WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) — U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was challenging him at an unprecedented rate.
A review of Justice Department reports to Congress by Hearst newspapers shows the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than the four previous presidential administrations combined.
The 11-judge court that authorizes FISA wiretaps modified only two search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications approved over the first 22 years of the court's operation.
But since 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for surveillance by the Bush administration, the report said. A total of 173 of those court-ordered "substantive modifications" took place in 2003 and 2004. And, the judges also rejected or deferred at least six requests for warrants during those two years — the first outright rejection of a wiretap request in the court's history.
This certainly sounds like a plausible reason for Bush bypassing the FISA courts, and its not something I find especially worrisome. The FISA court is nearly three decades old. It was founded to help our government gather intelligence on threats to our country while balancing privacy rights. Unfortunately, it was founded in a different era. Technology has advanced since then, as have the tactics employed by our enemies. In order to meet these new threats the President, if we are to believe what is reported above, took it upon himself to authorize domestic surveillance initiatives which bypassed the FISA court structure. He consulted with legal counsel before doing this and felt, based on those legal opinions, that his office had the authority to do this.
Subsequently several legal experts from both sides of the political spectrum have agreed with this.
What is most troubling to me about this reporting is the first paragraph (bolded). How on earth can this UPI reporter tell us what the President decided? Does the reporter have a source? A White House staffer, or perhaps the President himself? Maybe George related his decision to Laura Bush who subsequently told this reporter. We don't know as there certainly isn't anything in the article indicating how the reporter was able to establish that the President bypassed FISA due to the number of warrants being challenged as fact. The only thing I see is an increased number of challenges to FISA warrants.
Given that the number of warrants requested skyrocketed after 9/11 the idea that the number of challenges would also increase dramatically really isn't all that surprising.
You can read more from Rob Port at SayAnythingBlog.com
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Comments: 5
UPI needs to fire the author of that report and do it now!! This is kind of crap conservatives have been complaining about with the media for years...it is nothing more than partisan politics disguised as "news".
the checks and balances were too checky and balancy for the agenda. ain't that a bitch?
Gather should change your nym to rah-rah-rob port, number one bush cheerleader.
i've yet to understand what it is that causes people like mr port, rush limbaugh and others to just blindly support WHATEVER the president does. it's uncanny.
What's to worry about? That the Government might spy on you and decide to detain you, without charges, indefinitely?
Rob Port doesn't worry about this.
Of course, there's also the larger issue that if Bush can suspend or violate law he pleases, there's a possibility Bush or his successor can take some actions Rob Port might find "worrisome."