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Another Day, Another Embarrassing Intelligence-Related Correction Posted by: Clay Waters 4/14/2006 11:59:09 AM After correcting itself on the Lewis Libby leak yesterday, the Times on Friday corrects another Bush-related intelligence story by reporter Eric Lichtblau that brought much criticism from conservative bloggers like PowerLine. This is what Lichtblau falsely claimed March 29: “In a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the secretive court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, several former judges who served on the panel also voiced skepticism at a Senate hearing about the president's constitutional authority to order wiretapping on Americans without a court order.”...

A federal judge dealt a setback to the Bush administration on its warrantless surveillance program, ordering the Justice Department on Thursday to release documents about the highly classified effort within 20 days or compile a list of what it is withholding. U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy said a private group will suffer irreparable harm if the documents it has been seeking since December are not processed promptly under the Freedom of Information Act. The Justice Department failed to meet the time restraints under FOIA and failed to make a case that it was impractical to deal quickly with the request...

WASHINGTON - After weeks of insisting it would not reveal details of its domestic eavesdropping, the White House reversed course Wednesday and provided a House committee with highly classified information about the program. The White House has been under heavy pressure from lawmakers who wanted more information about the National Security Agency's monitoring. Democrats and many Republicans rejected the administration's implicit suggestion that they could not be trusted with national security secrets. The shift came after Rep. Heather Wilson (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., chairwoman of a House Intelligence Committee subcommittee, broke with the Bush administration and called for a...

IN the debate over whether the National Security Agency's eavesdropping violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, we must not lose sight of the fact that the world we entered on 9/11 will require rewriting that statute and other laws. The tiresome pas de deux between rigid civil libertarians in denial of reality and an overaggressive executive branch seemingly heedless of the law, while comforting to partisans of both groups, is not in the national interest. --snip-- The N.S.A. is our most important intelligence agency. Typically, about 60 percent of the president's daily brief comes from its intercepts. --snip-- Consider that...

SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California on Wednesday filed a request for information about alleged government spying during student-led protests at two universities. The Freedom of Information Act request was filed with the government on behalf of UC Santa Cruz Students Against the War and Berkeley Stop the War Coalition at the University of California, Berkeley, according to Dorothy Ehrlich, executive director of the ACLU-Northern California.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration faces daily questions about a highly secretive program at the National Security Agency aimed at monitoring terror suspects. Is it legal? Who's targeted? Some questions and answers about the domestic surveillance program launched shortly after Sept. 11, 2001: Q: Can the NSA eavesdrop on Americans? A: Generally, it is prohibited without a court order. But under a directive signed by President Bush, and renewed more than 30 times, the National Security Agency can monitor the international communications of people inside the country, when one party to the call or e-mail is believed to be involved...

The demonstration seemed harmless enough. Late on a June afternoon in 2004, a motley group of about 10 peace activists showed up outside the Houston headquarters of Halliburton, the giant military contractor once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. They were there to protest the corporation's supposed "war profiteering." The demonstrators wore papier-mache masks and handed out free peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches to Halliburton employees as they left work. The idea, according to organizer Scott Parkin, was to call attention to allegations that the company was overcharging on a food contract for troops in Iraq. "It was tongue-in-street political theater," Parkin says....

Alpharetta lawyer sues Bush over wiretaps By CARLOS CAMPOS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 01/21/06 An Alpharetta man filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against President Bush, claiming the administration's secret wiretapping program aimed at nabbing terrorists is unconstitutional. Mark Guzzi, 40, claims that the government's surveillance of telephone and Internet communications violates his First Amendment protection of free speech and the Fourth Amendment's right to privacy. Guzzi is a lawyer for the state Department of Corrections, but he said he filed the lawsuit as a private citizen. The lawsuit names President Bush, the National Security Agency and the NSA's...

Domestic Spying Program U.S. House of Representatives, Conyers, J. (D-MI) Washington, District of Columbia (United States) ID:190809 - 01/20/2006 - 3:00 - No Sale Conyers, John Jr., U.S. Representative, D-MIWaters, Maxine, U.S. Representative, D-CA Nadler, Jerrold, U.S. Representative, D-NYScott, Robert "Bobby", U.S. Representative, D-VAHinchey, Maurice, U.S. Representative, D-NYMartin, Kate, Director, Center for Natl. Security StudiesSchiff, Adam B., U.S. Representative, D-CABamford, James, Author Van Hollen, Christopher, U.S. Representative, D, MarylandFein, Bruce, AttorneyFredrickson, Caroline, Director, American Civil Liberties Union, Legislative Affairs

From today's WhiteHouse press Briefing: quote: Q Scott, I have a two-part question. Apparently, no one in the White House will challenge Al Gore with now public information that he led the Clinton administration's Clipper Chip Project back in the 1990s to effectively tap every phone, fax machine and computer in the country. And my question: Isn't that worth pointing out to the American people, after he accused President Bush of breaking the law and violating the Constitution by -- MR. McCLELLAN: I think you just did. This is an administration that is forward-looking, Les. We're focused on the priorities...

