The uproar over the revelation that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been keeping a huge database of almost every phone number called by Americans inside and outside the country, brought a series of strong condemnations from both the left and the right Thursday, in both the media and by politicians. Editor and Publisher reports that editorials at the nation's leading newspapers, both from the left and the right, condemned the program and said what the goverment was doing "undermines US freedoms and threatens us all."

From the right, the Chicago Tribune editorial page on Friday opined, "This sounds like a vast and unchecked intrusion on privacy. President Bush's assurance Thursday that the privacy of Americans was being 'fiercely protected' was not at all convincing.....Based on the newspaper's reporting, this effort appears to go far beyond any surveillance effort that would be targeted at terrorist operations.

"At first blush this program carries troubling echoes of Total Information Awareness, a proposed Defense Department 'data-mining' expedition into a mass of personal information on individuals' driver's licenses, passports, credit card purchases, car rentals, medical prescriptions, banking transactions and more. That was curbed by Congress after a public outcry. It seems the people who wanted to bring you TIA didn't get the message."

The Boston Globe said it was time for the president to come clean with the American people, and for politicians to establish legal frameworks for collection of vast amounts of information about Americans.

The lack of public outrage after the revelation that overseas calls were being tapped without the court warrants required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] suggests that Bush succeeded in persuading most Americans that the bugging was not aimed at them. The newly disclosed practice, however, does include the telephone records of ordinary Americans. Congress, which has so far acquiesced in skirting FISA, should now force the administration to explain this data-mining. If Congress decides it is worthwhile, it must establish a legal framework for it.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0512/dailyUpdate.html





http://www.computerbytesman.com/tia/

Different name same shit!