KLAYMAN v. OBAMA et al

Filing 80

NOTICE of Filing of Exhibit 1 by LARRY E. KLAYMAN, CHARLES STRANGE, MARY ANN STRANGE re 79 MOTION to Supplement the Record (Klayman, Larry)

Exhibit 1

2/10/2014
Sign In

NSA is collecting less than 30 percent of U.S. call data, officials say - The Washington Post
My Account

SUBSCRIBE: Home Delivery

Digital

Gift Subscriptions

Real Estate

Rentals

Cars

Today's Paper

Going Out Guide

Find&Save

Home Services

PostT V Politics Opinions Local Sports National World Business Tech Lifesty le Entertainment Jobs More

National Security
In the News

Chris Christie

Obamacare

Debt limit

White House
delay s health
mandate again

Sochi

Michael Sam

Snow forecast

Courage that
echoes from NFL
to Russia

NSA is collecting less than 30 percent of U.S.
call data, officials say

PHOTOS | Scenes
from Sochi, day 3

V IDEO | U.S.
captures accused
terrorist

The Post Most: World

Revelations on the NSA

View the NSA timeline

In 2006, a senior U.S. official said, the NSA
was collecting “closer to 100” percent of
Americans’ phone records from a number of
U.S. companies under a then-classified
program, but as of last summer that share
had plummeted to less than 30 percent.
The government is taking steps to restore
the collection — which does not include the
content of conversations — closer to
previous levels. The NSA is preparing to seek
court orders to compel wireless companies
that currently do not hand over records to
the government to do so, said the current
and former officials, who spoke on the

Obama officials weigh drone
attack on US suspect

5

The disclosure contradicts popular perceptions that the government is sweeping up virtually
all domestic phone data. It is also likely to raise questions about the efficacy of a program
that is premised on its breadth and depth, on collecting as close to a complete universe of
data as possible in order to make sure that clues aren’t missed in counter​
terrorism
investigations.

U.S. weighs lethal strike against
American citizen

4

The National Security Agency is collecting less than 30 percent of all Americans’ call records
because of an inability to keep pace with the explosion in cellphone use, according to
current and former U.S. officials.

Lynching of Christian man
by Muslims is sign of chaos
in Central African Republic

3

By Ellen Nakashim a, Published: February 7 E-mail the writer

Video shows U.S. abduction
of accused al-Qaeda
terrorist on trial for embassy
bombings

2

Patrick Semansky/AP - The NSA is preparing to seek court orders to compel wireless companies that
currently do not hand over records to the government to do so, officials said.

1

Reporters live-tweet from
Sochi hotels

Our Correspondents on Twitter

Recommended

How the 9/11 Commissioninterest in NSA role in CIA
Giv en renewed helped Snowden
strikes, here's WaPo piece with @JulieATat e,
@bart ongellman from October:
washingt onpost .com/world/nat ional…
@gregpmiller about 3h ago

This @KarlreMarks history of the Arab
Spring is ev en m ore excellenter than y ou’d
anticipate. bit .ly /1fZEMKS
@Max_Fisher about 5h ago

This photo shows how bad things are getting in
the Central African Republic
wapo.st /1fa5JaW
@Max_Fisher about 5h ago

The Post's Foreign Bureaus

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-is-collecting-less-than-30-percent-of-us-call-data-officials-say/2014/02/07/234a0e9e-8fad-11e3-b46a…

1/5

2/10/2014

NSA is collecting less than 30 percent of U.S. call data, officials say - The Washington Post

Explore More Documents
See the documents published by The Post

condition of anonymity to discuss internal
deliberations.

Search...

NSA review board's report
This report from the five-member Review Group on Intelligence
and Communications Technologies...

2 documents
Excerpts from the U.S. intelligence 'black budget
The pages in this document appear in the summary of the
Office of the Director of National...

Latest from National Security
U.S. weighs lethal strike against
American citizen
Greg Miller 2:55 PM ET

The possible target is allegedly part of the al-Qaeda
network overseas and involved in plots against
Americans.

Video shows capture of terror suspect

That effort comes in the wake of President
Obama’s decision last month to find a way
to move the data out of the government’s
hands to assuage concerns about intrusions
on privacy. Obama has given the Justice
Department and the intelligence community
until March 28 to come up with a plan.

View all correspondents by bureau

The actual percentage of records gathered is
somewhere between 20 and 30 percent and
reflects Americans’ increasing turn away
from the use of land lines to cellphones.
Officials also have faced technical
challenges in preparing the NSA database to
handle large amounts of new records
without taking in data such as cell tower
locations that are not authorized for
collection.

Adam Goldman 10:37 AM ET

A 13-year hunt for a man once
thought to be close to Osama bin
Laden ended in October when U.S.
special forces nabbed him in a
covert operation in Libya.

Finally, a shield for the ‘hunted’
Sari Horwitz FEB 8

The law targets virtual immunity for
non-Indians who rape or assault
women on reservations.

Full coverage: NSA Secrets

That low percentage still probably represents
tens of billions of records going back five
years, a cause of great concern to privacy
and civil liberties advocates. “For innocent
Americans, 20 or 30 percent is still a
significant number and will chill legitimate
lawful activities,’’ said Christopher
Soghoian, chief technologist for the
American Civil Liberties Union.

Read all of the stories in The
Washington Post’s ongoing
coverage of the National Security
Agency’s surveillance programs.

In defending the program, administration
officials have emphasized the need to gather
all records. “If you’re looking for the needle
in the haystack, you have to have the entire haystack to look through,” Deputy Attorney
General James Cole told Congress in July.
Edward Felten, a Princeton University computer scientist who has studied the program
from a technological perspective, said the revelation “calls into question whether the
rationale offered for the program is consistent with the way the program has been
operating.”
But collection of even a quarter of the records is valuable, officials say.
“It’s better than zero,” NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett said Thursday in an interview,
without describing the program’s exact scope. “If it’s zero, there’s no chance.”
One former senior official acknowledged that 100 percent was the goal but asserted that as
long as the collection “is fairly spread across the different vendors in the geographic area
that you’re covering,” the collection provides value.
The NSA, for instance, is still able to obtain the call records of some customers whose phone
companies are not covered by the program. When the customers of a non-covered carrier
call customers of a covered carrier, the latter’s records should reflect both ends of the call.
Some industry officials said that the 20 to 30 percent figure can only be explained if the
NSA is also missing records from companies that provide Internet-based calls.
According to industry and government figures, the number of land lines in use fell from
141 million in 2008 to 96 million in 2012, a 32 percent drop. By contrast, the number of
cellphones in use in the United States jumped from 255 million in 2007 to 326 million in
2012, a 28 percent rise. And Internet-based subscribers, according to the Federal
Communications Commission, doubled from 21 million in 2008 to 42 million in 2012.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-is-collecting-less-than-30-percent-of-us-call-data-officials-say/2014/02/07/234a0e9e-8fad-11e3-b46a…

2/5

2/10/2014

NSA is collecting less than 30 percent of U.S. call data, officials say - The Washington Post

The NSA collection program began without court or congressional approval after the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks but was placed under court supervision in 2006 when American phone
companies balked at providing the data solely at the request of the executive branch.
Under the program, the NSA receives daily transfers of call “metadata” from several of the
nation’s largest phone companies. Those records include numbers called and the calls’ time
and duration but not the content of conversations, subscriber names or cell tower location
data.
The bulk collection began largely as a land-line program, focusing on carriers such as AT&T
and Verizon Business Network Services. At least two large wireless companies are not
covered — Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile U.S., which was first reported by the Wall Street
Journal.
Industry officials have speculated that partial foreign ownership has made the NSA
reluctant to issue orders to those carriers. But U.S. officials said that was not a reason.
“They’re doing business in the United States; they’re required to comply with U.S. law,” said
one senior U.S. official. “A court order is a court order.”
Rather, the official said, the drop in collection stems from several factors.
Apart from the decline in land-line use, the agency has struggled to prepare its database to
handle vast amounts of cellphone data, current and former officials say. For instance,
cellphone records may contain geolocation data, which the NSA is not permitted to receive.
“It’s not simply the ability to go to the court and order some vendor to give you more
records, but you have to make sure that the [agency’s collection system] is prepared and
ready to take the data and meet all the requirements of the court,” the former official said.
“Y ou don’t want to turn it on and get hundreds of millions of records, only to find out that
you’ve got the moral equivalent of raw sewage spilling into the Chesapeake Bay.”
The process of preparing the system can take months, said the senior U.S. official, adding
that mobile calls have different data elements than land-line calls. “That’s a really detailed
set of activities where we get sample data in, and we march it through our systems,” the
official said. “We do that again and again and again. We put in auditing procedures to make
sure it works. So before we turn on that mobility data, we make sure it works. . . . It’s very
complex.”
Compounding the challenge, the agency in 2009 struggled with compliance issues,
including what a surveillance court found were “daily violations of the minimization
procedures set forth in [court] orders” designed to protect Americans’ call records that
“could not otherwise have been legally captured in bulk.”
As a result, the NSA’s director, Gen. Keith Alexander, ordered an “end-to-end” review of the
program, during which additional compliance incidents were discovered and reported to the
court. The process of uncovering problems and fixing them took months, and the same
people working to address the compliance problems were the ones who would have to
prepare the database to handle more records.
The NSA fell behind, the former official said.
In June, the program was revealed through a leak of a court order to Verizon by former
NSA contractor Edward Snowden, setting off an intense national debate over the wisdom
and efficacy of bulk collection.
The same NSA personnel were also tasked to answer inquiries from congressional overseers
and others about how the program and its controls worked. “At a time when you’re behind,
it’s hard to catch up,” the former official said.
Storage and implementing new features to comply with court requirements also cost
money, and that has been difficult in an era of budget cutbacks, the former official said.
The agency did not go to the court to seek new orders, because it was not prepared, officials

