Shane, Scott. "Excessive Caution Kept NSA Passive." Baltimore Sun, 23 Jul. 2004. [http://www.baltimoresun.com]
Materials presented in chronological order.
Shane, Scott. "Excessive Caution Kept NSA Passive." Baltimore Sun, 23 Jul. 2004. [http://www.baltimoresun.com]
"The 9/11 Commission Report portrays the National Security Agency before the terrorist attacks as 'almost obsessive' in protecting its intelligence-gathering methods, passive in following up on clues and excessively cautious about sharing communications intercepts with other agencies."
Little, Robert. "NSA Methods Lag in Age of Terror." Baltimore Sun, 9 Dec. 2004. [http://www.baltimoresun.com]
According to analysts, "[t]he code-breaking and 'signals intelligence' work that the NSA does best -- rooted in complex mathematics and linguistic dexterity -- will never go out of style as long as nation-based threats such as North Korea and Iran exist.... But it is far less vital against an enemy that sleeps in caves and cellars, and communicates in whispers."
Kamen, Al. "Alexander Named to Run NSA." Washington Post, 6 Jul. 2005, A15. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
Army Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander has been nominated by President Bush for assignment as Director, National Security Agency, and Chief, Central Security Service, Fort Meade.
Risen, James, and Eric Lichtblau. "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts." New York Times, 16 Dec. 2005, 1, 22.
According to government officials, President Bush signed a presidential order in 2002 that authorizes "the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying.... [S]ome officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches."
Lichtblau, Eric, and James Risen. "Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report." New York Times, 24 Dec. 2005. [http://www.nytimes.com]
According to current and former government officials, NSA "has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States" as part of the eavesdropping program approved by President Bush. The officials said that NSA "has gained the cooperation" of U.S. telecommunications companies "to obtain backdoor access [via the switches that act as gateways] to streams of domestic and international communications.... Some officials describe the program as a large data-mining operation."
Associated Press. "Spy Agency Removes Illegal Tracking Files." New York Times, 29 Dec. 2005. [http://www.nytimes.com]
NSA.has been placing files, known as cookies, on the computers of visitors to the agency's Web site "despite strict federal rules banning most files of that type." Cookies can track the Web surfing activity of an affected computer. The cookies "disappeared" after complaints by privacy activist Daniel Brandt and inquiries by Associated Press. NSA "officials acknowledged [on 29 December 2005] that they had made a mistake."
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