Secret Court To Monitor U.S. Spy Program

Justice Dept: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court To Govern Domestic Spying Program

(CBS/AP)  The Bush administration has agreed to let a secret but independent panel of federal judges oversee the government's controversial domestic spying program, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court will have final say in approving wiretaps placed on people with suspected terror links.

"Any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," Gonzales wrote in the two-page letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

This was a highly controversial program in which Americans suspected of ties to terrorism could have their phone calls or email monitored without any oversight from a judge, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.

"The White House knew it would get its legal butt kicked either by Congress or the courts if it would have pursued the program the way it had been operating, so now at least the administration can say it is cooperating with Congress and within the purview of the law," says CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "It's a political solution to what was becoming a growing legal problem for President Bush."

The secret panel of judges, known as the FISA court, was established in the late 1970s to review requests for warrants to conduct surveillance inside the United States. The Bush administration had resisted giving the court final approval over the Terrorist Surveillance Program, even when communications involved someone inside the country.

A federal judge in Detroit last August declared the program unconstitutional, saying it violates the rights to free speech and privacy and the separation of powers. In October, a three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based appeals court ruled that the administration could keep the program in place while it appeals the Detroit decision.

Additionally, the Justice Department's inspector general is investigating the agency's use of information gathered in the spying program. In testimony last fall in front of the Senate panel, FBI Director Robert Mueller said he was not allowed to discuss classified details that could show whether it has curbed terrorist activity in the United States.

"I am sure there are a lot of civil libertarians out there who are disappointed that the program, as it was operating, won't come under scrutiny by a Democratic Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court," adds Cohen, "because the program almost certainly would have been declared unconstitutional. What this move does it preempt that legal battle, at least for now."

Congressional intelligence committees have already been briefed on the court's orders, Gonzales said in his letter. It was sent to the committee the day before he is set to testify before the panel, which oversees the Justice Department.

[dementnc]

I heard Walter Mondale, Walter Huddleston and Schwartz, former Church Committee Members, talk about the spy programs and the secret government. I would like to find out what agency is using directed energy weapons on American citizens to torture and abuse men, women and children. Please do not let this unlawfulness slip through. To bother someones mind or psychologically and physicalogically abuse or torture American citizens needs immediate investigation, All the spy agencies need to be looked at.

[randalds]

I'd rather face down a thousand 9-11's then give up any of my civil rights and freedom. Posted by RandalDS at 06:07 PM : Jan 17, 2007

Well tht is just plain liberal stupidity.
Posted by lestb35 at 03:04 AM : Jan 18, 2007

Only for cowards. In my posting I suggested you pick sides, an American who wants to keep their freedom or coward. Looks like you've made your choice and I feel sorry for you.

P.S. Thanks to those who agreed with me. I was gone all night and just got back on.

[gladys_over]

RE: "I'd rather face down a thousand 9-11's then give up any of my civil rights and freedom. Posted by RandalDS at 06:07 PM : Jan 17, 2007

Well tht is just plain liberal stupidity.
Posted by lestb35 at 03:04 AM : Jan 18, 2007"

Liberal stupidity ?

The Founding Fathers felt the same way.

"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

"The citizens of the United States of America have the right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and LIBERAL policy worthy of imitation." - George Washington

lestb35 wrote:

"No the terrorists have won when and if they can pull off attacks accross the US, inflicting martial law and destroying the economy."

Well, then it seems as though GW Bush must be one of those terrorists - because he's the one taking away our freedoms and he's the one who decided to invade a country and wasting $400 billion dollars.

You conservatives surprise me - if it was that Clinton idiot listening in on your conversations or reading your mail, you'd be in an uproar.

Instead, you allow Herr Bush to do anything he likes.

I'm not surprised though - conservatives would sell their own mothers if the price was right.

lestb35 wrote:

"Well tht is just plain liberal stupidity."

Ahh, another backwards thinking, inbred conservative comes out of the woods.

Welcome to Herr Bush's facist dictatorship.

Enjoy your stay.

[lestb35]

I'd rather face down a thousand 9-11's then give up any of my civil rights and freedom. Posted by RandalDS at 06:07 PM : Jan 17, 2007

Well tht is just plain liberal stupidity.

[lestb35]

Defending our country is not worth turning it into a place no longer worth defending. If we alter our lifestyles to that extent, then indeed the "terrorists have won".

Posted by jimibear at 06:03 PM : Jan 17, 2007

No the terrorists have won when and if they can pull off attacks accross the US, inflicting martial law and destroying the economy.

[gladys_over]

The Inappropriate Grin.

