Buy the New NSA T-Shirt

Staff / Truthdig May 13, 2006 The logo above appears on T-shirts being sold by AmericaBlog. Be the first on your block to get one! Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Watching What You Say

Staff / Truthdig May 12, 2006 Before the USA Today story, The Nation magazine had loads of details on the NSA-telecom spying program: a lawsuit against AT&T; links between telecom officials and the White House; and a history of how these insidious relationships developed. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

N.Y. Times: Bush’s Ever-Expanding Secret

Staff / Truthdig May 12, 2006 The Sept. 11 attacks "did not give the president the limitless power he now claims to intrude on the private communications of the American people," the N.Y. Times says in an editorial about the NSA spying story. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Bush Claims NSA Program Targets Only Al Qaeda

Staff / Truthdig May 12, 2006 The president claims that the program activities "strictly target Al Qaeda and their known affiliates," despite USA Today's claim that the NSA has pored over the records of tens of millions of Americans. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Bush: Spy Program Isn’t ‘Mining’ Private Info

Staff / Truthdig May 11, 2006 "We're not mining or trolling though the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans,'' Bush says, without directly addressing the NSA program reported in USA Today. Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Arlen Specter demands that phone company executives testify before Congress about the data they provided to the NSA. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Bipartisan Furor Over NSA Program

Staff / Truthdig May 11, 2006 Many Republican and Democratic lawmakers are furious over the alleged NSA phone record collection program. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham: "The idea of collecting millions or thousands of phone numbers, how does that fit into following the enemy?" Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy: "It is our government, it's not one party's government." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Buzzflash: “Tyranny Creeps In…” at the NSA

Staff / Truthdig May 11, 2006 "The NSA's gathering of phone call records of millions of Americans is "something that would make the late Leonid Brezhnev proud of Bush -- and [Gen.] Michael Hayden, the Pentagon apparatchik, who saw it through," Buzzflash writes in an editorial. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Gravest Assault on Privacy in U.S. History

Staff / Truthdig May 11, 2006 Late coming to the story about the NSA's massive telephone record collection program? The Washington Post does a 360-degree report. Neither Bush nor his aides denied any facts in the original USA Today story. Senate Intel Chair Pat Roberts wants to shoot the messenger (USA Today). Bush's pick for CIA chief, Gen. Michael Hayden, oversaw this program at the NSA, a fact that guarantees fireworks at his confirmation hearing. Check out the original story. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Robert Scheer: Hayden–the Spook in Your Phone

Robert Scheer / Truthdig May 10, 2006 UPDATE: Michael V. Hayden, nominated by President Bush to head the CIA, is the man responsible for the most extensive attack ever on the privacy of U.S. citizens. While head of the NSA, he oversaw the program that recorded the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. Want to take action? Check out StopHayden.org (includes video proof that Hayden is smugly incorrect about the privacy foundation of the Fourth Amendment). Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

The NSA: Fostering a New Generation of Code Breakers

Staff / Truthdig May 7, 2006 The presumed next head of the CIA, Gen. Michael Hayden, once ran the National Security Agency. Fine. It's got a cartoon picture that leads to a kid-friendly site called Cryptokids: America's Future Codemakers and Codebreakers. It's filled with decryption games and NSA employment resources. Huh? Cartoons appeal to 7-year-olds. How many of them are going to be surfing the NSA's website? And if the agency is trying to recruit high school students, why use a cartoon turtle as a roper? Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Whistle-blower: AT&T Colluded With NSA on Wiretaps

Staff / Truthdig Apr 9, 2006 AT&T gave the National Security Agency open access to its customers' phone calls and Web-surfing activities, according to a former AT&T employee cooperating in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit against the company The full story and a public statement by the whistle-blower . Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

New Bill Allows Warrantless Spying

Staff / Truthdig Mar 17, 2006 OK, OK, it's not time to get hysterical yet This one doesn't look likely to pass, but Four senators have introduced a bill that would allow the NSA to eavesdrop, sans warrant, for up to 45 days GOP Sen Arlen Specter objected, saying the law would allow government to "do whatever the hell it wants" Oh Right What a departure that would be. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )