Gonzales: Eavesdropping Program will not be renewed

This will be short because there's not much to tell yet.

Per Reuters

Abu Gonzales says the NSA Eavesdropping program will not be renewed.

Could it be that it was illegal from the beginning?  Hmmmm?

We'll see if there's going to be more to this story.  Like, how to do it without getting caught this time.

UPDATE: A little more from CNN

•  First diary

  Please be gentle.

  by edwardssl on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:13:59 AM PDT

•  not renewed = hidden more carefully n/t

  by Dion on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:14:15 AM PDT

  •  Exactly my fear

    Also, why are they stopping now?  Is it merely fear of being impeached and then prosecuted?  Is it so that they can hide/destroy their records?

    I want this stuff under oath and on the record ASAP.

    by silence on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:43:17 AM PDT

    •  yep, exactly

      they are going to keep doing what they have been doing.  Nothing to see here folks...see we fixed it...move along....

      by MadAsHellMaddie on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 12:14:23 PM PDT

•  They fought the law and the law won.

  AP has the same story.  

  Guess a Democratic Congress is having some desired effects.

  AP has it too via Yahoo

  by windje on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:15:27 AM PDT

  •  I wonder if this is directly connected to the

    firing of all those Federal Prosecutors?

    Timing is suspicious.

    by edwardssl on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:17:47 AM PDT

•  Intended to head off planned

  Congressional hearings on the subject, and Pat Leahy's subpoenas for documents. "Why do we need hearings, we've stopped doing it, why rehash the past, it's over."

  by litigatormom on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:22:53 AM PDT

  •  I think we should have them anyway

    n/t

    by billlaurelMD on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:45:10 AM PDT

    •  Agree completely n/t

      by litigatormom on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 02:22:52 PM PDT

•  Hmm......this VITAL program ending?!?!?

  or, now that the elections are over for the Bush Presidency, we don't need to spy on the opposition?

  Easier than Watergate........ get the NSA to do your spying for you...... and nobody got caught committing a crime......

  or by the time anyone realizes it, Bush'll be retired in Paraguay

  by xrepub on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:24:02 AM PDT

  •  No - its going to be under FISA/FISC

    Per the AP article, the program will go under FISA/FISC supervision/oversight.

    Which is probably where it should have been all along.

    by windje on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:27:00 AM PDT

    •  Correction....didn't mean "ending" ending

      only that the LACK of oversight was ending.....

      There's no reason to hide anything now that we're not spying on political opponents....  Bush is out in 2 years and they didn't cheat enough on the 06 elections - underestimating the electorate's discontent.

      by xrepub on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 01:33:04 PM PDT

•  True. But the program as it is now structured

  wil not be reauthorized.

  Though, IMHO, they'll find other ways around FISA.

  by edwardssl on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:30:48 AM PDT

  •  Privatized. Now listed on the NYSE as TSP

    No need to push it down into another government agency, where Leahy will find it.  Now registered in Delaware.  Business office in Grand Cayman.

    Don't waste good protein.  Never walk away from equity.

    by leveymg on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 12:10:24 PM PDT

    •  I thought

      I was cynical.  Wow.

      by PsychoSavannah on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 12:59:00 PM PDT

      •  I thought I was being

        understated.

        Could be a subsidiary of DynCorp, or Verizon.  Gotta read the 10-K.

        by leveymg on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 02:44:48 PM PDT

•  Poindexter Redux

  He called the same program TIA, or "Total Information Awareness," and when word got out, the TIA Program was officially ended.

  Then it reappeared in its current guise as a "vital tool in the war on terra" overseen by the NSA.

  So now it will officially end in this form.

  Next stop, the NRO -- and no, I don't mean the National Review Online.

  They're just going to repackage it and shuffle it off to the National Reconnaissance Organization, or some even newer and more secret operation where it will continue to metastasize.

  Ignore the patter, don't follow the hand gesutures, and there's a chance that you might see what's going on in this game of three-card monte.

  by greenskeeper on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:37:19 AM PDT

  •  Yup. Smoke and mirrors, slight of hand, etc

    Don't pay any attention to that man behind the curtain.

    by edwardssl on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:43:08 AM PDT

  •  Hell, there are 16

    goddamn cloak-and-dagger agencies. If they push it on down the line, we won't get impeachment hearings until at least 2022.

    By that time, I'LL be retired to Paraguay (probably clearing brush on the twins' ranch).

    by Mogolori on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:48:46 AM PDT

    •  Let's See

      CIA, DIA, NRO, NSA, and FBI.

      NASA and NOAA have other ostensible responsibilities, but they're in up to their asses in remote sensing.

      Who else?

      It's a good list for the hive mind to aggregate in a sub-thread.

      by greenskeeper on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:52:35 AM PDT

      •  When

        Negroponte was replaced, the MSM repeatedly reported that as DNI, he was the titular head of 16 spy agencies.  And not once did any of them list the agencies themselves, as if we knew them off the top of our head.  How's that for taxpayer public service?

        by Mogolori on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:57:56 AM PDT

•  interesting that this comes out...

  at the SAME time as Abu G states that judges have no say on national security conduct by the executive branch.  Trying to muck up the negative message (someone said here that it was a reasonable basis to impeach him!)?

  by billlaurelMD on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 11:47:03 AM PDT

•  But I thought;;;;;

  ...that the terrorists were going to kill us all if he didn't have the ability to do stuff without going to court.

  by high bitrate on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 12:16:45 PM PDT

•  News Flash! Government to Obey Law

  If we could believe anything they say this would be great news.

  by my homeo on Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 03:36:39 PM PDT