Wiretapping program sparked legal concerns within hours of its adoption.
By on Mar 30th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Wiretapping program sparked legal concerns within hours of its adoption.
In a new book entitled “Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice,” NYT journalist Eric Lichtblau writes that the warrantless wiretapping set off legal concerns inside the Bush administration almost immediately after being implemented in October 2001. Inside the FBI, “technicians stumbled onto the N.S.A.’s program accidentally within 12 hours of its inception, setting off what officials described as a brief firestorm of anxiety among senior officials. … ‘What’s going on here? Is this legal?’ one F.B.I. official asked after learning of the N.S.A. operation on American soil.”
View Most Popular
Advertisement
What We're About
What We're Fighting For
What We're Fighting Against
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Afghanistan
Bachmann
Beck
Boehner
Bush
Cheney
Civil Rights
Congress
Corporate Ethics
Dobbs
Economy
Election
Energy
Environment
Ethics
Fox News
Gingrich
Global Warming
Hannity
Health Care
Immigration
International Relations
Iraq
Justice
Kristol
LGBT
Lieberman
Limbaugh
Maddow
McCain
Media
Military
Obama
Palin
Pelosi
Public Plan
Race
Radical Right
Religion
Sports
Steele
Stimulus
Tea Parties
Technology
Women's Rights
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
Reports
In-depth studies on select topics
Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
ArchivesBlog Roll
almost immediately after being implemented in October 2001
Why is this lie still being perpetuated. We know now that the Bush Administration started spying weeks after he took office. We have the AT&T whistle blower and the ex President of Qwest who have both testified to this.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:37 amIn December 2005, New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau broke the shocking story of the Bush administration’s program of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA. Now, in a new book due out next week, Lichtblau details the White House’s 13-month effort to block the Times’ revelations of its lawlessness. And to be sure, that deceitful stonewalling and the threats of retribution that followed show a Bush administration determined to conceal its criminality at any cost.
For the details, see:
March 30th, 2008 at 11:39 am“NYT’s Lichtblau Details White House Effort to Block NSA Story.”
Why is the Iraqi WND bs perpetrated to this very day? Same thing. Repeat a lie enough and it replaces the truth. Especially in our corporate driven tabloid (ahem) journalism in this country. You could have 200 witnesses saying the same thing and it would make no difference to these liars.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:49 amAhem.
The wireless wiretapping started before 9/11.
Just ask Qwest.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:55 am“technicians stumbled onto the N.S.A.’s program accidentally within 12 hours of its inception, .
If they STUMBLED onto this program, how do they know when its INCEPTION began???
I know…they asked Cheney.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:59 amTrusting Cheney to tell the truth was their first mistake.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pmThere has not been one honest day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since this Krime Kabal stole the 1st (of 2) elections in 2000.
This is a fact.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:08 pm‘What’s going on here? Is this legal?’ one F.B.I. official asked after learning of the N.S.A. operation on American soil.”
And then what happened? NOTHING!!!
March 30th, 2008 at 12:12 pmtelling ya, they were flat out data mining and running pattern algorithms on every domestic email. i predict the telecom lawsuits will eventually hit thier mark, even if immunity is sleazed into some bill, it wont pass constitutional muster…you cant use a law to sanction a constitional violation..
March 30th, 2008 at 12:14 pmBut despite the firestorm of anxiety, we moved forward with this illegal activity…
March 30th, 2008 at 12:20 pmThe Nazi Chimp says his Admin. wiretaps for Our Security against the “terrorists”.
Bullsh_t.
This illegal activity occurred before 9/11. This admin are the real terrorists.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pmBefore 9/11, NSA Asked Qwest for Network Access, Not Phone Records, National Journal Reports
By Ryan Singel November 02, 2007 | 11:29:08 AMCategories: NSA
The National Security Agency asked telecom giant Qwest to let the nation’s spies monitor its telecom networks 7 months before 9/11 in order to look for hackers and foreign-government e-attacks, the National Journal’s Shane Harris reports today.
