Well, being a Las Vegan, I'd wager Bush is going to ignore this one too. . .
[Excerpt]
Secret Court Asks For White House View on Inquiry
ACLU Seeking Rulings Issued On Warrantless Wiretapping
A secret U.S. intelligence court has ordered the Bush administration to register its views about a records request by the American Civil Liberties Union, which wants the court to release a series of pivotal orders issued earlier this year about the National Security Agency's wiretapping program.
The move is highly unusual, because the court -- which approves warrants for electronic surveillance within the United States by intelligence and counterterrorism agencies -- operates in almost total secrecy and has made only one ruling public in its 29-year history. . .
Read more at WashingtonPost.com
[Excerpt]
Secret Court Asks For White House View on Inquiry
ACLU Seeking Rulings Issued On Warrantless Wiretapping
A secret U.S. intelligence court has ordered the Bush administration to register its views about a records request by the American Civil Liberties Union, which wants the court to release a series of pivotal orders issued earlier this year about the National Security Agency's wiretapping program.
The move is highly unusual, because the court -- which approves warrants for electronic surveillance within the United States by intelligence and counterterrorism agencies -- operates in almost total secrecy and has made only one ruling public in its 29-year history. . .
Read more at WashingtonPost.com
The order, according to the article, came from the Court not from the ACLU.....This secret court is part of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act of 1978. It has been around for a while and suprisingly operates under the premise that letting the bad guys know you are listening to them would terminally harmful to the information gathering process. The court issued some 2000 warrants in 2006 which indicates the agencies are doing their jobs in support of the warrants and the court isn't issuing blanket wiretap orders of the masses. 2000 possible bad guys in a country of 300MM? What a conspiracy! And what the heck is the Court doing in asking the White House for an opinion?? It is a lot more than "..unusual.." it is ridiculous. Court should rule against the motion by the ACLU. And the Congress had the opportunity, this session, to address the issues of FISA but ducked it in favor of, let's see, wasting 5000 hours debating the firing of less than 12 people who serve in TRADITIONALLY transitory positions and at the whim of the sitting administration. Thus endeth the rant.
ReplyDeleteGrumble, grumble, snort! Fired up this morning Lesto?
ReplyDeleteNow be sure to notice, I didn't comment on the rightness or wrongness of this order, only that Bush would probably ignore it. Likely, wouldn't you say?
Anyway, I'm all for catching the bad guys, and glad the FISA court is there. What I don't like is end-runs AROUND the court, which is the most contentious issue in this area. It's WARRENTLESS wiretaps that are the problem here, not WARRENTED ones.
Whether or not this particular instance of the Bush Administration being ordered to do something is JUSTIFIED, I'm just glad someone is finally making them answer for their actions. For 6 years, they've been held unaccountable by the judiciary and Congress for the most part. None of the three branches is supposed to be autonomous.
And thus endeth my reply!