Search






Jeff's Amazon.com Wish List

Archive Calendar

November 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives

Gleanings III [Dan Collins]

In his latest follow-up to Mukasey’s comments, Gleen(s) state the following:

This morning I interviewed Kate Martin, the director of the Center for National Security Studies and one of the nation’s foremost surveillance experts. She pointed out that even prior to 9/11, the NSA commonly intercepted international communications into the U.S. and — in numerous, broadly defined circumstances — was authorized to disseminate what they learned to the FBI and other domestic agencies. If they failed to intercept calls involving Al Qaeda and/or failed to disseminate information to the FBI about looming terrorist attacks, it wasn’t because FISA or any other laws prohibited them from doing so.

I admire the moxie.  I suggest that in order to move their investigation along, one of them might want to contact another member of the bipartisan 9-11 Commission: Jamie Gorelick.

These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required, will prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation.

UPDATE: revisiting Karl’s post, particularly the following:

Strata also is a bit careless in writing that — according to reporting from the Washington Post — an NSA lead cannot, by itself, form the basis of a FIS warrant. What the WaPo reported was that:

According to government officials familiar with the program, the presiding FISA judges insisted that information obtained through NSA surveillance not form the basis for obtaining a warrant and that, instead, independently gathered information provide the justification for FISA monitoring in such cases.

This is actually more protective of individual privacy than Strata’s characterization. According to the WaPo story, information obtained from a warrantless NSA intercept is not used at all in obtaining a FIS warrant, to eliminate any possibility that the warrant is based on the “fruit of the poisonous tree.”

19 Replies to “Gleanings III [Dan Collins]”

  1. um, so, could someone explain to me why telcos are being sued?

  2. jdm says:

    You know, Dan, they won’t get your point and even if they do, they’ll just patiently explain one more time how the little people like you are not privy to the nuances and details in these complicated issues.

    You know, how you’re really too stupid to get it, so why don’t you just shut the eff up.

  3. Karl says:

    Teh Gleen(s) — and the NYT — have fundamentally misunderstood from the outset that the “wall” thickened by Gorelick was the real issue being debated in the early days of the TSP.

  4. cranky-d says:

    Sure. They have deep pockets, and if you can spin their behavior to make it appear bad, why not do it and make a buck or two.

  5. N. O'Brain says:

    So, Teh Gleen(s) is caught in another lie?

  6. JD TWP says:

    If the gleeeeeeens are typing, they are lying.

  7. Topsecretk9 says:

    I would say that Gleen(s) has become a liability…anytime he opines complete with 3,000 updates people just tune his latest disingenuous diatribes out.

    Also, Townhouse 2.0
    http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2008/01/dear-glenn-greenwald-and-jane-hamsher.html

  8. Al says:

    Wrong answer there, gumdrop. This statement:

    NSA commonly intercepted international communications into the U.S. and — in numerous, broadly defined circumstances — was authorized to disseminate what they learned to the FBI and other domestic agencies.

    is simply false. Any trace of identifiable U.S. Person information in such intercepts would result in the intercept being destroyed unless there was valid legal basis for retaining it, such as a FISA warrant or statutorily-recognized authority, per DOD 5240.1-R, rules which do not do anything “broadly” in any meaningful sense of the term. The two longstanding presumptions of that rule are (1) an intercept with domestic nexus is presumed to be US Person information, and (2) US Person information cannot be disseminated without legal basis for dissemination. Another presumption is that oversees information is presumptively non-U.S. person, a presumption that one or two judges sitting on the FISA court have apparently disagreed with. Brief retention of any intercept for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not it contains US Person info is contemplated, and if the presumption that an intercept contains US Person info cannot be overcome, it is expunged; likewise if it is determined to contain US Person info it is expunged. I think you can probably find a copy of older versions of the rule, Mike McConnell has indicated that this set of rules and presumptions has been overridden (we’re talking voice intercepts here, not various other kinds of activities not directed at the content of communications) roughly 130 times in 4 years.

    “Broadly defined”? Jesus. For a guy who calls literally *everybody* he disagrees with a liar, the SOB sure takes enormous liberties in his own characterization of things.

  9. Dan Collins says:

    Which is exactly why, Al, it’s so delicious watching Asshat McPuppet drag Olbermann and the rest of the Moronosphere along with him.

