NSA data mining is legal, necessary, Chertoff says

[sabra]

http://www.reporter-times.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=30032&format=html

NSA data mining is legal, necessary, Chertoff says
By Morton Kondracke

"I think it's important to point out," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told me in an interview, "that there's no evidence that this is a program designed to achieve political ends or do something nefarious."

He was talking about the National Security Agency's warrantless "domestic spying" program, and I couldn't agree with him more. Despite the alarms sounded by the American Civil Liberties Union, former Vice President Al Gore and various members of Congress, "there hasn't even been a hint" that the program is targeted at domestic dissidents or innocent bystanders, Chertoff said. It's designed to find and stop terrorists.

...

I asked him why the Bush administration can't comply with the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows the government to conduct "emergency" wiretaps for 72 hours.

"It's hard to talk about classified stuff," he said, "but suffice it to say that if you have a large volume of data, a large number of (phone) numbers you're intercepting, the typical model for any kind of warrant requires you to establish probable cause (that one party is a foreign agent) on an individual number."

FISA warrant applications are inches thick, he said, and "if you're trying to sift through an enormous amount of data very quickly, I think it would be impractical." He said that getting an ordinary FISA warrant is "a voluminous, time-consuming process" and "if you're culling through literally thousands of phone numbers ... you could wind up with a huge problem managing the amount of paper you'd have to generate."

Morton Kondracke is executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill.

hmmm, large volum of data, large number of phone numbers?

But Hayden, said this wasn't a drift net...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Domestic-spying-not-illegal-Bush/2006/01/24/1138066771551.html

"This isn't a drift-net out there where we're soaking up everyone's communications," Hayden said.

"This is hot pursuit of communications entering or leaving America involving someone we believe is associated with al-Qaeda," he said at the National Press Club in Washington.

[savemefromdumbya]

1. Chertoff = lying toad

[wordpix2]

23. Chertoff=incompetent lying toad and BushCo board member

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. They can keep saying it until we drag them out

by their feet and hang them... does not make it true.

[tom22]

6. The two quotations contradict themselves. If we are

in hot pursuit of a number linked to Al Quaida it would be easy to get a warrant. We really know very little about what the Bush administration is doing. There appears to be one program which targets virtually every ingoing and outcalling call made in the country. but no one is giving any real detail about what is going on.

[sabra]

15. the fact that Chertoff is admitting that they are dealing with

tons of volume of data, kinda eludes me to believe, they are looking @ everything...

[buddysmellgood]

3. They broke the law. That's the evidence that they are up to no good.

[wordpix2]

24. keep saying it, Dems, as our Sens FILIBUSTER: They broke the law

[jimshoes]

4. Just out of curiosity

Would they mind showing the fruits of all their labors. You know, like arrests, conviction, foiled plots etc. They've been at it for some time now apparently. What can they show?

[sabra]

10. from the article:

<snip>

Buried at the bottom of the Times story were a number of cases where actual terrorist operations had been disrupted, apparently as a result of NSA eavesdropping, including efforts to smuggle a missile launcher into the United States, to cut Brooklyn Bridge cables with a blowtorch and an attempt to blow up a fertilizer bomb in London.

"I would rather move quickly and remove somebody when we've got a legal basis to do so, charge them with a lesser offense (than terrorism) or deport them, than wait till I have a big case with a big press conference. If we wait until people get operational, it's a failure. Somebody could get killed."

The idea that someone could bring down the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch has been ridiculed, but Chertoff said, "People kid about the shoe bomber, but had the bomb gone off and 150 people were killed, I don't think a lot of families would be laughing about it."

:crazy:

[teryang]

34. The shoe bomber!

LOL. A special forces veteran told me that the shoe bomber episode was a hoax. There was no bomb, only plastique. It can't be detonated with a match or lighter.

[Amonester]

30. Good question! My answer would be...

taxpayers' overcharged bill (on their national cc like everything else).

That's what they could show (but won't, again...). :grr:

[Carni]

5. Oh yeah right-

Please--boo hoo, file the f-ing paperwork and STFU

If the OIPR has such stupid people working in it that they can't figure out how to fill out a form, then maybe they need to appoint new people.

[C_U_L8R]

7. These clowns can yammer on all they want...

the simple fact is it's illegal... they broke the law
and they continue to break the law.

all these excuses by Bush and his cronies are entirely irrelevent.

They need to be indicted.
THEY BROKE THE LAW.

THEY BROKE THE LAW.

