Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Drudge, Malkin - Liars
The Echelon Myth
Prominent right-wing bloggers – including Michelle Malkin, the Corner, Wizbang and Free Republic — are pushing the argument that President Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program isn’t news because the Clinton administration did the same thing.
The right-wing outlet NewsMax sums up the basic argument:
Prominent right-wing bloggers – including Michelle Malkin, the Corner, Wizbang and Free Republic — are pushing the argument that President Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program isn’t news because the Clinton administration did the same thing.
The right-wing outlet NewsMax sums up the basic argument:
During the 1990’s under President Clinton, the National Security AgencyThat’s flatly false. The Clinton administration program, code-named Echelon, complied with FISA. Before any conversations of U.S. persons were targeted, a FISA warrant was obtained. CIA director George Tenet testified to this before Congress on 4/12/00:
monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and citizens
of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon…all of it
done without a court order, let alone a catalyst like the 9/11 attacks.
I’m here today to discuss specific issues about and allegations regardingMeanwhile, the position of the Bush administration is that they can bypass the FISA court and every other court, even when they are monitoring the communications of U.S. persons. It is the difference between following the law and breaking it.
Signals Intelligence activities and the so-called Echelon Program of the
National Security Agency…
There is a rigorous regime of checks and balances
which we, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the
FBI scrupulously adhere to whenever conversations of U.S. persons are involved,
whether directly or indirectly. We do not collect against U.S. persons unless
they are agents of a foreign power as that term is defined in the law. We do not
target their conversations for collection in the United States unless a FISA
warrant has been obtained from the FISA court by the Justice Department.
# posted by David @ Wednesday, December 21, 2005 
