Denied FISA warrant in Zacharia Moussawi case?

Anyone remember this event? I seem to recall the FBI whistleblowers brought this up back in 2002.

:-)

...in August 2002, and it's archived at http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=1922&forum=DCForumID60

One puzzling and apparently misunderstood feature of the system for requesting and getting FISA warrants is the WITHDRAWAL of FISA warrant requests by supervisors at FBI headquarters. Many press reports repeat the assertion that "no FISA warrant request ever has been denied." The FISA annual report to Congress for 2001 even says this, despite what we all know about Colleen Rowley's request.

The explanation for the discrepancy was the interposition of James Baker IV and other members of DOJ's OIPR between FBI field agents and the FISA court. OIPR stands for "Office of Intelligence Policy and Review". This office has the power to 'withdraw' FISA warrant applications on behalf of the field agents who requested them.

"... The surveillance request procedure usually took the form of a three or four page document known as a "letterhead." It was signed by the FBI assistant director for national security. ..."

The warrant issuance process allows for 'Withdrawal' of requests before a final 'yes' or 'no' decision is made. Thus warrants frequently may in practice be denied without officially being 'Denied'.

if that's what a FISA warrant would have achieved.
Check www.complete911timeline.org and search for Moussaoui in the timeline, they have a good search function.

According to Agent Rowley's 13 page memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Dave Frasca threw "up roadblocks and undermined Minneapolis' by now desperate efforts to obtain a FISA search warrant, long after the French Intelligence service provided information and probable cause became clear." http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020603/memo.html

Lots of info here on Frasca's wilful, and rewarded, undermining of pre-9/11 investigations:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1297030