Domestic Spying Program Could Aid Terrorists, Experts Say

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

Domestic Wiretapping Could Pose 'An Awesome Risk' to National Security

Although the Bush administration calls it a vital weapon against terrorism, its domestic wiretapping effort could become a devastating tool for terrorists if hacked or penetrated from inside, according to a new article by a group of America's top computer security experts.

The administration has said little about the program except to defend it against charges it amounts to illegal spying on U.S. citizens. When news of the program broke in 2006, then-White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the program a "limited" effort "targeted at al Qaeda communications coming into or going out of the United States."

But documents submitted in an ongoing court case indicate the program involves data centers at major telecommunications hubs that siphon off and analyze billions of bytes of Americans' emails, phone calls and other data.

By diverting the flow of so much domestic data into a few massive pools, the administration may have "(built) for its opponents something that would be too expensive for them to build for themselves," say the authors: "a system that lets them see the U.S.'s intelligence interests...(and) that might be turned" to exploit conversations and information useful for plotting an attack on the United States.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4224513&page=1

[ixion]

1. well of course, because it is the terrorists a.k.a. our government

who is doing the monitoring.

[Deep13]

2. .

:banghead:

[yardwork]

3. Duh.

[Oilwellian]

4. Words escape me other than...

this is yet another argument to make to the treasonous Dem senators who are supporting immunity.

[mwb970]

5. This seems obvious.

I must be brilliant.

[fascisthunter]

6. Bush's Policies all Aid Terrorism

Everything they have done in the Middle East creates more terror and animosity and does not RESOLVE a damn thing... it's make everything WORSE!

[FATCATs]

7. DOE !

[Demeter]

8. Anything That Destroys the Rule of Law, the Constitution, Our Rights, Liberties and Protections

aids terrorism because it IS terrrorism.

[sofa king]

9. Yep. If you build it, someone's gonna steal it.

And thanks to this maladministration's policy of hiding everything under layers of corporate and secret agency obfuscation, there may be no way of ever knowing it's happening or has happened. It will be far easier to steal what you want from the feds than it will be to go to the trouble of tapping what they're already tapping. And, human nature being what it is, there will always be someone in the intelligence community willing to turn over the needed information for a price.

The big difference between this sort of espionage and other sorts is that in many cases the information the bad guys want will be information that the U.S. itself doesn't want or even need and may not even know it has. Such information might never be available to prying eyes were it not indiscriminately collected.

The obvious example is blackmailing bureaucrats and politicians by threatening to reveal damaging information in their Internet and phone records.

Parasites feed best on the fattest.

[eridani]

10. Send it to your Senators, ASAP n/t