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By Richard Brookhiser
$10.72
28.99
$22
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Flickr/otfrom
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In cities across the country, the government is installing sophisticated audio surveillance equipment on public transit to listen in on passengers.
Posted on Dec 11, 2012
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Flickr/ massmatt
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The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case against the nation’s telecommunications companies for cooperating with a once-secret wiretap program enacted by the Bush administration to monitor suspected terrorists.
Posted on Oct 9, 2012
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Warrantless wiretapping makes for a rollicking good time at the National Security Agency, according to moral crusader Stephen Colbert, who’s not above a little dramatic re-enactment of his own biblically inspired carnal fantasies (for illustrative purposes only).
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Executive Office of the President of the United States
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You know a legislative compromise is one-sided when the AP headline announcing its passage reads “Senate Bows to Bush.” Democratic advocates of the new FISA bill, passed by the Senate on Wednesday, are still trying to explain what they got in exchange for rolling back a few civil liberties and burying some of the president’s abuses. When they figure it out, someone, somewhere, will surely be listening.
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boston.com
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At the request of House Republicans, Congress on Thursday held a closed-door session to debate the FISA warrantless eavesdropping bill. The last time a closed-door session occurred was in 1983, when lawmakers convened in secret to discuss clandestine U.S. support of Contra paramilitaries in Nicaragua.
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wikipedia.org
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CIA Director Michael Hayden told lawmakers Thursday that waterboarding is a useful technique but might not be “lawful under current statute.” Hayden said his agency used waterboarding because of “misshaped and misformed” direction from Washington.
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By Amy Goodman — One of the 20th century’s greatest journalists, interviewers and storytellers is alive and working at age 95: Studs Terkel offers both the wisdom of age and keen insight into the issues of today.
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AP photo / Evan Vucci
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In a scathing editorial on Sunday, The New York Times accused President Bush of playing on the nation’s post-9/11 fears in order to justify violating our civil liberties and protecting big telecom companies implicated in his wiretapping scheme. The Bush camp “use[d] the nation’s tragedy to grab ever more power for its vision of an imperial presidency,” the Times editorial board charged.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee is going big-game hunting with a slew of subpoenas related to the Bush administration’s controversial eavesdropping program. Chairman Patrick Leahy has signed subpoenas for Dick Cheney’s office, the White House, the Justice Department and the National Security Council.
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We earlier blogged that legislation authorizing the NSA’s wiretapping program was nearing passage. That now appears not to be the case. Senate and House versions of the bill may be too far apart to be bridged before Congress recesses next week.
Posted on Sep 26, 2006
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This version of the president’s warrantless eavesdropping bill—which appears headed for passage—will apparently still allow Bush the option of submitting his surveillance programs to a court for review.
Posted on Sep 26, 2006
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Phew! President Bush’s attempt to provide legal support for his warrantless wiretapping program appears dead—for now—in the Senate. Quote of the day (from Sen. Russ Feingold): “The president has basically said: I’ll agree to let a court decide if I’m breaking the law if you pass a law first that says I’m not breaking the law.”
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A group of technology companies and civil liberties organizations has appealed a court ruling that would require Internet service providers to allow the government backdoor access to their systems.
Posted on Jul 21, 2006
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From ThinkProgress
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Testifying before Congress this morning, Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales said that Bush halted the investigation into the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program by personally denying security clearances to Department of Justice lawyers investigating the case. (article or video)
Pardon us for being reflexively cynical about Bush’s motives in this one, but the president doesn’t have a shred of credibility on this issue.
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Looks like we were a little too hasty on this one. We had blogged that Sen. Arlen Specter had introduced a bill that would require Bush to get court approval for his NSA wiretapping programs.
Turns out that’s not the case. Specter’s bill would merely give Bush the option of bringing his program before a court—which Bush should have done in the first place. Think Progress and AMERICAblog have the details.
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From CNN: Sen. Arlen Specter revealed a bill that would require a court to review the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s controversial intelligence-gathering program, saying the deal was negotiated with the Bush administration’s cooperation, and that Bush would sign the bill if it doesn’t change dramatically.
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According to CNET: “The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping.”
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The NSA asked AT&T to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, allege lawyers filing a lawsuit on behalf of telephone company customers.
This is huge because, according to a lawyer on the case, “The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11…. This undermines that assertion.’‘
Posted on Jul 2, 2006
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The newspaper originally reported that AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon have been providing phone call data to the NSA. But now USA Today says it can’t confirm that either BellSouth or Verizon provided the data. (AT&T definitely appears to have done so.)
