Bush began warrantless spying BEFORE 9/11

[SSX]

Check out the link from a KOS diary: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/13/103350/780
It has link to an article by Jason Leopold and a PDF to the declassified document. I'm just now starting to read all 42 pages.
Sounds like the Chimp started listening in just because he felt like it and 9/11 happened in spite of it. If this is old news here-sorry.

[fooj]

1. Thanks for the post! Welcome to DU!

Peace.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. So a lot of good that did in "keeping us safe" and catching those

evil doers. :rofl: Bushbots are so very gullible.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

3. Welcome to DU!

:thumbsup:

[SSX]

4. Thanx for the welcomes

This story, if it pans out, kinda debunks all the reasons that are being forced down our throats about why he spied. I'm still reading and I haven't come up with anything to disprove it.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Didn't Cheney say last week that 9/11 might have been prevented

if this warrantless spying had been available before 9/11?

I guess the operative word was 'might' rather than 'prevented'.

[havocmom]

6. Might have been prevented IF he could have come up with another way

to get his war on.

The warentless spying indicated there were no other likely methods?

[snappyturtle]

7. I had heard.....

over the course of the last few days a reference to this pre- 911 phenonomen.....has anyone heard it in MSM? I've heard Tice and the author of the referenced book on TV but I don't recall them pointing this VERY important fact out. I think it's the icing on the cake. Thank you for the link!

[NYC]

8. Truth Out link for Jason Leopold article:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011306Z.shtml

...The NSA's vast data-mining activities began shortly after Bush was sworn in as president and the document contradicts his assertion that the 9/11 attacks prompted him to take the unprecedented step of signing a secret executive order authorizing the NSA to monitor a select number of American citizens thought to have ties to terrorist groups...

Welcome to DU. :hi:

More highlights:

What had long been understood to be protocol in the event that the NSA spied on average Americans was that the agency would black out the identities of those individuals or immediately destroy the information.

...that's not what happened. On orders from Defense Department officials and President Bush, the agency kept a running list of the names of Americans in its system and made it readily available to a number of senior officials in the Bush administration, these sources said, which in essence meant the NSA was conducting a covert domestic surveillance operation in violation of the law.

James Risen, author of the book State of War and credited with first breaking the story about the NSA's domestic surveillance operations, said President Bush personally authorized a change in the agency's long-standing policies shortly after he was sworn in in 2001.

[SSX]

9. just heard on MSNBC that Gonzales has agreed to testify

at Congressional hearings on wiretapping. They did not make clear if it was Conyer's hearing or Specter's. Would be worthwhile to send them both a link to the Truthout article. Could make for some interesting questions and I'm sure some more interesting answers. Doing it now. Done.

[NYC]

10. This should be interesting.

Thanks. Again, welcome to DU.

[SSX]

11. Gonzales to testify before Specter

Just got one of those auto-replies from Specter regarding this issue of pre 9/11 wiretapping. Of course, they cannot answer me cuz I'm a good ol boy from MS. Any of his home state DUers that want to send him some links to the article and possible questions, please do so. I'm gonna start pumping them out to Trent and the boys here.

[dutchdemocrat]

12. Cuts from the docs

Other key quotes


...key quotes from the NSA document:



The Fourth Amendment is as applicable to eSIGINT as it is to the SIGINT of yesterday and today. (pg. 32)

Make no mistake, NSA can and will perform its missions consistent with the Fourth Amendment and all applicable laws. (pg. 32)

Mr. President, the NSA itself realized this.- why didn't you?????

http://www.thisiswiretap.com/2001/

[dutchdemocrat]

13. Converted Docs

I have converted both of these unclassified documents on Hayden into HTML from PDF.

Here

http://www.thisiswiretap.com/hayden2/ (24)

and

Here


http://www.thisiswiretap.com/hayden1/ (27)

There might be a jewel in there somewhere....

Document 24: Statement for the Record of NSA Director Lt Gen Michael V. Hayden, USAF before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, April 12, 2000

In a rare public appearance by the NSA director, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden outlines the regulatory safeguards and oversight mechanisms that are in place to ensure that the agency's electronic surveillance mission does not infringe upon the privacy of U.S. persons, and to respond to recent allegations that NSA provides intelligence information to U.S. companies.

The agency may only target the communications of U.S. persons within the United States after obtaining a federal court order suggesting that the individual might be "an agent of a foreign power." The number of such cases have been "very few" since the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978. In cases where the NSA wishes to conduct electronic surveillance on U.S. persons overseas, the agency must first obtain the approval of the Attorney General, who must have probable cause to believe that the individual "is an agent of a foreign power, or a spy, terrorist, saboteur, or someone who aides or abets them." With regard to the unintentional collection of communications to, from, or about U.S. citizens, Hayden stresses that such information is not retained "unless the information is necessary to understand a particular piece of foreign intelligence or assess its importance."

In response to other allegations, Hayden asserts that NSA cannot request that another country "illegally" collect intelligence on U.S. persons on their behalf, and also that the agency "is not authorized to provide signals intelligence information to private U.S. companies."

Document 27: Statement for the Record by Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden, Director, National Security Agency/Central Security Service Before the Joint Inquiry of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, October 17, 2002, Unclassified

Hayden, in his testimony to the joint committee intelligence performance prior to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of September 11, 2001, addresses three major questions: what did NSA know prior to September 11, what did NSA learn in retrospect, and what had NSA done in response? In his conclusions, Hayden addresses a number of issues - including the relationship between SIGINT and law enforcement, and the line between the government's need for counterterrorism information and the privacy interests of individuals residing in the United States.