While debate raged over limitations on personal freedoms versus security concerns in the months after the nation was shaken by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it is now alleged by government officials that President Bush secretly allowed restrictions on eavesdropping by domestic officials to be lifted.
The New York Times dropped this bombshell today:
Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.
Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.
As this story develops, it will be interesting to see if it has "legs" or if it is seen as just another piece of the historical puzzle stemming from the chaotic and woozy months following the worst attack on US soil since Pearl Harbor.
In any event, President Bush's political advisors would likely do well to see this revelation – if proven to be factual and substantive – as a potential dagger in the heart of an administration that has just started to pick up positive momentum (particularly on the economy and the Iraqi elections) after months of unremittingly bad news and sagging poll numbers.
The timing of this story is ironic, too, as President Bush has only just announced that he will give in to the demands of Sen. John McCain and a wide and bipartisan swath of the American public and formally ban torture of US detainees, both domestically and abroad:
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - RedTard
Another secret leak across the pages of our newspapers. I wonder if the media will pursue this leak with all the voracity that the did the Plame case. Somehow I doubt it.
As for the electronic monitoring of communication it has been rumored since long before Bush or 9/11 that the NSA had the capability to electronically eavesdrop onto phone conversations with massive computers picking out criminal or terrorist keywords, then flagging and recording them.
This program has reportedly been in place since the 90's. The real question is why is it just now becoming a story?
2 - Bliffle
"The real question is why is it just now becoming a story?"
Because it is illegal.
3 - Eric Berlin
RedTard really does ask the perfect question: why did this story leak to the press when it did?
4 - Dave Nalle
RedTard, what you're talking about is Project Echelon, and it hasn't just hit the news. There was talk in the news about it when it went live during the Clinton administration and then it just sort of faded from the public eye.
Dave
5 - Dave Nalle
President Bush has only just announced that he will give in to the demands of Sen. John McCain and a wide and bipartisan swath of the American public and formally ban torture
Which was already banned by our constitution, treaties we had signed and still recognize, and our military manuals.
Dave
6 - Eric Berlin
Yes, but as you well know the devil is in the details and it's not at all well defined at present... thus the loopholes / leeway and Black Ops sites in Eastern Europe and so on.
7 - Dave Nalle
Yes, but we have little evidence that torture is going on systematically at those sites. As the CIA continues to maintain, torture doesn't work and they don't use it. It seems much more logical to conclude that those sites exist not to torture these terrorists, but to hold them indefinitely separated from their compatriots and out of a position where they can do more harm.
Dave
8 - Secret Spy NO. 23
This argument is just hurting the troops morale.
9 - Dave Nalle
Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States
As the details of this story are coming out, the Times story appears to be a bit off base, specifically the statement above. Apparently the number of people spied on was very limited - at most a few hundred - and all of the communications which were monitored were international communications - emails and phonecalls - which falls within the NSA's mandate. So like so many things we see in the media, this appears to just be a tempest in a teapot with very little to it except to score a few points for the left in the ongoing war of disinformation.
Dave
10 - Eric Berlin
It hurts the troops' morale to expose a story about secret domestic spying, personal freedoms guaranteed under the constitution, and the notion of what constitutes a legal interrogation?
Sorry, Secret Spy, I think not.
11 - Secret Spy No. 23
List of people to spy on:
Brown People
Democrats
Dave Nalle
The Bush Twins
12 - Secret Spy No. 23
Updated
List of people to spy on:
Brown People
Democrats
Dave Nalle
The Bush Twins
Eric Berlin
13 - Eric Berlin
What might be a "tempest in a teapot" to some might be an important story relating to the very nature of our personal liberties to others, Dave.
Where's your proof that this New York Times story is "off-base"?
Meanwhile, while it might be "logical" to you that no torture was going in black sites in Eastern Europe, how would you know that?
14 - Eric Berlin
Ah... I see, Secret Spy is not so serious after all. Okay.