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-is-collecting-less-than-30-percent-of-us-call-data-officials-say/2014/02/07/234a0e9e-8fad-11e3-b46a…

3/5

2/10/2014

NSA is collecting less than 30 percent of U.S. call data, officials say - The Washington Post

said.
“Until you are sure that you have an architecture that has the right features and the right
capacity, you wouldn’t go to the time and trouble of getting the court to authorize the
collection and retention of the data,” the former official said. “Because the court would want
to know that you’ve followed through on that and you had a material intent to get it and
use it.”
Reprints

290 Comments

Discussion Policy

j_gor don w r ot e:
2/7/2014 8:22 AM PST

So, let's say you had a store, and local mobster was illegally shaking you down for protection. He came
around with a bag and asked for all the money in your till at gunpoint, however he could only shove a third of it
into the bag he had with him. He commented "I need a bigger bag" and wandered off. You called the police
and they came to your store, and said "what are you upset about? He only took 30%"
I'm pretty sure that the mobster intends to buy a bigger bag for next time. Just sayin...

foo2u r espon ds:
2/7/2014 1:16 PM PST

This.
Would it be OK if the local cops only illegally beat you up 30% of the time? I mean, that's 7 in 10
times you DON'T get a free trip to the hospital because some cop felt like it. I should feel grateful,
right?
Seriously, this article has to be one of the most ludicrous justifications I've ever read. Just because
they're not doing it to everyone doesn't make it OK to do it to anyone. Especially since every
indication that the only limit on the NSA's willingness to spy is opportunity - if they had the money,
they'd spy on everyone.

Pr of-Dr -G w r ot e:
2/7/2014 11:00 AM PST

The Constitution says that the target for collected calls is 0%

View all comments »
Add y our com m ent | Reply to a com m ent | Recom m end a com m ent | Report an offensiv e com m ent

More from The Post

From Around the Web

How the 9/11 Commission helped Snowden

what's this

Obama, Hollande tour Jefferson's Monticello estate
Iran's Islamic republic at 35: ready for talks with
West, but not for sweeping social reform
Brouillette's first NHL goal a game-winner
State dinner menu: beef, caviar and Mary J. Blige

Top World Stories

Most Popular Videos

Congress passes farm bill,
cuts food stamps

River Thames floods near
London

Obama pledges upgrades
for schools

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-is-collecting-less-than-30-percent-of-us-call-data-officials-say/2014/02/07/234a0e9e-8fad-11e3-b46a…

4/5

2/10/2014

NSA is collecting less than 30 percent of U.S. call data, officials say - The Washington Post

SUBSCRIBE

PostTV

Politics

Opinions

Local

Sports

National

World

Business

Mor e w a y s t o g et u s

Con t a ct Us

A bou t Us

Home delivery

Washington Post Live

RSS

Help & Contact Info

Reprints & Permissions

Facebook

Reader Representative

Post Store

Tw itter

Digital Advertising

e-Replica

New spaper Advertising

New spaper in Education

Archive

New s Service & Syndicate

Jobs

PostPoints

Mobile & Apps

Entertainm ent

Careers

Gift Subscription

Lifesty le

In the community

Digital Subscription

Tech

Digital Publishing Guidelines

New sletter & Alerts

washingtonpost.com

© 1996-2014 The Washington Post

Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

Submissions and Discussion Policy

Pa r t n er s

RSS Terms of Service

Ad Choices

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-is-collecting-less-than-30-percent-of-us-call-data-officials-say/2014/02/07/234a0e9e-8fad-11e3-b46a…

