There is nothing in this story to support this statement other than the crack(pot) analysis of the modification of a small percentage of the warrant requests.
179 of the 5,645
I'm calling B.S. on this conclusion. Three percent of your warrant requests get modified and that is your motivation to not consult the FISA court? That's a pretty weak piece of evidence upon which to base a conclusion. How many of the wiretaps authorized were domestic only in nature? How many total wiretaps were conducted without a warrant from the court?
It could be possible that the warrants discussed in this article were all domestic and that the number of warrantless taps were a small percentage of the taps conducted. We will never know because that would derail this whole story.
This is a perfect example of a journalist taking one fact, building some unsupportable conclusions from it, and writing a story around those conclusions. The Jayson Blair School of Journalism.
I will cease ranting.
indeed.. but I still smell a rat. I believe the modifications are waaaaay under reported.