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Gonzales says court order no longer required to tap your phone
(Dan Eggen, Washington Post, April 6, 2006)
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday left open the possibility that President Bush could order warrantless wiretaps on telephone calls occurring solely within the United States. . . . Such action would dramatically expand the potential reach of the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance program. . . . In response to a question from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., before the House Judiciary Committee, Gonzales said the government would have to determine if a conversation was related to al-Qaida and crucial to fighting terrorism before deciding whether to listen in without court supervision. . . . "I'm not going to rule it out," Gonzales said of the possibility of monitoring purely domestic communications. [COMMENT by Lorenzo: Of course, the only way Big Brother can decide if your conversation should be flagged is to first "listen" to it by sending EVERY domestic call through the NSA filters. Your telephone conversations ARE being listened to. You now live in a fascist state . . . might as well get used to it.] . . . The comments mark a dramatic departure from previous statements by Gonzales, President Bush and others within the Bush administration, who have repeatedly stressed that an NSA eavesdropping program ordered after the Sept. 11 attacks was focused only on international communications. . . . Gonzales also reiterated earlier hints that there may be another program, or an expanded version of the NSA program, that has not been revealed. . . . Administration officials have acknowledged that Bush issued an order in October 2001 authorizing the NSA to intercept phone calls and e-mail between the United States and foreign nations in which one of the parties was suspected of some link to al-Qaida. . . . Gonzales and the Justice Department have argued that the program is constitutional and was effectively authorized by Congress when it approved the use of force against al-Qaida after the Sept. 11 attacks. . . . Many Democrats and some Republicans say that Congress intended no such authorization and that the program violates a 1978 intelligence law that set up a special court to oversee and approve all clandestine surveillance within the United States.

ALSO SEE: AT&T Forwards ALL Internet Traffic Into NSA's Domestic Spy Network

posted by LoZo 9:20 AM