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Compiled from Times wiresFormer NSA director and current CIA nominee Michael Hayden also defends the program as he meets with senators.
WASHINGTON - A clear majority of Americans initially support a National Security Agency program to collect information on telephone calls made in the United States in an effort to identify and investigate potential terrorist threats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The new survey found 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it.
The polling data was reported Friday, the same day CIA director nominee Michael Hayden met with some senators and defended the secret surveillance programs he oversaw as NSA director. Hayden declined to comment on the phone calls database or specific operations.
"It's been briefed to the appropriate members of Congress," Hayden told reporters outside a Senate office. "The only purpose of the agency's activities is to preserve the security and the liberty of the American people. And I think we've done that."
Also Friday, a lawyer for a former executive of Qwest said the telecommunications giant refused to provide the government with access to telephone records of its 15-million customers because of concerns the request violated privacy laws.
While some Democrats remained critical of the NSA program Friday, the Washington Post-ABC News poll indicates that initial public reaction is favorable. In addition to the 63 percent who said collecting phone records was acceptable, an even larger majority - 66 percent - said they would not be bothered if NSA collected records of personal calls they had made, the poll found.
According to the poll, 65 percent think it is more important to investigate potential terrorist threats "even if it intrudes on privacy." Three in 10 - 31 percent - said it was more important for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.
More than half - 51 percent - approved of the way President Bush is handling privacy matters.
USA Today reported Thursday the existence of the large domestic intelligence-gathering program. The effort began soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Since then, the agency began collecting call records on tens of millions of personal and business telephone calls made in the United States. Agency personnel analyze those records to identify suspicious calling patterns but do not listen in on or record individual conversations.
Word of the program sparked criticism on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans criticized the effort as a threat to privacy and called for congressional inquiries to learn more about the operation. In the survey, clear majorities of Republicans and political independents said they found the program to be acceptable, but Democrats were split.
A total of 502 randomly selected adults were interviewed Thursday night for this survey. Margin of error is 5 percentage points. The practical difficulties of doing a survey in a single night represent another potential source of error.
Standing by Hayden
The White House reiterated its support Friday for Hayden and the NSA's operations.
"We're 100 percent behind Michael Hayden," press secretary Tony Snow said. "There's no question about that, and confident that he is going to comport himself well and answer all the questions and concerns that members of the United States Senate may have in the process of confirmation."
Snow added that questions on classified material may have to be handled in closed sessions with select senators who are cleared for access to that information.
Some senators tried to separate the issue of Hayden's confirmation from questions about White House decisions and the surveillance programs.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he didn't yet know if collection of the phone records was illegal.
Yet Reid said he has no "specific problems" with Hayden going into the hearing process and said the Air Force general "has always proven to be a person of intellect and a person of independence."
Republicans, including Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner of Virginia, have said Hayden was relying on the advice of top government lawyers when the operations were initiated.
But Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., an Intelligence Committee member, said he now questions Hayden's credibility.
"The American people have got to know that when the person who heads the CIA makes a statement that they are getting the full picture," he said.
The NSA was using the data to analyze calling patterns in order to detect and track suspected terrorist activity, according to information the White House provided to Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo. "Telephone customers' names, addresses and other personal information have not been handed over to NSA as part of this program," Allard said.
Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said on the NewsHour With Jim Lehrer that "the president's program uses information collected from phone companies" - the telephone number called and the caller's number.
Bond is a member of the select panel allowed access to all information on another controversial Bush program, the warrantless surveillance operations.
After meeting with Hayden on Friday, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said he had "absolute confidence" in the general and said his Senate confirmation hearings would provide the facts on the monitoring programs.
"He's going to have to explain what his role was. To start with, did he put that program forward, whose idea was it, why was it started?" Hagel said. "He knows that he's not going to be confirmed without answering those questions."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, praised Hayden as an excellent nominee but said Congress should ask tough questions about the NSA programs.
Collins, chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said it was disconcerting "to have information come out by drips and drabs, rather than the administration making the case for programs I personally believe are needed for our national security."
Qwest's refusal
Attorney Herbert J. Stern, who represents former Qwest chief executive Joseph Nacchio, released a statement saying that the government approached the telecommunications company in the fall of 2001 seeking access to the phone records of Qwest customers, with neither a warrant nor approval from a special court established to handle surveillance matters.
"Mr. Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act," Stern said from his Newark, N.J., office.
Nacchio told Qwest officials to refuse the NSA requests, which kept coming until Nacchio left the company in June 2002, his lawyer said.
In contrast, AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. complied with the request to turn over phone records shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.
Qwest, the No. 4 U.S. local phone company, serves customers in 14 Western states. Based in Denver, Qwest Communications International Inc. has come under fire over criminal and ethical allegations. Nacchio himself is under federal indictment on insider trading charges.
A Qwest spokesman, Robert Toevs, declined to discuss security issues or the statement by Nacchio's lawyer.
Information from the Washington Post, New York Times and Associated Press was used in this report.