NSA Story Old News? Yes…And No.
(AP)
"To a lot of people who cover this subject closely the USA Today story didn't break any news," he writes. "It was just a more prominent story than the others that had been reported already this year."
Back in December, the New York Times wrote that telecommunications companies "have been storing information on calling patterns and giving it to the federal government to aid in tracking possible terrorists," according to "a former technology manager at a major telecommunications company." Slate followed that report with this:
A former telecom executive told us that efforts to obtain call details go back to early 2001, predating the 9/11 attacks and the president's now celebrated secret executive order. The source, who asked not to be identified so as not to out his former company, reports that the NSA approached U.S. carriers and asked for their cooperation in a "data-mining" operation, which might eventually cull "millions" of individual calls and e-mails…In March, Shane Harris offered up a comprehensive account. Patrick Radden Keefe got there around the same time in a column about network theory.
The magnitude of the current collection effort is unprecedented and indeed marks a shift in how the NSA spies in the United States. The current program seems to involve a remarkable level of cooperation with private companies and extraordinarily expansive data-mining of questionable legality.
In light of this, an emailer to Fishbowl DC who reports on intelligence matters writes the following about this week's coverage of the story:
This is an example of 1.) some in the media's very short memory, and 2.) a sad commentary, in my opinion, that in order for some journalists to really grasp an issue, you have to practically beat them over the head with old information wrapped up in a new and flashy front page story with a big photo on it.
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
