Pelosi releases declassified letter outlining NSA concerns she wrote four

[sabra]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Pelosi_releases_declassified_letter_outling_NSA_0103.html

Pelosi releases declassified letter outlining NSA concerns she wrote four years ago

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Washington, D.C. - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi today released the following letter, which she wrote four years ago when she was Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and was recently declassified at her request. The letter to Lieutenant General Michael Hayden, then National Security Agency (NSA) Director, expressed concerns about NSA electronic surveillance activities and the authority for those activities. Pelosi also released the response letter from Hayden. Both Pelosi's letter and Hayden's response were redacted when they were declassified.


The text of letters follow:


October 11, 2001


Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden, USAF

Director

National Security Agency

Fort George G. Mead, Maryland 20755

Washington, D.C. 20340-1001


Dear General Hayden:


During your appearance before the committee on October 1, you indicated that you had been operating since the September 11 attacks with an expansive view of your authorities with respect to the conduct of electronic surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and related statutes, orders, regulations, and guidelines. You seemed to be inviting expressions of concern from us, if there were any, and, after the briefing was over and I had a chance to reflect on what you said, I instructed staff to get more information on this matter for me. For several reasons, including what I consider to be an overly broad interpretation of President Bush's directive of October 5 on sharing with Congress "classified or sensitive law enforcement information" it has not been possible to get answers to my questions.


Without those answers, the concerns I have about what you said on the 1st can not be resolved, and I wanted to bring them to your attention directly. You indicated that you were treating as a matter of first impression,
] being of foreign intelligence interest. As a result, you were forwarding the intercepts, and any information without first receiving a request for that identifying information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Although I may be persuaded by the strength of your analysis I believe you have a much more difficult case to make Therefore, I am concerned whether, and to what extent, the National Security Agency has received specific presidential authorization for the operations you are conducting. Until I understand better the legal analysis regarding the sufficiency of the authority which underlies your decision on the appropriate way to proceed on this matter, I will continue to be concerned.


Sincerely,


NANCY PELOSI

Ranking Democrat

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[elehhhhna]

2. Oh and a lovely "Welcome to DU" to you, too!

[NoMoDem]

5. good thing..

she did that 4 years ago. Wouldn't it be CYA if she did it last week?

[LostinVA]

7. My thoughts exactly -- welcome to DU

[Lochloosa]

15. NoMoDem...welcome to DU

:toast:

[LostinVA]

3. I think there's a huge difference

Pelosi isn't perfect, but she sure as hell isn't Condi Rice. How si she CYAing? She legally couldn't say anything until now. Yeah, better for a Dem Congress critter to be thrown out of elected office.... whatever.

I love people with less than 20 posts coming on here and slamming Dems. How about slamming those that gave her the reason to write the damn letter???

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LostinVA]

8. You have no idea what you're talking about

She wrote this four years ago.

And, I am neither mentally challenged nor a "party fundie."

Transparent as glass, Rehnl. Go play somewhere else.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LostinVA]

12. Yawn....

[stop the bleeding]

18. Somthing tells me your "friend"

will not live to see the sunset here on DU.

[LostinVA]

20. You were right!

[Don Claybrook]

4. Like a bug into the freaking zapper

You meant to come here and lay low for awhile, but you saw the pretty blue light and just had to fly straight toward it.

Try again.

[LostinVA]

9. I think classes at Bob Jones starts soon

So, at least that'll keep him busy....

[elehhhhna]

11. OUCH! lol

[LostinVA]

13. *giggle*

[joefree1]

14. Yeah? Where's Condoleezza's letter?

Are we having fun watching the rethuglicans try to bury or run away from this story? Yeeha! :popcorn:

Anybody hungry?

[peacebird]

21. fantastic image!

Aggressive Progressive!

:toast:

[Blue_Roses]

16. so fucking what!

it's a damn good thing she did with these liars she is dealing with!

[Mojorabbit]

17. I think what bothers me is

that this letter is so tame. In my ideal universe the letters would be full of outrage and demands in capital letters for more info and clarification. Sigh.

[Supersedeas]

19. Most probably, the information we now have is broader than the information

shared with her to begin with.

Sounds like she didn't know how to respond because she didn't understand the full scope of the program.