Topsail unveiled: the real scope of the NSA's domestic spying program

[shance]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060511-6813...

....

"USA Today just went to print with some alarming new details on the NSA's citizen surveillance activities, and I've put together a few more pieces that show more revelations will probably come out. What USA Today has uncovered is, it appears, one piece of a larger program that's identical to the infamous Total Information Awareness (TIA) program that Congress has tried to nix multiple times over the years and that lives on under the codename Topsail. The program was transferred from its original home at DARPA to the NSA, and has been active for years.

Communications metadata and The Big Database in the Sky
The new USA Today article reveals that the NSA has been collecting and archiving "transactional information" on all domestic calls made within the US—who called whom, when, from where, etc. The transactional data is acquired from cooperating telcos (AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth, but not Qwest) and fed it into a massive database so that the NSA can analyze the collected calling patterns for clues as to possible terrorist activity. Contrary to what the government has publicly claimed about the NSA's massive signals intelligence (SIGINT) vacuum, there is no requirement here that one end of the call be located in a foreign country; we're talking about calls between me and my grandmother, and in fact about every call I've ever made over the past few years.

The NSA's domestic program began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the sources. Right around that time, they said, NSA representatives approached the nation's biggest telecommunications companies. The agency made an urgent pitch: National security is at risk, and we need your help to protect the country from attacks.

The agency told the companies that it wanted them to turn over their "call-detail records," a complete listing of the calling histories of their millions of customers. In addition, the NSA wanted the carriers to provide updates, which would enable the agency to keep tabs on the nation's calling habits.

The sources said the NSA made clear that it was willing to pay for the cooperation. AT&T, which at the time was headed by C. Michael Armstrong, agreed to help the NSA. So did BellSouth, headed by F. Duane Ackerman; SBC, headed by Ed Whitacre; and Verizon, headed by Ivan Seidenberg.

With that, the NSA's domestic program began in earnest. "

[emulatorloo]

1. kick and nominating n/t

[aquart]

2. "PAY"??????????????????????

How much federal money has been spent on this?

[ixion]

3. hmmm... let's see... at 1K a pop for each violation (per call)

we're all gonna be rich! :+

[shance]

13. Absolutely. This is one way to take back the money from

weapons manufacturers and bomb makers.

[jimshoes]

4. These guys absolutely have

to make it into the evil hall of fame some day. These people are evil on steroids.

[shance]

5. LOL! How true.

n/t

[Ms. Clio]

6. It started BEFORE 9/11

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1161971&mesg_id=1162261

[AuntiBush]

8. Then Why Didn't They Hear of Coming Attacks?

I'm so mad at my server Verizon I can't see straight right now.

Now, I know what are the clicks and unknown names/number hang-ups are about lately whenever I'm right here at DU.

Ba#tards.

[Ms. Clio]

10. that's a really good question -- why didn't they?

Or maybe they did.

[sundancekid]

11. we need massive boycotts against verizon, att and all others who

bent over and shredded our 4th amendment protection panties ... am trying to stay calm BUT dissident

:rant:

[kster]

7. So much for, What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

no wonder why Vegas changed their slogan. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and in the NSA data files.

[KAT119]

9. K&R! Thank you, shance....

[shance]

12. You bet Kat. I just found it from another great source.

n/t