http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/wiretaps_0.htm
“[F]ederal authorities have been allowed to use non-terrorist material obtained through the surveillance program for investigation and prosecution.

In more than one case, the sources said, a surveillance target was prosecuted on non-terrorist charges from information obtained through wiretaps conducted without a court order. They said the FBI supported this policy in an attempt to pressure surveillance targets to cooperate.”

~!D

What I like about this particular issue is that it’s blowback time on the NYT…or, as I like to call her, the Old Grey Whore. “Paper of record” my foot.

Dec. 28, 2005 — Lawyers for “dirty bomb” suspect Jose Padilla have filed a brief with the Supreme Court urging it to take Padilla’s case, linking it to the National Security Agency wiretapping controversy.

The brief, filed yesterday, uses strong language against the government for its treatment of Padilla, who was arrested as an “enemy combatant” in June 2002 and indicted by a federal grand jury last month.

“The government continues to defend this sweeping view of the president’s power to substitute military rule for the rule of law,” the brief states, “and seeks now to expand it further, arguing that the very authorities that it says justify the indefinite detention without charge of citizens also justify widespread spying on citizens without judiciary warrant or congressional notification.”
(see link for rest of article)

http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/wiretaps_0.htm

SNIPS
Issue Date: December 26, 2005-January 1, 2006, Posted On: 12/27/2005

Wiretaps fail to make dent in terror war; al Qaeda used messengers

The Bush administration’s surveillance policy has failed to make a dent in the war against al Qaeda.

U.S. law enforcement sources said that more than four years of surveillance by the National Security Agency has failed to capture any high-level al Qaeda operative in the United States. They said al Qaeda insurgents have long stopped using the phones and even computers to relay messages. Instead, they employ couriers….

The sources provided guidelines to how the administration has employed the surveillance program. They said the National Security Agency in cooperation with the FBI was allowed to monitor the telephone calls and e-mails of any American believed to be in contact with a person abroad suspected of being linked to al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

At that point, the sources said, all of the communications of that American would be monitored, including calls made to others in the United States. The regulations under the administration’s surveillance program do not require any court order….

Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union confirm that the FBI has monitored and infiltrated a range of Muslim and Arab groups, including the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

But despite the huge amount of raw material gathered under the legislation, the FBI has not captured one major al Qaeda operative in the United States. Instead, federal authorities have been allowed to use non-terrorist material obtained through the surveillance program for investigation and prosecution.

In more than one case, the sources said, a surveillance target was prosecuted on non-terrorist charges from information obtained through wiretaps conducted without a court order. They said the FBI supported this policy in an attempt to pressure surveillance targets to cooperate.

god help these people…from a PR perspective (from which I come) these people are in so much trouble…even if they’re deranged call is gaining momentum…NOTE TO DEMS…GOPubs hAVE THE MAJORITY…ain’t gonna happen. Sheesh.

I so totally in awe at the massive f’up, previously known as the Democratic party…just stunning awe.

They mey be giddy, but could someone conduct an intervention and let them in on the joke they have become…

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin122805.php3

In June, Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, pilot of downed American Airlines Flight 77, blew the whistle on plans by civil liberties zealots to turn Ground Zero in New York into a Blame America monument. On July 29, the Times editorial page, stocked with liberals who snort and stamp whenever their patriotism is questioned, slammed Burlingame and her supporters at Take Back the Memorial as “un-American” — for exercising their free speech rights.

AJ Strata is ready to fight the “battle for America”

Surprisingly, the liberals want a fight for the future of America over the issue of national security. In their world there is no war, simply crimes to fight in court. In their world we cannot m…

Walid Phares is perhaps hinting that the American people would be pretty shocked to learn who is helping the terrorists.

I’m not afraid of the NSA. I think the NSA is trying to protect me. I am afraid of some of these politicians like Senator Reid who gloat about killing the Patriot Act. Reid claims to be protecting my rights. Actually, I think Bush is protecting my rights and Reid is protecting the terrorists’ freedom to kill us.

http://www.reportingwar.com/phares122005.shtml

SNIP
[T]estifying to the House Select Committee on Intelligence on October 30, 2003 on “Collecting Intelligence under the law,” former DOJ attorney John Yoo wrote:

“During wartime, the military engages in searches and surveillance without a warrant. We do not, for example, require the armed forces to seek a warrant when it conducts visual or electronic surveillance of enemy forces or of a battlefield, or when it searches buildings, houses, and vehicles for the enemy. Nor must military operations within the United States operate under a different rule.”

The statistics show that it is not only Republicans who support the NSA, but Democrats, too.

I wonder why a Democrat would damage his own party?

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2005/NSA.htm

National Security Agency
Survey of 1,000 Adults

December 26-27, 2005

Should the National Security Agency be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States?

Yes 64%
No 23%
RasmussenReports.com

Is President Bush the first President to authorize a program for intercepting telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States?

Yes 26%
No 48%
RasmussenReports.com

December 28, 2005–Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Americans say they are following the NSA story somewhat or very closely.

Just 26% believe President Bush is the first to authorize a program like the one currently in the news. Forty-eight percent (48%) say he is not while 26% are not sure.