More Specter Dumbshittery
Sen Arlen "Magic Bullet" Specter has come up with a novel idea: Let's write a law that brings Bush's extra-legal NSA warrantless eavesdropping under the FISA act.
That's kinda like writing legislation to bring exceeding the speed limit on the highways under the traffic laws.
Specter's proposal would bring the four-year-old NSA program under the authority of the court created by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The act created a mechanism for obtaining warrants to wiretap domestic suspects. But President Bush, shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks, authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on communications without such warrants. The program was revealed in news reports two months ago.
I bet he will want to make the provisions retroactive to spare Bush any legal consequences for having evaded FISA for the last few years.
There looks to be a problem or two with Sen. Specter's legislation:
The draft version of Specter's bill, which is circulating in intelligence and legal circles, would require the attorney general to seek the FISA court's approval for each planned NSA intercept under the program...
Specter's bill would require the attorney general to give the secret court "a statement of the facts and circumstances" causing the Justice Department to believe "that at least one of the participants in the communications to be intercepted . . . will be the foreign power or agent of a foreign power specified in [the law], or a person who has had communication with the foreign power or agent." The attorney general would have to provide "a detailed description of the nature of the information sought" and "an estimate of the number of communications to be intercepted . . . during the requested authorization period."
Even published information about the secret program has pointed out that the NSA is casting a hugely wide net. It will be impossible individually to truthfully provide "a statement of the facts and circumstances" for each suspect, not to mention provide a description of the information that they are trying to intercept.
Nobody must have told Specter. He certainly is not among the eight lawmakers who have been briefed on the program.
Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, a civil rights group, said the bill's language is alarmingly broad. "It's not limited to al-Qaeda or even terrorism," she said. Those who communicate with "foreign powers" could include a vast array of innocent people, Martin said.
Specter must think that by eliminating "probable cause" from the requirements of FISA, he is helping to keep the nation safe.
I wonder how he will feel when the administration can't meet even his looser restrictions and continues the program sub rosa.
That's kinda like writing legislation to bring exceeding the speed limit on the highways under the traffic laws.
Specter's proposal would bring the four-year-old NSA program under the authority of the court created by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The act created a mechanism for obtaining warrants to wiretap domestic suspects. But President Bush, shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks, authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on communications without such warrants. The program was revealed in news reports two months ago.
I bet he will want to make the provisions retroactive to spare Bush any legal consequences for having evaded FISA for the last few years.
There looks to be a problem or two with Sen. Specter's legislation:
The draft version of Specter's bill, which is circulating in intelligence and legal circles, would require the attorney general to seek the FISA court's approval for each planned NSA intercept under the program...
Specter's bill would require the attorney general to give the secret court "a statement of the facts and circumstances" causing the Justice Department to believe "that at least one of the participants in the communications to be intercepted . . . will be the foreign power or agent of a foreign power specified in [the law], or a person who has had communication with the foreign power or agent." The attorney general would have to provide "a detailed description of the nature of the information sought" and "an estimate of the number of communications to be intercepted . . . during the requested authorization period."
Even published information about the secret program has pointed out that the NSA is casting a hugely wide net. It will be impossible individually to truthfully provide "a statement of the facts and circumstances" for each suspect, not to mention provide a description of the information that they are trying to intercept.
Nobody must have told Specter. He certainly is not among the eight lawmakers who have been briefed on the program.
Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, a civil rights group, said the bill's language is alarmingly broad. "It's not limited to al-Qaeda or even terrorism," she said. Those who communicate with "foreign powers" could include a vast array of innocent people, Martin said.
Specter must think that by eliminating "probable cause" from the requirements of FISA, he is helping to keep the nation safe.
I wonder how he will feel when the administration can't meet even his looser restrictions and continues the program sub rosa.
posted by Effwit at 1:09 PM
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