A detailed chronology of FISA:

[BuyingThyme]

1978: It' a bill or something.

2001: Bush, Cheney, Pelosi et al start spying on Americans without warrants, not simply in violation of FISA, but in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

2001, 9/11: America is attacked by non-Americans.

2004: The New York Times discovers that Bush, Cheney, Pelosi et al have been spying on Americans since before 9/11, but they withhold this information from the public in a successful effort to rig the presidential (re)election to the favor of Bush.

2006: Cheney insists that the attacks would have been prevented had he been allowed to spy on non-Americans before 9/11.

2006: Pelosi takes the Constitution off the table, thus protecting herself and her colleagues from from being removed from office and imprisoned for spying on Americans on the days leading up to the 9/11 attacks.

2007: Americans start putting the pieces together.

2008: Tel-com companies are given immunity for the sole purpose of preventing further investigations into the illegal spying, thus preventing further investigations into the events leading up to the 9/11 attacks.

2009: Americans realize that the 9/11 attacks never could have been accomplished without the preemptive implementation of a warrantless wiretapping program which was specifically designed to monitor the activities not of non-Americans, but of Americans in the days leading up to the attacks.

[seemslikeadream]

1. not of non-Americans, but of Americans

[kirby]

2. Update 1978:

The 'It's a bill or something' is very important. FISA was passed specifically because of abuses by President Nixon who used the intelligence apparatus of the executive branch to spy on Americans - civil rights people, political opponents, etc.

[BuyingThyme]

3. But FISA has nothing to do with any of this except to the extent

that they're "updating" it for the sole purpose of protecting the criminals.

[kirby]

4. I'm confused?

You posted a 'Chronology of FISA'. I was providing you with details on WHY FISA came about and how things are coming full circle.

[BuyingThyme]

5. The point is that they use FISA to hide what they're actually doing.

Nothing they've done has ever been legal under FISA, but we're watching these bastards debate their own crimes as if it's simply a matter of updating the law.

FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Bush, Cheney, Pelosi et al ain't spying on foreigners; they're spying on us.

[Snotcicles]

6. BINGO. nt