FISA court judge resigns in protest of Bush spying on Americans

Judge resigns over spy program
More senators call for probe President Bush's domestic surveillance draws more fire as a judge on a court that OKs spying quits.
By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer
The Washington Post

Washington - A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation.

Two associates familiar with his decision said Tuesday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's work.


snip...

Word of Robertson's resignation came as two Senate Republicans Tuesday joined the call for congressional investigations into the National Security Agency's warrantless interception of telephone calls and e-mails to overseas locations by U.S. citizens suspected of links to terrorists.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_3328728?source=rss

"White House spokesman Scott McClellan suggested that the secrecy around the program may prohibit White House cooperation with any investigation.

"This is still a highly classified program, and there are details that it's important not be disclosed," McClellan said."
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All they have to do it put it in this program, keep it top secret, and do whatever the FUCK they want????

They are the only ones allowed privacy now???

BULLSHIT!!!

I have never seen anything with more assholes. What is brown, has four legs and twelve assholes? The table at which the Bush administration cabinet is meeting.

and chronic avoidance of their jurisdiction. The judges of that court have to view this as a long-term fraud on the court.

Bush has been using them as the front for his black ops. If you're going to march people off secretly, at least continue the pretense of judicial authority.

From what I've heard, they did this well over 10,000 times. In other words, they decided long ago "to hell with the whole oversight thing."

who could be trusted with the power of the FISA court and now he's removed himself from it in protest.

he'll be replaced by another crony.

If the judges with the decency to be offended by the actions of this administration remove themselves from office we have NO ONE that will stop this madness!

Please come back Judge Robertson!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005


FISC judge resigns in protest over NSA domestic surveillance
Jeannie Shawl at 8:53 AM ET


US District Judge James Robertson , one of 11 members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) , has resigned in protest over the National Security Agency's secret domestic surveillance program , according to a report Wednesday in the Washington Post. Robertson submitted his resignation letter to Chief Justice John Roberts late Monday, and though he didn't provide a reason for his resignation, two sources told the Post that Robertson has expressed concern about the program authorized by President Bush to conduct warrantless wiretaps on international communications by US residents with known links to al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations. The FISC was established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to oversee government surveillance in intelligence cases, and Robertson is said to have expressed concern that the NSA program is legally questionable and could have tainted the work of the FISC. The New York Times reported Wednesday that despite White House denials, the NSA program has occasionally captured purely domestic communications , though the number of such interceptions was small and was caused by a technical glitch in determining whether a communication was international. AP has more.

In another development in the domestic spying saga, the ACLU has said that documents it obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request show that the FBI has used counterterrorism resources to monitor domestic animal and environmental rights organizations without sufficient evidence that the groups are engaging in or supporting violent action. The ACLU says this FBI monitoring of advocacy groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Greenpeace, who have not broken the law "has a chilling effect on the vibrant tradition of political dissent in this country." The FBI insists that it has conducted its investigations in accordance to US law and Justice Department regulations and that the ACLU has mischaracterized passing references in FBI files. AP has more.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/12/fisc-judge-resigns-in-protest-over-nsa.php

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