Final Comment: A lot of delusional liberals keep trying to claim this ruling means little. It is quite hilarious to watch a lot of people with law degrees miss the major points of the case. They seem to think if they ignore the main thrust on focus on irrelevant details there is an argument to keep this conspiracy theory alive.

First off, this is not a ruling in isolation, it is part of a series of rulings regarding the President’s rights to engage in intelligence gathering on people overseas without a warrant. By re-establishing this Presidential power it means anyone swept up in these actions is as much fair game as any non-warranted person who is caught on a warranted wire tap. This is the difference between a TARGET of the investigation and the CONTACTS that communicates with the TARGET, and who have their communications with the TARGET snooped on by the Feds. The only difference is whether a warrant is required, not that CONTACTS don’t get caught on wire taps.

Additionally, while the authority under which these intelligence actions took place have changed from executive orders to temporary legislation to permanent legislation – the actions have not changed. The Feds are still using communications between Americans and known terrorists to ensure the safety of this nation. Over the years the process and paperwork has of course been tweaked. And once leaked to the public, the restriction on only the Chief FIS Court judge knowing which cases were the result of NSA intercepts verses FBI warrants was clearly not needed anymore. But the basic act of using the information intercepted to investigate threats inside our borders – the changes Bush directed – has not changed under any of the various legal authorities set in place.

Even further, the legislation making these acts legal as executed under the executive order, was the legislature’s signature that this was allowed. They removed debate by codifying the executive orders – they did not once overturn them. And with a series of judicial stamps of approval there is a common federal voice across the three branches on this matter. This is a mountain of precedence and law and decisions. How blind by denial must one be to miss this?

So no matter what legal instrument was used, the acts are now deemed legal. If legal under the temporary legislation it is legal under the permanent laws. And since the decision re-affirms the right to do foreign intelligence gathering without a court warrant (as do both sets of laws), the actions under executive order are also legal. It is not the laws that count, it is the fact the laws all assume, and the decision confirms, the President doesn’t require a warrant to gather intel on foreign threats, even if people in America and US citizens get swept up in it. 

The threat of attack, as agreed to by people other than the President, gives the executive branch the power to retain the information they capture and pass it to the FBI. And that is the big change since 9-11: we don’t throw known leads away and not tell the FBI whom and where to look for threats. Only an idiot with a law degree could rationalize going back to that model of protecting the people of the United States from foreign attack.

It is nice to know a lowly space engineer with a biology degree is still sharper than a bunch of over payed liberal lawyers. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Major Update: For all the liberals in denial out there the WSJ has a great round up of the mountain of rulings that preceded this landmark vindication. Denial is not an excuse anymore. – end update

 

The NY Times allowed a liberal, disgruntled DoJ employee to expose one of our nation’s most valuable defensive programs against terrorist attack based on the man’s ignorance of the facts. I recently wrote about the traitor Thomas Tamm – who should be indicted and thrown in jail for pretending (a) to be more powerful than our laws or the commander-in-chief and (b) for exposing national security secrets based on fantasies in his head that bore no resemblance to the truth of the matter. He is a modern day Benedict Arnold.

And the NY Times should be punished for running this false crap as fact. Tamm had no clue what the program was about, and no idea that the FIS Court Chief Judge was supporting the new processes put in place after 9-11. Processes that are critical to saving American lives. Processes which replaced dangerously muddled thinking from the late 1970’s, where some in our government knew that someone in the US was in contact with known terrorists out to kill us, but they were not allowed to tell the FBI so they could go investigate and see how bad or real the danger was! No, couldn’t have that.

Well now the top intelligence court of the land has come out with an opinion vindicating Bush and settling once and for all how insane the lunatic left is when it comes to national security.

A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, issued a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a specific court order, even when Americans’ private communications may be involved.

…

The Aug. 22 appeals court decision upheld a secret ruling issued last year by the intelligence court that it oversees, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, court. In that initial opinion, the secret court found that Congress had acted within its authority in August 2007 when it passed a hotly debated law known as the Protect America Act, which gave the executive branch broad power to eavesdrop on international communications.

“The Department of Justice is pleased with this important ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which upholds the constitutionality of foreign intelligence surveillance conducted under the Protect America Act of 2007,” a Justice Department statement said.

The FIS Court of Review is the top court in the land on such matters. Think of it as the Appellate/Supreme Court on national security matters. There is no higher authority in the federal court system. 

All those moans and groans about the 4th Amendment and Bush spying on Americans was a bunch fantasy fiction. And now the court has made it unanimous, all three branches of government have supported the changes. Maybe now the NY Times and all those nuts on the left can finally eat their crow – they have a lot of it to shovel down.

I have followed this story from the day it broke (you can find my numerous posts on the matter here) and was one of the first one to realize the NY Times lied. It lied about Bush bypassing the court (the FIS Court judge who also exposed national secrets on this matter was mad that the NSA leads were being heard at the court, not that they were going around the court). It lied about the essence of the program. It lied about the entire matter – an won journalism awards for their garbage.

They lied and risked the lives of all Americans by tipping of our enemies about how we were detecting their forces as they tried to get into the country and to their targets. These people filled their heads with righteous fantasies of themselves as heros and could have easily killed thousands of people if the news had broken at the wrong time.

Bush leaves office vindicated, and the Mad-Hatter left has destroyed what little credibility they have left. They are lucky that is all their insane actions resulted in.

Update: Here is the opinion itself.

Tags: FIS Court, FISA, NSA, NY Times