Feinstein Denounces Bush Spying

Say what you will about DiFi - she nailed Bush to the wall today!

Dianne Feinstein on Denounced Decision of the President to Authorize Domestic Spying by the NSA
December 16th, 2005

Today, Senator Dianne Feinstein of CA denounced, in a very strong statement on the Senate floor - basically nailing Bush to the wall, the reported decision of the Bush Administration to allow surveillance of U.S. citizens by the National Security Agency, in apparent violation of the law.

{snip}
Let me be clear. Domestic intelligence collection is governed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. This law sets out a careful set of checks and balances that are designed to ensure that domestic intelligence collection is conducted in accordance with the Constitution, under the supervision of judges and with accountability to the Congress of the United States.

{snip}
If the President of the United States is not going to follow the law and he simply alerts eight Members, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t violate a law. I repeat, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t violate a law. FISA is the exclusive law in this area, unless there is something I missed, and please, someone, if there is, bring it to my attention.

{snip}
I would argue the resolution authorizing use of force was not a declaration of war. I read it this morning carefully. It does not authorize the President of the United States to do anything other than use force. It doesn’t say he can wiretap people in the United States of America. And apparently, perhaps with some change, but apparently this activity has been going on unbeknownst to most of us in this body and in the other body now since 2002.

FULL FLOOR STATEMENT - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1425

him hell, Dianne Feinstein!:headbang: :yourock:

Here's what the blog says Feinstein says, in part:

"The newspaper, the New York Times, states that the President unilaterally decided to ignore this law and ordered subordinates to monitor communications outside of this legal authority."

and found this one, very similar to yours:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/politics/15cnd-program.html?pagewanted=1

"Under the agency's longstanding rules, the N.S.A. can target for interception phone calls or e-mail messages on foreign soil, even if the recipients of those communications are in the United States. Usually, though, the government can only target phones and e-mail messages in this country by first obtaining a court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which holds its closed sessions at the Justice Department."

So it sounds to me if your telephone company routes their calls through a computer located off U.S. soil, then the call is fair game.

Further, if one considers that there's at most 6 people between any person and any other person alive (I know A, who knows B, who knows C, who knows D, who knows E, who knows the President of country X), then a whole 15% of the population may be under surveillance at one time or another, in spite of the government claim that it's only 500 at any single moment.

Chilling. I hadn't seen the story.

I linked her quote on the blog to the link.

Let the SOB pop his ugly head in my window and I'll shoot him the moon. :)