"As in previous years, not a single FISA request was denied in 2000."Why was THIS one for Zacarias Moussaoui denied?
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
The New York Times A NATION CHALLENGED: WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 Federal authorities said today that they were investigating the possibility that terrorists might have plotted to commandeer two more commercial flights on the day that four planes were hijacked and used in attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
Mr. Ashcroft said that 75 people who might have information in the case were in custody on immigration charges, and reports of new arrests came in today from Los Angeles, Detroit and Orlando, Fla. Senior F.B.I. and Justice Department officials said that they had not allowed the internal investigation of terrorism-related wiretaps to affect their ability to monitor Al Qaeda or Hamas. But other officials said the inquiry might have hampered electronic surveillance of terror groups. |
The officials said they were not sure of the purpose of the meeting, if it did occur, and were investigating the possible connection. They emphasized that it did not prove that Iraq played a role in the attacks. In addition to the two men who were arrested on the Amtrak train and taken to New York as material witnesses in the investigation, federal agents have also taken to New York for questioning a man who was arrested in Minnesota in mid-August on a passport violation after he sought training on a airplane flight simulator. The man, Zacarias Moussaoui, apparently raised suspicion at the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan, Minn., although officials with the academy have declined to describe why. The internal debate at the Justice Department and F.B.I. over wiretap surveillance of terrorist groups ignited in March, prompted by questions raised by Royce C. Lamberth, the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a little-known panel that decides whether to approve Justice Department applications to permit wiretaps and clandestine searches in espionage and international terror cases.
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Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
September 23, 2001, Sunday, BC Cycle International News
FBI had warning on man
now held in attacks
Washington -- French intelligence officials warned the FBI at least 10 days before the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington that a man who had aroused suspicions with his requests to learn to fly a jumbo jet also had connections with "radical Islamic extremists" and possibly trained at terrorist camps in Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
The terrorist link to Zacarias Moussaoui came from French intelligence officials, who had been consulted by the FBI after he was arrested on immigration charges August 17, a government official said. The FBI received the information around September 1. After the attacks, FBI officials confirmed through other sources that Moussaoui has links to Osama bin Laden, a government official said.
A cable from French intelligence sources noted that Moussaoui had recently spent two months in Pakistan. The cable also noted that Pakistan is the common route taken by people receiving training at terrorist camps in Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda, the loose group of terrorist cells linked to bin Laden, is believed to run such training camps in Afghanistan. U.S. officials said that bin Laden and his group are the leading suspects in the terrorist attacks.
Moussaoui was detained on immigration violation charges in Eagan, Minn., after a flight school grew suspicious about his wish to train to fly a Boeing 747 and offer to pay the required $ 8,000 in cash. The 34-year-old Moroccan-French man had never flown solo in a single- engine plane and only wanted to know how to steer, not to take off or land.
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WASHINGTON INTERNET DAILY
SEPTEMBER 19, 2001 Vol. 2, No. 182
Congress Drafting 'Roving Wiretap' Foreign Intelligence Bill
House and Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committee leaders are drafting legislation that would expand the wiretap capabilities of federal agents under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). FISA, which sets legal parameters for the investigation of sabotage or terrorist activities committed by "agents of a foreign power," provides federal officers with emergency wiretap and search and seizure authority that isn't subjected to Title III electronic surveillance restrictions. One of the measures that Senate Judiciary Committee Chmn. Leahy (D- Vt.) and other leaders will introduce this week would extend "roving wiretap" powers to FISA investigations, a Leahy staffer said.