  10. Karl says:

    I’m savoring the irony of teh Gleen(s)’s (and other Lefties) quoting from the report of the Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11:

    There were also gaps between NSA’s coverage of foreign communications and the FBI’s coverage of domestic communications that suggest a lack of sufficient attention to the domestic threat. Prior to September 11, neither agency focused on the importance of identifying and then ensuring coverage of communications between the United States and suspected terrorist-associated facilities abroad [half line redaction]. Consistent with its focus on communications abroad, NSA adopted a policy that avoided intercepting the communications between individuals in the United States and foreign countries].
    NSA adopted this policy even though the collection of such communications is within its mission and it would have been possible for NSA to obtain FISA Court authorization for such collection. NSA Director Hayden testified to the Joint Inquiry that NSA did not want to be perceived as targeting individuals in the United States and believed that the FBI was instead responsible for conducting such surveillance. NSA did not, however, develop a plan with the FBI to collect and to ensure the dissemination of any relevant foreign intelligence to appropriate domestic agencies. This further evidences the slow response of the Intelligence Community to the developing transnational threat.

    Teh Gleens claims:

    Critically, the Report emphasized that FISA provided all of the authority needed to have intercepted that communication, to learn of its domestic origins and to disseminate it to the FBI and other domestic intelligence agencies. To the extent the NSA failed to do so, this had nothing to do with FISA or any other legal restraints or civil liberties, but rather, with poor intelligence practices.

    Teh Gleen(s), who has spent years now screeching about the mortal threat to the Republic posed by the NSA targeting US persons, now calls it poor intelligence practice. No doubt he would respond that it’s all just fine and dandy to do this if you get a FIS warrant, etc. But this takes you back to the fundamental issue he seeks to avoid, which is whether you view the activity as intell collection of the sort which has never required a warrant, or whether you want to continue to squeeze the entire war effort into the law-enforcement box as we did before 9/11.
    Teh Gleen(s) cannot bring himself to ask why the NSA policy was so risk-averse prior to 9/11, because he would have to look in the mirror.

  11. Breschau says:

    Okay… I guess I missed something. What exactly did Greenwald lie about? What did that 1995 memo prove about what Mukasey said concerning this call from the Afghan safe house into the U.S.?

  12. JD TWP says:

    Okay… I guess I missed something. What exactly did Greenwald lie about?

    the gleeeeens were typing, ergo, they are lying. Even when he has a point, he insists on lying.

    For but one example, see Al’s comment above. Or Karl’s. Or try reading any of the 9,482,506 posts showing where all of the gleens are lying asshats.

  13. McGehee says:

    What exactly did Greenwald lie about?

    It really would save time and bandwidth to list the things he hasn’t lied about. Here you go:
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Hope that helps.

  14. BJTexs TW/BP says:

    GLEENS III: A NEW SOCK!

  15. JD TWP says:

    McGehee – That was brilliant.

    Gleeeeeeeeens IV – Socky McSockpuppety’s House of Horrors

  16. McGehee says:

    JD, did I steal that one from you too? ;-)

  17. Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) says:

    – I’ve posted this before on several occasions, mainly so regular pw readers could work from a base of facts on the ground, assuming some may not be aware.

    – The NSA, since its inception for the purpose, was, is, and always has been charged with the intercept (gathering), and recording (documentation) of all forms and instances of communications, domestic and foreign. The original policy makes no distinction concerning said intercepts, altough it should be said that the lone exception would be any form of actionable intelligence gathering that involves physical egress onto the rightful property of the target. this is the sole case you see being mis-applied on a continuous basis by lay people who have only the vagest idea about the process and policies.

    – The above activities, constituting a fundamental right of any sovereignty to protect itself from espionage needs no court approval, but falls under the direct purvue of limited Congressional oversight on a need to know basis, and Presidential enforcement as a basic requirement of the office, namely “the highest priority duty to protect the people of the commonwealth of America”.

    – For this reason, and in view of the plain facts of the real world situation, what might be argued is the access question, but none others. The opposition is motivated to obstruct in any manner they can, so they need to conflate and mis-represent, using scare tactics and other techniques, mainly a partisan press, to spread as much confusion and chaos as possible, with the express motive to leave the maximum number of people anxious and with the impression of a fumbling, and possibly criminally incompetent, administration.

    – They do this under the cover of their “patriotic duty”, a faux excuse freeing them to pursue their goals, so partisan in their self indulgent righteousness, they neither care, nor consider, the long term effects on the safety of all of us, including themselves.

    – The one and on;y instance I can think of that was of questionable lawfulness that is public knowledge where they have a possible case, is the instance of breaking and entry in an event that occurred during the Clinton administration.

    – Excuse me. My irony meter is ringing off the hook.

  18. SGT Ted says:

    So, according to Gleen(s), the 9/11 Commision was lieing about the Gorelick Wall forbidding sharing intel intercept info with LEAs?

    I love how, for lefties, history begins anew every day!

  19. lately the comment spam has been fun cause it makes me read old posts at random… just chuckled again at this bit here:

    Of course, it is the nature of legal wrangling and interpretation that for every constitutional expert who can find no violation of protections in a given action, there is a Glenn Greenwald, who, let’s face it, can find violations of constitutional protections in the packaging of breakfast cereals.

Comments are closed.