Posted on 12/15/2005 5:27:25 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
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 represents 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.
According to those officials and others, reservations about aspects of the program have also been expressed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a judge presiding over a secret court that oversees intelligence matters.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
All's fair in ?? and war!
"seems to me that the only thing they are doing is eavesdropping on email and phones that originate from the US to an overseas location or vice versa - it is like a virtual wiretap on the overseas number without tipping off the locals"
I agree. And note, a certain Congressman broadcast taped private recordings of another Congressman, but was not imprisoned. That was OK to the demoncrats.
This is directed at enemies, domestic and foreign. Sounds a lot like the Oath of Office to me!
"Another freaking leak.."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1541408/posts?page=39#39
A Rockefeller staffer??
The Dems have been trying to kill the Patriot Act Bill all week
39 posted on 12/15/2005 6:46:29 PM PST by Mo1
Goota counter the good news in Iraq don't ya know.
Oh, no. Wait until John McCain hears about this!!!!!!
Thank you President Bush for keeping our country safe from the bloodsthirsty muzzies and their democrat allies.
"According to those officials and others, reservations about aspects of the program have also been expressed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a judge presiding over a secret court that oversees intelligence matters."
So, it wasn't the secret courts that were the problem, it was that the Bush administration wasn't appearing in front of the secret judges to discuss the legality of their secret operations.
This is supposed to be a government of the people and for the people?
Yeah,who cares about 'constitutional limits', anyways? That damn piece of paper just gets in the way of fightin' terror!
You'd just trash the whole Constitution if a Republican hack told you to wouldn't you? I have grave concerns about such a power. Oh, but Republicans are in control and those idiots know best for us right? Much better than the idiots in the other facet of the one party system.
When will the party faithful get it through their thick skulls that no politician has our best interests in mind? Their only concern is to centralize as much power under their control and then stay in power to use it
The Slimes obviously wants its brave, heroic terrorist patriots to stay hidden so they can kill as many of us as they can.
I don't buy a word of anything the Slimes prints, anyway. This is just another useless propaganda piece from the hate-America crowd.
Clinton covered up Able Danger and the Pentagon is STILL hoping to keep it covered up! Good grief...who's side are the rats on?
President Bush has the cojones to fight these thugs, any way we can....Bush deserves a huge HUG from me on this one!
Funny I dont see the NYT article about the blocking of the Barrett report release by Clinton cronies for 5 years to prevent the American people from seeing the corrupt use of the IRS and the Justice dept .Do you think the American people would like to know their president went after private citizens with intimidation tactics using these agencies? I guess the NYT times does not think so
This is crazytalk. The NSA has intercepted untold thousands of international telephone calls from the USA throughout its long history. It was not possible, however, to read transcripts unless approved by a committee designed to protect the caller; likewise, if the call was considered essential to the maintenance of security of the United States it could be viewed by intelligence analysts in agencies outside the NSA.
Has Bush done anything to expose the Able Danger cover up?
If not, then he's a co-conspirator in my mind.
Condi says he didn't break the law. Period.
Keep up the surveillance, Mr. President. Believe me, most of us are thankful we haven't been attacked again.
Good for Bush!! I think the Dems will say this is an impeachable offense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.