and the surprise is where?????????????

certainly NOT with me. i knew what they were doing and how deeply they were doing it. i'm not even that bright, so if i knew, YOU knew as well. did YOU say anything? i know i sure did.

this is america (i keep saying). we don't spy on one another (without warrants and causes)

E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said.

The agency’s monitoring of domestic e-mail messages, in particular, has posed longstanding legal and logistical difficulties, the officials said.

Since April, when it was disclosed that the intercepts of some private communications of Americans went beyond legal limits in late 2008 and early 2009, several Congressional committees have been investigating. Those inquiries have led to concerns in Congress about the agency’s ability to collect and read domestic e-mail messages of Americans on a widespread basis, officials said. Supporting that conclusion is the account of a former N.S.A. analyst who, in a series of interviews, described being trained in 2005 for a program in which the agency routinely examined large volumes of Americans’ e-mail messages without court warrants. Two intelligence officials confirmed that the program was still in operation........

if you think you're immune

(go look at your eyes, they're full of moon..............sorry, couldn't help that part. it's from a joni mitchell song)

i meant the 'if you think you're immune' part though. your emails, my emails. if i was suspected of committing some type of crime (which, let me tell you, I HAVE NOT) AND they got a warrant, i'm all fine with that. if there are no warrants, MY EMAILS (and stuff) ARE OFF LIMITS
period!
N.S.A.’s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.

Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional.

The legal and operational problems surrounding the N.S.A.’s surveillance activities have come under scrutiny from the Obama administration, Congressional intelligence committees and a secret national security court, said the intelligence officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because N.S.A. activities are classified. Classified government briefings have been held in recent weeks in response to a brewing controversy that some officials worry could damage the credibility of legitimate intelligence-gathering efforts.

The Justice Department, in response to inquiries from The New York Times, acknowledged Wednesday night that there had been problems with the N.S.A. surveillance operation, but said they had been resolved.............

all i have to say is

keep your fingers (and toes) crossed

Bush Spy Revelations Anticipated When Obama Is Sworn In

By Ryan Singel

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, Americans won't just get a new president; they might finally learn the full extent of George W. Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping.

Since the New York Times first revealed in 2005 that the NSA was eavesdropping on citizen's overseas phone calls and e-mails, few additional details about the massive "Terrorist Surveillance Program" have emerged. That's because the Bush Administration has stonewalled, misled and denied documents to Congress, and subpoenaed the phone records of the investigative reporters.

Now privacy advocates are hopeful that a President Obama will be more forthcoming with information. But for the quickest and most honest account of Bush's illegal policies, they say don't look to the incoming president. Watch instead for the hidden army of would-be whistle-blowers who've been waiting for Inauguration Day to open the spigot on the truth.

"I'd bet there are a lot of career employees in the intelligence agencies who'll be glad to see Obama take the oath so they can finally speak out against all this illegal spying and get back to their real mission," says Caroline Fredrickson, the ACLU's Washington D.C. legislative director.............

true?

i don't know if this manual actually exists. that part i don't know if it's true or not. HOWEVER, there is no doubt in my heart, mind and soul, we (the we here is the united states secret deep in the bowels of the earth government) support this sort of thing. governments we think will be good for us even if they're murderous insane dictators (take libya for ONE example)

How to train death squads and quash revolutions from San Salvador to Iraq

How to covertly train paramilitaries, censor the press, ban unions, employ terrorists, conduct warrantless searches, suspend habeas corpus, conceal breaches of the Geneva Convention and make the population love it

JULIAN ASSANGE (investigative editor)
Monday June 15, 2008

Wikileaks has released a sensitive 219 page US military counterinsurgency manual. The manual, Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces (1994, 2004), may be critically described as "what we learned about running death squads and propping up corrupt government in Latin America and how to apply it to other places". Its contents are both history defining for Latin America and, given the continued role of US Special Forces in the suppression of insurgencies, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, history making.

The leaked manual, which has been verified with military sources, is the official US Special Forces doctrine for Foreign Internal Defense or FID.

FID operations are designed to prop up "friendly" governments facing popular revolution or guerilla insurgency. FID interventions are often covert or quasi-covert due to the unpopular nature of the governments being supported ("In formulating a realistic policy for the use of advisors, the commander must carefully gauge the psychological climate of the HN [Host Nation] and the United States.")

The manual directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties. It directly advocates warrantless searches, detainment without charge and (under varying circumstances) the suspension of habeas corpus. It directly advocates employing terrorists or prosecuting individuals for terrorism who are not terrorists, running false flag operations and concealing human rights abuses from journalists. And it repeatedly advocates the use of subterfuge and "psychological operations" (propaganda) to make these and other "population & resource control" measures more palatable.

