Re: How Prosecutors Wiretap Wall Street

[Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu]

On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:08:59 CST, Paul Schmehl said:
> Please cite one proven instance where surveillance was done on anyone without a
> FISA warrant - and lefty blogs filled with hyperbole don't count.

It's kind of hard to cite a "proven instance", because all the people who
tried were told to stuff it under the "state secrets" strategy:

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/99D0C2963ED15AB288257394007C1F36/$file/0636083.pdf?openelement

I suppose a signed letter from the Attorney General saying "We won't do
this anymore because we now have a valid FISA warrant" isn't an admission
that the program *had* been doing it before.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20060117gonzales_Letter.pdf

And apparently, it *was* done, because:

"Q General Hayden, I know you're not going to talk about specifics about that,
and you say it's been successful. But would it have been as successful -- can
you unequivocally say that something has been stopped or there was an imminent
attack or you got information through this that you could not have gotten
through going to the court?

GENERAL HAYDEN: I can say unequivocally, all right, that we have got
information through this program that would not otherwise have been available.

Q Through the court? Because of the speed that you got it?

GENERAL HAYDEN: Yes, because of the speed, because of the procedures, because
of the processes and requirements set up in the FISA process, I can say
unequivocally that we have used this program in lieu of that and this program
has been successful."

http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/12/print/20051219-1.html

So there you have it - the Attorney General and the Deputy Director of National
Intelligence saying flat out "We did this surveillance without a FISA warrant".

But I suppose they were both lying through their teeth, and it never happened,
and all this stuff on official White House letterhead is forged, and none of
them said it.

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