WP, Jan 4, Secret Surveillance May Have Occurred Before Authorization

[deminks]

I ran across this article and just wanted to revisit this again in light of all of the disinformation being catapulted. Sorry if a dupe.

Secret Surveillance May Have Occurred Before Authorization

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/03/AR2006010301460.html?nav=rss_nation/special

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 4, 2006; Page A03

Even before the White House formally authorized a secret program to spy on U.S. citizens without obtaining warrants, such eavesdropping was occurring and some of the information was being shared with the FBI, declassified correspondence and interviews with congressional and intelligence officials indicate.

On Oct. 1, 2001, three weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who was running the National Security Agency at the time, told the House intelligence committee that the agency was broadening its surveillance authorities, according to a newly released letter sent to him that month by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). Pelosi, the ranking Democrat on the committee, raised concerns in the letter, which was declassified with several redactions and made public yesterday by her staff.

"I am concerned whether and to what extent the National Security Agency has received specific presidential authorization for the operations you are conducting," Pelosi wrote on Oct. 11, 2001. The substance of Hayden's response one week later, on Oct. 17, 2001, was redacted.

An intelligence official close to Hayden said that his appearance on Oct. 1, 2001, before the House committee had been to discuss Executive Order 12333, and not the new NSA program.

The order, signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, gave guidance and specific instructions about the intelligence activities that the U.S. government could engage in. It specifically prohibited domestic surveillance for intelligence purposes without a warrant "unless the Attorney General has determined in each case that there is probable cause to believe that the technique is directed against a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power."



So, they thought they were covered by the 1981 EO, but there is that pesky probable cause, so they had to make up authorizations, but they can't say what the date of the authorization was cause it was after they were doing the illegal spying, so they have to say that is a vital tool and dust off OBL to scare everybody and get Jr. to say that everyone should take OBL seriously now even if he doesn't want him dead or alive anymore, and it really is just international calls - trust him, and they have to spin the probable cause out of there and insert reasonable suspicion (who doesn't have that), and the program is so vital but the FBI says they were sent on wild goose chases, and they can't call it domestic spying - lets call it terrorism surveillance or some nonsense. It is all so clear now.

[bettyellen]

1. cool and someone should repost all the times the * said he got warrants

everytime he spied on people.
he said it repeatedly to reassure us. falsely.