The content has been particularly informed by the long United States involvement in El Salvador........

AMENDMENTS?

we don't need no stinkin' amendments! especially in THIS case, the FOURTH one:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Memo Shows Bush Administration Says to Hell with Fourth Amendment Rights

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet

News last week of former White House lawyer John Yoo's recently disclosed 2003 memo positing, among other things, that the president's authority as commander in chief allows him to override federal laws prohibiting "assault, maiming, and other crimes" against suspects in the "war on terror," was followed by a second revelation: an alarming footnote on page 8 referring to another secret memo, written shortly after 9/11, and, in the name of national security, dispensing with the Fourth Amendment.
In the age of the "war on terror," according to the footnote, the Department of Justice "recently concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations." (Emphasis in the original.)
The Fourth Amendment, of course, lays out "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." Critics of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program -- which was started in the same weeks the memo was written -- have staked their claims in part on its violation of this right. Proof that the program originated at the same time that the White House officially jettisoned the Fourth Amendment in the name of national security is a damning -- if not surprising -- revelation........

you do know i'm MORE mad, not at the fact king george and his court stomped on our rights BUT that we (especially those in our congress and senate) continue to ALLOW them to do so

we all know you and i are being spied upon

i hope THEY (the they being those in government. YES OUR GOVERNMENT) know THEY are being spied upon too. do they think they're beyond the scopes of king george and his court? well i hope they think again. it's all ok when we, the little ones are having our rights and liberties tossed. i wonder when they'll figure out THEIR rights and liberties are being trounced on as well
king george is NOT exempting anyone. not me. not you or you OR YOU

FBI Data Transfers Via Telecoms Questioned

By Ellen NakashimaWashington Post Staff Writer
When FBI investigators probing New York prostitution rings, Boston organized crime or potential terrorist plots anywhere want access to a suspect's telephone contacts, technicians at a telecommunications carrier served with a government order can, with the click of a mouse, instantly transfer key data along a computer circuit to an FBI technology office in Quantico.
The circuits -- little-known electronic connections between telecom firms and FBI monitoring personnel around the country -- are used to tell the government who is calling whom, along with the time and duration of a conversation and even the locations of those involved.
Recently, three Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, including Chairman John D. Dingell (Mich.), sent a letter to colleagues citing privacy concerns over one of the Quantico circuits and demanding more information about it. Anxieties about whether such electronic links are too intrusive form a backdrop to the continuing congressional debate over modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs federal surveillance.
Since a 1994 law required telecoms to build electronic interception capabilities into their systems, the FBI has created a network of links between the nation's largest telephone and Internet firms and about 40 FBI offices and Quantico, according to interviews and documents describing the agency's Digital Collection System. The documents were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group in San Francisco that specializes in digital-rights issues. .........

you know there have been so many lies

even THEY don't know what's true and what's shite now
we all know iraq was NEVER capable of attacking us. we also know iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11.
what we don't know is if king george and his court knew 9/11 was going to happen prior to it happening. we also know we no longer have rights. we no longer have a constitution. we no longer have LAWS to protect us

Top Democrats demand Attorney General explain remarks about pre-9/11 phone call
Muriel Kane
(Update - Department of Justice responds to Mukasey controversy over 9/11 comments)
A letter has been sent by leaders of the House Judiciary Committee to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, demanding that he explain a recent public statement that federal authorities failed to intercept a call from suspected terrorists in Afghanistan prior to the 9/11 attacks, when doing so could have prevented the attacks from taking place.
Mukasey blamed that failure on a lack of the sort of warrantless wiretapping authority that the administration has now called on Congress to provide. However, there has never been any previous mention of such a call, and the Judiciary Committee letter -- signed by Chairman John Conyers and two subcommittee chairs -- points out that the law that existed at the time would have allowed the call to be intercepted immediately, with permission granted retroactively by the FISA court..........

