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:BVfpf.21037$2k.20476@pd7tw1no...   
   >   
   > "oO"  wrote in message news:40lauuF1aqoruU1@individual.net...   
   >>   
   >> "Larry"  wrote in message   
   >> news:2g0pf.134726$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?   
   >   
   > like I said....   
      
      
   Like you said? What does that mean? Now, will you answer my questions or   
   just continure to be ignorant?   
      
      
   >>> "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,   
      
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