FISA JUDGE: "You Can't Trust The Executive"

[kpete]

Judge criticizes warrantless wiretaps By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer
50 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A federal judge who used to authorize wiretaps in terrorist and espionage cases criticized President Bush's decision to order warrantless surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Royce Lamberth, a district court judge in Washington, said Saturday it was proper for executive branch agencies to conduct such surveillance. "But what we have found in the history of our country is that you can't trust the executive," he said at the American Library Association's convention.

"We have to understand you can fight the war (on terrorism) and lose everything if you have no civil liberties left when you get through fighting the war," said Lamberth, who was appointed by President Reagan.

The judge disagreed with letting the executive branch alone decide which people to spy on in national security cases.

more at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070623/ap_on_go_pr_wh/domestic_spying;_ylt=Amtb6kKCB_M5_w6qHrw31Oph24cA

[SpiralHawk]

1. "How could any American trust a deserter like Bush?" - Judge Almighty

"I mean, after all the lies Commander AWOL and Dickie "Five Military Deferments" have told to the American people to foment thier oil-profits crusade, who could believe anything they say? They have established themselves as the SKANKIEST LIARS in the history of the United States of America

The fact of the matter is they are republicons, and republicons lie, cheat and steal all the time -- as the record plainly shows"

- Judge Almighty

[19jet54]

17. Even if he was a war hero...

... I would still want the checks and balances our Constitution implements - FISA was implemented because of past Presidential indiscretions of over zealous ex-vet Prez'.

BTW - I agree 100% with your appraisal of our Commander-in-Thief and his side-kick Cheney!

[havocmom]

2. LOL damned activist judges - appointed by Reagan...

Can't wait to hear what the neocon fascist noise machine whips up against Judge Lamberth for daring to defend the lawful exercise of government powers and point out the lawlessness of the bush/cheney traitors.

[Disturbed]

5. The question is: Why did the Busholini Regime go forth

with Warrantless Spying? The FISA Law was violated numerous times. If Spying can take place for 72 hours before a Warrant must be obtained what is the problem with obtaining one if the action can be shown to have "reasonable cause"?

[Gabi Hayes]

3. did 911 happen preCISELY because of abuse of FISA requests?

check this out, Rowley vs. FBI vs. FISA?:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3067203/

...... from the now-famous memo Minneapolis agent Coleen Rowley sent to Robert Mueller, director of the FBI, now widely known as the Federal Bureau of Incompetence. The May 21, 2002 memo, obtained by Time, is one scary document. It suggests that we have a bunch of time-servers protecting our security, that no one is in charge of anything. If any of this changed after September 11, Rowley, a highly regarded veteran of the bureau, does not say so.

Without mentioning names, Rowley basically fingers a mid-level FBI supervisory agent in the Hoover Building (in Washington) named Dave Frasca, who was supposed to be running the task force on religious fanatics. After the Minneapolis office took flight-student and hijacker-wannabe Zacarias Moussaoui into custody and obtained intelligence from the French indicating that he had terrorist ties, alert Minnesota agents didn’t just passively push the case up the chain of command. They became, in Rowley’s words, “desperate to search his computer laptop.” So desperate that they risked the wrath of higher ups by committing a real pre-9-11 no-no: contacting the CIA.

Headquarters personnel didn’t just deny the request to probe Moussaoui further. Even though they were “privy to many more sources of intelligence information than field agents,” as Rowley plaintively put it, they “continued to, almost inexplicably, throw up roadblocks and undermine Minneapolis’ by-now desperate attempts to obtain a search warrant.”

Because Frasca’s not commenting publicly, we haven’t heard the other side of the story. But as anyone who has ever worked in an office knows, HQ always has its own take on events, and sometimes it’s even right. In this case a federal judge in Washington, Royce C. Lamberth, grew annoyed at the poor documentation involved in requests from federal prosecutors for search warrants and wiretaps. One prosecutor so angered Lamberth that he was actually barred from seeking any more approvals from judges, a move that sent a chilling career message down through the ranks of the Justice Department. So Frasca, knowing which way the wind was blowing in Washington, wasn’t just going to rubber stamp the Minneapolis request.

Moreover, the very fact that HQ is, in Rowley’s words, “privy to many more sources of intelligence” is actually a hindrance, not necessarily a sign of negligence. The more intelligence chaff that comes in, the harder it is to find the wheat. Frasca should have the chance to explain that, and Judge Lamberth should explain why he thought the warrant process was being abused.

[Kagemusha]

13. Am I reading this correctly? The writer is blaming Lamberth for 9/11?

Seriously? (Re: the 'chilling message' that made the Justice Department not rubber stamp the warrant for the 20th Hijacker which Could Have Stopped 9/11.)

