Leahy, Specter Press For Answers On Administration’s Domestic Spying Program

[L. Coyote]

Leahy, Specter Press For Answers On Administration’s Domestic Spying Program
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200705/052207a.html

…Leading Judiciary Committee Senators Continue To Seek Information
On Legal Justification For Warrantless Wiretapping Program

WASHINGTON (Tuesday, May 22) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales seeking answers to longstanding questions about the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.

Leahy and Specter renewed earlier requests made by the Committee relating to the legal justifications for the warrantless wiretapping program. The request follows testimony last week by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who revealed that the Justice Department had concerns about the legal basis for the program and refused to certify it for a period of time in 2004.

“This Committee has made no fewer than eight formal requests over the past 18 months – to the White House, the Attorney General, or other Department of Justice officials – seeking documents and information related to this surveillance program. These requests have sought the Executive Branch legal analysis of this program and documents reflecting its authorization by the President,” the senators wrote. “You have rebuffed all requests for documents and your answers to our questions have been wholly inadequate and, at times, misleading.”

Leahy and Specter noted that the information is crucial for the Committee to have before consideration of any of the Administration’s proposed changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). They set a deadline of June 5 for the Justice Department to respond to the inquiry.

A PDF is also available. - http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200705/5-25-07%20PJL%20and%20Specter%20Ltr%20to%20Luskin.pdf

May 21, 2007

The Honorable Alberto Gonzales
Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Gonzalez:

Last week we heard dramatic and deeply troubling testimony from former Deputy Attorney General Comey. He testified that in March 2004, when he was Acting Attorney General, he informed the White House that the Department of Justice had concluded an ongoing classified surveillance program had “no legal basis” and would not certify it. He then described how you, then Counsel to the President, and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card arrived at the hospital bedside of an extremely ill Attorney General Ashcroft and attempted to persuade him to certify the program. When you failed, because Mr. Ashcroft refused, Mr. Comey testified that the program was nonetheless certified over the objections of the Department of Justice. That apparently prompted a number of high-ranking Justice officials to consider resigning en masse.

This incident obviously raises very serious questions about your personal behavior and commitment to the rule of law. Mr. Comey’s testimony also demonstrates vividly how essential it is that this Committee understands the legal underpinnings of the surveillance program that was the subject of that incident, and how the legal justification evolved over time. The stonewalling by you and the Administration must end. The Committee on the Judiciary is charged with overseeing and legislating on constitutional protections, civil and criminal justice, civil liberties, and the Judiciary, all subjects that this matter impacts. We intend to do our job.

This Committee has made no fewer than eight formal requests over the past 18 months – to the White House, the Attorney General, or other Department of Justice officials – seeking documents and information related to this surveillance program. These requests have sought the Executive Branch legal analysis of this program and documents reflecting its authorization by the President. You have rebuffed all requests for documents and your answers to our questions have been wholly inadequate and, at times, misleading.

We note also that the Administration has offered a legislative proposal that it contends seeks to “modernize” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). As you know, the Judiciary Committee has historically overseen changes to FISA and it is this Committee’s responsibility to review the Administration’s proposal with great care. The draft legislation would make dramatic and far-reaching changes to a critical national security authority. Before we can even begin to consider any such legislative proposal, we must be given appropriate access to the information necessary to carry out our oversight and legislative duties.

This Administration has asserted that it established its program of warrantless wiretapping by the NSA because it deemed FISA’s requirements to be incompatible with the needs of the intelligence community in fighting terrorism. You testified in January that the warrantless wiretapping program had been terminated and that henceforth surveillance would be conducted pursuant to authorization from the FISA Court. To consider any changes to FISA, it is critical that this Committee understand how the Department and the FISA Court have interpreted FISA and the perceived flaws that led the Administration to operate a warrantless surveillance program outside of FISA’s provisions for over five years.

Your consistent stonewalling and misdirection have prevented this Committee from carrying out its constitutional oversight and legislative duties for far too long. We understand that much of the information we seek may currently be classified, but that can be no excuse for failing to provide relevant information to all members of this Committee and select, cleared staff. We will, of course, handle it with the greatest care and consistent with security requirements.

Therefore, we reiterate our requests for the following documents and ask that you provide them to this Committee no later than June 5, 2007:

1) Please provide all documents that reflect the President’s authorization and reauthorization of the warrantless electronic surveillance program that you have called the Terrorist Surveillance Program, including any predecessor programs, from 2001 to the present;

2) Please provide all memoranda or other documents containing analysis or opinions from the Department of Justice, the National Security Agency, the Department of Defense, the White House, or any other entity within the Executive Branch on legality of or legal basis for the warrantless electronic surveillance program, including documents that describe why the desired surveillance would not or could not take place consistent with the requirements and procedures of FISA from 2001 to the present;

3) Please provide all documents reflecting communications with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) about the warrantless electronic surveillance program or the types of surveillance that previously were conducted as part of that program, that contain legal analysis, arguments, or decisions concerning the interpretation of FISA, the Fourth Amendment, the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or the President’s authority under Article II of the Constitution, including the January 2007 FISC orders to which you refer in your January 17, 2007 letter to us and all other opinions or orders of the FISA court with respect to this surveillance;

4) If you do not consider the surveillance program that was the subject of discussion during the hospital visit and other events that former Deputy Attorney General James Comey described in his May 15, 2007 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be covered by the requests made above, please provide all documents described in those requests relevant to that program, as well.

