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Web sites bugged despite ban

Suzanne Goldenberg— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

Washington: The U.S. intelligence service at the centre of the row over eavesdropping tracked visitors to its website, despite U.S. Government regulations.

Monitoring files, known as ``cookies,'' were discovered by a privacy activist at a time when the White House is on the defensive about its use of the National Security Agency to monitor the communications of U.S. citizens.

Though the cookies were dismantled this week and the NSA issued an apology on Wednesday, the episode will add to pressure on the White House to engage in a national debate about its use of the agency, and its interpretation of the constitutional limits on President George Bush's presidential powers.

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Arlen Specter confirmed this week that he intends to conduct hearings into Mr. Bush's secret order in 2002 authorising the NSA to conduct E-mail and telephone surveillance of U.S. citizens without a court warrant. The hearings are expected to get under way next month.

``There likely will be a national debate about whether the President really has the kind of power he's been using,'' Mr. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters.

In a posting on his googlewatch.org website, privacy activist Daniel Brandt says he discovered that the NSA was using tracking devices when he logged on to the agency website on Christmas Day. He found the site was using two persistent cookies that would not expire until 2035, well beyond the life of most computers.

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