XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.british, alt.conspiracy   
   XPost: alt.conspiracy.new-world-order, alt.america, alt.conspira   
   y.america-at-war   
   XPost: us.politics   
   From: oO@oO.com   
      
   "Larry"  wrote in message   
   news:2g0pf.134726$Gd6.117165@pd7tw3no...   
   > old news... *yawn* nothing new here move along.   
      
   Is it really? When did you find out about this? You must have inside   
   knowledge as this only came to light in the past few days. Nothing new you   
   say? Well not all of us have your apparent inside knowledge - so it is new   
   to many. Move along you say? Are you mad?   
      
      
   > "oO"  wrote in message news:40ivtmF1at901U1@individual.net...   
   >> Bush Secretly Lifted Some Limits on Spying in U.S. After 9/11, Officials   
   >> Say   
   >> By JAMES RISEN   
   >> and ERIC LICHTBLAU   
   >>   
   >> WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 ­- 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 represents 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.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> The Bush administration views the operation as necessary so that the   
   >> agency can move quickly to monitor communications that may disclose   
   >> threats to this country, the officials said. Defenders of the program say   
   >> it has been a critical tool in helping disrupt terrorist plots and   
   >> prevent attacks inside the United States.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Administration officials are confident that existing safeguards are   
   >> sufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, the   
   >> officials say. In some cases, they said, the Justice Department   
   >> eventually seeks warrants if it wants to expand the eavesdropping to   
   >> include communications confined within the United States. The officials   
   >> said the administration had briefed Congressional leaders about the   
   >> program and notified the judge in charge of the Foreign Intelligence   
   >> Surveillance Court, the secret Washington court that deals with national   
   >> security issues.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> 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.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> While many details about the program remain secret, officials familiar   
   >> with it said the N.S.A. eavesdropped without warrants on up to 500 people   
   >> in the United States at any given time. The list changes as some names   
   >> are added and others dropped, so the number monitored in this country may   
   >> have reached into the thousands over the past three years, several   
   >> officials said. Overseas, about 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of   
   >> terrorist ties are monitored at one time, according to those officials.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Several officials said the eavesdropping program had helped uncover a   
   >> plot by Iyman Faris, an Ohio trucker and naturalized citizen who pleaded   
   >> guilty in 2003 to supporting Al Qaeda by planning to bring down the   
   >> Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches. What appeared to be another Qaeda plot,   
   >> involving fertilizer bomb attacks on British pubs and train stations, was   
   >> exposed last year in part through the program, the officials said. But   
   >> they said most people targeted for N.S.A. monitoring have never been   
   >> charged with a crime, including an Iranian-American doctor in the South   
   >> who came under suspicion because of what one official described as   
   >> dubious ties to Osama bin Laden.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Dealing With a New Threat   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> The eavesdropping program grew out of concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks   
   >> that the nation's intelligence agencies were not poised to deal   
   >> effectively with the new threat of Al Qaeda and that they were handcuffed   
   >> by legal and bureaucratic restrictions better suited to peacetime than   
   >> war, according to officials. In response, President Bush significantly   
   >> eased limits on American intelligence and law enforcement agencies and   
   >> the military.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> But some of the administration's antiterrorism initiatives have provoked   
   >> an outcry from members of Congress, watchdog groups, immigrants and   
   >> others who argue that the measures erode protections for civil liberties   
   >> and intrude on Americans' privacy. Opponents have challenged provisions   
   >> of the USA Patriot Act, the focus of contentious debate on Capitol Hill   
   >> this week, that expand domestic surveillance by giving the Federal Bureau   
   >> of Investigation more power to collect information like library lending   
   >> lists or Internet use. Military and F.B.I. officials have drawn criticism   
   >> for monitoring what were largely peaceful antiwar protests. The Pentagon   
      
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