Bush: "This is a phone call of an al Qaeda, known al Qaeda suspect, making a phone call"

[sabra]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/23/nsa.strategy/index.html

Bush, former NSA chief present legal basis for program

Monday, January 23, 2006


<snip>

"You know, it's amazing that people say to me, 'Well, he was just breaking the law.' If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?" Bush said, apparently referring to former Vice President Al Gore's accusation last week that he was "breaking the law" by authorizing the program. (Full story)

"These are not phone calls within the United States," Bush said. "This is a phone call of an al Qaeda, known al Qaeda suspect, making a phone call into the United States.

"I'm mindful of your civil liberties, and so I had all kinds of lawyers review the process. We briefed members of the United States Congress ... about this program."

Bush reportedly authorized the National Security Agency to intercept communications between people inside the United States, including American citizens, and terrorist suspects overseas without obtaining a court warrant.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6321173&page=1

Whistleblower: U.S. Snooped on Tony Blair, Iraqi President
Former Intercept Operator Tells ABC News He Saw Blair File, Heard "Pillow Talk" of Iraqi Leader


November 24, 2008—

A former communications intercept operator says U.S. intelligence snooped on the private lives of two of America's most important allies in fighting al Qaeda: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iraq's first interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer.

David Murfee Faulk told ABCNews.com he saw and read a file on Blair's "private life" and heard "pillow talk" phone calls of al-Yawer when he worked as an Army Arab linguist assigned to a secret NSA facility at Fort Gordon, Georgia between 2003 and 2007.

Last month, Faulk and another former military intercept operator assigned to the NSA facility triggered calls for an investigation when they revealed U.S. intelligence intercepted the private phone calls of American journalists, aid workers and soldiers stationed in Iraq.

Faulk says his top secret clearance at Ft. Gordon gave him access to an intelligence data base, called "Anchory," where he says he saw the file on then-British prime minister Tony Blair in 2006.

[babylonsister]

1. The idiot son is sounding a bit defensive, isn't he. Now why is that? nt

[roguevalley]

just when you think he can't sound anymore retarded ...

[roguevalley]

2. just when you think he can't sound anymore retarded ...