But, you know, even MORE willing to abuse his authority ... and with far fewer functioning brain cells about it.
Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts
NY Times
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: December 16, 2005
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. Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.
The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches.
"This is really a sea change," said a former senior official who specializes in national security law. "It's almost a mainstay of this country that the N.S.A. only does foreign searches."
Nearly a dozen current and former officials, who were granted anonymity because of the classified nature of the program, discussed it with reporters for The New York Times because of their concerns about the operation's legality and oversight...
Lovely. Just lovely.
....Since 2002, the agency has been conducting some warrantless eavesdropping on people in the United States who are linked, even if indirectly, to suspected terrorists through the chain of phone numbers and e-mail addresses, according to several officials who know of the operation. Under the special program, the agency monitors their international communications, the officials said. The agency, for example, can target phone calls from someone in New York to someone in Afghanistan.
Warrants are still required for eavesdropping on entirely domestic-to-domestic communications, those officials say, meaning that calls from that New Yorker to someone in California could not be monitored without first going to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court....
Right. Because the NSA, in the middle of operations that were of dubious legality in the first place, is really going to stop in the middle of things and say, "Wait. This person inside the US is talking to that person in the US who may or may not actually be distantly related to a third cousin of a known terrorist ... let's go get warrants!" Sure they will.
And, you know, I just turned green yesterday.
On the other hand, you have to love the Law of Unintended Consequences, especially when it turns around and gives people who deserve it such an impressive bitchslapping.
With many Democrats and some Republicans saying the bill does not go far enough in protecting civil liberties, the Republican leadership fell short of the 60 votes required to break a filibuster. Now the future of the law, which greatly expanded the government's surveillance and investigative powers in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, is in doubt.
The debate, a passionate fight about the balance between national security and personal privacy, became a touchstone for repercussions after the disclosure on Thursday night that Mr. Bush had secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for terrorist activity. [emphasis added]
On Friday afternoon, after the report in The New York Times and the fallout it engendered, Vice President Dick Cheney made a hurried trip to the Capitol to defend the domestic spying program against charges that it might be illegal, while Mr. Bush said he would do everything in his power within the law to protect the country from another terrorist attack.
Disclosure of the eavesdropping prompted immediate calls from some lawmakers for an end to the program and for Congressional and possible criminal investigations into its operations. One senator, Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said the new information had prompted him to support the filibuster against extending the antiterrorism law.
"I went to bed undecided," Mr. Schumer said on the Senate floor, "but today's revelation that the government has listened in on thousands of phone conversations is shocking and has greatly influenced my vote."
Opponents of the extension say they are concerned that the law would allow the government too much latitude in obtaining personal information, like library and medical records and business transactions, and in conducting secret searches.
The vote, 52 to 47, with four Republicans joining all but two Democrats to back the filibuster, capped a particularly trying week for Mr. Bush. He has been buffeted by criticism, including from within his own party, over his policies on terrorism, the war in Iraq and the detention and treatment of military prisoners....
Mind, the one thing that this has made clear is that the administration will do what it will, regardless of the existence of authorization. But at least, for once, the Senate grew a spine and decided to block the administration. Of course, this will only be temporary. Somehow, some way, the administration will sneak other provisions into other, unrelated budget and other acts that the Senate has to deal with. After all, that's pretty much standard operating procedure for them; do what you want by hook or by crook and if you get caught, bluff.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Without confirming a report that he OK'd eavesdropping on U.S. citizens in 2002, President Bush defended his actions since September 11, 2001, saying he has done everything "within the law" to protect the American people.
A story in The New York Times on Friday claimed that Bush secretly signed an order authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans who were communicating with individuals overseas to determine if they had terrorist ties.
"After 9/11, I told the American people I would do everything in my power to protect the country, within the law, and that's exactly how I conduct my presidency," Bush said in an interview with PBS' "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," which was scheduled to air Friday evening.
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.
Pressed on the topic in the PBS interview, Bush said he understood people want him to confirm or deny the report, but he couldn't discuss specifics because "it would compromise our ability to protect the people," according to a transcript of the program....
Of course Bush couldn't confirm the program; even he doesn't set sail on the SS Suicidal Insanity if he can avoid it.
That said ... it would be very easy for him to say, "Look, the law as written grants us this authority, but we have not and hopefully never will use it. The NSA has not spied on Americans on American soil." That wouldn't compromise any programs; nor would it compromise the government position that they could do this if they wanted.
One begins to wonder just what the hell is going on in that admininstration, anyway. Just when it seems like they may be starting to recover, even a little, another damning event or revelation happens.
I could do without future hurricanes, mind, but if these types of revelations keep coming, say, one every month or two all the way through 2008, I'd be much obliged.
Posted by iain at December 16, 2005 10:12 PM
