Great news: The NSA’s domestic spying program is finally being brought within the bounds of the law, more than a year after it was revealed.
The Justice Department has decided to let the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — the traditional, and legal, monitor of government wiretap programs — start examining the spy efforts. Before, the Bush Administration said no such review was needed — a legal reading that even former NSA chiefs said was wildly off-base.
The court has already “approved one request for monitoring the communications of a person believed to be linked to al-Qaida or an associated terror group,” the AP says.
It’s a huge (and welcome) turnaround for an administration that said previously that the president had the power to order almost anything in the name of fighting terror. (And “still believes that,” according to flack-in-chief Tony Snow.) So why the change? Snow mumbled something about the court’s increased “agility.” But you can bet your ass the new Congress had a whole lot to do with it.
UPDATE 3:28 PM: Shocker. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in his letter describing the rule change, appears to be lying through his teeth shading the truth, saying that the administration has been trying to put the wiretaps under the court’s authority since the spring of 2005. If that’s the case, Glenn Greenwald asks, “why didn’t they say so when the controversy arose?“
UPDATE 3:35 PM: Patrick Keefe, author of Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping, is taking a wait-and-see approach to Gonzales’s announcement. “It’s just not clear what it means,” he tells Defense Tech.
There have already been proposals for the FISA court to grant blanket retroactive approval to the program, and if that’s what this is, then it’s not much of a concession from the administration. If, on the other hand, it’s actually case-by-case approval by FISA judges we’re talking about, I’m not sure how that’s going to square with the reported scope of the program. The ostensible grounds for circumventing the FISA in the first place were that this program didn’t fit in the FISA framework. And given that it reportedly does a kind of mile-wide-and-inch-deep network analysis that is antithetical to the personalized, legally sanctioned surveillance contemplated by the FISA, I’m not sure how you can make the two procedures fit. Unless what they’re really saying here is that they’re abandoning the program altogether, and returning to one-target-at-a-time, retail-rather-than-wholesale surveillance. Which somehow I doubt.
UPDATE 3:35 PM: “It sounds to me like this court just re-wrote the law and made a second category of wiretaps (one that is easier to get but only targeted at overseas communications),” writes Ryan Singel.
He also notes that Gonzales’s announcement comes just a day before he is supposed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Pretty sneaky, sis,” Ryan says.
UPDATE 4:51 PM: “Another question raised by Gonzales letter indeed, in the first sentence is which FISC judge issued this order?” surveillance scoopmaster Shane Harris tells Defense Tech.
The letter states that a judge issued the order. Does Gonzales mean the courts presiding (or chief) judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly? Presumably he would have said so if that were the case. Kottelly has been briefed on the NSA program previously. She reportedly has been concerned that information obtained without warrants under the NSA program could taint other warrant applications before the court.
The FISC is made up of 11 sitting federal judges hailing from judicial districts across the country. Did the administration select a particular judge to approach for this order? Heres the breakdown on how many judges were appointed by a particular president:Jimmy Carter: 1
Ronald Reagan: 4
George H.W. Bush: 3
Bill Clinton: 2
George W. Bush: 1
Getting deep in here. Nice job. Now a guy from Dearborn can drive to Texas, buy 1,000 throw-away phones for $20.00 apiece, take’em back to MI, sell’em for $40 and require a warrant track every one of them.
Yeah! 2 Snaps In a Circle!
The enemy’s work is easy these days. We do it for them.
Amazing!
We simply ask the Federal Government to go to a SECRET COURT to gain permission to conduct these INTERNAL wiretaps and all of a sudden we’re not patriotic if we support that type action AND we’re making it easy for the enemy???? I’d call you a misinformed but that does the truly misinformed an injustice! You’re simply amazing. What if Clinton wanted the same powers???? I bet you’d be going crazy then huh??? Sorry RTLM, but no Emperor President for me.
What if Clinton wanted the same powers???? I bet you’d be going crazy then huh??? Sorry RTLM, but no Emperor President for me.
Posted by: Solomon at January 18, 2007 12:14 AM
Pssst here. And here.
Pssst here. And here.
RTLM! You finally see the light Cowboy!
An intrusive government is intrusive no matter what administration is in power.
I don’t want to expand the discussion on this thread, but what do you think would ensure America’s security more…
A. More wiretaps internally or
B. Securing our southern border???
We have more than enough laws, and regulations to properly ensure our security now. As far as Clinton and his “spying” was concerned, it was all about right wing groups that he thought hostile. Now its under the guise of protecting us against terrorism. My point is– the end results are the same. More government spying on its citizens. I just don’t feel comfortable with an expansive federal bureaucracy.
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night,
and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.“
SUN TZU ON THE ART OF WAR
It’s funny listening to the hue and cry on this site over President Bush’ nefarious plans to spy on terrorists here in America — like that’s a bad thing.
I was watching television the other night and was reminded of something a little more broad than Bush’ terrorist spying.
Anyone remember when Clinton and Gore tried to shove the clipper chip down the nation’s throat? Yessir, a government mandated chip in EVERY COMPUTER ACROSS THE LAND for the express purpose of being able to spy on every single citizen whenever it wanted.
Kinda makes Bush look like an amateur.