Breaking News
Breaking News from AP and Reuters
* Sentence sought in GOP phone jam scheme
* Wind farm to be built off Texas coast
* Botched execution leads to Ohio review
* Tenn. may mandate ID for all beer sales
* Al-Arian plans appeal of sentence
*
See Also
* Mass Spying Means Gross Errors
* Lawbreaker in Chief
* Furor Grows Over Internet Bugging
* Critics Slam Net Wiretapping Rule
* Feds Go All Out to Kill Spy Suit
* Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room
* Spies Attack White House Secrecy
Associated Press 09:30 AM May, 11, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the
warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency
refused to grant Justice Department lawyers security clearance.
The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or
OPR, sent a fax Wednesday to Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New
York saying it was closing its inquiry because without clearance it
could not examine department lawyers' role in the program.
"We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our
investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for
access to information about the NSA program," OPR counsel H. Marshall
Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey's office shared the letter with The
Associated Press.
Jarrett wrote that beginning in January his office has made a series
of requests for the necessary clearances. Those requests were denied
Tuesday.
"Without these clearances, we cannot investigate this matter and
therefore have closed our investigation," Jarrett wrote.
Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the terrorist
surveillance program "has been subject to extensive oversight both in
the executive branch and in Congress from the time of its inception."
Roehrkasse noted the OPR's mission is not to investigate possible
wrongdoing in other agencies, but to determine if Justice Department
lawyers violated any ethical rules.
He declined to comment when asked if the end of the inquiry meant the
agency believed its lawyers had handled the wiretapping matter ethically.
Hinchey is one of many House Democrats who have been highly critical
of the domestic eavesdropping program first revealed in December. He
said lawmakers would push to find out who at the NSA denied the
Justice Department lawyers security clearance.
"This administration thinks they can just violate any law they want,
and they've created a culture of fear to try to get away with that.
It's up to us to stand up to them," Hinchey said.
In February, the OPR announced it would examine the conduct of its own
agency's lawyers in the program, though they were not authorized to
investigate NSA activities.
Bush's decision to authorize the largest U.S. spy agency to monitor
people inside the United States, without warrants, generated a host of
questions about the program's legal justification.
The administration has vehemently defended the eavesdropping, saying
the NSA's activities were narrowly targeted to intercept international
calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the U.S. with
suspected ties to the al-Qaida terror network.
Separately, the Justice Department sought last month to dismiss a
federal lawsuit accusing the telephone company AT&T of colluding with
the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.
The lawsuit, brought by an internet privacy group, does not name the
government as a defendant, but the Department of Justice has sought to
quash the lawsuit, saying it threatens to expose government and
military secrets.
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