FISA to gain complete authority over Domestic Surveillance?
Seems the Bush Administration blinked on the legal NSA survelliace program:
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department, easing a Bush administration policy, said Wednesday it has decided to give an independent body authority to monitor the government’s controversial domestic surveillance program.
In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this authority has been given to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and that it already has approved one request for monitoring the communications of a person believed to be linked to al-Qaida or an associated terror group.
The court orders approving collection of international communications — whether it originates in the United States or abroad — was issued Jan. 10, according to the two-page letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
”As a result of these orders, any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,” Gonzales wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
”Accordingly, under these circumstances, the President has determined not to reauthorize the Terrorist Surveillance Program when the current authorization expires,” the attorney general wrote.”
Ugh……Seems as a result of this internal investigation.
So what does this mean? I have to see the letter in it’s entirety first before I judge it further, but on the surface it looks like much ado about nothing. First, the FISA court never did give up authority, however it was determined that in some cases more direct methods were needed and right.
Professor Levin at National Review is not happy:
“Is there no principle subject to negotiation? Is there no course subject to reversal? For the Bush administration to argue for years that this program, as operated, was critical to our national security and fell within the president’s Constitutional authority, to then turnaround and surrender presidential authority this way is disgraceful. The administration is repudiating all the arguments it has made in testimony, legal briefs, and public statements. This goes to the heart of the White House’s credibility. How can it cast away such a fundamental position of principle and law like this?”
Again, we don’t know all of what the letter said, and we’ll have to see what the White House says in response to the news reports.
UPDATE: Having read the letter, this IS much to do about nothing and in fact the President is more impowered by the move. AJ Strata makes the point clearer, also Stop the ACLU with more reacts.
this is a test
My heart stoppped for just a moment today when I heard this.
I also have read the letter and once again President Bush has quietly called the bluff of Congress.
This should end talks of hearing etc. and still allow him to keep us all protected.
[...] If I were a liberal, I would be wondering what he is up to….I would be asking what he replaced it with!¬† HAHAHAHAHAHAHA AJStrata / The Strata-Sphere: ¬† NSA Eavesdropping Now Court Approved – Permanently Jay / Stop The ACLU: ¬† Bush Won‚Äôt Reauthorize Terrorist Surveillance Program Shayana Kadidal / The Huffington Post: ¬† Reports of the NSA Program‚Äôs Death: Greatly Exaggerated? Dafydd / Big Lizards: ¬† Another Bush ‚ÄúSurrender‚Äù That Isn‚Äôt Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy: ¬† FISA COURT TO BECOME INVOLVED IN NSA SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM?: Jacob Sullum / Reason Magazine: ¬† Bush Deigns to Follow the Law Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory: ¬† Nothing to celebrate¬† ‚Ä My specific analysis of the legal ‚Ķ Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report: ¬† Has Bush caved on NSA wiretap surveillance? Captain Ed / Captain‚Äôs Quarters: ¬† Climbdown On Warrantless Surveillance Ron Chusid / Liberal Values: ¬† Bush Backs Down on Violating Law over Warrantless Wiretaps Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory: ¬† FISA and the President ‚Äî together again Marty Lederman / Balkinization: ¬† Terrorist Surveillance Program . . . Never Mind? ‚Ķ Kevin Drum / Political Animal: ¬† FISA AND THE NSA‚Ķ.Attorney General Alberto Gonzales ‚Ķ Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy: ¬† DID A FISA JUDGE APPROVE THE ENTIRE TSP?¬† I‚Äôm not entirely sure ‚Ķ Defense Tech: ¬† NSA WIRETAPS BROUGHT UNDER LAW (UPDATED AGAIN) Libby Spencer / The Impolitic: ¬† FISA – that was then and this is now¬† ‚Ä In abrupt about face ‚Ķ Jeralyn / TalkLeft: ¬† Bush Agrees to Put NSA Warrantless Surveillance Under FISA Mark Memmott / On Deadline: ¬† Court is now monitoring ‚Äòdomestic spying program‚Äô Spencerackerman / toohotfortnr: ¬† DECEIVED ‚Äî ENTRAPMENT BY BELIEF, DISCLOSURE WOULD DECREE: Jet / Gun Toting Liberal ‚Ñ¢: ¬† Everybody‚Äôs a Winner¬† ‚Ä Terrific news on the runaway train front. Creature / State of the Day: ¬† Has the War on Terror ended? The Heretik linked with Card Tricks Macsmind – Conservative Commentary and Common Sense linked with FISA to gain complete authority over Domestic Surveillance? Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator linked with Outsiders To Monitor Wiretap Plan Conservative Thinking linked with Site Updates: Conservative Thinking Trudging Forward Bill’s Bites linked with NSA Eavesdropping Now Court Approved – Permanently [...]
Hooray! Once again “hook, line and sinker”!
BTW in case anyone has heard about this “petition” delivered to Congress from 1,000 active duty against the surge…it has now been fully de-bunked. Check out Mudville Gazette and you will learn that Fenton Communications is behind the whole thing! They never give up, do they?
http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/007574.html
Carol
Leave your response!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories
Tags
Blogroll
News
Archives
Most Commented