Vaughn R. Walker



Federal Judge Finds N.S.A. Wiretapping Program Illegal

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's"Domestic Investigations and Operation Guide"



NY Times

Government

An FBI agent's notes stated that then-White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and Pres. G. W. Bush called the hospital room, and that Ashcroft's wife had taken the call. Card would not sit for an interview with the IGs about his dramatic visit with then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales to the hospital bedside of an ailing Ashcroft. Gonzales told the inspectors general that Bush instructed him to go to the hospital to obtain Ashcroft's signature on a document that would green-light continuation of the program. "Extraordinary and inappropriate" secrecy about a warrantless eavesdropping program undermined its effectiveness as a terrorism-fighting tool, government watchdogs have concluded in the first examination of one of the most contentious episodes of the Bush administration. WP NYT Reader, report

Recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged by the National Security agency. here

Overcollection of American e-mail
Overcollection problems appear to have been uncovered as part of a twice-annual certification that the Justice Department and the director of national intelligence are required to give to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on the protocols that the N.S.A. is using in wiretapping. Congress gave the N.S.A. broad new authority to collect, without court-approved warrants, vast streams of international phone and e-mail traffic as it passed through American telecommunications gateways. The targets of the eavesdropping had to be “reasonably believed” to be outside the United States. Under the new legislation, however, the N.S.A. still needed court approval to monitor the purely domestic communications of Americans who came under suspicion. The issue appears now focused on technical problems in the N.S.A.’s ability at times to distinguish between communications inside the United States and those overseas as it uses its access to American telecommunications companies’ fiber-optic lines and its own spy satellites to intercept millions of calls and e-mail messages. That led the agency to inadvertently “target” groups of Americans and collect their domestic communications.

A new ruling is expected to have broad implications for federal wiretapping law. Barack Obama, when a United States senator, was highly critical of the presidential wiretapping power claimed by Mr. Bush, and threatened to filibuster the final bill. But he ultimately voted for the Protect America Act. A federal appeals court has now for the first time has ruled on the constitutional question of the president’s wiretapping power.


The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, in a decision released January 15 '09, has found that the Protect America Act did not violate the Constitution because the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, contained an exception for the collection of foreign intelligence information.

The opinion is not expected to directly rule on the legality of the once-secret operation authorized by President Bush between October 2001 and early 2007, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international communications of Americans suspected of ties to terrorists. The disclosure of the program’s existence in The New York Times in December 2005 set off a national debate on wiretapping, privacy and the limits of presidential power. Critics charged that Mr. Bush had violated a 1978 law requiring that the government obtain a court order to listen in on Americans’ communications.

McCain: Stop! I'm for Amnesty for Lawbreaking Telecoms
Neither the Administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions...were Constitutional and appropriate. here
See Salon
Wired

A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. here

FBI will create a modern identification system for catching criminals and terrorists
April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense company, said first-quarter earnings rose 5.8 percent as higher U.S. government computer sales and revenue from development of new NASA spacecraft helped overcome lower F-16 deliveries.
In February, Lockheed added to its role as the largest supplier of computer services and support to the U.S. federal government by winning an order valued at as much as $1 billion from the FBI. The 10-year contract will create a modern identification system for catching criminals and terrorists. here

The legal siege against the Bush administration’s counterterrorism programs goes far beyond the C.I.A., including lawsuits brought on behalf of hundreds of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and more than 40 challenges in court to the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program.

SWIFT Orwellian example of government overreaching
Two American banking customers have sued Swift on invasion-of-privacy grounds. Legal and financial analysts had expected that the suit would have been thrown out because American banking privacy laws are considered much laxer than those in much of Europe.

But the chief judge in Federal District Court in Chicago,[Northern District] James F. Holderman, ruled in June that he would allow the suit to proceed, partly on grounds of claims of a Fourth Amendment violation and his finding that Swift’s arguments on that point were “unpersuasive.” here

Broad new surveillance powers
Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said.

here

documents withheld
Four senators suspect that the Justice Department have failed to turn over all relevant documents related to the dismissals of eight United States attorneys.
Justice said they turned over all relevant materials, but held back sensitive personnel information about most prosecutors other than those who were removed.

The signers of the letter were one Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and three Democrats, Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the Judiciary Committee chairman; Dianne Feinstein of California; and Charles E. Schumer of New York.

Among the missing documents the senators mentioned was a chart cited in a Feb. 12, 2007, e-mail message from Monica Goodling, a former aide to Mr. Gonzales, to other department officials.

The senators suggested that other documents had been withheld, like biographies of each of the 93 prosecutors in briefing books provided for Mr. Gonzales in December in preparation for a meeting of United States attorneys. here
A top aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales resigned, in the aftermath of last year’s dismissals of eight United States attorneys. The aide, Monica Goodling, had said that she would invoke her constitutional right not to testify because she did not expect fair treatment in the current climate of political hostility. here

Redactions
Sen. Leahy also complained about the 3,000 documents the Justice Department handed over to the committees late Monday, saying redactions in the documents make them unworkable.

"Instead of freely and fully providing relevant documents to the investigating committees, they have only selectively sent documents, after erasing large portions that they do not want to see the light of day," he said.

here

E-mail Gap
Miers responded , "Not sure whether this will be determined to require the boss's attention" and noted that President Bush had left town the night before. Sampson then asked, "Who will determine whether this requires the president's attention?" There is no follow-up response in the documents so far released
here

e-mails, more promised

Document deadline missed
On March 16, the administration missed a deadline to turn over new documents in a congressional investigation into whether the firings were part of a larger effort to politicize the department. The Justice Department said it would turn over on Mar. 19 the remaining documents that Congress requested. But the White House offered no such assurance. here

warrantless domestic eavesdropping program
Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews.

Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe in April 2006 by taking the unusual step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work. here

a profoundly disturbing breach of public trust

The FBI in 2005 reported to Congress that its agents had delivered a total of 9,254 national security letters seeking e-mail, telephone or financial information on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents over the previous two years. Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine's report says the number of letters was underreported by 20 percent, according to the officials.
Sen. Charles Schumer, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees the FBI, called the reported findings "a profoundly disturbing breach of public trust." here

Feith the scapegoat?
The long-awaited report by the Pentagon’s acting inspector general, Thomas F. Gimble, on the investigation into the handling of prewar intelligence was sent to Congress, centering on Douglas J. Feith, who at the time was under secretary of defense for policy. here Executive Summary of the Report (From Sen. Levin's Office. PDF format)