compiled this May 2004 report on data-mining programs throughout the federal government. The main finding: "Our survey of 128 federal departments and agencies ... shows that 52 agencies are using or are planning to use data mining. These departments and agencies reported 199 data-mining efforts, of which 68 are planning and 131 are operational. ... In addition, out of all 199 data-mining efforts identified, 122 used personal information." [Note: This is a pdf file; Adobe Acrobat required.]
• Survey of DHS Data Mining Activities
  This December 2006 Department of Homeland Security Report "identified 12 systems and capabilities that DHS personnel use to perform data-mining activities to support DHS' mission of counterterrorism. Nine systems are operational and three systems are under development." [Note: This is a pdf file; Adobe Acrobat required.]
• Balancing Privacy and Security: The Privacy Implications of Government Data Mining Programs
  Data mining led the agenda when the Democrats gained control of the Senate Judiciary Committee and held its first hearing on Jan. 10, 2007. This page features prepared testimony from representatives of the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation and statements by Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Democrat Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) "We don't question the sincerity of the administration in wanting to protect the American people against new terrorist attacks," said Kennedy. "But it is our responsibility to conduct meaningful oversight over the judgments and methods involved."

 

National Security Letters

• The FBI's Secret Scrutiny
  This November 2005 Washington Post article describes the "hundred-fold increase" in the use of national security letters, which compel their recipients to disclose records related to a suspected foreign agent. According to reporter Barton Gellman, the increase "coincides with an unannounced decision to deposit all the information they yield into government data banks -- and to share those private records widely, in the federal government and beyond."
• A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Use of National Security Letters
  Here is the spring 2007 report from the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General, which found inconsistent policies across FBI field offices; underreporting of the numbers of national security letters requested; and overuse of an expediting process that undercut the approval process. The report prompted this Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which FBI Director Robert Mueller testified. For a succinct explanation of the report's findings, see this FindLaw analysis by Columbia law professor Michael Dorf. [Note: The full report is a pdf file; Adobe Acrobat required.]
• My National Security Letter Gag Order
  Shortly after the inspector general's report was released, The Washington Post published this anonymous op-ed from the recipient of a national security letter. "The letter ordered me to provide sensitive information about one of my clients," the author, president of a small Internet access and consulting business, writes. "There was no indication that a judge had reviewed or approved the letter, and it turned out that none had. The letter came with a gag provision that prohibited me from telling anyone, including my client, that the FBI was seeking this information. Based on the context of the demand -- a context that the FBI still won't let me discuss publicly -- I suspected that the FBI was abusing its power and that the letter sought information to which the FBI was not entitled."
• National Security Letters Gag Patriot Act Debate
  The ACLU has filed two lawsuits challenging the gag order related to the national security letter provisions of the Patriot Act. On this page is more information about its suits, as well as an example (pdf) of what an NSL looks like, and a November 2001 internal memo (pdf) outlining FBI policy for using NSLs.

 

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

• The Administration's Proposed Revisions to FISA
  This April 2007 Justice Department fact sheet outlines what the Bush administration considers "long overdue" changes to FISA, including: updating the definition of electronic surveillance to make it "technology neutral"; updating the definition of an agent of a foreign power to include individuals who may possess "significant intelligence information, but whose relationship to a foreign power is unclear"; and streamlining the FISA process. Two of its proposed revisions have raised questions: a measure to protect telecoms from privacy lawsuits, and a proposal to "focus FISA on people located in the United States." Questions about the latter were raised in a rare open meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee on May 1, 2007.
• FISA Orders 1979-2005
  This chart, compiled by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, breaks down the number of FISA applications presented, approved and rejected since 1979. These numbers are taken from annual reports filed to Congress by the Justice Department; the original reports (since 1996) are available on the DOJ Web site.

 

Privacy Advocacy Organizations

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation
  EFF's mission is "to champion the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights." It has filed a lawsuit against AT&T for its alleged collaboration with the National Security Agency; the lawsuit is currently in front of the 9th Circuit Court, and EFF has collected documents and court filings here. (See FRONTLINE's interview with former AT&T employee Mark Klein for more on this issue.)
• The Electronic Privacy Information Center
  EPIC is a public policy research center dedicated to issues involving civil liberties, privacy and the First Amendment. It has a section of resources dedicated to domestic surveillance as well as the A's to Z's of Privacy and a chart with a breakdown of the number of FISA applications presented, approved and rejected since 1979.
• Privacy.org
  Run by EPIC and Privacy International, a human rights organization based in London, Privacy.org is a compendium of news and action alerts related to privacy issues.
• Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
  Following up on a recommendation in the 9/11 Commission report, the Bush administration established this board to advise the executive branch on privacy. It is also "specifically charged" with reviewing information-sharing practices related to terrorism to determine whether civil liberties and privacy are being "appropriately" protected. The board issued its first annual report to Congress on April 23, 2007; according to the report, the board was briefed on the president's terrorist surveillance program and found "no evidence or reasonable basis to believe that the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. persons are improperly threatened or impinged." However, on May 15, 2007, The Washington Post reported that one of the panel's five members had resigned in protest over revisions to the report requested by the Bush administration. According to the Post, "One section deleted by the administration would have divulged that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's civil liberties protection officer had 'conducted reviews of the potentially problematic programs and has established procedures' for intelligence officials to file complaints about possible civil liberties and privacy abuses."
• American Civil Liberties Union
  Here is the section of the ACLU's Web site related to privacy and technology issues. It includes a section on surveillance & wiretapping with fact sheets, legislative and legal documents, and reports.