‘The US National
Security Agency has been tracking the calls of millions of Americans and
constructing the “largest database ever assembled in the world,” USA
Today revealed on May 10. The nation’s biggest telephone
companies have apparently turned over masses of personal records to the feds,
allowing Uncle Sam to build up a database of the phone numbers of incoming and
outgoing calls of Americans. The revelations blew to smithereens the Bush
administration’s story that only international calls were being tapped without
a warrant as part of its so-called “terrorist-surveillance program.”  

Bush announced
on the day the story came out, “The intelligence activities I authorized are
lawful.” However, this may be the result of Cheney logic - that the Supreme
Commander has the right to do whatever he feels necessary to protect the
public. (The New York Times noted that Cheney
and his top aides had been the most aggressive advocates of warrantless
wiretaps and rounding up Americans’ phone data.) ‘ 

Reach Out & Tap
Someone