Posted on 12/27/2005 7:17:53 AM PST by B Knotts
WASHINGTON -- Government records show that the administration was encountering unprecedented second-guessing by the secret federal surveillance court when President Bush decided to bypass the panel and order surveillance of U.S.-based terror suspects without the court's approval.
A review of Justice Department reports to Congress shows that the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than from the four previous presidential administrations combined.
The court's repeated intervention in Bush administration wiretap requests may explain why the president decided to bypass the court nearly four years ago to launch secret National Security Agency spying on hundreds and possibly thousands of Americans and foreigners inside the United States, according to James Bamford, an acknowledged authority on the supersecret NSA, which intercepts telephone calls, e-mails, faxes and Internet communications.
"They wanted to expand the number of people they were eavesdropping on, and they didn't think they could get the warrants they needed from the court to monitor those people," said Bamford, author of "Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency" and "The Puzzle Palace: Inside America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization." "The FISA court has shown its displeasure by tinkering with these applications by the Bush administration."
Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com...
All of Clintons buddies on the court are starting to rebel.
Time for Roberts to step in.
FISA screwing around with Bush should come as no surprise when one of the judges resigned in protest against Bush and the secret wiretapping. Like everything else government after eight years of Clintoon, FISA is corrupted by liberals.
I sure hope they find out who leaked this and try him for treason. Of course, that won't happen. The fact we have not had another attack on US soil makes me think Bush is doing something right, in spite of those who hate him.
that sounds really weird. resign? why? they would only lose his vote.
Bamford is anti-Bush and will say anything to disparage him. This is another media concocted story aided and abetted by the usual suspects.
wait, we know nothing about what the court was doing. were they obeying the law in narrowing the requests? if so, then blame the law, not the court.
His vote didn't matter, Bush was circumventing the court. He resigned to add fuel to the fire, IMO. "Bush is going around the court and wiretapping? How outrageous. I quit!"
continuing to issue decrees even though blatantly ignored by the executive supposedly bound by them would have been the more honorable path.
I'd like to know who is leaking all this secret stuff.
quite possible the bushes have ordered it leaked.
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Terrorism_militias/fisa_faq.html
Good questions and answers about FISA. Makes it obvious why Bush needed to "go around" the court.
OK, I'll bite. Why?
Has Robertson actually come out now and said that's why he resigned? The only thing I read was unnamed co-workers said that's why he resigned, but he wasn't making any statements.
Figures--push some clown who is implied to be an expert who is admittedly SPECULATING, but mention he is a "Vietnam-era Navy veteran", so that makes his opinion about as useful as John Kerry's.
This story says it is based on a review of Justice Department records, not a leak. Bush's wiretapping, IMO, was leaked by a Democrat senate or house staffer. Every president since FDR has done exactly what Bush has done. Bush set up a congressional review of his wiretapping. He put in place checks and balances on the program.
We can debate all day whether it was right or wrong - though it appears to me the courts have upheld his authority to do it.
But what it comes down to is this: There was historical precedence for Bush to do this; other presidents of both parties have done virtually the same thing (without 9/11, mind you) and narry a word said. This was a political hit that has risked security. When the NYT can be so precise as to say that calls between San Diego and a terrorist safehouse in Yemen were being listened to, security is jeopardized.
Someone needs to go to prison over this leak, and Valerie Plame needs to get her face back on the cover of Vanity Fair.
Why not just issue a petition to Scalia to dissolve the FISA as moot?
you want thieves to think the police are watching them.
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