5/5

2/10/2014

N.S.A. Program Gathers Data on a Third of Nation’s Calls, Officials Say - NYTimes.com

http://nyti.ms/NgibQb

POLITICS

N.S.A. Program Gathers Data on a Third of
Nation’s Calls, Officials Say
By CHARLIE SAVAGE

FEB. 7, 2014

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency’s once-secret program
that is collecting bulk records of Americans’ domestic phone calls is taking
in a relatively small portion of the total volume of such calls each day,
officials familiar with the program said on Friday.
While the agency is collecting a large amount of landline phone data,
it has struggled to take in cellphone data, which has undergone explosive
growth in recent years and presents additional technological hurdles, the
officials said.
The revelation came days after the nation’s secretive Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court approved President Obama’s proposal to
impose new restrictions on when and how analysts with the N.S.A. may
gain access to the raw database containing the bulk phone records,
according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The bulk call records program began under the Bush administration
and was based on claimed wartime powers. In 2006, the program was
brought under the surveillance court’s authority. It came to light after
leaks by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden.
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that the N.S.A. is currently
taking in data on less than 30 percent of phone calls. The article also said
the agency had been collecting nearly all records about Americans’ phone

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/us/politics/nsa-program-gathers-data-on-a-third-of-nations-calls-officials-say.html?_r=0

1/4

2/10/2014

N.S.A. Program Gathers Data on a Third of Nation’s Calls, Officials Say - NYTimes.com

calls in 2006, and that the N.S.A. was now trying to restore comprehensive
coverage.
Officials partly confirmed The Post’s report, although they said it was
difficult to put a precise number on the percentage. But they disputed that
the agency had ever had near-universal access to phone data, saying
cellphone records have always presented problems.
The Wall Street Journal reported in June that T-Mobile and Verizon
Wireless were not part of the N.S.A.’s data collection, and a report on
surveillance policy last month by a review group appointed by Mr. Obama
said that while the program “acquires a very large amount” of phone data
each day, that was still “only a small percentage of the total” calls.
One official said intelligence agencies have quietly chafed at
assumptions that the N.S.A. was collecting all phone records. But they
have been reluctant to correct the record because they did not want to
draw attention to the gap and because it is, in fact, the agency’s goal to
overcome technical hurdles that stop them from ingesting them all.
The greater attention to the gap puts new light on claims about the
effectiveness of the program. Critics say the gap may undermine the
argument that the program, as it currently exists, can provide peace of
mind about links to potential terrorists: a negative result might instead
mean only that the data was missing.
Supporters, however, say the gap might undermine the argument that
the program is ineffective because it has thwarted no attacks and
uncovered only a minor case in which some men sent several thousand
dollars to a Somali terrorist group.
“We should have a debate about how effective would it be if it were
fully implemented,” one official said.
In a speech last month, Mr. Obama announced that he intended to
find a way to get the government out of the business of holding onto the
bulk records, but he also said that its capabilities should be preserved.
Mr. Obama also announced that he wanted to immediately impose
new limits on how the database is used, by requiring the N.S.A. to wait for

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/us/politics/nsa-program-gathers-data-on-a-third-of-nations-calls-officials-say.html?_r=0

2/4

2/10/2014

N.S.A. Program Gathers Data on a Third of Nation’s Calls, Officials Say - NYTimes.com

