"in a potential U-turn by the Bush administration, Hayden, White House senior counselor Dan Bartlett and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan cracked the door for the first time to the White House asking Congress to revise the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to accommodate "hot pursuit" of fleeting communications by suspected members of al-Qaida -- the ones that are now being targeted by the NSA program without court approval."
Pressure for CICBush43 to conform to the Constitution and the Rule of Law seems to be fierce enough to force him to seek protective shelter from his own party in Congress. Polls asking if CICBush43 should be impeached over warrantless spying are getting majorities saying yes and that tends to make politicians, especially Republican congressmen up for election in 2006 and embattled with the Abramoff scandal, very nervous. CICBush43 needs that kind of pressure from the public and his party to understand that if you don't like the law, either get it changed or OBEY IT to avoid being a CRIMINAL. The big joke is that there is ALREADY a "hot pursuit" clause in FISA that permits wiretaps to be started right away and then validated with a warrant up to 72 HOURS LATER. Of course, that assumes that CICBush43 only ordered the NSA to do wiretaps and not datamining to develop comprehensive databases on each person whose number was wiretapped. Such wide-ranging comprehensive personal databases would be unacceptable within the scope of FISA wiretap warrants. And also, far beyond the scope of domestic operations Congress was willing to approve in the 9/11 Resolution as they specifically REFUSED to allow domestic military operations. Also helps that working level legal folks at NSA, DOJ and DoD are reportedly up in arms about being kept out of the loop about the NSA spying and Project TALON and the administration is worried a few, or even quite a few, may go public to augment the whistleblowers already volunteering to testify before Congress. The former US Attorney for Eastern Virginia, Paul McNulty has already been promoted to Assistant USAG, allegedly with the specific task of mitigating the damage to the Republican Party from the Abramoff scandal (which may soon expand to involve Ashcroft emails with Abramoff involving the Abramoff Marianas bribery and demotion of Acting Assistant AG Fred Black). McNulty may also have to shoulder damage control for the NSA task too because of direct USAG involvement. Watch for him to fiercely resist any efforts to release DOJ documents in either the NSA or Marianas cases or permit Fred Black or those at DOJ HQ or Dept of the Interior who supported his anti-corruption efforts stopped by Ashcroft, to testify before Congress. David Bier http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/13698129.htm Posted on Tue, Jan. 24, 2006 Bush may ask Congress to OK domestic spying By Stewart M. Powell HEARST NEWSPAPERS WASHINGTON - President Bush and the nation's No. 2 intelligence official on Monday defended "targeted" post-9/11 domestic spying without court approval, amid hints that the White House may ask Congress for a green light to continue the wiretaps. Bush said he had constitutional and congressional authority to order the National Security Agency to carry out secret surveillance on two-way international communications between individuals in the U.S., including American citizens, and suspected al-Qaida operatives overseas. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, deputy director of national intelligence, said NSA eavesdropping was not "a drift net" ensnaring innocent international communications by ordinary Americans. But in a potential U-turn by the Bush administration, Hayden, White House senior counselor Dan Bartlett and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan cracked the door for the first time to the White House asking Congress to revise the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to accommodate "hot pursuit" of fleeting communications by suspected members of al-Qaida -- the ones that are now being targeted by the NSA program without court approval. "If they're making a phone call in the United States, it seems like to me we want to know why," Bush told nearly 9,000 students, soldiers and dignitaries at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. Bush told his audience he was "mindful of your civil liberties," but emphasized he had broken no laws by ordering domestic spying without approval by the 11-judge Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The court was established by FISA in 1978 to review and usually approve electronic eavesdropping on suspected foreign agents inside the United States. The court permits emergency wiretaps without court approval for up to 72 hours. "It's amazing when people to say to me, 'Well, he was just breaking the law,'" Bush said, emphasizing repeated briefings to selected members of Congress. "If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?" Hayden, who led the NSA when the domestic spying began in October, 2001, told an audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that the NSA "has neither the time, the resources nor the legal authority to read communications that aren't likely to protect us." With more than 200 billion minutes of international telephone calls to and from the United States in 2003, the NSA is "going after very specific communications that our professional judgment tells us we have reason to believe are those associated with people who want to kill Americans," Hayden said. Officials' first hints that the Bush administration might ask Congress to revise federal prohibitions on domestic surveillance without court approval emerged after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Fox News Sunday that the White House should seek authorization from Congress. "I know of no member of Congress, frankly, who, if the administration came and said, 'Here's why we need this capability,' that they wouldn't get it," McCain said. Hayden spoke as though the administration were weighing changes. "If we were to do that, I would hope we would do it in such a way that the legitimate debate and legitimate discussions of that step do not betray to the enemy the tactics, techniques and procedures that we are now using to detect them," Hayden said. Bartlett told CBS' News "Early Show" that the White House had explored with congressional leaders the possibility of adjusting FISA at the outset of the program. "We're obviously going to continue to work with Congress," Bartlett said. "We have some hearings coming up (Feb. 6) in the (Senate) Judiciary Committee. We'll continue to work with them." McClellan also suggested the White House may ask Congress to provide legal cover for the NSA program, echoing language that resembled Bartlett. Members of Congress briefed on the presidentially-ordered surveillance initially felt that the White House should not seek formal approval by Congress, McClellan said. "We will always continue to work closely with Congress on these issues," McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route with the president to his appearance at Kansas State University. Democrats continued criticism of the Bush-backed spying. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Bush had "yet to explain why the secret FISA courts are not good enough or fast enough -- or tell Congress what changes need to be made in the law." Kerry added: "It's time for a real investigation to get to the truth." The remarks by Bush and Hayden were the lead-off in a series of appearances by top administration officials on behalf of the controversial spying program. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales plans to address the issue today in a speech at Georgetown University titled "Intercepting al-Qaida: A Lawful and Necessary Tool for Protecting America." Bush plans a rare visit to NSA headquarters at nearby Fort Meade, Md., on Wednesday. The latest AP-Ipsos nationwide poll completed earlier this month showed that 56 percent of Americans believed the Bush administration should be required to get an electronic surveillance warrant from the federal court before eavesdropping on electronic communications between American citizens and suspected terrorists overseas. Hayden's presentation, at an hourlong speech and question-and-answer session at the National Press Club that drew a few heated hecklers, was remarkable in that it featured a former director of the supersecret National Security Agency discussing what administration officials say is probably the government's most classified program. Hayden, in his most extensive public remarks to date, said instantaneous surveillance permitted under Bush's order enables the NSA to track suspects' telephone calls "more comprehensively and more efficiently" than going through the FISA court. Had NSA spying been under way under presidential order before Sept. 11, 2001, Hayden said it was his "professional judgment that we would have detected some of the 9/11 al-Qaida operatives in the United States and we would have identified them as such." His claim was less sweeping that ones offered by Vice President Dick Cheney who has contended that the spying program might have prevented the attacks as well as saving "thousands of lives" since the Sept. 11 attacks. "The activities conducted under this authorization have helped us detect and prevent possible terrorist attacks against the American people," Cheney said in New York last Friday. -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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