Text 29550, 134 rader
Skriven 2007-08-23 04:58:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Paranoia
================




This will feed the paranoia of black helicopter types...

=================================

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8R6CB100&show_article=1

Spy Chief Reveals Classified Details  
 
Aug 22 07:22 PM US/Eastern
By KATHERINE SHRADER
Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell pulled 
the curtain back on previously classified details of government 
surveillance and of a secretive court whose recent rulings created new 
hurdles for the Bush administration as it tries to prevent terrorism. 
McConnell's comments—made in an interview with the El Paso (Texas) Times
last week and posted as a transcript on the newspaper's Web site 
Wednesday—raised eyebrows for their frank discussion of previously 
classified eavesdropping work conducted under the Foreign Intelligence 
Surveillance Act, known as FISA. Among the disclosures: 

—McConnell confirmed for the first time that the private sector assisted
with President Bush's warrantless surveillance program. AT&T, Verizon 
and other telecommunications companies are being sued for their 
cooperation. "Now if you play out the suits at the value they're 
claimed, it would bankrupt these companies," McConnell said, arguing 
that they deserve immunity for their help. 

—He provided new details on court rulings handed down by the 11- member 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves classified 
eavesdropping operations and whose proceedings are almost always 
entirely secret. McConnell said a ruling that went into effect May 31 
required the government to get court warrants to monitor communications 
between two foreigners if the conversation travels on a wire in the U.S.
network. Millions of calls each day do, because of the robust nature of 
the U.S. systems. 

—McConnell said it takes 200 hours to assemble a FISA warrant on a 
single telephone number. "We're going backwards," he said. "We couldn't 
keep up." 

—Offering never-disclosed figures, McConnell also revealed that fewer 
than 100 people inside the United States are monitored under FISA 
warrants. However, he said, thousands of people overseas are monitored. 

McConnell's comments were a dramatic departure from the government's 
normally tight-lipped approach to disclosing any information about how 
it spies on electronic communications—some of its most sensitive and 
costly work. The FISA court's activities are particularly protected. 

Even as he shed new light on the classified operations, McConnell 
asserted that the current debate in Congress about whether to update the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will cost American lives because 
of all the information it revealed to terrorists. 

"Part of this is a classified world. The fact that we're doing it this 
way means that some Americans are going to die," he said. 

McConnell was in El Paso last week for a conference on border security 
hosted by House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas. The spy 
chief joined Reyes for an interview with his local paper. 

At the end of the interview, McConnell cautioned reporter Chris Roberts 
that he should consider whether enemies of the U.S. could gain from the 
information he just shared in the interview, Roberts said. McConnell 
left it to the paper to decide what to publish. 

"I don't believe it damaged national security or endangered any of our 
people," said El Paso Times Executive Editor Dionicio Flores. 

McConnell appeared days after Congress passed a temporary law to expand 
the government's ability to monitor suspects in national security 
investigations—terrorists, spies and others—without first seeking court 
approval in certain cases. The highly contentious measure expires in six
months. 

After Sept. 11, Bush authorized the terrorist surveillance program to 
monitor conversations between people in the United States and others 
overseas when terrorism is suspected. Until January, no warrants were 
required. But as the Democratic Congress took over, the Bush 
administration decided to bring the program under the oversight of the 
FISA court. 

McConnell said the court initially ruled that the program was 
appropriate and legitimate. But when the ruling had to be renewed in the
spring, another judge saw the operations differently. This judge, who 
McConnell did not identify, decided that the government needed a warrant
to monitor a conversation between foreigners when the signal traveled on
a wire in the U.S. communications network. 

McConnell said the government got a temporary stay on the ruling, but it
expired at the end of May. "After the 31st of May, we were in extremis 
because now we have significantly less capability," he said. 

At the same time, the intelligence community was wrapping up years of 
work on a National Intelligence Estimate on threats to the homeland—an 
analysis that is considered its most comprehensive judgment. It found 
the threat was increasing, McConnell noted. 

Because he sees FISA as a major tool to keep terrorists out of the 
country, McConnell said he pressed Congress to change the law. 

McConnell's interview raised concerns at the Justice Department, where 
senior officials questioned whether the intelligence chief had 
overstepped in discussing the secret FISA court. 

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse referred questions to 
McConnell's office, where his spokesman Ross Feinstein declined to 
comment. 

In a phone interview, Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra said he never felt at
liberty to discuss some of the information that McConnell did, including
the FISA court rulings, but the executive branch gets to decide what is 
classified. "What I think it tells you is how important they believe it 
is to get this FISA thing done right," said Hoekstra, the top Republican
on the House Intelligence Committee. 

He said McConnell is hurt by the personal attacks on him during the FISA
recent debate. Among them, Democrats have alleged that he negotiated in 
bad faith and was too beholden to the White House. 

In addition, Hoekstra said he thinks McConnell wanted to push back on 
accusations that the legislation gave the attorney general unprecedented
new powers. "I think they felt they had to become more public," he said.

___ 

--- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10
 * Origin:  (1:226/600)