Update: Congress puts in there two cents to phone card calling record collecting!

Congress Vows Scrutiny of Phone-Record Collecting (Update)

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. lawmakers are vowing to take a close look at the government's secret collection of millions of phone records and will demand answers from President George W. Bush's nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
Disclosure of the National Security Agency program yesterday reverberated across Capitol Hill, where members of Congress introduced legislation, called for investigations and pledged to order executives from the biggest U.S. phone companies to testify about their role in the effort. Air Force General Michael Hayden, the former NSA chief nominated to head the CIA, will get extra scrutiny, Democratic and Republican lawmakers said.

"We are on our way to a major constitutional confrontation on the Fourth Amendment guarantees on unreasonable searches and seizure," said Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who sits on the intelligence subcommittee that was briefed on the program. "This is also going to present a growing impediment to the confirmation to General Hayden."

Bush, responding to the outcry, made a hastily arranged appearance at the White House where he defended the administration's spying efforts as necessary to fight terrorists. He didn't confirm or deny the program, which was reported yesterday by USA Today. "The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," Bush said. `"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."

Three Phone Companies
The newspaper, citing anonymous sources with direct knowledge of the matter, said Houston-based AT&T Inc., Atlanta- based BellSouth Corp. and New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. turned over the records to the NSA, which compiled a massive database with the information. Only Qwest Communications International Inc. refused to give the government the data.

Herbert Stern, a New Jersey lawyer representing Joseph Nacchio, who was Qwest's chief executive officer when the government requested the records, issued a statement today saying the effort began after Congress in October 2001 passed the Patriot Act, which expanded law enforcement powers. Stern said Nacchio asked whether a warrant had been issued to back the NSA request for phone records.

"When he learned that no such authority had been granted and that there was a disinclination on the part of authorities to use any legal process," Stern said, "Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act."

Intelligence Committee
Nacchio left the company in June 2002 and now faces criminal charges of insider trading of $101 million of Qwest shares. He also is accused in a civil Securities and Exchange Commission suit of directing a $2.5 billion accounting fraud at the company.

News of the NSA program didn't sit well with several members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that will hold hearings on Hayden's nomination. Hayden ran the NSA from 1999 to 2005. Panel member Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, met with Hayden today and said he supports the nomination. Still, the senator predicted Hayden will be grilled about NSA spying during his confirmation hearing. "He is going to have to explain what was his role to start with," Hagel said. "Did he put that program forward? Whose idea was it? Why as it started? He knows that he is not going to be confirmed without answering these questions."

Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said she supports Hayden's confirmation though she said the government needs to be more forthcoming on the program's scope. "We need a CIA director in place," Collins said.

Security and Liberty
Outside Hagel's office, Hayden defended the NSA programs. "The only purpose of the agency's activities is to protect the security and the liberty of the American people," Hayden said. "Everything the agency has done is lawful."

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, Chairman Arlen Specter demanded that executives from the three phone companies testify before Congress about their agreement to turn over customer data. "I am determined to get to the bottom of this," said Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, who added that he will subpoena the telephone companies if they decline to appear before his committee voluntarily.
Hayden, nominated for the CIA post this week by Bush, was already facing scrutiny for his role in creating another surveillance program of wiretapping phone calls and e-mails between the U.S. and other countries without a court warrant when one of the parties is believed to be a terrorist.

'Concerned' About Program
In the House of Representatives, Majority Leader John Boehner said he is 'concerned' about the program disclosed yesterday "because I'm not sure why it would be necessary to keep and have that kind of information."

Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, said Hayden `"will have a lot more explaining to do." Some Republican senators defended the program described in the newspaper report. "They are not tapping our phones or getting our conversations," said Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Spokesmen for Verizon, AT&T and BellSouth declined to comment, citing national security concerns, and said they follow the law. NSA spokesman Don Weber said the agency "operates within the law" and takes its legal responsibilities seriously.
USA Today said the records collected by the NSA identify the phone numbers people call but not their names, addresses, other personal information or the contents of calls.

The NSA used the records for a computer analysis that looks for patterns that could show terrorist plotting, the newspaper reported. The program looks at details like how long calls last, where they originate, when they take place and what number is called.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net;
James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net.