Terrorist Surveillance Program

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It has been suggested that this article be merged with NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. (Discuss)

The Terrorist Surveillance Program is the name given by the George W. Bush administration to a program implemented by the United States government in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, allegedly targeted at al Qaeda communications coming into or going out of the United States as part of the broader war on terrorism. These calls invovled at least one US person.

Description

The complete details of the program are not known, as the Bush administration contends that security concerns do not allow it to release details. Implemented by the President sometime after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the program was not made public until revealed in a 2005 New York Times article. Additional details came to light in a May 2006 USA Today article.

On May 22, 2006, it was revealed by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh and Wired magazine that the program involved the NSA setting up splitters to the routing cores of many telecoms companies and to major Internet traffic hubs, that provided a direct connection to the NSA headquarters for most U.S. telecoms communications and all Internet traffic, and that the NSA had used this to eavesdrop and order police investigations of tens of thousands of ordinary Americans without judicial warrants.

The President has stated that he has reviewed and reauthorized the program approximately every 45 days since it was implemented. The leadership of the Intelligence Committees of both the House and Senate were briefed a number of times since initiation of the program. They were not, however, allowed to make notes or confer with others to determine the legal ramifications, or even to mention the existence of the program to the full membership of the Intelligence Committees. Further, the administration has even refused to identify which members of the committees were briefed.

Wiretapping

While no specific information has been offered, the administration has indicated that the wiretapping program targets communications where at least one party is outside the United States, and where it asserts that there are reasonable grounds to believe that one or more parties involved in the communication have ties to al Qaeda. However, a small number of instances where domestic calls (entirely inside the United States) were intercepted have come to light. These cases were apparently errors, and are outside the alleged parameters of the program.

Call database

Main article: NSA call database

On May 10, 2006, USA Today reported that the NSA has had a separate, prieviously undisclosed program in place since 9/11 to build a database of information about calls placed within the United States, including phone numbers, date, and duration of the calls. According to the article, phone companies AT&T, Verizon, and Bell South disclosed the records to the NSA, while Qwest did not. The article quotes an unnamed source that "it's the largest database ever assembled in the world."

The administration has not confirmed the existence of this aspect of the program. On Fox News, George Bush "refused to even confirm that he was refusing to confirm or deny reports that the government is maintaining a secret domestic telephone database."

Legality of the program

Main article: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy

The Bush administration has regularly compared the current NSA domestic surveillance program to historical domestic surveillance programs - from Civil War-era monitoring of telegrams and Franklin Roosevelt's World War II activities to Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War(i.e. Operation Shamrock, and Operation Minaret).

However, these programs all occurred prior to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was passed into law after widespread concern over abuse of those prior domestic surveillance activities. Those who believe the current program is illegal have emphasized that this distinction makes the historical examples of questionable relevance to the current program.

Controversy

Main article: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy

When classified details were leaked to the press at some point in 2005, many commentators, including Arlen Specter (R-PA), began to question the legality of the program. The crux of the debate is twofold, the main issues being:

Are the parameters of this program subject to FISA and
if so, did the president have authority, inherent or otherwise, to bypass FISA.

Although debate continues, mainly sponsored by members of the Democratic Party, every federal appellate court to rule on the question in other cases has affirmed the President’s inherent constitutional authority (based on the Fourth Amendment and Congressional authorization for the use of Military Force) to conduct such signals intelligence programs.

The American Bar Association, the Congressional Research Service, Elizabeth Holtzman, John Dean, Jennifer van Bergen, on the other hand, criticize the administration's justification for conducting electronic surveillance within the US without first obtaining warrants as contrary to current U.S. law. David Kris and five former FISC judges, one of whom resigned in protest, have also voiced their doubts as to the legality of a program bypassing FISA.