Domestic Wiretapping First Hand Account: NSA Listened To Phone Sex

ABC:

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.
Intercept operators allege the NSA is listening to citizens' phone calls.

"These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones," said Adrienne Kinne, a 31-year old US Army Reserves Arab linguist assigned to a special military program at the NSA's Back Hall at Fort Gordon from November 2001 to 2003.

Kinne described the contents of the calls as "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism."

Read the whole story: ABC

Comments

[NewArtz]

"No one in authority is responsible for this. No one in authority is accountable. No one in authority did anything wrong. No one in authority is bound to obey the law. The only ones with rights are those who have the power and authority to kill those who they choose. No one in this country matters except those with power. If you don't trust those with authority you are unpatriotic. If you question those in authority you are guilty of being a terrorists. Whistleblowers are terrorists who threaten the authority of those in power." Bush Doctrine 2000-2008 and beyond.

[Susej]

I thought intercepting and transcribing millions of phone calls was done automatically through sophisticated equipments and software.
The human interaction occurs only when the transcribed conversation contained "key words" like "Allah" etc.
Why are these people listening and transcribing the calls by themselves?!?! How many of them can you fit in that small building?
Weird!?!
I think the Bush admin. knows that this whole spying thing is just a charade to channel funds to cronies who helped out during the elections.

[JScott]

Another one for the 'why is this news' category.
It;s like if they were tapping mine, I'd say bring it on, jerkoffs. (hmm were they really doing THAT)

Yeah it wouldn't be 'from the top' but with humans you just know there would be abuses of the law.

[Nofoolhere]

Eavesdropping on private sexual conversations must be a highly demanding skill. First you have to avoid getting aroused, and then detect the secret code word buried deep in the orgasm.

[ouroborous]

Gosh, I'm sure glad we all (including Obama) rushed to gut FISA this summer. It's clear that we need NO oversight or transparency on our national spy apparatus.

Who will watch the watchmen?

Apparently, nobody.

[deeppeace]

This shouldn't surprise anyone. There is not one shred of ethical behavior in this administration. And yes, I feel free to paint with a broad brush here, because integrity comes from the top. Maybe the instruction to eavesdrop on benign conversations did not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but the comfort and ease with which it occurred reveals - just like Abu Ghraib - that the offenders knew there would be no repercussions.

Boy, do we have some healin' to do.

[sonoffestus]

Secret listening? Hey, open your eyes , I see the American people getting screwed everyday.

[BannedInBoston]

And not over the phone, either....

[MajorKong]

I can has Stasi?

[Whinger]

Well, I suppose eavesdropping on the private communications described says a lot about the listener!

[PatCroft]

This is hardly surprising. This government has been doing these things throughout the cold war and beyond. The Government wants us all to become sexless, dumb, and genetically altered as to not have hunger pains. So much for the Fourth Amendment. Rotten governments produce rotten people. If this Constitution has become meaningless to the average person, then perhaps it is a useless piece of parchment. The government will go to great length to legitimize itself at any cost including subverting or redefining the intent of most of the amendments for its own interest and justification and national security.

[JohnFromCensornati]

The constitution is just a GD piece of paper!

[oxford]

Remember, all they care about is the 2nd amendment.

[Durango]

Of course they were.

And the biggest secret is that they were listening in on the calls of people with names like Kerry, Clinton, Obama etc,etc.

Unless there is strict accountability such powers will ALWAYS be abused. And there was NO accountability with these programs.

The listening in on politicos is why the Telecoms needed immunity.

[ouroborous]

Yeah, this will just be the tip of the iceberg. It'll be played off as salacious, but harmless -- overlooking the deeper issues: how does potential spying produce a "chilling effect" on political discourse? What politicians or journalists are being spied on? How does routine surveillance at all mesh with our Founders when they wrote the Fourth amendment to the Constitution?

Hopefully the discussion of this will go beyond just "phone sex... teeheehee, that's DURTY!"

[walk0nwalls]

We are the dead.

[pigsatthetrough]

Salaam-Alaikum,
There must be no hanky panky on the phone anymore, as we are being listened to. We do not want them to know we do it, if you know what I mean. Remember how Spitzer got caught!
Maca salâma

[rfshunt]

Some random tro// below wrote:

"While the passing around and group listening of intercepted calls may be inappropriate there is no law broken here. Anybody working in a military area should expect that their phone calls will be monitored.

There is nothing to see here... move along."

Only if you do not give a d*mn about the freedoms that the Unitied States was founded to preserve and protect is there nothing to see here.

What we are "moving along" towards is a totalitarian fascist state. Perhaps this commenter looks upon that prospect with happy anticipation. Those of us who love and cherish our American freedoms disagree.

[ouroborous]

And, um, didja read the part about spying on the Doctors Without Borders group? As far as I know, these are NOT people working in the military.

This is a much bigger story than just soldiers having their phone sex listened to, but that's the spin it's getting right now.

[PDX PSO]

OMG I never thought I was being listened too by "big brother" . Notice the "PSO"
in my screen name?? Well I hope they got their jollies 'cause most guys I talk to pay atleast $3.99 a minute to talk to me and I hate freeloaders. Who do I call to get these guys to pay up??

[BannedInBoston]

Um, George W. Bush, I would guess....

[barrycourage]

The salaries paid to our military personnel are terrible. Just consider it doing your part for our men and women in uniform.

Perhaps you could use it as a tax deduction?