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Ben Waber
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26 May 2006

NSA phone log analysis

Excerpts from USAToday article on May 22nd that give greater insight into the types of analyses that the NSA may be doing.
Pre-9/11 records help flag suspicious calling
Updated 5/22/2006 11:46 PM ET
By John Diamond and Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY

The intelligence officials offered new insight into one way the database of calls is used to track terrorism suspects.
The officials, two current U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the program and two former U.S. intelligence officials, agreed to talk on condition of anonymity. The White House and the NSA refused to discuss the template or the program.

Using computer programs, the NSA searches through the database looking for suspicious calling patterns, the officials say. Because of the size of the database, virtually all the analysis is done by computer.
Calls coming into the country from Pakistan, Afghanistan or the Middle East, for example, are flagged by NSA computers if they are followed by a flood of calls from the number that received the call to other U.S. numbers.
The spy agency then checks the numbers against databases of phone numbers linked to terrorism, the officials say. Those include numbers found during searches of computers or cellphones that belonged to terrorists.

Posted by David Lazer at May 26, 2006 11:03 AM