Hopefully the media and the Congress are done making fools of themselves on the terrorist surveillance arrangement between the NSA and the FIS Court. The administration has allowed a select number in Congress to see the details of the court order which made the 45 day process of renewing the terrorist surveillance program by the President unnecessary. The program continues. As do the media screw ups (it is hard not to call them lies). Today the Washington Post comes out with a whopper:

The agreement follows the administration’s announcement two weeks ago that it was replacing NSA’s warrantless surveillance program with a plan approved by the secret court that administers the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The NSA had conducted the domestic spying for more than five years without court oversight.

First off, the NSA mission has not changed one bit during any of this. They monitor our enemies communications. And if our enemies talk to someone here in the US they intercept that. That has been reality since before FISA came into existence in the late 70’s.

What changed after 9-11 was what happened to those leads on people in the US. Prior to 9-11 they were thrown away since no one in law enforcement would use them and no FISA judge would allow any surveillance on any lead that eminated from the NSA (and the rest of the intel world I would assume). This myopic idiocy helped the 9-11 highjackers get into this country where they became legally much freer to operate and kill us. This was admitted by the Bush administration. The FIS Court WAS the epitome of the Gorelick Wall that handcuffed our authorities from stopping 9-11. You never see reported the public details of the first showdown between Bush and the FIS Court in 2002, but the court made clear its position. If people must die to preserve the tradition (there is no law) separating law enforcement from intelligence so be it. They referenced the Gorelick memo throughout their decision which attempted to hold the pre 9-11 world in place for terrorists to exploit. Read the documents in the link above – they are eye openers on the initial legal battles post 9-11.

Also clear from the record on this round was that the Bush administration called into being for the first time the FIS Review Court – the appellate court to the normal FIS Court. The FIS Review Court slapped down the lower FIS Court and removed all notion that the Gorelick Wall (built upon policies going back to the Carter years). At that time the FIS Court lead judge worked out an arrangement with the administration for allowing leads (i.e., cases) that originated from NSA surveillance to be brought to the FIS Court under certain conditions. The conditions included they FBI would have to investigate the lead and develop independent evidence of a threat. No NSA lead on its own would be allowed in front of the court for persmission to execute full surveillance. The second rule was only the lead judge would know which cases had originated from the NSA and would determine whether they could be brought forward.

So the idea these leads were not under judicial review is a sad, pathetic joke on the news media. The judges worked with the administration to find a way to track down leads regarding possible terrorists in this country and they saved lives.

You would think the news media could at least do more investigating than us lowly bloggers do in our spare time. That fact many bloggers have day jobs and still out perform the media is clear indication of the poor quality of effort on the part of the news organizations. They have rested on their laurels so long they have become atrophied.