FISA Court Modified Inadequate Warrant RequestsWed Dec 28, 2005 01:35
FISA Court Modified Inadequate Warrant Requests
by georgia10
Tue Dec 27, 2005 at 05:27:39 PM PDT
http://www.dailykos.com/
We learn today that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court repeatedly modified warrant applications by the Bush administration, at a rate far surpassing any other administration in the court's history.
In the first 22 years of its operation, the FISA court received an average of 596 warrant applications a year. After Bush took office, that number soared to about 1,400 warrant applications a year.
Out of the 5,645 applications the Bush administration made to the FISA court, a record 179 were modified. Remarkably, 173 out of the 179 modifications took place in 2003 and 2004. What occurred in 2003 and 2004 that triggered the submission of inadequate applications to the FISA court?
You can find the requirements for a FISA application here. The requirements are straightforward. What defects existed in the applications that were so severe that the FISA court felt compelled to modify them? My suspicion is that the administration had trouble fulfilling the "foreign power" requirement. The application must state the facts relied upon that the target of the surveillance is indeed a "foreign power or agent of a foreign power" (read: terrorist). Was the administration casting its net too wide, stretching the limits of logic to classify individuals as "foreign agents" in order to conduct the surveillance? We find a clue in this WaPo article from Dec. 22:
One government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration complained bitterly that the FISA process demanded too much: to name a target and give a reason to spy on it.
"For FISA, they had to put down a written justification for the wiretap," said the official. "They couldn't dream one up."
By the way, FISA doesn't even require the name of the target (See 1804(a)(3)). So, the administration didn't want to comply with FISA requirements; it didn't want to explain why the surveillance was necessary. Instead, it wanted broad, unrestrained power to spy on anyone, for any reason, even if that reason was not based in evidence. FISA makes such spying illegal, which is why Bush ignored the law and chose to spy by royal edict instead.
Bush was put on notice that his intended method of surveillance was not lawful. In response, like a petulant child, he stomped his feet and stubbornly insisted upon having it his way. The question remaining is this: will anyone stand up and hold him accountable, or will this scandal, like so many others, fade away without consequence?
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Bush is an "avid reader" during his vacation
by georgia10
Tue Dec 27, 2005 at 04:30:45 PM PDT
I couldn't get beyond the first sentences of this story without chuckling:
Dec 27, 2005 -- CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President George W. Bush is spending part of his Christmas holiday reading about the post-presidential years of Theodore Roosevelt and the lives of U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Bush was reading "When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House," by Patricia O'Toole, and "Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground," by Robert Kaplan while on holiday at his Texas ranch, said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.[...]
Asked whether there was any significance that Bush, who has three years left in office, was reading a book about the post-White House years of a former president, Duffy replied that Bush is a "history buff" and "avid reader."
dailykos link: http://www.dailykos.com/
"Everything is collapsing."
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/26/10333/046
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