Sign up here to enjoy the
full benefits of this site.
Click here to log in.
Forgot your username
or password?
Bush and NSA - Probable Cause is Dead
Submitted by Al Peck on January 23, 2006 - 9:42pm
Bush and former NSA head don't need any stinkin' badges...
It is sufficient to have a "reasonable basis to believe" that you're talking to Al Qaeda operatives, or maybe that you're a traitor or a Democrat, which are about the same thing.
And if you don't like illegal monitoring of your phone and emails, how about a 500-lb bomb? Here's the punch line:
...The methods the agency (NSA) uses to determine if an intercept "is an Al Qaeda communication are the same tools, techniques, tactics and procedures we use to tell America's armed forces that you can go ahead and put a 500-pound bomb on that target," he said. "It's the same art and science."
NY Times, January 23, 2006
White House Begins New Effort to Defend Surveillance Program
By DAVID E. SANGER and JOHN O'NEIL
MANHATTAN, Kan., Jan. 23 - President Bush today opened what amounts to a weeklong media blitz against criticism of the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program, calling it a "terrorist surveillance program" that had saved lives.
(snip)
Earlier in the day, in Washington, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who led the National Security Agency when it began the warrantless wiretaps, vigorously defended the program , though he acknowledged that it depended on a lower standard of evidence than required by courts.
"The trigger is quicker and a bit softer," said General Hayden, an Air Force officer who is now the principal deputy director of the new national intelligence agency, "but the intrusion into privacy is also limited: only international calls and only those we have a reasonable basis to believe involve Al Qaeda or one of its affiliates."
The standard laid out by General Hayden - a "reasonable basis to believe" - is lower than "probable cause," the standard used by the special court created by Congress to handle surveillance involving foreign intelligence.
(snip)
The methods the agency uses to determine if an intercept "is an Al Qaeda communication are the same tools, techniques, tactics and procedures we use to tell America's armed forces that you can go ahead and put a 500-pound bomb on that target," he said. "It's the same art and science."
Well, that's comforting. The Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was no doubt targeted using this art and science. And Saddam's multiple hideouts. And the location of the "Number Two in Al Qaeda".
What's next - bombing political opponents?
Keep up the good work!!!
Keep up the good work!!! says Al Qaeda to you and liberals like you!
Oh please
This isn't about Al Qaeda.
If they had any shred of info that showed a person might in any way be connected to Al Qaeda, the secret court system we have set up would give the Administration the warrants they need. They rarely say no.
As such, there is no reason for wiretaps and such without a warrant. They even have 72 hours after the wiretaps are ordered to get such a warrant.
This secret court was set up just for instances like this. It allows them to get a warrant without anyone knowing about it.
Not getting one is breaking the law and is in violation of our Constitutional rights.
Saying Al Qaeda loves us for stuff like this is just the spin and rhetoric that the Bush Admin and its followers like to use. They figure if they use it enough, the majority of Americans won't want to be affiliated with that thought/opinion. But they've beat that horse to death. The "you're with us, or against us" mentality is dead.
The majority of Americans are for wiretaps. The majority of Americans are against wiretaps without a warrant. The warrant is the issue here.
Jenni Simonis
Al Queda LOVES Bush & the Incompetent GOP Party
The interesting thing to me is how much the terrorists have benefitted from Bush's rule. Terrorism is substantially increased since he began his war on it, Bin Laden is free, and the dangerously stupid Bush "f*ck you" foreign policy has played right into the hands of Iran, bankrupted our treasury, and ruined our military. Iraq is their new training ground and they are learning in leaps and bounds how to inflict more and more horrors upon the Iraqis and our soldiers. So if you think our work is "good" at helping Al Queada, you must be saying that the atrocious and criminal Bush dictatorship is like a gift from Allah to them. And you'd be right.