We emphasize that we are seeking the legal justifications and analysis underlying these matters and not the specific operational details or information obtained by the surveillance.

Sincerely,

==============================
DIA SPYING: NGIA collecting data, 133 U.S. cities, ID everyone, nationality, political affiliations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x983282

CIFA collected info on peace activists and anti-Bush protesters.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=899312&mesg_id=982962

Campaign 2004: Were Bush / Cheney / NSA illegal wiretaps spying on Dems?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x925247

[liberal N proud]

1. Why now?

Do they need to look like they are doing something? They should have done something about this before it got this far.

[L. Coyote]

2. DIG DEEPER 2006: Leahy, Kennedy Press For Information = Inquiry Of Warrantless Spying,

Leahy, Kennedy Press For Information
On Court Cases Potentially Compromised
By Bush Administration's Illegal Domestic Spying Program

...As Judiciary Committee Continues Inquiry Of Warrantless Spying,
Panel's Leading Democrats Seek Info On Current Cases
Where Parties Claim Evidence Was Illegally Obtained
Through Administration's Unlawful Program
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200603/031706.html

WASHINGTON (Friday, March 17) -- Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) Friday sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales seeking information on court cases that may have been compromised by the Bush Administration’s illegal domestic spying program.

In their oversight letter, Leahy, the ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, and Kennedy, a senior member of the panel, ask Gonzales to provide the committee with information on all legal challenges where parties in the case are claiming evidence was illegally obtained through the illegal program or any others operated outside the law.

The Judiciary Committee has been conducting an inquiry of the warrantless wiretapping program since it was revealed late last year. The Committee is expected to hold more hearings in the coming months.

Below is the text of the letter.

# # # # #

March 17, 2006

Dear Attorney General Gonzales:

According to press accounts, several terrorism defendants have filed legal challenges to the President’s program of electronic surveillance of Americans without a warrant. These include Ali al-Timimi, a Virginia Islamic scholar convicted of inciting his followers to train for violent jihad, and Iyman Faris, an Ohio truck driver convicted of plotting with al Qaeda to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge. In addition, a federal judge postponed sentencing Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a Virginia man convicted of conspiring to assassinate President Bush, pending further assurance by the government that no information used against him was obtained through warrantless surveillance.

The Judiciary Committee is continuing its inquiry into the President’s “Terrorist Surveillance Program”, and we ask that you send for our review a list of every criminal case in which a defendant is alleging that evidence was illegally obtained through this program or any other program involving foreign intelligence surveillance outside of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. For each case listed, please provide a brief description of the offense, the legal claims raised by the defendant, and the current status of the litigation. In addition, please provide copies of all rulings by any court that address this issue. Finally, we ask that you update these materials on a continuing basis as significant developments, including rulings by any court, occur.

We look forward to your prompt reply to this inquiry.

Sincerely,

PATRICK LEAHY EDWARD M. KENNEDY
Ranking Member United States Senato

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. Whats up with this "Please" shit? Either provide the info or

go to jail! No please needed.

[L. Coyote]

4. I have to say, this PR thing is kinder and gentler than the law requires.

But, imagine the screaming, whining, cry-babying, howling, and endles harangues about Dems in MSM and talk radio if they abandon the polite approach before a majority demands that they do so. I think they have a keen sense of critical mass and how to get there.

We too have to keep up our digging and connecting the dots to achieve it. And we will.
Remember Woodward and Bernstien. The blogosphere has the same function.

Be the media the media reads!

[OffWithTheirHeads]

5. We are dealing with mass murdering war criminals!

Kinder and gentler is for dope dealers. Hang the bastards already!

[L. Coyote]

6. kick in agreement

[L. Coyote]

7. NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
Updated 5/11/2006 10:38 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm


By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns .....

===================

Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated by President Bush to become the director of the CIA, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005. In that post, Hayden would have overseen the agency's domestic phone record collection program.

REACTION
From the White House: ''The intelligence activities undertaken by the United States government are lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans from terrorist attacks,'' said Dana Perino,

From Capitol Hill: - Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel ''to find out exactly what is going on.''

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the panel, sounded incredulous ... ''Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al Qaeda?'' Leahy asked. ''These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything ... Where does it stop?''

....

The report came as the former NSA director, Gen. Michael Hayden - Bush's choice to take over leadership of the CIA ...

Gen. Michael Hayden, principal deputy director of national intelligence, and now Bush's nominee to head the CIA, at the National Press Club, Jan. 23, 2006:

"The program ... is not a drift net over (U.S. cities such as) Dearborn or Lackawanna or Fremont, grabbing conversations that we then sort out by these alleged keyword searches or data-mining tools or other devices that so-called experts keep talking about.

"This is targeted and focused. This is not about intercepting conversations between people in the United States. This is hot pursuit of communications entering or leaving America involving someone we believe is associated with al-Qaeda. ... This is focused. It's targeted. It's very carefully done. You shouldn't worry."