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Senate Democrats are criticizing John Bolton, Bush's nominee for United Nations ambassador, on a number of fronts -- from allegations he tried to get analysts fired for not toeing his line on Cuba to portrayals of him as a man given to abusing subordinates (interns of the world, take heart).
But most intriguingly, Democrats are raising questions about Bolton's requests to the National Security Agency to reveal the names of American in NSA transcripts.
For those unfamiliar, the super-secretive NSA, which dwarfs the CIA, specializes in eavesdropping, but is prohibited by law from targetting Americans.
Anytime they pick-up a conversation that involves a "U.S. Person," they have to redact that part of the transcript and they insert a term such as "named American" or "named American official."
John Bolton, it turns out, asked the NSA to reveal those names ten times since 2001, which Democrats seem to suggest means he was spying on his superiors.
Now, I know from talking with various folks that the NSA takes its no-spying on Americans obligation seriously, so I was fascinated that Bolton asked for the names.
But it turns out it looks like the volume of Bolton's requests weren't out of the ordinary.
In fact, the NSA has revealed names some 3000 times since January 2004.
So are Democrats making a mountain out of a bad moustache?
Possibly, though I assume that if one sees a pattern in the kind of documents Bolton asked about (such as trying to get inside dope on a superior), there could be a case to be made.
Regardless, raising the issue got Los Angeles Times reporter Greg Miller to start asking questions, and here's what he found.
For those of you who don't know much about the NSA, James Bamford's books on the agency are fascinating. Start with Body of Secrets, which dishes dirt and then make your way to his first book on the agency, Puzzle Palace, which focuses much more on the agency's bureaucratic history.
Posted by Ryan Singel at April 25, 2005 12:03 PM
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