[leveymg]

20. Some important background on the FISA warrant wars

Judge Lamberth was the whipping boy of those who wanted to do away with the FISA warrant process altogether. Lamberth has been blaimed by some for contributing to the construction of "The Wall", a series of legal regulations that kept wiretaps authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Court (FISC) from being used for domestic criminal investigations, for which a Title III warrant is required. But, that would not accurately portray the problem.

The biggest problem with FISA warrants, as some in the CIA and FBI saw them, was that they left a paper trail. That was a major problem in sensitive, compartmentalized covert operations, such as the ones that tracked "friendly" intelligence organzizations inside the US, and Saudi money flows to terrorist organizations and nuclear proliferators.

The enmity toward FISA requirements was NOT because it was particularly difficult to get a warrant issued. The burden of proof for investigators to get a FISA warrant is much lower in national security cases than that required to obtain a warrant in a normal criminal investigation. About 99.98 percent of the applications for FISA warrants prior to 9/11 were approved. Maybe three or four applications were denied in twenty years.

But, that didn't stop some people in the intelligence community from trying their damnedest to get around the requirements. The FBI and other U.S. agencies went to great lengths to avoid filing FISA requests in bin Laden-related cases, and in several cases false information was filed with the FISC. and some ranking DOJ officials have been accused of misconduct in the FISA process to stymie counter-terrorism field investigations, with the 9/11 attacks a direct result.

***

Another name that figures prominently in the FISA wars is a former FBI Agent in Chicago named Robin Wright.

Wright got perilously close to a conflict within the U.S. Government over U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine, and issues over how to deal with wealthy Saudis. That resulted in the loss of his career. It is alleged that Hamas was allowed to raise funds and carry out planning inside the U.S. with relative impunity because Hamas operated to advance the extremist elements within Israel, and their allies within the U.S., including some ranking FBI officials. Much of the money that Hamas received was being provided by a wealthy Saudi, Yassin al-Qadi, who served on the board of the holding company owned by the Bin Laden Family. Qadi also served as the U.S. agent for a larger group of extremely wealthy Saudis and Gulf Arabs involved in funding jihadist groups. Some of the same funding sources tapped by Hamas also financed terrorist attacks inside the U.S., including the 1993 WTC bombing and the 1998 Embassy bombings. See, http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/...

n 2003, will suggest that in addition to such incompetence, his investigations into Hamas operatives living in the US were deliberately blocked so Hamas would be able to foment enough violence in Israel to derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He will allege that some people in the FBI had a political agenda regarding Israel contrary to President Clinton’s (see June 2, 2003).

SNIP

A lawyer speaking for Wright after 9/11 will blame Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Michael Chertoff for refusing to take Wright’s concerns seriously before 9/11. Chertoff will later be promoted to head the Department of Homeland Security.

SNIP

In 1997, a Congressional analyst will say it is estimated Hamas receives from 30 percent to 80 percent of its budget from sources inside the US.

SNIP

Shortly after 9/11, the Treasury Department will claim that Muwafaq funded Makhtab al-Khidamat (MAK) (the predecessor of al-Qaeda), al-Qaeda, Hamas . . .
The MAK, or Service Organization, was founded during the 1980s and became the anti-Soviet Mujahaddin's principal logistical organization for jihadist fighters travelling to receive advanced CIA-directed training inside the United States. The head of that of MAK worldwide organization, which included recruiting offices in Brooklyn and Detroit, was Osama bin Laden.

After his falling out with the CIA in the early 1990s, bin Laden went on to utilize the same network that linked wealthy Saudi bankers and industrialists with a CIA trained army of jihadists, who bin Laden reorganized into al-Qaeda. See, http://en.wikipedia.org/...

After leaving college in 1979 bin Laden joined Abdullah Azzam<36><37> to fight the Soviet Invasion<38>
SNIP

Years later, in 1989, Azzam was blown up in a massive car bombing outside the mosque. Bin Laden is thought by some to be a suspect in that assassination, because of a rift in the direction of the jihad at that time.<41>

SNIP

By 1984, with Azzam, bin Laden had established a Saudi Arabian funded organization named Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK, Office of Order in English), which funneled money, arms and Muslim fighters from around the Arabic world into the Afghan war. Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's inherited family fortune paid for air tickets and accommodation, dealt with paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihad fighters. In running al-Khadamat, bin Laden set up a network of couriers traveling between Afghanistan and Peshawar, which continued to remain active after 2001, according to Yusufzai.

Robin Cook, former leader of the British House of Commons and Foreign Secretary from 1997-2001, wrote in The Guardian on Friday, July 8, 2005,

Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.<43>
It should therefore come as no surprise that both Lambeth and Wright both encountered enormous difficulties in attempting to grapple with the complicated relationships and institutions that continue to tie togther powerful players in the U.S. and the Middle East.

