2,072.
By on May 1st, 2006 at 4:45 pm
2,072.
Number of applications approved by Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for the federal government to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches in 2005, a new record high. (This number doesn’t include President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping.)
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Sleepyheads: Herbert, Krugman, you know where to go. Off to write something original for a change.
May 1st, 2006 at 4:49 pmHello…hello. Testing…testing. Mr. President if you can hear me I think you are doing a real crappy job.
May 1st, 2006 at 4:52 pmFunny thing is I thought the FISA court was “too slow” to keep up or something. Isn’t that why Bush went ahead with the warrantless wiretapping?
May 1st, 2006 at 4:55 pmDon’t you mean Bush’s “warrantless, illegal eavesdropping?”
May 1st, 2006 at 5:07 pm#3 – No, he went ahead with his warrantless, illegal wiretapping because he wanted to, and nobody tells the King what he can and cannot do.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:14 pm#3 – “Too much time” was his excuse, but when you can listen in on someone for up to 72 hours before having to get the warrant, it pretty much falls on its face.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:20 pm#3
Zookeeper’s reply notwithstanding (good one, Zoo!), you are correct. Bush (or someone from the admin) once claimed that FISA would still be used for communications originating AND ending in the U.S. FISA is bypassed when one or both ends of the call are in a foreign country — Bush & Co. said that this was necessary due to the nature of certain technology used in the communication and the need to respond quickly when an attack is imminent, or some such crap.
Now, here’s the problem I have with this. The distinction they are creating, to me, is meaningless…nothing more than a lame attempt to justify their action. A little logic, Spock. Isn’t it possible the same technology used for the domestic-to-international call could be used for the domestic-to-domestic call? Isn’t it possible that a call during which an imminent attack is discussed, possibly with a date and time, take place during a purely domestic call?
I say yes. I say other than the points of origination and destination, there is no distintion between the types of calls (real or theorized) that do/could take place.
May 1st, 2006 at 5:30 pm#7 :-)
May 1st, 2006 at 6:36 pmIn all this “outrage” from the right about how our national security was endangered when the existence of this program was revealed (and not a word about its illegality, as far as tapping domestic calls without a warrant goes), how come they didn’t call for Attorney General John Ashcroft’s head when he let slip that we were monitoring Osama bin Laden’s satellite phone calls? As a direct result of that slip-up, bin Laden stopped using his satellite phone, and we lost a major intelligence source. Where was their outrage then? And why wasn’t the Attorney General charged with a crime? Even the top law enforcement officer has to comply with the law, doesn’t he?
May 1st, 2006 at 7:03 pm#9 Wayne, I believe the administration is very worried about this particular crime. There was a republican on here last night working feverishly to deter us from this issue. He/She knows that the American people will not let this crime “just go away”.
The administration is running scared and they should be. The entire bunch of criminals are going down, it just takes time.
Invest in Vaseline and KY Jelly, the republicans are buying it by the pallet.
May 1st, 2006 at 7:16 pmThis administration is more cynical than I would have ever thought. Why bother getting any warrants, they are eavesdropping, tapping phones, sweeping the Internet and all without warrants or legal precedent. These guys are not looking for terrorists; they are looking for enemies. The kind of enemies Nixon was looking for, political enemies.
Enough of this crime spree. Bush and Cheney must be removed and tried.
May 1st, 2006 at 7:18 pmJust speak clearly into your PCs folks — Bush will record you and include it in your “permanent record.”
May 1st, 2006 at 7:42 pmCan anyone tell me how informing the terrorist that there calls will be now monitored without warrants – as opposed to the old way with warrants – will aid them in any way shape or form… anyone… any trolls out there… anyone?
This is one of the most blatant loads of shit that this administration ever put out there to protect there sorry power grubbing asses – but our shit eating lap dog media refuses to ask this very obvious and simple question.
May 1st, 2006 at 8:27 pm#13
Dude, you hit the nail on the head.
May 1st, 2006 at 11:42 pmThank God they are working so hard to protect us.
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:18 am[...] It is great to see that our government is working so hard to protect the American people during the War on Terror. Of course, there are those who don’t want the United States to prevail in the war, who would spin these numbers in such a way to make it seem like it’s a bad thing. They ignore the fact that these requests were made for foreign intelligence purposes, and act as if thousands of Americans are having their rights violated. But what should we expect? [...]
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:32 amPersonally, I think this is the reason that Pres. Bush has decided to set himself above the law and flagrantly violate the FISA law and the constitution:
They want to “broadly wiretap” all cell-phone conversations from the cell-phone tower. This means that any wireless conversations are open to being “wiretapped” at the tower source. Since this is a “broad” wiretap to any phone conversation that goes through the tower, they cannot (and will not) confirm that one side of the conversation is based in a foreign country.
This is complete conjecture, but it would explain the vehemence by the Bush administration that they are above the FISA law and can violate the law and the constitution as they see fit.
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:34 amDem Soldier, I’d be surprised if they’re not already doing something along these lines. The only thing more disturbing than what we know they’re doing is what we don’t yet know that they’re doing. SuperChrist – I’m sure bin laden & co were shocked to learn that bush would tap calls without a warrant and ordered everyone to immediately turn off their cell phones, hahahahaha
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:18 am