NSA Spying - The Next Step

[ThomWV]

Bush got the NSA to do electronic surveillance on US citizens.

When the CIA gathers information and comes to conclusions the vast majority of the information which goes into that conclusion is second hand. It can come from hundreds of sources, some reliable and some not. Information gathered by the NSA is different. It comes straight from the horses mouth and is generally considered (in context) to be reliable.

The difference in what is gathered and how between the two agencys drives another point. When information is gathered by the CIA is may languish for a long time before it finds its way as supporting evidence for an analysis. Information from the NSA, on the other hand, much more often has time value. The NSA is not in the business of writing history. When they collect information it is immediately reviewed and either used very soon or never used.


So that brings up the very intriguing question. If there were many wiretaps of approximately 500 people then something was done with the information gathered. What happened to some of it is obvious, it was found to be of no value and discarded (probably stored away somewhere). But there will be other stuff, stuff that found its way to Bush (inclusive of his immediate Staff) - because that is where it had to be going, there is no other end user - what was it used for? That is the real question.

Any program that lasted over a year and was renewed many times must have been useful, so once again I ask, what was it used for?

I think it would serve the New York Times well to follow this story to the next step.

[rosesaylavee]

1. And, if this wasn't something he thought to be a 'big deal'

what the hell has he been up to that we don't know yet?

:scared:

[ThomWV]

3. That Is Exactly My Point

You got it! What was he doing with this information? What kind of information was it? Was was being tapped? Was he using the NSA as a spy network for his own political purposes? This poses so many questions it boggles the mind.

[POAS]

2. This is a big IF but..

IF the journalists at the NYT were sitting on the story for a year at the request of the WH I would think that they weren't sitting still on it.

Hopefully, while the story was sitting unused, the reporters were being used to dig and dig and dig for details such as how the info was used and who was spied on.

Since the Times chose now to release the story I suspect that they have more details ready to go.

Well I can hope they do anyway.

[Marie26]

6. I don't think so

The Times released this story almost under duress, because one of the reporters wrote a book on the same topic that's going to be published this January. Also, the Times got enough heat for sitting on stories over the election. If the NY Times sat by silently on this story while the Patriot Act was permenantly renewed, they'd never hear the end of it. I think they censored the story as long as they possibly could until circumstances forced them to publish it. It doesn't give me a lot of hope that the Times has some additional explosive investigations pending. However, the reporter's own book might have a lot more information since it's independent & not subject to Times oversight.

[Marie26]

4. It couldn't be used for trial

The Administration agreed that it wouldn't use evidence from these illegal wiretaps for criminal trials of terrorists. So what was it used for? Beats me.

[troubleinwinter]

5. "approximately 500 people" doesn't tell it

It was 500 "at any one time". 500 per week? Per day? Per month? We have NO IDEA how many hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands.

[hootinholler]

7. Maybe we can ask Bolton? n/t