Feith: We invaded Iraq because we were afraid they'd attack us
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
During an interview to be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith was asked why the US chose to go after Saddam Hussein instead of Osama bin Laden.
CBS's Steve Kroft asked Feith, "Why was the decision made to go after him after 9/11? Because we knew even then, he didn't have anything to do with it."
"What we did after 9/11 was to look broadly at the international terrorism network from which the next attack on the United States might come," Feith replied, "and we did not focus narrowly only on the people who were specifically responsible for 9/11. Our main goal was preventing the next attack."..........

uniform standards?

my big fat ass! we not only DEMAND uniform standards, we DEMAND innocent people be left off that list. we DEMAND our constitution right to privacy. we DEMAND no warrantless wiretaps. we DEMAND truth, justice and the AMERICAN WAY

we DEMAND those responsible for our loss of rights and the shredding of our constitution be brought up on charges
Reports Cite Lack of Uniform Policy for Terrorist Watch List

By Ellen Nakashima Washington Post Staff Writer
Almost seven years since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the government is still struggling to establish a uniform procedure to put people on its master watch list of known or suspected terrorists, according to two government reports out this month.
The reports' findings come after criticism from privacy advocates that problems with the watch list hamper the government's ability to identify terrorists and do not ensure that innocent Americans are not included.
A inspector general's report for the office of the Director of National Intelligence found that "the nomination processes and procedures vary across the intelligence community, causing inconsistencies and disproportionate responsibilities in making nominations," according to spokesman Ross Feinstein.
A report issued yesterday by the Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, came to much the same conclusion regarding the FBI and six partner agencies. ......

thank you thank you thank you

for ripping up and spitting on our constitution. for destroying our rights. for initiating the destruction of our country. does THAT sound right to you? it sure doesn't to me

i want my constitution back. i want our rights back. I WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK
Bush Says Americans Should "Thank" the Telecoms for Illegally Spying on Them
Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress
The Bush administration has launched an aggressive campaign to pressure the House into passing retroactive immunity for telecoms that participated in the government's warrantless wiretapping program.
Because they complied in illegally wiretapping their customers, telecoms currently face around 40 lawsuits. Yesterday in a speech to the National Association of Attorneys General, Bush sharply criticized Americans who are suing the telecoms:
Now the question is, should these lawsuits be allowed to proceed, or should any company that may have helped save American lives be thanked for performing a patriotic service; should those who stepped forward to say we're going to help defend America have to go to the courthouse to defend themselves, or should the Congress and the President say thank you for doing your patriotic duty? I believe we ought to say thank you.
Bush is implying that Americans who oppose telecom immunity are unpatriotic. But the American people don't owe the telecoms any gratitude. These corporations chose to break the law and profited greatly from doing so. (At least one company refused to comply with the Bush administration's request because it knew the actions were illegal.).........

whoops!

a GIANT woops at that!

F.B.I. Gained Unauthorized Access to E-Mail

By ERIC LICHTBLAU



WASHINGTON — A technical glitch gave the F.B.I. access to the e-mail messages from an entire computer network — perhaps hundreds of accounts or more — instead of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret intelligence court as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal report of the 2006 episode. F.B.I. officials blamed an “apparent miscommunication” with the unnamed Internet provider, which mistakenly turned over all the e-mail from a small e-mail domain for which it served as host. The records were ultimately destroyed, officials said.
Bureau officials noticed a “surge” in the e-mail activity they were monitoring and realized that the provider had mistakenly set its filtering equipment to trap far more data than a judge had actually authorized.
The episode is an unusual example of what has become a regular if little-noticed occurrence, as American officials have expanded their technological tools: government officials, or the private companies they rely on for surveillance operations, sometimes foul up their instructions about what they can and cannot collect...........

