Hot hot news! GWB ordered MASSIVE ILLEGAL GOVT. SPYING

On THOUSANDS of private American citizens randomly.

(Washington DC, Dec. 16) - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches.

"This is really a sea change," said a former senior official who specializes in national security law. "It's almost a mainstay of this country that the N.S.A. only does foreign searches." Nearly a dozen current and former officials, who were granted anonymity because of the classified nature of the program, discussed it with reporters for The New York Times because of their concerns about the operation's legality and oversight.

According to those officials and others, reservations about aspects of the program have also been expressed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a judge presiding over a secret court that oversees intelligence matters. Some of the questions about the agency's new powers led the administration to temporarily suspend the operation last year and impose more restrictions, the officials said.

More @ NYT.com:
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/art...215232809990023

so all these denials about a 'mistake' are meaningless. Coming up on CNN after the break.

be so stupid to even vote for these evil people in the first place.

This is like my 2nd day here. What does it mean "n/t"? Thx :)

I wonder why some of ya didn't see the text as others had???
Guess I'll figure how to navigate DU sooner or later!

:)
Welcome to DU!
Kicked and Nominated!
:dem:

So MANY welcoming folks here!! :)

The whole point of "n/t" or "eom" (meaning "end of message," and used for the same pupose) is to save you the time and trouble of opening a message (or an email, for that matter--it's used for them, too) if there is no message included beyond the subject line.

If you have a slow dial-up or are reading on a slow-loading site, it is very frustrating to click a message and then wait for it to load, only to discover that there is no message other than what was included in the subject line.

for the NICE welcome. Happy Holidays back atcha!!

DU Glossary

Welcome to DU, SushiFan -- great post!

I hope you're enjoying it here. :hi: It means "no text." (So just a subject line)

Break the law, him? Naaaaaaw.

:sarcasm:

:puke:

:grr:

:nuke:

I yearn for the day when these f*ckers do federal time.

and support those brave Senators who filibuster it.

If there isn't outrage about this we are doomed

Is everything ok because he's a "Christian "man? 9/11 9/11 9/11?

This government we inherited from the founding fathers is for adults, GROWN UPS,which REQUIRES participation by an informed citizenry not for a bunch of sheep, followers ,childlike UNINFORMED zealots who in reality are just simply too afraid and lazy to govern themselves responsibly.

I have nothing but contempt for Repugs - they are complicit in the destruction of this once great nation

While they go on about how "free" the Iraqi's are we here at home are getting our rights and privacy chipped away and nobody seems to know or believe it.

Here is a new one

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512160161dec16,1,6120069.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

never seen THAT happen before.........

:kick:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html?ei=5094&en=c7596fe0d4798785&hp=&ex=1134795600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1134740076-B7LzzqRDdA9ux/emgL7hdA

The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

----

The White House wants everybody to talk about nothing they do.
I think this is a terrific waste of time and money when dubyy himself shoud be eavesdropped on. Follow his international connections. Hmm, what a concept.
:argh:

This administration has lost it's marbles
(as well as any sense of right and wrong)

They are obsessed with opposition or "enemies" of any kind, including imaginary ones. Paranoia is right!

They didn't use the intelligence they had to stop 911.

Why would these slackers suddenly create a whole bunch more intelligence to sift through, when they've already proven that they are either:

A) Lazier than shit - too lazy to waste time on deciphering any new intelligence - or

B) Out to do our nation harm so they can make lots more $$$$ in the name of Jeebus?

They are boneheads and slackers and gluttons who would only use the information gathered to protect THEMSELVES from criticism.

THAT'S what I think.

Nice to see it in print, though.

This has probably been going on for several years.

Several important points:

• "Nearly a dozen current and former officials" discussed this unprecedented Bush-authorized spying with the NYT.
  
  
• They discussed this with reporters A YEAR AGO but only now is the NYT finally reporting PART of it. They say that the WH asked them to hold the story and that they are still holding part of it but decided that the part published in this story does not threaten national security.
  
  
• A discussion of this program with selected Congress members was conducted by CHENEY.
  
  
• As with some other blantantly unconsitutional powers grabbed by the Bush Administration, there is an enabling internal memo from Administration lawyer John Yoo saying that the president can do whatever he wants in surveillance, regardless of the Constitution. He's the author of the infamous Yoo memo stating that Bush has the sole power to declare war (!!!) and sole control all aspects of military power, for example:
  http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_186.shtml

This is a very long article, extending over five web pages at the NYT site.