Bush was denied wiretaps, bypassed them (FISA Court denied them in unprecedented numbers)

UPI ^ | Dec. 27, 2005 | UPI

[Pragmatic_View]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was challenging him at an unprecedented rate.

A review of Justice Department reports to Congress by Hearst newspapers shows the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than the four previous presidential administrations combined.

The 11-judge court that authorizes FISA wiretaps modified only two search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications approved over the first 22 years of the court's operation.

But since 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for surveillance by the Bush administration, the report said. A total of 173 of those court-ordered "substantive modifications" took place in 2003 and 2004. And, the judges also rejected or deferred at least six requests for warrants during those two years -- the first outright rejection of a wiretap request in the court's history.

[Peach]

Exactly. Carter and Clinton did the same stuff and with less reason. It's not as though this is new, despite what the MSM says.

[AmishDude]

I think the guy should be impeached. Resigning from the FISA court is bad behavior in my eyes. There are national security implications and he just can't go and quit (but conveniently keep his paycheck).

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping....lots to chew on with this thread....

[Howlin]

Keep his paycheck?

[AmishDude]

Sure. He resigned from FISA but not from the Federal bench.

Some act of principle, huh?

[Raycpa]

So, 97% of the requests were approved as is, without modification. This is an "unprecedented" rate of rejection?

THe problem in this is not the percentage, its the precedent setting. If its known that under a given set of circumstances the court has denied the request, it would be known that similar situations would be denied. Each denial represents a ruling that would be followed for future requests.

It may even be possible that the court could hold someone in contempt if someone knowingly tapped and asked for retroactive 72 hour approval when the circumstances were such that prior denials were given on similar situations.

[Pragmatic_View]

People just won't wake up, until there is a catastrophic attack on the US.

After 9-11 the battle cry was "intelligence failure", so now the liberals and libertarians join hands in making it impossible to catch the terrorists or even find out what they are planning, until we will have the "Mother of all intelligence failures".

I don't understand why people are so anxious to protect the rights of people to conspire with terrorists.

here is an excellent editorial:

I Spy: Terrorists at Work

http://capitolhilljournal.com/art000000034.html

"Civil liberties are important, you’ll get no argument here to the
contrary. However, what good are civil liberties when our
country is under constant threat of an unknown attack, when we
can no longer feel safe going to the grocery store? Crossing
the Golden Gate Bridge? Flying cross-country? Eating,
drinking our food? Turning a blind eye to possible terrorist
planning makes all of these activities high risk. We become
prisoners, civil and liberated yet afraid to leave our homes.

Forewarned is forearmed. Spying gives us valuable knowledge
about possible terrorist planning and activities. We can use
that knowledge to protect American lives, and continue to fight
against terrorism. To suggest we curtail spying to protect our
civil liberties is nothing more than liberal propaganda that will, in
the end, cost us more innocent American lives. There is
nothing noble about that."

[Condor51]

Thanks 18, I couldn't find their names

Here's the run down on who appointed them as Federal Judges
(SCOTUS CJ put them on FISA)

---

FISA Judges:

KOLLAR-KOTELLY, Colleen (Presiding); Nominated by William J. Clinton
BENSON, Dee Vance; Nominated by George H.W. Bush
BROOMFIELD, Robert C.; Nominated by Ronald Reagan
CARR, James G.; Nominated by William J. Clinton
CONWAY, John E.; Nominated by Ronald Reagan
DAVIS, Michael J.; Nominated by William J. Clinton
GORTON, Nathaniel M.; Nominated by George H.W. Bush
HILTON, Claude M.; Nominated by Ronald Reagan
HOWARD, Malcolm; Nominated by Ronald Reagan
KAZEN, George P.; Nominated by Jimmy Carter
ROBERTSON, James; Nominated by William J. Clinton
he just retired so CJ Roberts appoints a replacement

FISA COURT OF REVIEW Judges:

GUY, Ralph B. (Presiding); Nominated by Gerald Ford
LEAVY, Edward; Nominated by Ronald Reagan
WINTER, Ralph K. Jr.; Nominated by Ronald Reagan

---

4 Clinton Judges & 1 Carter. Kind of surprised there were all these problems?!?

[randog]

He seems to have no interest in defending himself.

Could be a classic Bush Rope-a-Dope. He knows that the dems will take the opposite side of the issue as a knee-jerk reaction (you can bet money on it if anyone's stupid enough to take the bet). He waits until enough dems are on the wrong side of the issue, then does a Monte Hall and reveals the surprise behind Door #3--the jackass.

[Condor51]

***It would be interesting to know how many on the FISA court are Clinton placements.***

See my post #148, I have the breakdown.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"It would be interesting to know how many on the FISA court are Clinton placements."

We can start with the one that just resigned. My bet is the others that are starting to complain would also have been appointed by Democrats.

[BARLF]

I don't know but (s) probably should have been added.

---

WASHINGTON, DC--The Clinton Administration has sharply increased use of federal telephone wiretaps and other electronic surveillance in the United States since taking office, and official estimates foresee that the growth will continue in coming years.

More here:http://www.worldfreeinternet.net/news/nws4.htm

Not sure about this website,FWIW

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

To win a court-approved wiretap, the government must show "probable cause" that the target of the surveillance is a member of a foreign terrorist organization or foreign power and is engaged in activities that "may" involve a violation of criminal law.

Faced with that standard, Bamford said, the Bush administration had difficulty obtaining FISA court-approved wiretaps on dozens of people within the United States who were communicating with targeted al-Qaida suspects inside the United States.

*******************************************************

Bamford was on Washington Journal the other day with Tousing(sp?) and she was consistently nailing him with some of his observations!!! I didn't like the guy.....

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."

[Pragmatic_View]

Thanks for digging up the info on the FISA judges.

This thread is proving to be a treasure trove of info, thanks to people like you who go dig up the real important stuff. :)

[AmishDude]

Note that Kazen was the only judge appointed to FISA during 2003. I'm now willing to bet that over 70% of the modifications occurred when Kazen and Robertson were both on the panel.

[ndt]

"Name any person who's "rights" have been violated during this Congressionally informed program?"

You have a list of people investigated? Where did you get that? And thank you for pointing out the problem of not having judicial oversight.

[Pragmatic_View]

Just being in an Al Qaeda phonebook, or being called by an AQ terrorist is more than sufficient probably cause, or should be.

[Tarpon]

I wonder if it's true.

[headstamp]

Exactly, does the Barrett Report ring a bell? The Clinton's did whatever they felt like while in office like improper IRS audits of adversaries for example.

[Clara Lou]

This is an excellent thread. You two have posted valuable information. Now all I have to do is to interpret all of it.