a letter to king george

from congressman silvestre reyes. i'm printing it in it's entirety

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The Preamble to our Constitution states that one of our highest duties as public officials is to "provide for the common defence." As an elected Member of Congress, a senior Member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I work everyday to ensure that our defense and intelligence capabilities remain strong in the face of serious threats to our national security.
Because I care so deeply about protecting our country, I take strong offense to your suggestion in recent days that the country will be vulnerable to terrorist attack unless Congress immediately enacts legislation giving you broader powers to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans' communications and provides legal immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in the Administration's warrantless surveillance program.
Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) has authority to conduct surveillance in at least three different ways, all of which provide strong capability to monitor the communications of possible terrorists.
First, NSA can use its authority under Executive Order 12333 to conduct surveillance abroad of any known or suspected terrorist. There is no requirement for a warrant. There is no requirement for probable cause. Most of NSA's collection occurs under this authority.
Second, NSA can use its authority under the Protect America Act, enacted last August, to conduct surveillance here in the U.S of any foreign target. This authority does not "expire" on Saturday, as you have stated. Under the PAA, orders authorizing surveillance may last for one year – until at least August 2008. These orders may cover every terrorist group without limitation. If a new member of the group is identified, or if a new phone number or email address is identified, the NSA may add it to the existing orders, and surveillance can begin immediately. We will not "go dark."
Third, in the remote possibility that a new terrorist organization emerges that we have never previously identified, the NSA could use existing authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor those communications. Since its establishment nearly 30 years ago, the FISA Court has approved nearly every application for a warrant from the Department of Justice. In an emergency, NSA or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may begin surveillance immediately, and a FISA Court order does not have to be obtained for three days. The former head of FISA operations for the Department of Justice has testified publicly that emergency authorization may be granted in a matter of minutes.
As you know, the 1978 FISA law, which has been modernized and updated numerous times since 9/11, was instrumental in disrupting the terrorist plot in Germany last summer. Those who say that FISA is outdated do not understand the strength of this important tool.
If our nation is left vulnerable in the coming months, it will not be because we don't have enough domestic spying powers. It will be because your Administration has not done enough to defeat terrorist organizations – including al Qaeda -- that have gained strength since 9/11. We do not have nearly enough linguists to translate the reams of information we currently collect. We do not have enough intelligence officers who can penetrate the hardest targets, such as al Qaeda. We have surged so many intelligence resources into Iraq that we have taken our eye off the ball in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As a result, you have allowed al Qaeda to reconstitute itself on your watch.
You have also suggested that Congress must grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies. As someone who has been briefed on our most sensitive intelligence programs, I can see no argument why the future security of our country depends on whether past actions of telecommunications companies are immunized.
The issue of telecom liability should be carefully considered based on a full review of the documents that your Administration withheld from Congress for eight months. However, it is an insult to the intelligence of the American people to say that we will be vulnerable unless we grant immunity for actions that happened years ago.
Congress has not been sitting on its hands. Last November, the House passed responsible legislation to authorize the NSA to conduct surveillance of foreign terrorists and to provide clarity and legal protection to our private sector partners who assist in that surveillance.
The proper course is now to conference the House bill with the Senate bill that was passed on Tuesday. There are significant differences between these two bills and a conference, in regular order, is the appropriate mechanism to resolve the differences between these two bills. I urge you, Mr. President, to put partisanship aside and allow Republicans in Congress to arrive at a compromise that will protect America and protect our Constitution.
I, for one, do not intend to back down – not to the terrorists and not to anyone, including a President, who wants Americans to cower in fear.
We are a strong nation. We cannot allow ourselves to be scared into suspending the Constitution. If we do that, we might as well call the terrorists and tell them that they have won.
Sincerely,
Silvestre Reyes
Member of Congress
Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

if you don't think you are next

you are sadly mistaken my dears

Collateral Damage: Surveillance Aimed at Terrorists Can Easily Go Awry
By Jeff Stein, National Security Editor, CQ Staff
U.S. intelligence tapped the telephone calls of Lawrence Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, starting in 2002.
This may well be news to many people, even though Wright revealed the taps himself in a sprawling, 15,000-word article on electronic surveillance in the Jan. 21 edition of The New Yorker magazine.
Perhaps because the article was not available online it lacked the link-juice to propel it into a frenzy over the “domestic spying” on the Web, the cable news shows and leading American newspapers.
As far as I can tell, only Pam Hess of the Associated Press picked up on Wright’s confrontation with spy chief Michael McConnell over the phone taps, and no major paper ran it. The version of her story that The Washington Post printed recounted McConnell’s telling Wright that water boarding would be “torture” if it were done to him, but dropped the five paragraphs Hess wrote on the eavesdropping. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal skipped Wright’s wiretap account altogether.
But The New Yorker’s Web site did feature an audio interview with Wright in which he described the visit of FBI agents to his Texas home in 2002 to quiz him about the telephone calls intercepted by U.S. intelligence. .........

.....It’s just not true, no matter how many times administration officials say it, that critical operations to find the kidnappers of American soldiers in Iraq and an al Qaeda cell in Germany were held up by FISA regulations. McConnell himself said he was mistaken.But what really troubles me is that so many, many years after the first terrorist attack here (on the World Trade Center in 1993), our spying agencies apparently still haven’t found an effective way to pursue the real bad guys.The huge electronic wires they want to wrap us in are no substitute for good human intelligence work out there — where the bad guys are. As former counterterror agent Michael Tanji put it on Wired magazine’s Danger Room blog: “It’s bad enough that the Director of National Intelligence is trotting out a bogus threat so the government can snoop on all Internet traffic. What’s worse is that this kind of mass surveillance is a pretty lame way to catch the honest-to-God bad guys.”....

so now it looks like you may be growing a set

a TINY set, but there are the starting of some buds............so, there's still a little somethin' somethin' called the iraq war or health care for children (and adults as far as i'm concerned), or ADEQUATE care for wounded veterans OR help for the elderly OR on and on

