LAT: Officials Fault Case Bush Cited (also poll)

[chat_noir]

WASHINGTON — In confirming the existence of a top-secret domestic spying program, President Bush offered one case as proof that authorities desperately needed the eavesdropping ability in order to plug a hole in the counter-terrorism firewall that had allowed the Sept. 11 plot to go undetected.

In his radio address Saturday, Bush said two of the hijackers who helped fly a jet into the Pentagon — Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar — had communicated with suspected Al Qaeda members overseas while they were living in the U.S.

...

But some current and former high-ranking U.S. counter-terrorism officials say that the still-classified details of the case undermine the president's rationale for the recently disclosed domestic spying program.

Indeed, a 2002 inquiry into the case by the House and Senate intelligence committees blamed interagency communication breakdowns — not shortcomings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or any other intelligence-gathering guidelines.

The current and former counter-terrorism officials, who requested anonymity, said there were repeated phone communications between a safe house in Yemen and the San Diego apartment rented by Alhazmi and Almihdhar. The Yemen site already had been linked directly to the Al Qaeda bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 and to the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole in Yemen, several current and former U.S. counter-terrorism officials familiar with the case said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-targets21dec21,1,32492.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&vote21053367=1

oops! :evilfrown:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. 74.6% say Bush violated our rights

Thanks for posting the article as well.

[spindrifter]

2. Poll done

[ananda]

3. Up a tenth to 74.7 no

!!!

[EST]

4. 25/75

[Ian David]

5. Done

Poll
Was President Bush within his rights to authorize domestic spying without court approval?
24.8%
Yes. This is a crucial tool in the fight against terrorism.
(814 responses)
75.2%
No. The president's order violates Americans' rights.
(2470 responses)
3284 total responses

[WhiteTara]

6. voted and now it's 75.5 to 24.5

Thank the Goddess that we aren't brain dead after all. Okay, I'll bet those who voted for are undereducated, republican and very religious. (which follows that they are mentally constipated and will do whatever they are told.)

[Window]

7. Done.

Was President Bush within his rights to authorize domestic spying without court approval?

24.0%
Yes. This is a crucial tool in the fight against terrorism.
(823 responses)


76.0%
No. The president's order violates Americans' rights.
(2611 responses)

3434 total responses




Peace

[chat_noir]

8. kick

:kick:

[Greybnk48]

9. 77.2%