a judge on the surveillance court to sign off before querying records
associated with a number that is suspected of links to terrorism — except
in emergencies — and by limiting analysts to only pulling up records of
people who are up to two levels removed from that number.
Previously, the surveillance court had allowed the N.S.A. to decide
that a search was justified, and had let analysts go up to three levels out —
meaning an exponentially larger number of people’s calls would be
scrutinized.
On Wednesday, according to a statement issued late Thursday in the
name of James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, the
surveillance court issued an order amending the rules in line with Mr.
Obama’s proposed changes.
On Friday, a judicial clerk announced that Chief Justice John G.
Roberts Jr. had made his first selection to the main Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court since Mr. Snowden’s revelations about spy programs
that had been secretly approved by the court.
The leaks have focused greater attention on how Chief Justice Roberts
has used his unilateral authority to select judges to serve seven-year terms
on the court. Of the 11 judges currently serving — all appointed by Chief
Justice Roberts — 10 had been appointed to judgeships on other federal
courts by Republican presidents.
But in May, when the term expires for Judge Reggie B. Walton of the
District of Columbia, Chief Justice Roberts has selected an Obama
appointee, Judge James E. Boasberg, also of the District of Columbia, to
fill the position until 2021. Judge Boasberg, a former federal prosecutor,
was appointed to the Federal District Court by Mr. Obama in 2011. He has
handled several cases involving national security and secrecy matters since
joining the court.
In 2012, for example, he sided with the Central Intelligence Agency,
and rejected a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking public
disclosure of photographs of the corpse and burial of Osama Bin Laden.
But last year, Judge Boasberg ruled against the Department of

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/us/politics/nsa-program-gathers-data-on-a-third-of-nations-calls-officials-say.html?_r=0

3/4

2/10/2014

N.S.A. Program Gathers Data on a Third of Nation’s Calls, Officials Say - NYTimes.com

Homeland Security, saying it had to release documents explaining a secret
policy about the government’s ability to shut down commercial and private
wireless network services in certain circumstances. The Obama
administration has appealed the ruling.
Chief Justice Roberts also selected Judge Richard C. Tallman, of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to fill a vacancy on
the three-member review panel that hears rare appeals of the surveillance
court’s rulings.
While Judge Tallman was appointed by President Bill Clinton, his
nomination was part of a political deal over judicial nominations in which
his seat would go to a person acceptable to Senator Slade Gorton,
Republican of Washington.
Several members of Congress have proposed changing the way judges
are selected to serve on the court to achieve greater ideological diversity in
light of its evolving role and growing power, and Mr. Obama’s surveillance
review group also recommended doing so.
A version of this article appears in print on February 8, 2014, on page A11 of the New York edition
with the headline: N.S.A. Program Gathers Data on a Third of Nation’s Calls, Officials Say.

© 2014 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/us/politics/nsa-program-gathers-data-on-a-third-of-nations-calls-officials-say.html?_r=0

4/4

2/10/2014

NSA phone data collection far more limited than had been disclosed - latimes.com
Like

Log In

793k

Mem ber Center

Alerts & Newsletters

Jobs

Cars

Real Estate

Rentals

Weekly Circulars

Local Directory

Place Ad

NATION
LOCAL

U.S.

POLITICS

WORLD

BUSINESS

NATION NOW

TRENDING NOW

SPORTS

POLITICS NOW

MICHAEL SAM

'JAMZILLA'

ENTERTAINMENT
TOP OF THE TICKET
TED LIEU

HEALTH
SCIENCE

STYLE

SCIENCE NOW

DIAMOND BAR CRASH

SOCHI OLYMPICS

NSA phone data collection far more limited than
had been disclosed
The National Security Agency collects phone data from less than a third of U.S. calls, officials
say, which may undermine the assertion that the program is essential for fighting terrorism.
Comments

31

Email

Share

156

Tw eet

104

Like

52

TRAVEL

OPINION

SHOP

OBITUARIES
SHARE IT NOW

Search

Connect
Recommended on Facebook

Like

793k

C reate an account or Log In to
see what your friends
recommend.

Sign Up

4
Shia LaBeouf quits news
conference, wears paper bag in
Berlin
266 people recommend this.
Team figure skating: Little Julia
Lipnitskaia shines for Russia
134 people recommend this.
Man found shot in Baldwin Park
dies
One person recommends this.Jackson gets
Samuel L.

mediev al in liv e

Alex Rodriguez drops lawsuits
interv iew
against MLB, players union, Bud
Selig
405 people recommend this.

Hot new home products suspect secretly
Beating
One person recommends this.

recorded, cop say s

What the critics wrote about the
Beatles in 1964
5,355 people recommend this.

Crash suspect has
prev ious DUI on record
T h e NSA ph on e da t a collect ion pr og r a m is fa r less per v a siv e t h a n it h a d a ppea r ed, beca u se a u t h or it ies
ca n n ot k eep pa ce w it h cellph on e u se, officia ls sa id. (La r r y W . Sm it h / Eu r opea n Pr essph ot o A g en cy /
Ja n u a r y 1 7 , 2 0 1 4 )

Ads by Google

By Ken Dilanian
February 7, 2014 ,7:58 p.m .