David Letterman had a priceless segment tonight in which we see Bush being asked about the carnage in Iraq, and as the question is being asked, the "President" breaks into a huge grin. Actual footage of Bush.

The Inappropriate Grin.

Bush, the Inappropriate President.

stan7007 wrote:

"Answer me this question: "What was NICK BERG doing with his LIBERTY when the coward dog terrorist slit his throat and cut off his head?? And what will you be doing with your LIBERTY when it's your turn???"

hey stan7007,

Why don't you tell us about the liberty of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, the 14 year old girl who was "allegedly" raped and then murdered along with her family, including her 5 year old sister by US soldiers - Barker, Cortez, Spielman, Howard and Green.

While the murder of Nick Berg was horrific and should not be forgotten, the fact is that he was an American Citizen who travelled to a war zone and travelled without protection.

Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi was a 14 year old girl who was in her home when those sob's entered her house, raped and then murdered her and her family.

Where's your condemnation of them?

[alphaa10-2009]

Bush, though Gonzales, finally said he would abide by the laws governing the rest of the country. What took him so long to affirm his oath to the Constitution?

1. Bush's delay was a matter of years. The Bush statement ignores the fact he was an outlaw long before he publicly admitted NSA spying about one year ago. The abuses began as early as 2001.

2. Bush's current statement of compliance cannot conceal past illegal behaviors. Implicit in his statement is that others have questioned whether Bush has violated the law. Bush, himself, made no direct answer to the charge, but has tried to justify his actions by "wartime powers".

Bush may have to answer in fuller detail for his multi-year defiance of the FISA court procedures, in apparent violation of the law.

[egresor]

are the people in the bush administration actually ignorant of the law and the constitution?

or in fact contemptious of it?

here's a good one for all of us to contemplate!

"Nothing in all the world is as dangerous as sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity!"

Martin Luther King

:))

[gladys_over]

RE: "Communism and fascism or nazism, although poles apart in their intellectual content, are similar in this, that both have emotional appeal to the type of personality that takes pleasure in being submerged in a mass movement and submitting to superior authority."
James A.C. Brown

I never knew the "Godfather of Soul" was also such a deep political philosopher.

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, indeed.

[gladys_over]

A startling physical resemblence...

http://images.washtimes.com/photos/full/20060206-103721-8422.jpg

http://www.kds-im-netz.de/plakate/bilder/goebbels.jpg

[searingtruth]

"Communism and fascism or nazism, although poles apart in their intellectual content, are similar in this, that both have emotional appeal to the type of personality that takes pleasure in being submerged in a mass movement and submitting to superior authority."
James A.C. Brown

"We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield."
George Orwell

"But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ... voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, the Nuremberg Diary

"I love my fuehrer. If he wants to break the law, that%u2019s OK. He is the law."
1942, Warsaw Ghetto, Unknown German Citizen, Observing a decomposing mass

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[gladys_over]

"Gonzales"....

Think how close that is to "Goebbels"...

[gladys_over]

RE: "There is no room for Reichstag Fires in this country."

The Reichstag fire was a pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi Germany. The Nazi Party leaders were determined to demonstrate the Reichstag Fire was a deed of left wing terrrorists, justifying extreme measures to protect the German people.

They were successful. An Enabling Act (Ermdchtigungsgesetz in German) was passed by Germany's parliament (the Reichstag) on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which the Nazis obtained dictatorial powers using largely legal means. The Act enabled Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his cabinet to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag. The formal name of the Enabling Act was Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Empire").

[gladys_over]

RE: "The Bush administration has agreed to let a secret but independent panel of federal judges oversee the government's controversial domestic spying program, the Justice Department said Wednesday."

Agreed to 'let' ?

Who do these bums think they are ?

This is a nation of laws founded on a Constitution. No "terrorist threat" trumps that, except among cowards who never deserved freedom in the first place.

There is no room for Reichstag Fires in this country.

[southpaw65]

"Now Bush will be whooped by 76% of American's & over 70% of our Troops Bush & Gonzales calls un-American.
Posted by j-whitman at 09:24 PM : Jan 17, 2007"

I believe this season's synonym for "whooped" is "a-thumpin'"....

[j-whitman]

Now Bush will be whooped by 76% of American's & over 70% of our Troops Bush & Gonzales calls un-American.

[getcentered]

Republicans will do anything and everything in their power to keep you from retaining an opinion based on the facts that their incompetence is comprised of.

The GOP is made up of a bunch of "brilliant" liars and cheaters, who by the way, turn out to be some of the worst leaders a country could ever be duped into voting for. Alberto R. Gonzales is just one of the cogs in the Neo-Con manipulation of our government and the public political system.