--- In [email protected], "Patrick Gillam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- authfriend wrote: > > > > --- Gillam wrote: > > > > > > What do the Bushies have against getting a court > > > order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance > > > Act? In all the kerfuffle, I've yet to hear why they > > > don't want to follow the process already set up > > > for such stuff. > > > > They claim it takes too long, but that's a crock; > > they're explicitly allowed to wiretap without a > > warrant for 48 hours (or is it 72?) exactly so > > that getting a warrant won't impede an urgent > > investigation. > > Does anybody here listen to Rush Limbaugh, watch > Fox news or indulge in other conservative media? > MDixon? Shemp? Do those news sources give a reason > why the Bush administration doesn't want to follow > the established system for wiretap warrants?
Patrick, here it is from the horse's mouth, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in a speech at Georgetown University on January 24, 2006: ...I keep hearing, "Why not FISA? Why didn't the President get orders from the FISA court approving these N.S.A. intercepts of al-Qaeda communications?" We have to remember that we're talking about a wartime foreign intelligence program. It is an early warning system with only one purpose: to detect and prevent the next attack on the United States from foreign agents hiding in our midst. It is imperative for national security reasons that we can detect reliably, immediately, and without delay whenever communications associated with al-Qaeda enter or leave the United States. Now, some have pointed to the provision in FISA that allows for so- called emergency authorizations of surveillance for 72 hours without a court order. I think that there is a serious misconception about these emergency authorizations. People should know that we do not approve emergency authorizations without knowing that we will receive court approval within 72 hours. FISA requires me, the Attorney General, to determine in advance that a FISA application for that particular intercept will be fully supported and will be approved by the court before an emergency authorization may be granted. And that review process itself can take precious time. To initiate surveillance under a FISA emergency authorization, it is not enough to rely on the best judgment of our intelligence officers alone. Those intelligence officers would have to get the signoff of lawyers at the N.S.A. that all provisions of FISA have been satisfied. Then lawyers in the Department of Justice would have to be similarly satisfied. And finally, as Attorney General, I would have to be satisfied that the search meets the requirements of FISA. And then we would have to be prepared to follow up with a full FISA application within the 72 hours. We all agree that there should be appropriate checks and balances on our branches of government. The FISA process makes perfect sense in almost all cases of foreign intelligence monitoring in the United States. Although technology has changed dramatically since FISA was enacted, FISA remains a vital tool in the war on terror and one that we are using to its fullest and will continue to use against al-Qaeda and other foreign threats. But as the President has explained, the terrorist surveillance program operated by the N.S.A. requires a maximum in speed and agility, since even a very short delay may make the difference between success and failure in preventing the next attack, and we cannot afford to fail. http://mwcnews.net/content/view/4071/26/ In other words: They don't want to have to worry about whether there is sufficient justification to initiate a wiretap. > > I really need to get back to reading the Wall Street > Journal. I felt the journalism was quite objective, > perhaps a bit liberal, but the editorial page was a > bracing dose of conservative Kool-Aid. > To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
