Kudos to fellow blogger Glenn Greenwald for breaking this story: WASHINGTON – A July 2002 Justice Department statement to a Senate committee appears to contradict several key arguments that the Bush administration is making to defend its eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without court warrants. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law governing such operations, was […]
The conservative magazineInsight gives us a story that makes the left drool: The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress. “A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment,” an administration source said. Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin with hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. […]
One of the problems with Bush’s wiretapping that isn’t discussed in the public forum much is how he notified Congress of the program. There are clear laws that require the President to seek the advice and consent of Congress and now it appears he even broke those laws: WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 – A legal analysis […]
The NSA spying story has just gotten worse: WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 – In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to […]
So what say you Mr. Gonzales The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to testify during open hearings on the legality of the Bush administration’s domestic spying program. Hearings are planned for early February into the National Security Agency program that President Bush approved in 2002, […]
Here is a prime example of how different wording in a poll can alter its outcome. Should the National Security Agency be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States? Yes 64% No 23% That was Rasmussen’s poll released earlier this week. Notice the poll […]
Congressional Research Services, the non-partisan research group of Congress, released a report yesterday laying significant legal doubts to President Bush’s warantless wiretapping program. WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 – President Bush’s rationale for eavesdropping on Americans without warrants rests on questionable legal ground, and Congress does not appear to have given him the authority to order the […]
We might have a witness to the wiretapping case. A former National Security Agency official wants to tell Congress about electronic intelligence programs that he asserts were carried out illegally by the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Russ Tice, a whistleblower who was dismissed from the NSA last year, stated in letters to the […]
In keeping the NSA spying story alive, the New York Times gives us a more detailed look today into how the NSA assumed their powers: WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 – The National Security Agency acted on its own authority, without a formal directive from President Bush, to expand its domestic surveillance operations in the weeks after […]
Here is a nice story in today’s New York Times which really shows us some internal debate at the Justice Department over warantless taps. A top Justice Department official objected in 2004 to aspects of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program and refused to sign on to its continued use amid concerns about its […]