[font color="#000000" face="Verdana,Sans-serif" size="2"]Bush Doesn't Confirm NSA Data Collection[/font][font size="1"]
[/font][font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"][tbody][tr][td bgcolor="#cbcbcd"][table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"][tbody][tr][td height="2"]
[/td][/tr][/tbody][/table][/td][/tr][/tbody][/table] [font size="1"]
[/font][font size="1"][span class="L8"][span class="oldL8"]May 11, 1:29 PM (ET)[/span][/span][/font][/font]
[font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush did not confirm or deny a newspaper report Thursday that the National Security Agency was collecting records of tens of millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls.
[/font][/font][/p] [/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]"Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates," Bush said. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."[/font][/font] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]USA Today, based on anonymous sources it said had direct knowledge of the arrangement, reported that AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., and BellSouth Corp.began turning over records of Americans' phone calls to the NSA shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Bush said any domestic intelligence-gathering measures he's approved are "lawful," and he says "appropriate" members of Congress have been briefed.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]The disclosure could complicate Bush's bid to win confirmation of former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA director.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said he was shocked by the revelation about the NSA.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]"It is our government, it's not one party's government. It's America's government. Those entrusted with great power have a duty to answer to Americans what they are doing," Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel in pursuit of what had transpired.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]"We're really flying blind on the subject and that's not a good way to approach the Fourth Amendment and the constitutional issues involving privacy," Specter said of domestic surveillance in general.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]The companies said Thursday that they are protecting customers' privacy but have an obligation to assist law enforcement and government agencies in ensuring the nation's security. "We prize the trust our customers place in us. If and when AT&T is asked to help, we do so strictly within the law and under the most stringent conditions," the company said in a statement, echoed by the others.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Bush said that U.S. intelligence targets terrorists and that the government does not listen to domestic telephone calls without court approval and that Congress has been briefed on intelligence programs.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]He vowed to do everything in his power to fight terror and "we will do so within the laws of our country."[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]On Capitol Hill, several lawmakers expressed incredulity about the program, with some Republicans questioning the rationale and legal underpinning and several Democrats railing about the lack of congressional oversight.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]"I don't know enough about the details except that I am willing to find out because I'm not sure why it would be necessary to keep and have that kind of information," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News Channel: "The idea of collecting millions or thousands of phone numbers, how does that fit into following the enemy?"[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said bringing the telephone companies before the Judiciary Committee is an important step.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]"We need more. We need to take this seriously, more seriously than some other matters that might come before the committee because our privacy as American citizens is at stake," Durbin said.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., argued that the program "is not a warrantless wiretapping of the American people. I don't think this action is nearly as troublesome as being made out here, because they are not tapping our phones."[/font][/font][/p][p style="font-weight: bold;"] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]The program does not involve listening to or taping the calls. Instead it documents who talks to whom in personal and business calls, whether local or long distance, by tracking which numbers are called, the newspaper said.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]The NSA and the Office of National Intelligence Director did not immediately respond to requests for comment.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]NSA spokesman Don Weber said in an e-mailed statement that given the nature of the agency's work, it would be "irresponsible to comment on actual or alleged operations issues." He added, "the NSA takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within the law."[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]NSA is the same spy agency that conducts the controversial domestic eavesdropping program that had been acknowledged earlier by Bush. The president said last year that he authorized the NSA to listen, without warrants, to international phone calls involving Americans suspected of terrorist links.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]The report came as Hayden - Bush's choice to take over leadership of the CIA - had been scheduled to visit lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday. However, the meetings with Republican Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were postponed at the request of the White House, said congressional aides in the two Senate offices.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]The White House offered no reason for the postponement to the lawmakers. Other meetings with lawmakers were still planned.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Hayden already faced criticism because of the NSA's secret domestic eavesdropping program. As head of the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005, Hayden also would have overseen the call-tracking program.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has spoken favorably of the nomination, said the latest revelation "is also going to present a growing impediment to the confirmation of Gen. Hayden."[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]The NSA wants the database of domestic call records to look for any patterns that might suggest terrorist activity, USA Today said.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Don Weber, a senior spokesman for the NSA, told the paper that the agency operates within the law, but would not comment further on its operations.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]One big telecommunications company, Qwest, has refused to turn over records to the program, the newspaper said, because of privacy and legal concerns.[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]---[/font][/font][/p] [font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"]Associated Press Writers Katherine Shrader and Elizabeth White in Washington and AP Business Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report. [/font][/font]