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History will surely boggle at this one: The architect of the NSA’s domestic spying program has been made the head of the CIA. And the vote was 78-15.
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The attorney general, in defending the NSA’s collection of millions of U.S. phone records, claims it is constitutional—but conveniently ignores the fact that it appears to be illegal.
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Illustration: Blair Golson
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This is the big one, folks. Wired News unearths internal AT&T documents that show how the telecom company, at the behest of the government, built “secret rooms” in cities across America that enable the NSA “to look at every individual message on the Internet and analyze exactly what people are doing.”
Story and AT&T internal documents
Wired News explains why it published the story
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Before the USA Today story, The Nation magazine had loads of details on the NSA-telecom spying program: a lawsuit against AT&T; links between telecom officials and the White House; and a history of how these insidious relationships developed.
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“The NSA’s gathering of phone call records of millions of Americans is “something that would make the late Leonid Brezhnev proud of Bush—and [Gen.] Michael Hayden, the Pentagon apparatchik, who saw it through,” Buzzflash writes in an editorial.
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Late coming to the story about the NSA’s massive telephone record collection program? The Washington Post does a 360-degree report.
Neither Bush nor his aides denied any facts in the original USA Today story.
Senate Intel Chair Pat Roberts wants to shoot the messenger (USA Today).
Bush’s pick for CIA chief, Gen. Michael Hayden, oversaw this program at the NSA, a fact that guarantees fireworks at his confirmation hearing.
Check out the original story.
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From nsa.gov
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Michael Hayden, who will probably replace outgoing CIA chief Porter Goss, told Congress in 2002 that all domestic surveillance was consistent with the FISA law—knowing full well of Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program.
The Fraud and False Statements statute (18 U.S.C. 1001) makes Hayden?s misleading statements to Congress illegal, according to a Clinton-era national security official.
See a Time article on Hayden’s impending appointment.
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From mundanesounds.com
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OK, OK, it’s not time to get hysterical yet. This one doesn’t look likely to pass, but…
Four senators have introduced a bill that would allow the NSA to eavesdrop, sans warrant, for up to 45 days. GOP Sen. Arlen Specter objected, saying the law would allow government to “do whatever the hell it wants.”
Oh. Right. What a departure that would be.
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Only one president in U.S. history has been censured—Andrew Jackson in 1834. But Russ Feingold says that this president “must be held accountable.”
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Senate Republicans shut down a Democratic-led proposal to investigate Bush’s eavesdropping program. Instead, a White House-approved seven-member panel will oversee the effort.
White House-approved? You gotta be kidding.
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Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) breaks with the White House and calls for a full congressional inquiry into Bush’s spy program. | story
The dam hasn’t just cracked—it’s gushing.
Posted on Feb 8, 2006
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Investigators eavesdropping on Americans in overseas calls have dismissed nearly all of them as suspects, according to the Washington Post. This is huge, because “a search cannot be judged ‘reasonable’ if it is based on evidence that experience shows to be unreliable.”
Meanwhile, feisty Russ Feingold, a Democratic senator, takes the attorney general to the cleaners for lying to him a year ago about Bush’s surveillance activities. Gonzales shoots back, “I was telling the truth then. I’m telling the truth now.” | story
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The Gray Lady, in an editorial, eviscerates Bush’s defense of his spying program, point by point. | editorial
Posted on Jan 29, 2006
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Charlie Riedel / AP
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The president is now calling it the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” | story
OK, Mr. Bush, but what about the non-terrorists being swept up in your nets? Not that we’re surprised by the new moniker; this is the guy who legalized an increase in air pollution and called it “Clear Skies,” and labeled a tree-slashing program “Healthy Forests.”
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Susan Walsh / AP
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The former VP, hot and bothered, says a special prosecutor should investigate Bush’s spy program. | story or transcript
The NYT reports that even the former FBI director had qualms about the legality of the spying. | story
Meanwhile, the ACLU and another group sue Bush over his wiretapping. | story
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Customs officials can open and read any mail sent from abroad, and do so whenever they deem it necessary to protect the country. | story
Posted on Jan 10, 2006
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Members of Congress question whether the agency can investigate itself. | story
Meanwhile, a dream team of 14 legal scholars and ex-gov’t officials write a memo to the DOJ calling the NSA program illegal. | story
Posted on Jan 10, 2006
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Fifty-six percent says government should get warrants to eavesdrop on U.S.-international calls | more
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Congressional research arm says spy program conflicts with existing law, hinges on weak arguments | more
Posted on Jan 8, 2006
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