FISA is not the rubber stamp the Dems would have us believe."
Especially for the Bush Administration:
Bush was denied wiretaps, bypassed them (FISA Court denied them in unprecedented numbers)
UPI ^ | Dec. 27, 2005 | UPI
Posted on 12/27/2005 10:47:23 AM PST by 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.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1547700/posts
and (sorry for the bad formatting - I need to learn how to do that):
FISA Court reports pursuant to 50 USC 1807
Year Applied Granted Denied Modified
1979 199 207 0 0
1980 319 322 0 1*
1981 431 433 0 0
1982 473 475 0 0
1983 549 549 0 0
1984 635 635 0 0
1985 587 587 0 0
1986 573 573 0 0
1987 512 512 0 0
1988 534 534 0 0
1989 546 546 0 0
1990 595 595 0 0
1991 593 593 0 0
1992 484 484 0 0
1993 509 509 0 0
1994 576 576 0 0
1995 697 697 0 0
1996 839 839 0 0
1997 749 748 1* 0
1998 796 796 0 0
1999 886 880 0 0
2000 1,005 1,012 0 1
2001 932 934 0 2
2002 1,228 1,228 0 2
2003 1,727 1,724 4* 79
2004 1,758 1,754 0 94
* 1980: No orders were entered which modified or denied the requested authority, except one case in which the Court modified an order and authorized an activity for which court authority had not been requested.
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/1980rept.html
* 1997: In one case, although satisfied as to the probable cause to believe the target to be an agent of a foreign power, the court declined to approve the application as plead for other reasons, and gave the government leave to amend the application. The government has filed a motion to withdraw that case as it has become moot.
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/1997rept.html
* 2003: Of the four applications that the Court denied, two merit additional discussion:
(1) In one case, the Court issued supplemental orders with respect to its denial, and the Government filed with the Court a motion for reconsideration of its rulings. The Court subsequently vacated its earlier orders and granted in part and denied in part the Government's motion for reconsideration. The Government has not yet appealed that ruling. In 2004, the Court approved a revised application regarding this target that incorporated modifications consistent with the Court's prior order with respect to the motion for reconsideration.
(2) In another case, the Court initially denied the application without prejudice. The Government presented amended orders to the Court later the same day, which the Court approved. Because the court eventually approved this application, it is in the 1724 total referenced above.
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/2003rept.pdf
23 posted on 01/21/2006 2:59:56 PM PST by Cboldt
Thanks, again. Amazing.