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US Started Keeping Secret Records of International Telephone Calls In 1992

Posted by samzenpus on from the original-list dept.

schwit1 writes Starting in 1992, the Justice Department amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls from the USA to as many as 116 countries. The now-discontinued operation, carried out by the DEA's intelligence arm, was the government's first known effort to gather data on Americans in bulk, sweeping up records of telephone calls made by millions of U.S. citizens regardless of whether they were suspected of a crime. It was a model for the massive phone surveillance system the NSA launched to identify terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks. That dragnet drew sharp criticism that the government had intruded too deeply into Americans' privacy after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked it to the news media two years ago. More than a dozen current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials described the details of the Justice Department operation to USA TODAY. Most did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the intelligence program, part of which remains classified. The operation had 'been approved at the highest levels of Federal law enforcement authority,' including then-Attorney General Janet Reno and her deputy, Eric Holder.

6 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Nope by BradMajors · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nope. The US started monitoring all international calls much earlier. Read a book on the NSA.

    1. Re:Nope by quenda · · Score: 4, Informative

      Read a book on the NSA.

      That would be The Puzzle Palace by James Bamford published in 1982,
      which detailed how the NSA were intercepting all international calls by methods including replicating the phone-company satellite base-stations.

  2. Re:1992, eh? by sjames · · Score: 3, Informative

    Clinton took office in January of 1993

    This is yet another started by an R, continued by a D.

  3. Re:They were doing in the late 1980's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

    A *looooonger* time than what you think. That was when congress 'found out'. But the fact is they already knew for a long time.

  4. I can trace government monitoring to the sixties. by sharkbiter · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2009/07/cold-war-relic-att-long-lines-microwave-site-kingston-ny/

    There were a series of Receive Only (RO) towers constructed across the US when Western Electric (AT&T nowadays) had Line Of Site microwave transmissions across the US. Prior to that, there was the transference of tape recordings from them to the various spy agencies.

    They've always been listening. It's only now that it's a big deal. That and your junk is in danger of being laughed at...

    Google "Puzzle Palace" and see what comes up.

  5. Re:1992, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most presidents KNOW the start of a program since they have to approve it.
    However, once it is going, future presidents rarely know about things unless they undergo serious modification, such as what W did to Poppa Bush's work.