Wednesday, January 04, 2006

more on bush's spying on Americans

Intelligence Panel Had Clue About Spying
WASHINGTON - Congressional intelligence committees had at least a hint in October 2001 that the National Security Agency was expanding its surveillance activities after the 9/11 attacks, according to a letter released Tuesday by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The California Democrat had raised questions to Gen. Michael Hayden, then the NSA director, about the legal authority to conduct the eavesdropping work.
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President Bush has acknowledged he authorized the NSA to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the United States with suspected ties to al-Qaida or its affiliates.
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But it appears that Hayden may have at least alluded broadly to the new surveillance work with a wider audience of House and Senate intelligence committee members during the classified October briefing. According to Pelosi's letter, Hayden spoke about the agency's new posture to expand its operations.


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Odd story since no one is denying that they were told about the domestic spying, but they were given no recourse to fight this procedure and it would have been illegal for them to talk about it. If it wasn't for the whistle-blower, the American public would never know that bush had broken the law in authorizing a wide-range spying operation within the US.