An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted in February found Americans evenly
split on whether it was appropriate for the administration to listen to
Americans' phone calls without obtaining a court warrant. Several people
interviewed by the AP on Thursday had been questioned in that poll.
There was no polling yet on the new NSA revelations, but anecdotal evidence
suggested the issue was destined to cause the kind of passionate split the
nation has grown familiar with since the 2000 election.
Left- and right-wing political blogs seized on the report, many of them
adding their own sarcasm — "NSA accused of protecting U.S. from terrorists,"
offered conservative site Power Line.
Meanwhile, a poster on the liberal site Daily Kos lamented, "So much for
privacy — telecoms cave to government." It suggested readers complain to the
companies working with NSA — AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and
BellSouth Corp.
And at left-wing Firedoglake, a poster suggested the program violated the
very notions of liberty and freedom. Above the posting was a picture of a farm
of satellite dishes and the headline, "Are they listening?"
Some bloggers tore into USA Today for publishing the information in the first
place, even suggesting it had helped make Qwest Communications International
Inc. the terrorists' carrier of choice because it refused to turn over records
to the NSA.
Bush emphasized leaks of sensitive intelligence hurt "our ability to defeat
this enemy."
"I think they should find the leakers and prosecute them," said Gayle
Dethman, a florist who works from home in Portland, Ore. "I want to be
protected, and I think they need to do what they have to do."
The NSA discussion appeared to be the next chapter in the nation's
sorting-out of the liberty-security balance, and how much power should be
entrusted to the administration in the name of preventing another Sept. 11.
For James Roberts, a 72-year-old retiree and Navy veteran living in Seneca,
S.C., Bush has gone too far. He said he worries about a drift toward a "police
state" and an administration unconcerned with accountability.
"It is any business of the government if I call my sister-in-law in Chicago
and say, `How you doing?'" he asked. "I think it is truly an invasion of
privacy. It's a violation of individual rights."