15 - Secret Spy No. 23
Dave mentioned misinformation. Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. That's where to get the facts.
16 - Christopher Rose
If nothing illegal is going on in these bases, why does the US need them? PLENTY of jails in the USA.
Guantanamo is the craziest example, given the nature of the Cuba-US relationship...
17 - Eric Berlin
I agree, Christopher. Assuming that everything is hunky-dory (I've never tried to spell that before, actually) at "black" sites in Eastern Europe that were only discovered(!) recently doesn't really wash for me.
18 - Eric Berlin
I think Mr. Nalle was alluding earlier to a "breaking" story on Drudge about how this story is tied to a book being published.
That may inform the timing, but it doesn't necessarily alter the facts!
19 - Michael J. West
The timing would certainly seem precipitous with the PATRIOT Act's renewal being before the Senate....
I, too, would like to see specifically what Dave is referring to with the NYT story being "off base." On Drudge, all I saw was a link to the Times article.
20 - Eric Berlin
The PATRIOT Act just failed to get renewed in the Senate.
There's a big story right there!
21 - Dave Nalle
Updated
List of people to spy on:
Brown People
Democrats
Dave Nalle
The Bush Twins
Eric Berlin
I survived when Hoover was having me watched, I imagine I can survive the small-timers of today.
What might be a "tempest in a teapot" to some might be an important story relating to the very nature of our personal liberties to others, Dave.
The theme is important, no question. But I think that in this instance the actual violation may be pretty minor. Certainly when compared to the fight currently taking place over the Patriot Act.
Where's your proof that this New York Times story is "off-base"?
I didn't say I had proof, but there was a lot of coverage on the news networks today and various pundits seem to think the story is overblown - and we're talking about people on the left and the right here.
Meanwhile, while it might be "logical" to you that no torture was going in black sites in Eastern Europe, how would you know that?
And how do you know that there IS torture going on? When faced with two possibilities, neither of them supported by anything except statements from two opposing sides I tend to believe the scenario in which America did the right thing until I receive proof to the contrary. Do you do the opposite, and if so, why?
As for Drudge, I don't read the site and have no idea what's on it.
Dave
22 - Eric Berlin
When faced with two possibilities, neither of them supported by anything except statements from two opposing sides I tend to believe the scenario in which America did the right thing until I receive proof to the contrary. Do you do the opposite, and if so, why?
Absolutely not, but nice try with the straw man routine!
When there are secret CIA compounds in Eastern Europe where we're holding prisoners outside of Geneva conventions and US law, that's of great concern to me. It doesn't mean that prisoners are being tortured, but it rings many alarm bells and sends an awful signal to the rest of the planet.
23 - gonzo marx
bah..they can stand there with a straight face and say "no American soldiers or CIA operaives are performing torture" and be telling the Truth...
how is that so?
simplicity itself..."civilian contractors"....you know, KBR mercenaries... are doing the "interrogations"... some of the winners among them are ex-KGB/Spetznatz/SAVAK and other "specialists" that now work for the Haliburton subsidiary
didn't it strike anyone as strange when during the whole Abu Grahib bit, there was mention of "civilian contractors"....same in GITMO
what the fuck are "civilian contractors" doing in these places?
you will also note that it was Alberto Gonzalez (current attorney general, then WH lawyer) who decided to parse the legalese on what is or is not "torture" long in advance, and with an eye for avoidance of US law, long before the public was ever aware of any of this
it at least appears that much of this stems from a pre-meditated and carefully conceived plan from the beginning...calculated to give maximum "plausable deniability" to the Administration
as for what we know or do not know about these "black sites" ...well now, how naive can one be to even ask for "proof" from such a place, or what goes on inside
hell, we can't even find out who leaked what to whom in the WH here in America
color me disgusted
Excelsior!
24 - Scott Butki
Wait, I want to be on the enemies list too!
Good piece,Dave.
25 - Christopher Rose
Eric Berlin was the author of this post...