Interview of the Vice President by Neil Cavuto, FOX News FOX Studios New York, New York 2:18 P.M. EST Q Mr. Vice President, first off, there's a tape -- it seems to be official -- from Osama bin Laden. The CIA is saying as such. What do you make of it? THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, it's -- I'm sure it will be an interesting development, partly because we haven't heard anything from him in over a year. And if this is authentic, it will be the first indication that we've had from him. The other key question in addition to...

Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan today refused to acknowledge the fact that then-Vice President Al Gore led a Clinton administration program that potentially could have bugged every phone in the country, this after the Democrat hammered President Bush Monday for allowing wiretaps of suspected terrorists. The "Clipper Chip" project would have placed a chip on new phones, allowing the federal government the means to eavesdrop. "Isn't that worth pointing out to the American people, after [Gore] accused President Bush of breaking the law and violating the Constitution?" asked WND. "I think you just did," responded McClellan. "This is an administration...

I’ve been arguing, including in the current issue of NR, that the NSA “scandal” is way overblown, mainly because this dispute is procedural, not substantive. That is, the real mainstream of America (as opposed to the fringe portrayed as the mainstream by the fringy mainstream media) wants al Qaeda monitored (at the very least). The real mainstream also recognizes not only that this monitoring must include surveillance inside the U.S., but that domestic monitoring is the most important because “inside the U.S.” is exactly where al Qaeda is trying to hit us. Hard. Again. As long as that monitoring is...

Americans overwhelmingly support President Bush's decision to wiretap suspected terrorists operating inside the U.S. without first obtaining a court order - and a solid plurality believe those who leaked news of the secret operation are "traitors," a Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll has found. Asked whether the president "should have the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor electronic communications of suspected terrorists without getting warrants, even if one end of the communication is in the United States?" - 58 percent of those surveyed said yes. Just 36 percent disagreed. According to Dick Morris, who reveals the poll's...

The New York Times most recent absurdity from the Op Ed page is that listening to phone calls into or out of the US to targeted overseas locations is a more graphic example of ''scrapped civil liberties'' than the internment of Japanese in America during WWII. In times of extreme fear, American leaders have sometimes scrapped civil liberties in the name of civil protection. It's only later that the country can see that the choice was a false one and that citizens' rights were sacrificed to carry out extreme measures that were at best useless and at worst counterproductive. There...

“If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons." --Winston Churchill Christopher Hitchens has been an eloquent voice arguing for the military liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein. There, we've made a “favorable reference” to the aging Marxist ideologue. Horsefeathers took note of the fact that even when he urged America on vs. Saddam, Hitchens never uttered a word of appreciation or encouragement to Israel, a country at the front line of the war against Islamo-fascism, long before the U.S. confronted Saddam. In fact, for years, Hitchens went out...

Leading Conservatives Call for Extensive Hearings on NSA Surveillance; Checks on Invasive Federal Powers Essential 1/17/2006 6:36:00 PM To: National Desk Contact: Laura Brinker, 202-715-1540, for Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, laura.brinker@dittus.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances (PRCB) today called upon Congress to hold open, substantive oversight hearings examining the President's authorization of the National Security Agency (NSA) to violate domestic surveillance requirements outlined in the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, chairman of PRCB, was joined by fellow conservatives Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform...

I have been repeating my claim over and over again that NSA was getting leads on terrorist communications with people in the US and passing these tips to the FBI - as we would expect them to do. Here is one post out of many where I pointed out how NSA was not a bypass for FISA, but an organization and process the preceded FISA warrants when tips were found to people in the US. Here I pointed out where the Washington Post vindicated my claims that there was no bypassing of FISA, but what was going on was certain...

I have put together some interesting links concerning the non-scandal surrounding the NSA's wiretapping.JackassDemocrats.com under "Not So Shocking News"

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday that he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel to investigate President Bush's decision to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor the phone calls from suspected terrorists operating abroad. Asked about former Vice President Al Gore's demand yesterday that the Justice Department appoint a "Spygate" special counsel, Gonzales told the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" that there was no basis to believe any laws were broken by the NSA program. "We firmly believe that this program is perfectly lawful," Gonzales explained. "The president has legal authority to authorize these kinds of...