When the NSA's program to build a database of every phone call made in America was revealed the other day, I mentioned one obvious way that it could be misused, by providing blackmail material for political enemies. If they have evidence that a candidate or legislator called, for example, a phone sex line at some point, that could easily be used to coerce them to change a vote, drop an investigation demand, or pull out of a race. And if you don't think this kind of blackmail goes on, think again. It's been used even against civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King.
Here's a second way such a program can be abused: by allowing the government to track down who is leaking information to the press. ABCNews reports that two of its reporters were told by a government source that their calls are being tracked to find out who may have leaked information to them. This is a dangerous thing. Government leaks, at least when they expose possibly illegal activities, are an absolute necessity in a free country. We need whistle blowers to reveal what the government hides from us. But if they know that all their calls can be tracked, that's going to deter such leaks from happening. Indeed, that may be the real goal of this NSA program, given this administration's obsession with preventing leaks (I mean, the ones they don't put out themselves to destroy their own political enemies).
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The alternative extreme, government leaking information like an old boat, is not particularly attractive either.
Except there are warrented investigations for that Roman, you don't need to ask for the phone companies to hand over all of their phone records to deal with it.
Not to disagree with your point (I'm wholeheartedly with you on this one), but wouldn't any intelligent whistle-blower be sure to use a pay phone or meet in private to divulge that kind of information? NSA or no NSA, you'd have to be an idiot to use your own phone to leak government information to a reporter.
Um, Ken, it's that the NSA is tracking what the REPORTERS call.
Even if it they were tracking a leak of legal, classified info, the appearance that they were tracking it down from the REPORTERS's side is what's troubling.
A very good point.
Secrecy in government is very, very rarely needed for security. It's most common use is to preserve power (in the sense that information is power) or to cover one's ass. For instance the revelations that Bush has charged the NSA with listening in to phone calls between this country and places abroad, which the administration considered a compromise of security, is far from it. Anyone who thinks that Al Queda or any other group with equally malevoent ambitions is naively going about its business using phones registered in their names is hopelessly naive themselves. The reason the administration didn't want the program revealed, or the more recent one revealed last week of gathering data on domestic phone calls made, is because a large portion of the US population wouldn't like it and may well sue, which they have. The administration doesn't give a rat's ass about legalities; they just don't want to be caught--in other words to cover their ass.
Christopher Hitchens, an excellent investigative journalist brought up a good reason this is a threat several weeks ago. When it first leaked out that the NSA was going beyond what Congress authorized, the overseas sources that he was talking to regarding the war in Iraq immediately clammed-up. While some of these were Americans involved in Iraq, others were insurgents or others with inside info.
Anyone who has studied the CIA will tell you, some of the best intel comes from investigative journalists. Our government is mucking that well up.