Wiretap Debacle

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: gep2 () terabites com
Date: July 27, 2007 10:24:37 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Wiretap Debacle

It is hard to believe that the Wall Street Journal would be so  
disingenuous on this issue.

First of all, the applicable FISA laws specify that urgent wiretaps  
CAN be put into place immediately and approved by the FISA courts  
retroactively (within 72 hours, IIRC).  So that's not subject to the  
whims of some particular FISA court judge.

Second, it has come out in filings in the class action lawsuit  
against cooperating telecommunications companies that the massive  
warrantless (and thus illegal) wiretapping under the present  
misAdministration actually was requested from the White House MONTHS  
BEFORE 9/11... a matter of just weeks after he took (literally)  
control of the White House.

Third, as far as referring to the FISA statute as "outdated", note  
that the laws have been REPEATEDLY and nearly CONTINUOUSLY revised as  
needed to allow LEGITIMATE wiretaps.  The White House has simply  
REFUSED to even pretend to go through the motions to justify its  
wiretaps, EVEN AFTER THE FACT.

The FISA laws are provided in large part to prevent just exactly the  
kind of massive DOMESTIC wiretapping that the present  
misAdministration has been apparently engaging in.

The Watergate breakin that took down Nixon's presidency was criminal  
violation of the privacy rights of the President's opponents.

In the present situation, the misAdministration has ADMITTED to  
MASSIVE violations of the law... literally THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of  
felonies, which carry a five-year prison sentence each!!!

If the current FISA law is inadequate, the appropriate solution to  
that is to make the case before Congress and to get the law amended  
as necessary (and this has been done many times... back in 2001 under  
the Republican legislature, he could have gotten nearly anything he  
asked for rubber-stamped instantly).  But the White House wouldn't  
even go through THOSE minimal formalities.

The Gonzales hearings this week, the commuting of Scooter Libby's  
sentence, Harriet Miers' thumbing her nose at Congressional  
subpoenas, Cheney's refusal to submit to legally required auditing of  
his office's handling of classified information, his outrageous claim  
that his office was "not part of the Executive Branch", the THOUSANDS  
of signing statements where Shrub declared himself the sole person  
needing to interpret how the laws passed by Congress applied to him,  
the blatantly illegal torture of prisoners, the treasous destruction  
of Valerie Plame's painstakingly constructed undercover information  
network for tracking weapons of mass destruction, the unbelievable  
manipulation of intelligence and outright lies that took this nation  
into an absolutely unnecessary and illegal war of aggression (which  
has cost us almost four thousand troops, tens of thousands of  
hidesously wounded, more than half a million civilian deaths,  
stretching our military to the breaking point (including the  
misallocation of our National Guard!) and costs approaching a  
trillion dollars)... this misAdministration has amply demonstrated  
their distaste and disdain for the Constitution ("...it's just a  
goddamed piece of paper!!" --George W. Bush) and the rule of law to a  
degree that absolutely boggle the imagination.

If there has EVER been a US misAdministration absolutely SCREAMING  
out for impeachment (followed by conviction and imprisonment!), it is  
the present one...!!

While I agree that the Bush Administration is to blame for MANY of  
the present debacles (including the disastrous loss of the respect  
this nation once held among the other countries of the world), I  
would have thought that a once-respected newspaper like the WSJ would  
have gotten this one better than what they did.

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:08:13 -0400
 David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Atkinson, Robert" <rca53 () columbia edu>
> Date: July 27, 2007 7:47:42 AM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Wiretap Debacle
> “Wiretap Debacle” is The Wall Street Journals’ lead editorial today.
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118549840246979803.html?  
> mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
> An excerpt:
> . . . Mr. Bush has rightly defended the program's legality, but as  
> a  gesture of compromise in January he agreed to seek warrants  
> under the  FISA process.
> This has turned out to be an enormous mistake that has  
> unilaterally  disarmed one of our best intelligence weapons in the  
> war on terror.  To understand why, keep in mind that we live in a  
> world of fiber  optics and packet-switching. A wiretap today  
> doesn't mean the FBI must install a bug on Abdul Terrorist's phone  
> in Peshawar.  Information now follows the path of least resistance,  
> wherever that  may lead. And because the U.S. has among the world's  
> most efficient  networks, hundreds of millions of foreign calls are  
> routed through  the U.S.
> That's right: If an al Qaeda operative in Quetta calls a fellow   
> jihadi in Peshawar, that call may well travel through a U.S.  
> network.  This ought to be a big U.S. advantage in our  
> "asymmetrical" conflict  with terrorists. But it also means that,  
> for the purposes of FISA, a  foreign call that is routed through  
> U.S. networks becomes a domestic  call. So thanks to the obligation  
> to abide by an outdated FISA  statute, U.S. intelligence is now  
> struggling even to tap the communications of foreign-based  
> terrorists. If this makes you  furious, it gets worse.
> Our understanding is that some FISA judges have been open to   
> expediting warrants, as well as granting retroactive approval. But   
> there are 11 judges in the FISA rotation, and some of them have  
> been  demanding that intelligence officials get permission in  
> advance for wiretaps. This means missed opportunities and less  
> effective  intelligence. And it shows once again why the decisions  
> of  unaccountable judges shouldn't be allowed to supplant those of  
> an  elected Commander in Chief.
> When the program began, certain U.S. telecom companies also   
> cooperated with the National Security Agency. But they were sued  
> once  the program was exposed, and so some have ceased cooperating  
> for fear  of damaging liability claims. We found all of this hard  
> to believe  when we first heard it, but we've since confirmed the  
> details with  other high-level sources.
> Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell more or less   
> admitted the problem last week, albeit obliquely, when he told the   
> Senate that "We're actually missing a significant portion of what  
> we  should be getting." That's understating things. Our sources say  
> the surveillance program is now at most one-third as effective as  
> it once  was.
> The Bush Administration bears much of the blame for this debacle. …

Gordon Peterson
http://personal.terabites.com
1977-2007  Thirty year anniversary of local area networking


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