Thought this might provide some context to recent comments by Judge Lambeth and General Hayden.

[aquart]

4. Lamberth? LAMBERTH SAID THIS????

There's a meteor hurtling toward earth right this second, isn't there?

[rodeodance]

6. "I have seen a proposal for a worse way and that's what the president did with the NSA program."

"I haven't seen a proposal for a better way than presenting an application to the FISA court and having an independent judge decide if it's really the kind of thing that we ought to be doing, recognizing that how we view civil liberties is different in time of war," he said.

"I have seen a proposal for a worse way and that's what the president did with the NSA program."

Lamberth said the FISA court met the challenge of acting quickly after Sept. 11. Lamberth was stuck in a car pool lane near the Pentagon when a hijacked jet slammed into it that day. With his car enveloped in smoke, he called marshals to help him get into the District of Columbia.

By the time officers reached him, "I had approved five FISA coverages (warrants) on my cell phone," Lamberth said. He also approved other warrants at his home at 3 a.m. and on Saturdays.

[mmonk]

7. Yes, our system is built on mistrust of concentrated power.

Or used to be.

[Canuckistanian]

8. A FISA judge must be like a Maytag repairman these days

Seriously, do they do any work? Is there any indication that they've been approving wiretaps and searches lately?

[Gabi Hayes]

10. they've been almost complete rubberstamps for warrants in the past

http://www.slate.com/id/2088106/

PATRIOT II/FISA

The law before and how it changed: In 1978 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act created an exception to the Fourth Amendment's "probable cause requirement" for physical searches, wiretaps, and subpoenas of business records. FISA created a secret court that granted search warrants so long as a pleading before a closed court asserted that the "primary purpose" of the search or wire tap was to gather foreign intelligence. The warrant needn't be based on a suspicion of criminal behavior. But the target had to be "linked to foreign espionage." In theory, American citizens were safe unless they were suspected "agents of a foreign power."

A good indicator of the objectivity of the FISA court: It rejected only five of the 14,000 warrant applications it received before 2001, although it recently became clear that many of those warrants were based on false allegations. The FISA court is not supposed to second-guess the government. These are not adversarial proceedings. Nor does the FISA court maintain ongoing oversight over the surveillance. Patriot amends FISA to allow searches when "a significant purpose" is intelligence-gathering. Not "primary," but significant. Now you can be subject to secret searches authorized by a secret court so long as there is any foreign intelligence component (and increasingly, drug-related offenses are deemed to have a terrorist component). Moreover, the party to be searched need not be connected to foreign espionage anymore.

It's enough that the government may merely learn something about a terror investigation. Section 207 of the act lengthens the durations of FISA warrants to as long as 120 days in some cases. Finally, under the pre-Patriot FISA and Title III, fruits of FISA search warrants could be used only for information-gathering, not for prosecution. But now intelligence information obtained using FISA's lower standards for probable cause can be passed along for prosecution purposes.

How it's been implemented: Since Patriot expanded the small number of cases in which a FISA court might authorize a search warrant, the number of warrants issued has, unsurprisingly, risen slightly. The FISA court approved 1,228 applications for warrants in 2002, up from 934 in 2001 and 1,012 in 2000. (The number of warrants issued was consistently below 1,000 throughout the '90s.) When asked by the House Judiciary Committee in 2002 how many of these warrants met the "significant purpose" standard but would have failed to meet the "primary purpose" standard, the DOJ hedged, saying they'd kept no statistics on the distinction.

[Canuckistanian]

14. That's what makes it all the more suspicious

The notoriously promiscuous FISA court AND the retroactive warrant seeking procedures make it highly doubtful that the searches were carried out for a legitimate reason.

You can only come to ONE conclusion - that the searches were used for purely domestic investigations.

[originalpckelly]

9. "who was appointed by President Reagan"

I have a feeling, even Ronnie's rolling because of this shit. Look at Bruce Fine, who was also in Reagan's admin.

[proud patriot]

11. be sure to recommend story at link

:hi:

[dkofos]

12. I wish this guy would say that on national TV

[Gold Metal Flake]

15. kick

[Mnemosyne]

16. KnR n/t

[Kablooie]

18. But now Cheney isn't part of the executive so you CAN trust HIM.

[pacalo]

19. "We're making sure there's not some political shenanigan going on..."

"...or some improper motive for the surveillance," Lamberth said. "The fact that they have to submit it to us keeps them honest."

Most partisan, political "president" ever.

Most super-super-secret "president" ever.

Political shenanigans? Ya think?

[DemReadingDU]

21. evening kick