THEY BROKE THE LAW.

[Carni]

13. "It's the rule of law"

Isn't that what the freepers spouted about "define is"

It was supposedly about perjury amnd how many times has this a-hole admin perjured itself? Too many to count-

[Marie26]

37. ... and they know it. nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Odd, I thought the Constitution was legal and necessary.

Strange, that.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. That old thing?

Just a God-dammned piece of paper!

[Burried News]

11. Then why didn't you seek to change the law. Why didn't you

raise the concerns when the Patriot Act was up for renewal.

Hogwash Chertoff.

http://www.societies.ncl.ac.uk/nuwfc/Roll%20me%20over.htm
"Roll me over in the clover

Roll me over

Lay me down

And do it again

This is number one and the story’s just begun

Roll me over lay me down

And do it again

OOH ARE!"

[sniffa]

12. that's about 8th LBN headLine with

".........." says spying is LegaL, necessary.

has brownie weighed in on this yet?

[sabra]

14. this is BushCo Crony Snooping is good for you PR Blitz Week

didn't you get the memo? :-)

[rodeodance]

18. the busco team sent out the bigwigs--they knew what the heardlines

say.

[wordpix2]

27. their "bigwigs" are people like Jerkoff, who did so well during Katrina

He really has that DHS in order.:puke:

[ewoden]

16. My father always said when . . .

somebody made a statement like "I think it's important to point out,that there's no evidence that this is a program designed to achieve political ends or do something nefarious." It really meant that that is exactly what they were intending to do and just want to head of criticism

[rodeodance]

17. oh, it is one of the biggest nets yet--Chertoff just said it.

[tom22]

19. The NYTimes actually had a story weeks ago

debunking the claim that the Brooklyn Bridge plot was revealed by NSA evesdropping. It played no role in the arrest.

[wordpix2]

29. whoops! Another LIE and they just keep on comin'

[sabra]

20. seems like Chertoff let some of those pesky details slip out...

[wordpix2]

28. reams and reams of data---how about all Google searches for a week to find

child pornographers.
Thse wingnuts are truly crazy

[Thor_MN]

33. Google should feed them the data, but redacted with zeros

every byte that isn't "pedophile." Tell the Bushites the rest is classified as personal.

[newscott]

21. Their tone is so condescending it makes me sick

They sound like what they accuse the Democrats of saying, "The government knows best."

Well we all know the road to hell is paved with the best intentions.

Let's at least enjoy the ride if we can.

[applegrove]

22. Has Chertoff heard about the levees yet?

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

25. Chertoff doesn't get to decide what's legal.

It's not in the job description for "White House Boot-Polisher".

[wordpix2]

26. if nothing 'nefarious,' why won't Roberts investigate?

snip: "I think it's important to point out," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told me in an interview, "that there's no evidence that this is a program designed to achieve political ends or do something nefarious."


snip:

Bush appeared in Kansas alongside Senator Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, who so far has resisted Democratic calls to investigate the eavesdropping program.

[Bozvotros]

31. Stalin: "Gulags legal and necessary"

Hitler: "Prescott's camps legal and necessary"
Sears: "This product wins our award for excellence.
Fox: "Guarding henhouse legal and necessary."

[leesa]

32. Why is this guy not in jail for murdering all those people in NOLA?

[wordpix]

36. yeah, why DOES Jerktoff get to skate free?after all, according to Brownie,

DHS cut FEMA's budget to next-to-nothing and that means Jerktoff should be held accountable.

[Demeter]

35. Sorry. Neither!

Neither legal nor necessary. Part 1 (not legal) is clear to anyone who reads English at an 8th grade level. Not necessary is clear to anyone aware of the report that Kindasleazy and Bush didn't bother to act upon before 9/11, in which all the necessary information was presented without benefits of illegal wiretapping, as far as we know so far, although there have been rumors that the Constitutional violations started even before 9/11.

[ColonelTom]

38. Can't connect the dots? Let's get more of them

Jon Stewart's bit on this was great, but it's perhaps even more comical (and, of course, scarier) coming from the head of Homeland Insecurity:

"If you go back to the post-Sept. 11 analyses and the 9/11 Commission, the whole message was that we were inadequately sensitive to the need to identify the dots and connect them," he said.

"Now, what we're trying to do is gather as many dots as we can, figure out which are the ones that have to be connected and we're getting them connected," he said.

Anyone have an animated gif of Stewart's graphic for this? It was brilliant.