Thursday, December 22, 2005

Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program

WaPo The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources.

That is fine, but if the information subsequently is printed in NYT or WaPo, I want the judges arrested, along with the reporters writing the story.
Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court.
This is probably a good reason to avoid the FICA court. They are more worried about making sure it is admissable in court than preventing terror attacks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What do I know that the FISA Court does not know? What's the hype? Apparently I know more.

My legal opinion on the surveillance scandal that is currently all over the media is below.

ISSUE: Is Bush doing something wrong, illegal, or unconstitutional?

Many legal issues can go either way, but apparently Bush has done nothing wrong (unless most other Presidents have done the same wrongs). The President apparently has inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches in order to obtain foreign intelligence information.

There are three pieces of research posted below that indicate that Bush has done nothing wrong (in re. surveillance). None of the sources cited below are binding authority and provide an absolute vindication but they are very persuasive and will ultimately lead to an absolution of any wrongdoing (in re. surveillance).

This information was NOT difficult to find and is not hidden in secret databases. The research shows such compelling support for Bush's position that the "consitutional experts" that keep getting cited in the media should be called out as idealogical hacks because they should know better and should not be hyping this scandal as something that could lead to impeachment.

Only through real debate and not idealogical rantings can we possibly get to the truth.


RESEARCH:

1st: Check out the only reported case to come out of the Foreign Intelligence Surviellance Court (In re. Sealed Case, 310 F.3d 717 (2002)).

In pertinent part is reads"...The Truong court (United States v. Truong Dinh Hung, 629 F.2d 908 (4th Cir.1980))., as did all the other courts to have decided the issue, held that the President did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information. FN26 It was incumbent upon the court, therefore, to determine the boundaries of that constitutional authority in the case before it. We take for granted that the President does have that authority and, assuming that is so, FISA could not encroach on the President's constitutional power..."


2nd: Check out President Carter's executive order at http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo12139.htm

In pertinent part President Carter's executive order states that "... the Attorney General
is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign
intelligence information without a court order..."

3rd: Check out President Clinton's executive order at http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-12949.htm

In pertinent part, President Clinton's executive order states that "...the
Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a
court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of
up to one year..."