FISA Court Prevented Al Qaeda Taps Before 9/11

Sweetness & Light ^ | December 27, 2005 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

How soon (and conveniently) the media forget.

Behold this passage from the May 2002 issue of the DNC organ, Newsweek:

US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth

WHAT WENT WRONG

The inside story of the missed signals and intelligence failures that raise a chilling question: did September 11 have to happen?

By Michael Hirsh and Michael Isikoff
May 27/02

...NEWSWEEK has learned there was one other major complication as America headed into that threat-spiked summer.

In Washington, Royce Lamberth, chief judge of the special federal court [the FISA Court] that reviews national-security wiretaps, erupted in anger when he found that an FBI official was misrepresenting petitions for taps on terror suspects. Lamberth prodded Ashcroft to launch an investigation, which reverberated throughout the bureau.

From the summer of 2000 on into the following year, sources said, the FBI was forced to shut down wiretaps of Qaeda-related suspects connected to the 1998 African embassy bombing investigation.

“It was a major problem,” said one source familiar with the case, who estimated that 10 to 20 Qaeda wiretaps had to be shut down, as well as wiretaps into a separate New York investigation of Hamas.

The effect was to stymie terror surveillance at exactly the moment it was needed most...

And yet elsewhere Judge Lamberth has bizarrely cited the African embassy wiretaps as proof of the importance of his job:

An Interview with Judge Royce C. Lamberth

Judge Royce C. Lamberth, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was appointed to the federal bench in 1987. Before joining the Judiciary he was a U.S. Army Captain in the JAG Corps, an assistant U.S. attorney, and Chief of the Department of Justice Civil Division. He recently completed a term as presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Q: You've called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court "the least known, but probably most important court in the war on terrorism?" Why?

A: The FISC has nationwide jurisdiction to authorize the United States government to conduct electronic surveillances and physical searches for national security purposes when the target is a foreign power or the individual is acting as the agent of a foreign power. Major international terrorist groups may be targeted by the FBI, CIA, NSA and other intelligence agencies. Since 9-11, invaluable intelligence information has been sought and obtained as a result of warrants and orders issued by this court.

There's no question that every judge who has ever served on this court has thought it was the most significant thing they've ever done as a judge. When I did the hearings on the embassy bombings in Africa, we started the hearings in my living room at 3:00 in the morning. And some of the taps I did that night turned out to be very significant and were used in the New York trials of the people indicted for the bombings.

These wiretaps were so "significant" that Lamberth stopped them and any others like them in the year and a half prior to 9/11 -- just because of a personal snit.

Something to bear in mind when we hear it bewailed how Bush neglected to go to the FISA courts for permission to monitor al Qaeda phone calls.

[aculeus]

Good find.

Bumping in hope someone in media notices and reports this.

(Am I a dreamer or what?)

[Names Ash Housewares]

"All I can say is thank God for the internet. Thank goodness for FR, and all the other truth seekers out there whose voices join together so everyone can hear us."

OH yeah! Its a different world now. The bad ol days of three liberal white guys giving the nation news are over and gone forever! All we need is a level playing field, or at least more level playing field. We have had a much harder slog of it then the left. They dont know how to react in this new environment. We have grown much stronger beacause getting our message out in the past was far more difficult. The left has been coddled by the MSM.
They are weaker in the battle because of it.

[mware]

That one is a keeper Sam, especially since it is coming from Michael Isikoff.

Clinton is barely mentioned in the Newsweek article, except to claim that fighting terrorism was his number one priority, when it wasn't for Bush.

But here's a nicely ironic quote from near the end of the Newsweek piece -- the moral:

What Americans should be asking is why the Bush administration in its first eight months, like the Clinton administration for much of its eight years, did not demand the intelligence cooperation that was needed. At issue is not whom to blame for the past, but how to learn from it to safeguard our future.

[Modok]

I wonder what Reno (Gorelick) thought was misleading about the affidavits that were filed by Resnick?

[11x62]

Something not right here.

It says, " Lamberth prodded Ashcroft to launch an investigation."
But this all began in summer 2000.

Ashcroft never arrived till sometime after Jan. 20, 2001.

what's up with that?

[SittinYonder]

The media too (did I say that already?)

I'm sure the media ain't too fond of you either.

[citizencon]

By no other than Michael (Clinton's Baby Wipes )Isikoff himself...

[Peach]

An article I read a few days ago but can't find again said the complaints were minor inaccuracies in the warrant applications.

I'd love to know the answer to your question too.

[eyespysomething]

lol, you know what I mean!

[FreedomPoster]

I hate all those you mentioned, and the media.

[eyespysomething]

But what about the media? I hate them too! (lol)

[FreedomPoster]

Link on that? Where did that come from?

[Sam Hill]

"An article I read a few days ago but can't find again said the complaints were minor inaccuracies in the warrant applications."

I remembered that too. In fact, it was what started me searching for stuff on Lamberth.

Haven't come across those details yet.

[Howlin]

What is it that keeps buzzing in my head about Lambreth and Judicial Watch?

[ichabod1]

History is what they say it is. In their minds. People act surprised that the rats and the left propose no solutions, only criticisms. Yet, I recently learned that this is a communist PC tactic called "Critical Theory", where no solutions are ever intended to be offered, only criticism, because after the revolution the world will be so different that proposing a solution NOW is only counter-productive. Only later might a solution present itself.

[Peach]

Lamberth on C-Span now!

[SittinYonder]

lol, you know what I mean!

Laugh it off if you want, but I'm serious. The media hates you. You are a conservaliberpublictarian (the thing that the media fears more than a terrorist). You are well informed - and tend to circumvent the usual suspects to get your information. You vote. You're active and vocal among your co-workers, friends and family. When they buy into a liberal media lie you're quick to provide them with truth.

You're active in your community and you inspire others to similar activities. You've got three kids that you're raising to be wary of the news media. You catch a liberal and make mincemeat out of them for sport.

The media hates you. Didn't you cancel your subscription to Newsweek? Jeez Louise, you're the reason they're all getting pink slips.

[kcvl]

Judge Lamberth was randomly assigned crucial Judicial Watch cases in both the Filegate and Chinagate scandals.

Judge Lamberth, who also presides over Linda Tripp's civil suit for violation of her privacy rights


He also presided over the Hillary Clinton Healthcare Task Force


******


When the "appeal" was argued in court last week, two liberal pro-Clinton judges on the three-judge panel continued the personal attack. While effectively admitting that the attempted appeal was premature, procedurally flawed, and thus frivolous, these two judges questioned, in mocking language, how any decision by Judge Lamberth could be respected. One of the appellate judges, who was appointed by Democrat President Jimmy Carter, went so far as to say, while himself incredibly laughing from the bench:

"To be very candid, I think any White House, no matter who is in it, would laugh at the suggestion Judge Lamberth is your guiding light."


http://tinyurl.com/bztho

[Sam Hill]

See Kcvl's posts just a couple after yours.

[Peach]

I pinged Alamo Girl earlier on this thread or another one I was on about Lambreth tonight. Maybe she'll remember.