When old news becomes news again

Everybody's aware of the NSA surveillance story and the subsequent USA Today follow up. By now you've probably also heard of the class action lawsuit filed against Verizon, Bellsouth and AT&T for 200 billion bucks for allegedly giving away our phone calling records.

You may also know the USA Today didn't break any news whatsoever, but if not feel free to read on.

It was back around Christmas of 2005 when the New York Times gave us this very same information:

As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said.

Sound familiar? So why has it taken five months for lawyers to get riled up enough to file suit?

"We intend to make the phone companies understand the financial risks and exposure they have if they do not, No. 1, end this program and, No. 2, find a way to settle it," he said.

Perhaps this was a stunt to help Quest corner the the telephone market. More likely it was a stategic leak from some entity to shoot down General Hayden's nomination as CIA Director. It will be interesting to see how Congress reacts in the hearings. Despite all the furor they don't seem to be any hurry to shut this program down or to impeach Bush for starting it.

Speaking of the president, he's said little about the program's effectiveness so far but here's what a former telecom worker told the Times in the 2005 story:

"If they get content, that's useful to them too, but the real plum is going to be the transaction data and the traffic analysis," he said. "Massive amounts of traffic analysis information - who is calling whom, who is in Osama Bin Laden's circle of family and friends - is used to identify lines of communication that are then given closer scrutiny."

Personally speaking, this number tracking thing designed to flag al Qaeda seems way too intrusive. I'm longing for the good old days when only corporate America tracked my entertainment choices, where three unchosen credit bureaus have the power to decide whether I'll get a loan or not, where only the IRS knows my salary, and where only my bank and the furniture store knows my social security number.

PRE GAME SHOW 5/18/06

A very good read-in to the Hayden confirmation bowl.

HAYDEN SPEAKETH 5/18/06

This guy sounds pretty cool:

"We're going to do exactly what [the president] said and not one photon or one electron more," Hayden said he told NSA employees when briefing them.

Just what the leakers didn't need--a by-the-book kinda guy.