WASHINGTON — Although U.S. intelligence officials have indicated since last summer that the
National Security Agency was vacuuming up nearly every American telephone record for counterterrorism investigations, officials acknowledged Friday that the spy agency collects data from less
than a third of U.S. calls because it can't keep pace with cellphone usage.

Who is behind Dumb
Starbucks?

Ads by Google

In a speech last month, President Obama called the bulk collection of telephone records the most
controversial part of the debate over security and privacy sparked by former NSA contractor
Edward Snowden's leaks of classified material. Obama announced plans to impose greater judicial
review on the program and to limit how it can be used.
But the NSA operation now seems far less pervasive than it appeared, raising questions about
whether it is as essential a terrorist-fighting tool as the NSA and its supporters have argued.
Rather than sweeping in all U.S. call records, officials said, the NSA is gathering toll records from
most domestic land line calls, but is incapable of collecting those from most cellphone or Internet
calls. The details were first disclosed by the Washington Post.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nsa-phones-20140208,0,1053157,full.story#axzz2swr8fJIB

Photos of the Day

More »

1/4

2/10/2014

NSA phone data collection far more limited than had been disclosed - latimes.com

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the program remains classified,
said they did not correct the public record because they did not want to tip off potential adversaries
to obvious gaps in the coverage.
"We didn't want to tell the bad guys to go out and get a cellphone," one senior intelligence official
said.

Most Viewed

Latest News

Suspect in wrong-way crash has previous DUI
conviction, records show 02/10/2014, 1:20 p.m.
Stocks close higher in subdued trading

The NSA aims to build the technical capacity over the next few years to collect toll records from
every domestic land line and cellphone call, assuming Congress extends authority for Section 215 of
the USA Patriot Act after it expires in June 2015.

02/10/2014, 2:04 p.m.

Once the capacity is available, the agency would seek court orders to require telecommunications
companies that do not currently deliver their records to the NSA to do so. The records contain
phone numbers, times and lengths of each call, but not the content or anyone's name.

After 'Lego Movie' mania, more toy-based films
are coming 02/10/2014, 1:02 p.m.

Civil liberties activists said the new disclosure did not change their view that the NSA database of
billions of domestic call records was unnecessary and could lead to government abuse.

Nightclub beating: Pathologist can't say what
killed Kim Pham 02/10/2014, 1:06 p.m.

Suspect in custody after Reseda shootings wound
man, LAPD officer 02/10/2014, 12:53 p.m.

"I don't find this revelation very reassuring," Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American
Civil Liberties Union, said in an email. "To accept their legal reasoning is to accept that they will
eventually collect everything, even if they're not doing so already. They're arguing that they have
the right to collect it all."
The NSA declined to discuss the gap. "While we are not going to discuss specific intelligence
collection methods, we are always evaluating our activities to ensure they are keeping pace with
changes in technology," Vanee M. Vines, a spokeswoman, said in a statement.

VIDEO
Chris Kattan Arrested on Suspici…
KTLA - Los Angeles Feb 10, 2014

Two of the most vocal congressional critics of the NSA program, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who sits
on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who heads the Senate
Judiciary Committee, had no comment Friday, according to their aides. Both of those committees
were informed of the coverage gap, officials said.
Other senior officials apparently were not told, however, or did not understand the program's reach.
A federal judge in New York who ruled in December that the government's collection of customer
records from telecommunications companies was legal, for example, indicated that he believed the
NSA operation covered virtually every domestic call.
"The blunt tool only works because it collects everything," District Judge William H. Pauley wrote.
He said the government had invoked legal authority to collect "virtually all call detail records."
And in written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee this week, David Medine, chairman of
the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which received classified briefings on the NSA
systems and issued a lengthy report to Obama last month, said the program involved "ongoing
collection of virtually all telephone records of every American."

Chris Kattan Arrested NYC Mayor De Blasio
on Suspic…
Address…

Medine did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
By contrast, a presidential task force that included former acting CIA Director Michael Morell and
former White House counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke hinted at the collection gap in a line
buried in its 303-page report on NSA surveillance operations.
"The total amount of data collected and retained in the hypothetical version of Section 215 is much
greater than the total amount of data collected and retained in the actual version," it said, adding that
the NSA collects "only a small percentage of the total telephony metadata held by service
providers."

