Hayden on NSA program

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Larry Tesler <tesler () pobox com>
Date: January 24, 2006 3:24:02 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Hayden on NSA program

Dave,

The problem with the "softer trigger" to which General Hayden  
euphemistically refers is that there is never an opportunity for any  
court to review NSA's judgment that their suspicions were "reasonable".

Nobody wants NSA to fail to detect and prevent a terror attack. But  
history shows that intelligent agencies have often spied on  
nonviolent groups and individuals who merely disagreed with some of  
their government's policies.

In the '50s, J. Edgar Hoover had "reasonable belief" that the people  
he wiretapped were "communist sympathizers"; in the '60s, "black  
revolutionaries". In this decade, NSA only has to "believe them to be  
connected with terrorists". (Riddle: How many degrees of separation  
does it take to be unconnected with terrorists? Answer: Seven.)

Sometimes, the agencies are right that the people they spy on are  
conspiring to break laws. Often, they are wrong, and the rights of  
innocent people are violated. The FISA court exists to provide a  
second opinion.

I find it worrisome that the people who are rationalizing warrantless  
wiretaps are the same people who rationalized torture of innocents  
and indefinite imprisonment without charges. What do they have in  
store for us next?

Larry Tesler

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Begin forwarded message:

From: David Bolduc <bolduc () austin rr com>
Date: January 23, 2006 7:11:04 PM EST
To: johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com, Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Hayden on NSA program

...

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/012915.php

HAYDEN DELIVERS IMPASSIONED DEFENSE OF NSA

Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security  
Agency, delivered a brilliant and heartfelt speech on the NSA's  
international terrorist surveillance program at the National Press  
Club today. You can, and should, read it all here. What follows are  
just a few of the many highlights:

...The trigger is quicker and a bit softer than it is for a FISA  
warrant, but the intrusion into privacy is also limited: only  
international calls and only those we have a reasonable basis to  
believe involve al Qaeda or one of its affiliates.
... Just to be very clear -- and believe me, if there's any amendment  
to the Constitution that employees of the National Security Agency  
are familiar with, it's the Fourth. And it is a reasonableness  
standard in the Fourth Amendment. And so what you've raised to me --  
and I'm not a lawyer, and don't want to become one -- what you've  
raised to me is, in terms of quoting the Fourth Amendment, is an  
issue of the Constitution. The constitutional standard is  
"reasonable." And we believe -- I am convinced that we are lawful  
because what it is we're doing is reasonable.



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