During the debate over FISA in 2007, drational and I posted diaries in which I stated :
This diary discusses the technological Pandora’s Box opened up if the FISA amendments are not fixed, based upon an article in today’s WaPo. In
previous diaries and comments, I have argued that there exists a yet unrevealed domestic spying program, that is known only to the "Pennsylvania Avenue Politboro" , Bush, Rove, Cheney , Addington –I think Gonzalez, Ashcroft and others have been kept in the dark in order to retain ‘plausible deniability’.
The Democratic cave in needs to fixed and people need to be disbarred, and impeached, which can occur after leaving office
It is sometimes a shame to be right. The FISA cave in; and stopping the discovery process in civil suits that could have led to the discovery of this information is outrageous.
My August 2007 diary discusses the technological Pandora’s Box opened up if the FISA amendments are not fixed, based upon an article in today’s WaPo. In
previous diaries and comments, I have argued that there exists a yet unrevealed domestic spying program, that is known only to the "Pennsylvania Avenue Politboro" , Bush, Rove, Cheney , Addington –I think Gonzalez, Ashcroft and others have been kept in the dark in order to retain ‘plausible deniability’.
Key excerpts from the AP story :
WASHINGTON –
The Bush administration built an unprecedented surveillance operation to pull in mountains of information far beyond the warrantless wiretapping previously acknowledged, a team of federal inspectors general reported Friday, questioning the legal basis for the effort but shielding almost all details on grounds they're still too secret to reveal.
.....
As I speculated in 2007, the Pennsylvania Avenue Politboro kept things secret even from our elected officials.
The report says too few relevant officials knew of the size and depth of the program, let alone signed off on it. They particularly criticize John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general who wrote legal memos undergirding the policy. His boss, Attorney General John Ashcroft, was not aware until March 2004 of the exact nature of the intelligence operations beyond wiretapping that he had been approving for the previous two and a half years, the report says.
Why does this guy still have a law license, much less a gig with the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a Berkeley law professorship ?
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Most of the intelligence leads generated under what was known as the "President's Surveillance Program" did not have any connection to terrorism, the report said
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SO what was the authorty and rationale for the program ?
The report, compiled by five inspectors general, refers to "unprecedented collection activities" by U.S. intelligence agencies under an executive order signed by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Gee any chance that Rove and his political operatives could have been clued in .....can we get them to talk ?
The inspectors general interviewed more than 200 people inside and outside the government,
but five former Bush administration officials refused to be questioned. They were Ashcroft, Yoo, former CIA Director George Tenet, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and David Addington, an aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney.
HERE IS THE ULTIMATE OUTRAGE :
According to the report, Addington could personally decide who in the administration was "read into" — allowed access to — the classified program.
Anybody remember Addington's screw Yoo- um You performance last year before the House Judiciary Committee ?
http://www.youtube.com/...
Addington should be disbarred, but the Democrats must show some backbone, expose this crap, and change course to a policy that restores our nation's moral authority.