KTLA's Sam Rubin
Apologizes …

NFL prospect Michael
Sam says…

The task force concluded that the phone records program "has contributed to its efforts to prevent
possible terrorist attacks" at home and abroad but "was not essential to preventing attacks."
"One of the things that convinced us that the program couldn't be all that useful was that they weren't
doing much with it and they weren't spending much money on it," said a source familiar with the
inquiry, who declined to be identified when discussing confidential briefings. "It never appeared to
us as a program they had valued very highly."
When White House officials told board members that the phone records were useful in ruling out
participation by Americans in international terrorism plots, the board members responded, "How
could you possibly clear somebody based on a database that didn't include the majority of the
phones in the country?" the source said.
The NSA program was begun without court or congressional approval after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks. A former senior NSA official said the agency obtained nearly all domestic call
records from late 2001 through at least 2006, when the program was brought under the supervision

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nsa-phones-20140208,0,1053157,full.story#axzz2swr8fJIB

2/4

2/10/2014

NSA phone data collection far more limited than had been disclosed - latimes.com

of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
But in recent years, the explosive growth of mobile devices outpaced the NSA's capacity to digest
the data. And American use of land line phones has plummeted: Less than half of U.S. households
have or use a land line, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In his Jan. 17 speech, Obama said the collection of phone records was "designed to map the
communications of terrorists" operating in the United States.
Although he said no abuses had been found, Obama said he would order a transition to end the
program as it currently exists to ease concerns of potential abuses. The changes already have begun.
As of Thursday, the NSA must get a judge's approval each time it queries the database, not just the
approval of a senior NSA official, as in the past, unless an emergency is underway. In addition, NSA
analysts can pursue only phone calls that are two steps removed from a terrorist organization
instead of three.
But Obama has found it more difficult to move the database out of government hands, as he also
called for.
Telephone companies don't want to hold the vast data cache for the government, and the use of
government contractors raises privacy and security concerns. Obama has given the intelligence
community and the Justice Department a March 28 deadline to come up with a plan.
[e-mail]
Copy r ig h t © 2 0 1 4 , Los A n g eles T im es
Comments

31

Email

Share

156

Tw eet

104

Like

52

4

Ads by Google

Comments (31)

Add / View comments | Discussion FAQ

G. W. Bush, the Decider at 1:36 AM February 09, 2014
This srticle attempts to moderate just-in-case, ubiquitous spying when, in fact, any
warrantless spying such as being done by the NSA is not limited enough. It should be zero. It
does not matter that corporations may be spying on us at will because we give consent. We
do not give big gub'mnt consent. That's the difference. There is no way to opt out from the
NSA's big gub'mnt spying when there should be only an opt in.
Parasomnia at 12:44 AM February 09, 2014
NSA phone data collection far more limited than had been disclosed
Tell me another one grandma...what kind of horses#$% do they think we'll buy?

dfordla at 9:57 PM February 08, 2014
You believe that, I got a good deal on a Bridge in Brooklyn for you.

Comments are filtered for language and registration is required. The Times makes no
guarantee of comments' factual accuracy. Readers may report inappropriate comments by
clicking the Report Abuse link next to a comment. Here are the full legal terms you agree to
by using this comment form.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nsa-phones-20140208,0,1053157,full.story#axzz2swr8fJIB

3/4

2/10/2014

NSA phone data collection far more limited than had been disclosed - latimes.com

Pictures in the News

Corrections

Bu r ba n k Lea der
Ba lt im or e Su n

Photos: Wrong-way crash
on 60 Freeway

Digital Services

Coa st lin e Pilot
Ch ica g o T r ibu n e

T er m s of Ser v ice

Pr iv a cy Policy

Da ily Pilot
Da ily Pr ess

Photos: Faces of the
Oly mpic Games

Media Kit

Hu n t in g t on Bea ch In depen den t
Ha r t for d Cou r a n t

A bou t Ou r A ds

Photos: Jonathan Gold's
fav orite SoCal pizza places

About Us

New s Pr ess

Los A n g eles T im es

V a lley Su n

Or la n do Sen t in el

Photos: Dumb Starbucks

Contact Us

KT LA

Site Map

Hoy

Su n Sen t in el

T h e Mor n in g Ca ll

Copy r ig h t 2 0 1 4

A Tribune Newspaper website

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nsa-phones-20140208,0,1053157,full.story#axzz2swr8fJIB

4/4