Congress amended federal electronic surveillance laws in 1998 by authorizing the use of such roving wiretaps to enable investigators to extend electronic monitoring of criminal suspects as they move from one location to another. However, the Leahy aide said there was no roving wiretap language in FISA, which deals specifically with foreign-sponsored intelligence gathering and similarly supported violent acts within the U.S. He said Leahy continued to consult with the Dept. of Justice (DoJ) and the FBI on terrorist-related investigative matters. Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft and FBI Dir. Robert Mueller have been meeting (WID Sept 18 p3) with Judiciary and Intelligence Committee leaders since Sunday "to brainstorm about legislative ideas that would be helpful" in fighting terrorism. Leahy was one of the most vocal opponents of a wiretap amendment submitted late last week (WID Sept 17 p1) by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Hatch (Utah) and supporters including Sen. Kyl (R-Ariz.). He criticized the measure -- which would enable federal judges to grant nationwide "pen register" and trap-&-trace orders -- for what he said lacked a definition of terrorism and would lead to unprecedented expansion of Internet and communications monitoring powers. When asked why Leahy was working on related legislation now, the staffer said the senator had been troubled by the "process and substance" of the Hatch-Kyl amendment. The amendment, which was passed by voice vote 10 minutes after its introduction, was attached to a Commerce- Justice-State appropriations bill "without proper deliberation and thought," he said.
That lack of a "deliberative process" has attracted the attention of the ACLU, which cautioned Congress this week against "letting our grief and anger" over the terrorist attacks lead to an erosion of civil liberties. ACLU Exec. Dir. Anthony Romero said that "obviously there is a need for heightened security," but there was no indication that increasing wiretapping powers would make the U.S. safer: "Terror, by its very nature, is intended not only to kill and destroy. Terror is also designed to intimidate a people and force them to take actions that may not be in their long-term interests. If we allow our freedoms to be undermined, the terrorists will have won."
The Senate is moving the Hatch-Kyl wiretap measure without the benefit of hearings or extended debate, Rep. Barr (R-Ga.) said. Barr, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a letter this week to Ashcroft that a similarly hasty process led to the "secret" insertion of roving wiretap language into an Intelligence Authorization Report in 1998: "Before we begin dismantling constitutionally protected safeguards and diminishing fundamental rights to privacy, we should first examine why last week's attacks occurred."
Steven Aftergood, dir. of the Govt. Secrecy Project of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), described the Hatch-Kyl measure as "a technical amendment that doesn't encompass a broad range of new authority." He said "there may be room for change" in Title III, which was "written a long time ago and may not be compatible with the full range of communications activities available today." However, he agreed that closer scrutiny must be given to an attempt to revise electronic surveillance laws as a reaction to recent events: "We need to understand whether we fell short in anticipating the terrorist attacks last week before we know what needs to be fixed. I don't think the selection of amendments last week is going to fix the problem." As "benign" as the proposed changes in Title III may be, FISA "is conducted behind closed doors and with little accountability," he said.
FISA allows the Attorney Gen., with the consent of the President, to authorize electronic surveillance of foreign agents "without a court order" under certain circumstances. Authorization of wiretaps, physical searches and the seizure of business records related to foreign intelligence gathering within the U.S. may be granted for up to a full year without a court order. That surveillance includes the content of communications transmitted by "wire, cable or like connection" intercepted during the "transmission of interstate of foreign communications."
Additional wiretap extension orders may be granted by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is composed of 7 Dist. Court judges from 7 U.S. judicial circuits. Any denial of a FISA surveillance application must be reviewed by a 3-member panel of federal district or appeals court judges selected by the Supreme Court Chief Justice. Requests denied must be "transmitted under seal to the Supreme Court, which shall have jurisdiction to review such decision." All records of FISA proceedings, whether granted or denied, "shall be maintained under security measures established by the Chief Justice in consultation with the Attorney General and the Director of Central Intelligence." According the most recent FISA-mandated report to Congress, which was sent to House Speaker Hastert (R-Ill.) on April 27, 2000, all 880 FIS Court applications processed in calendar year 1999 were approved.
U.S. citizens can't be monitored under FISA orders, and any information that happens to be picked up through such surveillance can't be "used or disclosed." However, the law allows for an exception to that prohibition "if the information indicates the threat of death or serious bodily harm to any person." -- Steve Peacock
Why was THIS one for Zacarias Moussaoui denied? "
Reminds me of Wen Ho Lee being the only wiretap being denied out of 2600+.