Free Republic

Ever since the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program was exposed in 2005, critics have denounced it as illegal and unconstitutional. Those allegations rested solely on the fact that the Administration did not first get permission from the special court created by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Well, as it happens, the same FISA court would beg to differ. In a major August 2008 decision released yesterday in redacted form, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, the FISA appellate panel, affirmed the government's Constitutional authority to collect national-security intelligence without judicial approval. -excerpt- For all the political hysteria and...

'WIRE' LAW FAILED LOST GI 10-HOUR DELAY AS FEDS SOUGHT TAP TO TRACK JIMENEZ CAPTORS IN IRAQ By CHARLES HURT, Bureau Chief October 15, 2007 WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials got mired for nearly 10 hours seeking approval to use wiretaps against al Qaeda terrorists suspected of kidnapping Queens soldier Alex Jimenez in Iraq earlier this year, The Post has learned. This week, Congress plans to vote on a bill that leaves in place the legal hurdles in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - problems that were highlighted during the May search for a group of kidnapped U.S. soldiers. A...

WASHINGTON — More than two and a half years after the disclosure of President’s Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program set off a furious national debate, the Senate gave final approval on Wednesday afternoon to broadening the government’s spy powers and providing legal immunity for the phone companies that took part in the wiretapping program. The plan, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, marked one of Mr. Bush’s most hard-won legislative victories in a Democratic-led Congress where he has had little success of late. And it represented a stinging defeat for opponents on the left who had urged Democratic leaders...

Back in 2004 the blundering government accidentally sent Al-Haramain, a charity designated having provided financial and material support to al Qaida and other terrorist organizations, a classified document supposedly indicating that the organization and two of its lawyers had been wiretapped. Excuse me, but when an organization has most likely provided funds to our enemy I would hope the government does keep an eye on them. Anyway, the charity returned the classified document to the government, but later they filed suit against our government with the cheering of the ACLU. They decided to rely on their memory of the document...

Boy, the spine sure has melted out of those Democrats! Was it really only just last week Presidential candidate Barack Obama promised to fight the telecom amnesty element of the new FISA legislation that gave Bush everything he wanted and more to protect America from terrorist attack? When promoting how the House Dems caved on the FISA legislation, Obama made a promise I knew then was as fake as all his positions on key issues of the day: “Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President’s illegal program of warrantless surveillance...

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge granted a prosecution request Thursday to dismiss 28 charges against private investigator Anthony Pellicano and a co-defendant. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Saunders said the government made the request because some of the alleged victims weren't available to testify and other counts were redundant. More than 35 charges remain against Pellicano and former Los Angeles police Sgt. Mark Arneson. The dropped counts mostly involved wire fraud that authorities had alleged involved Arneson searching law enforcement databases for Pellicano. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer came as prosecutors prepared to end their portion of...

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - The White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday said the House of Representatives was drawing up a new wiretap law that would hamper their job of protecting the people. The bill is a new attempt at reviving a post-September 11 law that expired last month allowing government spying on foreign telephone calls and electronic correspondence without first seeking a warrant. The White House and the Democrat-led Congress are at loggerheads over the issue of liability for telecommunications companies participating in the wiretap program. The House let the law expire on February...

NEW YORK (AP) - A law enforcement official has told The Associated Press that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring was caught on a federal wiretap. The official says Spitzer is identified in court papers as "Client 9," and the wiretap was part of an investigation that opened in the last few months. The official says the New York governor met last month with at least one woman in a Washington hotel. The law enforcement official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for...

NEW YORK - The New York Times is reporting that Gov. Eliot Spitzer has told senior advisers that he had been involved in a prostitution ring. On its Web site, the newspaper cites an anonymous administration official as the source and says Spitzer was meeting with his top aides. Spitzer officials wouldn't immediately comment on the story to The Associated Press. An announcement was scheduled for 2:15 p.m. at his Manhattan office.

ACLU denied, you know it's a good thing.

Senate OKs immunity for telecoms By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago The Senate voted Tuesday to shield from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After nearly two months of stops and starts, the Senate rejected by a vote of 31 to 67 an amendment that would have stripped a grant of retroactive immunity to the companies. President Bush has promised to veto any new surveillance bill that does not protect the companies that helped the government in its warrantless wiretapping program. About 40...

Attorney Simon Glik, 31, was a defendant in Boston Municipal Court today as his lawyer, June E. Jensen of Wayland, asked a judge to dismiss wiretapping, disturbing-the-peace and aiding-a-prisoner-escape complaints, which were issued against him last fall. Jensen told Judge Mark H. Summerville that Glik was arrested in Boston on Oct. 1 for allegedly using his cell phone to record the arrest of a 16-year-old juvenile in a drug case. She said the Moscow-born lawyer was walking through the Boston Common at 5:30 p.m. when he used his phone’s camera to videotape three police officers investigating the teen. “If you...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ending months of resistance, the White House has agreed to give House members access to secret documents about its warrantless wiretapping program, a congressional official said Thursday. The Bush administration is trying to convince the House to protect from civil lawsuits the telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on Americans without the approval of a court. Congress created the court 30 years ago to oversee such activities. House Intelligence and Judiciary committee members and staff will begin reading the documents at the White House Thursday, said an aide to Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's demand for immunity for telephone companies that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program won an initial victory on Monday in the U.S. Senate. On a vote of 76-10, far more than the 60 needed, the Democratic-led Senate cleared a procedural hurdle and began considering a bill to increase congressional and judicial oversight of electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists. It includes a provision to grant retroactive immunity to any telecommunications company that took part in Bush's spying program -- surveillance without court warrants of e-mails and telephone calls of people in the United...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's spy court said Tuesday that it will not make public its documents regarding the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in a rare public opinion, said the public has no right to view the documents because they deal with the clandestine workings of national security agencies. The American Civil Liberties Union asked the court to release the records in August. Specifically, the organization asked for the government's legal briefs and the court's opinions on the wiretapping program. Writing for the court, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates refused. Releasing the documents...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department is worried that a recent appeals court ruling could make it impossible to use wiretaps to investigate members of Congress in corruption cases. If so, that could extend to the ongoing investigation of Sen. Ted Steven, R-Alaska. The Associated Press recently reported that the FBI used an Alaskan oil contractor to tape phone conversations with the powerful senator as part of a corruption sting. In court documents filed last week, government attorneys asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reconsider last month's decision regarding the FBI raid...

The controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant, raided the suburban Washington home of a former Justice Department lawyer. The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)—the supersecret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. The agents seized Tamm's desktop computer, two of his children's laptops and a cache of personal files. Tamm and his lawyer, Paul Kemp, declined any comment. So did the FBI. But two legal sources who asked not...

WASHINGTON - The House handed President Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government's abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States. The 227-183 vote, which followed the Senate's approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his signature.

WASHINGTON - The House handed President Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government's abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States. The 227-183 vote, which followed the Senate's approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his signature. He had urged Congress to approve it, saying Saturday, "Protecting America is our most solemn obligation." The administration said the measure is needed to speed the National Security Agency's ability to intercept phone calls, e-mails and other communications involving foreign nationals "reasonably believed to be outside the United States." Civil liberties groups and...

Privacy rules don't apply to Internet messages, court says Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect's computer use and determine the e-mail addresses and Web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. In a drug case from San Diego County, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco likened computer surveillance to the "pen register" devices that officers use to pinpoint the phone numbers a suspect dials, without listening to the phone calls themselves. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of pen registers in 1979, saying callers have...