After the New York Times disclosed the existence of a domestic spy program in December, President Bush assured Americans that their privacy was not being violated and claimed the program concentrated on U.S. contacts with terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda.

He said, “In other words, one end of the communication must be outside of the United States.”

Thanks to an investigation by USAToday, we now know that President Bush was lying. In a front-page story last Thursday, the newspaper wrote: “The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA Today.” Qwest was the only telephone company that refused to voluntarily turn over its records.

Believed to be the largest database ever assembled in the world, the telephone companies turned over records of millions of citizens – most of whom were not suspected of any illegal activity – to the super-secret National Security Agency (NSA), ostensibly to help fight terrorism.

The three largest telephone companies provide land and cellular service to more than 200 million customers in every state. Under the plan disclosed by USAToday, a record of every telephone call made to and from a U.S. residence or business was given to the NSA, allowing them to examine any calling patterns. The program was initiated shortly after the September 11, 2000 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and an attempted hijacking over Pennsylvania. President Bush authorized the program with an executive order.

No one objects to law enforcement officials tracking terrorists, but it is clear that this administration is using 9/11 and the subsequent passage of the Patriot Act as an excuse to violate our constitutionally-protected right to privacy and sidestep the checks-and-balances routinely provided by the judicial and legislative branches of government.

It is equally disturbing that the telephone companies would go along with this scheme. In the past, law enforcement officials were required to obtain a court warrant before obtaining such sensitive information. But after 9/11, the telecommunication companies caved in and provided millions of records to NSA.

In addition to offering “directory assistance,” the Big Three are offering the government “direct assistance.” Except in cases where warrants have been issued, the phone companies should hang-up on such request. Send the NSA a disconnect notice when it tries to pry into the personal lives of law-abiding citizens.

Because intelligence agencies have been asked to work more closely in the wake of 9/11, there is a good chance that some of the data collected by NSA will also end up in the hands of the FBI and CIA.

NSA specializes in intercepting and decoding international communications. It’s such a top-secret agency that for years, many officials would not even acknowledge its existence. In intelligence circles, NSA was said to stand for No Such Agency.

In another false assurance, the agency points out that it collected calling information, but not collect identifying information of the callers. That’s hardly reassuring. Anyone beyond the age of children watching Saturday morning cartoons knows that NSA, credit bureaus and mass marketers can link the telephone numbers to other personal information, such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers. It’s not enough to violate our privacy, they also take us for fools and think that we don’t know about what they call data mining.

The executive branch has the tools it needs to capture terrorists. To protect citizens from 4th Amendment protection against “unreasonable searches and seizures,” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was established in 1978. The court, a panel of federal judges, meets in secret and issues warrants in national security cases. The judges rarely turn down a request by the government and federal officials even have the authority to conduct a search and apply for a warrant later.

Still, the Bush administration complains that going through the FISA does not allow it to act quickly on national security matters, a charge disputed by those familiar with the workings of FISA.

As we have seen with the Patriot Act, standing up to those who would run roughshod over our 4th Amendment rights is an issue that unites progressives, conservatives and libertarians. And this is the time for citizens to stand up to our government and the telephone companies that now sell us out – literally.

Instead of tracking the calls of innocent U.S. citizens and peeking at our e-mails, our tax dollars would be better used finding the terrorist President Bush proclaims he wants dead or alive – Osama Been Missing.