NSA Collected Phone Records in U.S.: “The U.S. National Security Agency has obtained the phone records of millions of Americans in an effort to stop terrorists, a Senate Intelligence Committee member confirmed.
News of the program, first reported by USA Today, sparked demands by lawmakers that executives from AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. testify before Congress. The disclosure also might make it more difficult for the former NSA chief, Air Force General Michael Hayden, to win confirmation to direct the Central Intelligence Agency.” (Bloomberg)
The news broke after an anonymous source with direct knowledge of the arrangement tipped the press that the phone companies had been turning over the records to the NSA. Let us hope this is, at minimum, a “growing impediment” to Hayden’s confirmation, as Dianne Feinstein put it.
