Domestic spying

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Starchild
Wee! Like, look at that totally pretty abyss. It's like almost like it's gazing back at me! Well, time to go fight some monsters. Better be careful lest, I like dunno, become one.

To valley-girl Nietzche a bit.

Cause, like, ya know, the worst thing about AQ is that they wire tap folks in violation of the law.

I dont care much for this policy, but enough with the reflex equivalencies. FN, feh!

[Starchild]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Cause, like, ya know, the worst thing about AQ is that they wire tap folks in violation of the law.

I dont care much for this policy, but enough with the reflex equivalencies. FN, feh!

Aww, but I haven't reflexed equivalated in like so totally 4eva. Normally it's like pshwa 2 me what happens in America but, FYI, slow night before la chicas get here for the paaartay so gotta keep amused like you know, some how or whatever.

[The diplomat]

This story is troubling. But, we need to realize that some form of spying and some form of interrogation of terrorists is necessary. Some form of spying will be necessary because the terrorists who enter the US to do an attack are going to be hidden. And some form of interrogation will be necessary because when we capture a terrorist they are not going to volunteer information willingly.

If you think that our interrogation methods and that our spying methods go too far, what methods do you propose?

There has to be some trade-off between security and freedom. You can't have 100% of both.

[Richelieu]

NSA eavesdropping in U.S.

According to the NYT

and corroborated by CNN

The NYT article is the original.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

And CNN corroborates

Sources with knowledge of the program have since told CNN that Bush did sign the secret order in 2002. The sources refused to be identified because the program is classified.

Just one more scandal for this administration...

[Sava]

you want the terrists to win?

[Richelieu]

Everytime i post one of these threads, an Angel turns Muslim.

[Richelieu]

I was reading the NYT article and i just noticed the add on the righthand side of the 1st page. I don't think that's going to help their reputation for being a leftist rag...

[Sava]

"The new France. Where the smart money goes!"

[Mordoch]

This has now been confirmed.

President Bush has personally authorized a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States more than three dozen times since October 2001, a senior intelligence official said Friday night.

The disclosure follows angry demands by lawmakers earlier in the day for a congressional inquiry into whether the monitoring by the highly secretive National Security Agency violated civil liberties...

Bush on Friday refused to discuss whether he had authorized such domestic spying without obtaining warrants from a court, saying that to comment would tie his hands in fighting terrorists.

In a broad defense of the program put forward hours later, however, a senior intelligence official told The Associated Press that the eavesdropping was narrowly designed to go after possible terrorist threats in the United States.

The official said that since October 2001, the program has been renewed more than three dozen times. Each time, the White House counsel and the attorney general certified the lawfulness of the program, the official said. Bush then signed the authorization...

Other intelligence veterans found difficulty with the program in light of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, passed after the intelligence community came under fire for spying on Americans. That law gives government - with approval from a secretive U.S. court - the authority to conduct covert wiretaps and surveillance of suspected terrorists and spies.

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2005/12/16/ap2398956.html

Given no court gave approval for the spying, this is literally engaging in a conspiracy to commit illegal acts and SHOULD be an impeachable offense, although it won't happen with the current makeup of congress.

[The Mad Monk]

Especially since it was done with the full knowledge of congressional leaders, right?

[Vince278]

Shhh. They're listening.

[DRoseDARs]

And not only had the Bush Administration directly authorized surveilence of questionable legality, but the New York Times sat on the story - at the request of the White House - for a year...

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/New_York_Times_admits_it_held_1215.html

New York Times admits it held domestic spying story for a full year

RAW STORY

On the second page of a report which reveals the White House engaged in warrantless domestic spying, the New York Times reveals that it held the story for a full year at the request of the Bush Administration, RAW STORY can reveal.

The Times also reveals that senior members of Congress from both parties knew about Bush's decision to spy on Americans who were making international calls or emails, without warrants.

Further, the Times notes that they have omitted information in the article they did write, agreeing with the Bush Administration that the information could be useful for terrorists. Excerpts from the Times' article follow.


The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

While many details about the program remain secret, officials familiar with it said the N.S.A. eavesdropped without warrants on up to 500 people in the United States at any given time. The list changes as some names are added and others dropped, so the number monitored in this country may have reached into the thousands over the past three years, several officials said. Overseas, about 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time, according to those officials.

Several officials said the eavesdropping program had helped uncover a plot by Iyman Faris, an Ohio trucker and naturalized citizen who pleaded guilty in 2003 to supporting Al Qaeda by planning to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches. What appeared to be another Qaeda plot, involving fertilizer bomb attacks on British pubs and train stations, was exposed last year in part through the program, the officials said. But they said most people targeted for N.S.A. monitoring have never been charged with a crime, including an Iranian-American doctor in the South who came under suspicion because of what one official described as dubious ties to Osama bin Laden.

Doesn't that fall into the catagory of "aiding and abetting" or "accessory" ?

[DanS]

I would have expected us to have our friends spy on our citizens, as has been done for ages (reading between the lines).

[Mordoch]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Especially since it was done with the full knowledge of congressional leaders, right?

Actually that's legally irrelevant, other than possibly making the congressional leaders accesories to the crimes. The ONLY way congress could have authorized such actions by the NSA is by actually passing an act of legislation. That's they way our government was set up in the first place as laid out in the US Constitution. Congressional leaders can't pass new laws, you need a full vote of Congress for that.

[chequita guevara]

On top of that it turns out the Defense Department considers the peace movement a "threat." What they actually mean by that, I don't know, but it was in my local paper.

You know all that **** you people said wasn't gonna happen? It's happening.