Though Qwest was seeking contracts from the NSA, its then CEO Joseph Nacchio denied repeated requests to let the NSA monitor its network, and later also turned down requests to turn over billions of customer records to the government, asking both times for legal orders, according to media reports and statements in Nacchio court records.
Nacchio was convicted of selling shares in 2001 with knowledge that the company wouldn’t make its revenue targets. According to court documents unsealed in October, Nacchio was blocked from arguing that he believed that the company would make its public projections, thanks to classified NSA contracts, but that the NSA withheld them as punishment for his unwillingness to help the NSA without being legally ordered to do so.
Those unsealed, but redacted documents explosively hinted that the NSA asked for call records just days after President Bush took office, but Harris reports the requests were different.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:36 pm>but Harris reports the requests were different.
any word on how Harris got that info?
March 30th, 2008 at 1:10 pmMore lying and criminal activity by w and his crew. Actually I don’t think w is smart enough to know exactly what is being done. I think he knows that it is criminal activity for anyone else, but, in his view, the President is above the law and the other two branches of the national government so it doesn’t concern him at all.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:21 pmIllegal wiretapping in the Nixon Administration: Impeachable
Illegal wiretapping in the Bush Administration: “Patriotic”
At least some people could smell what they were shovelling.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:25 pmMarch 30th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
It will come out that there has been selective wire tapping, such as those perceived as “enemies” of this administration. Of course this corrupt bunch will be gone and as usual the public will just move on. How about accountability just once !
March 30th, 2008 at 3:30 pm.
One defining characterization to what it means to be an American is the ability to be FREE from unwarranted searches and seizures; THE FREEDOM FROM TYRANNY!
REMEMBER:
THEY(sic) HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOMS…
And so THEY(sic) debate the merits to undermining those very Freedoms that define what it means to be an American.
Anyone who argues to be LESS American is no American to me.
.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:38 pmPresident Bush may have to pardon practically everyone in his adinistration (after the election) or let them all move to his alleged new estate in Paraguay.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:20 pmBush will ahve to pardon all republicans for being tied to the world’s biggest terrorist organization, the GOP.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:48 pmoops wrong link.. sorry
viral link
March 30th, 2008 at 9:01 pmgreat bands out there playing music for activists. you guys should tune in
viral
March 30th, 2008 at 9:02 pmIf these clowns starting breaking the FISA prior to 911, then I wonder if all those architects, engineers and scholars who claim 911 was an inside job are really conspiracy nuts or are they on to something.
Time to finally have an independent 911 investigation. Not antoher farce investigation headed up by a Bush crony like Phillip Zelikow did with the 911 commission.
Zelikow had closer ties with the White House than he publicly disclosed and that he tried to influence the final report in ways that the staff often perceived as limiting the Bush administration’s responsibility and furthering its anti-Iraq agenda. According to the book, Zelikow had at least four private conversations with former White House political director Karl Rove, and appears to have had many frequent telephone conversations with people in the White House. The Commission staff kept a record only of calls Zelikow received, but Government Accountability Office records show his frequent calls to the 456 telephone exchange in the 202 area code used exclusively by the White House. Also, Zelikow ordered his assistant to stop keeping a log of his calls, although the Commission’s general counsel overruled him. Zelikow had pledged to have no contact with Rove and Condoleezza Rice during his work for the 9/11 Commission.
The book also reports that some panel staffers believed Zelikow stopped them from submitting a report depicting Rice’s and Bush’s performance as “amounting to incompetence or something not far from it”. Zelikow has denied discussing the commissions work with Rove and further added “I was not a very popular person in the Bush White House when this was going on” and remarked the staffers were disgruntled.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:51 amThough Qwest was seeking contracts from the NSA, its then CEO Joseph Nacchio denied repeated requests to let the NSA monitor its network, and latersohbet
March 30th, 2009 at 4:30 pmBedava mp3 indir
cet
also turned down requests to turn over billions of customer records to the government, asking both times for legal orders, according to media reports and statements in Nacchio court records