Democrats standing up to Bush on warrantless wiretap bill
Nick Juliano
Update: Senate votes against GOP telecom immunity plan
In the shadow of the president's final State of the Union address, Senate Democrats are preparing for an 11th-hour showdown with George W. Bush and his Republican allies in Congress over controversial surveillance legislation.
The Senate voted down a GOP proposal that would cement an expansion of the president's authority to spy on Americans and free from legal jeopardy any telephone or Internet service provider who helped the country's intelligence agencies to collect vast amount of data on US citizens without a warrant. Anti-immunity activists say they expect the GOP gambit to fail.
On a 48-45 vote, Republicans failed to garner the necessary three-fifths majority of the Senate to end debate on a bill to expand the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.........

just when you thought it was safe

(to make a phone call or send an email or a real live written letter) HE'SSSSSSSSSSSSS BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKKK

the big dick that is
Cheney Pushes for Renewed Wiretap Powers
WASHINGTON - US Vice President Dick Cheney called on Congress Wednesday to make permanent legislation permitting security agencies to tap foreign telephone calls and emails in the US “war on terror.”As Congress geared up to weigh new legislation permitting the warrantless wiretaps, Cheney said it was “urgent” to renew and update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) “immediately and permanently” before a key modification from last year expires on February 1.
But the legislation could stall over objections to the White House’s desire to grant US telecommunications companies which assist in the wiretaps retroactive immunity for possible rights violations.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the White House Wednesday that a short-term extension would likely be necessary first......

each and every one of us

should remember what a bunch of pussies the democrats are (most of 'em, NOT all of 'em) come next time they're up for re-election. this makes my soul cringe
(i am NOT against wiretapping in case you were wondering. i AM against illegal surveillance)

Democrats Seem Ready to Extend Wiretap Powers
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 — Two months after insisting that they would roll back broad eavesdropping powers won by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress appear ready to make concessions that could extend some crucial powers given to the National Security Agency.
Administration officials say they are confident they will win approval of the broadened authority that they secured temporarily in August as Congress rushed toward recess. Some Democratic officials concede that they may not come up with enough votes to stop approval.
As the debate over the eavesdropping powers of the National Security Agency begins anew this week, the emerging measures reflect the reality confronting the Democrats.
Although willing to oppose the White House on the Iraq war, they remain nervous that they will be called soft on terrorism if they insist on strict curbs on gathering intelligence. .......

there is NO stopping him

unless WE (starting with congress) stop him NOW. he is OUT OF CONTROL and i'm getting more and more frightened. our liberties are ebbing away. no one seems to care

our congress (and senate) is/are full of yellowbellies. cowards. people without stones. i'll remember all of this everytime my reps and senators come up for election. i can only pray everyone else remembers as well

Bush Signs Law Widening Reach for Wiretapping

By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 — President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants.
Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States.
They also said that the new law for the first time provided a legal framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to regulate the way the government can listen to the private communications of American citizens.
“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, who has studied the new legislation..........

(and what the hell is he doing signing laws on sunday. shouldn't he be in church or on vacation or something?)

i'm confused (once again)

isn't one of the republican platforms, LESS government interference? LESS government period?

not only isn't there LESS government, there is an administration that has shredded our constitution. rights? WE DON'T HAVE OR NEED ANY STINKIN' RIGHTS!!! (or liberties or freedoms either)

NSA Spying Part of Broader Effort
Intelligence Chief Says Bush Authorized Secret Activities Under One Order


By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration's chief intelligence official said yesterday that President Bush authorized a series of secret surveillance activities under a single executive order in late 2001. The disclosure makes clear that a controversial National Security Agency program was part of a much broader operation than the president previously described.
The disclosure by Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, appears to be the first time that the administration has publicly acknowledged that Bush's order included undisclosed activities beyond the warrantless surveillance of e-mails and phone calls that Bush confirmed in December 2005.
In a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), McConnell wrote that the executive order following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks included "a number of . . . intelligence activities" and that a name routinely used by the administration -- the Terrorist Surveillance Program -- applied only to "one particular aspect of these activities, and nothing more."..........

are we going to have to wait for god

herself to actually say, 'gonz, you giant weenie, YOU LIED' before the gonz not only steps down but for the american people demand actual true justice?

FBI Director Contradicts Gonzales Testimony


By Dan Eggen and Paul KaneWashington Post Staff Writer and Washingtonpost.com Staff Writer

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III has contradicted the sworn testimony of his boss, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, by telling Congress that a prominent warrantless surveillance program was the subject of a dramatic legal debate within the Bush administration.
Mueller's testimony appears to mark the first public confirmation from a Bush administration official that the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program was at issue in an unusual nighttime visit by Gonzales to the hospital bedside of then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, then under sedation and recovering from surgery.........