H.W. Bush, Rummy, Cheney cited in docs:FORD WIRETAPS

[Guest guest]

S

Fri, 3 Feb 2006 19:09:13 -0800 (PST)

H.W. Bush, Rummy, Cheney cited in docs:FORD WIRETAPS

 

 

 

 

 

H.W. Bush, Rummy, Cheney cited in docs:FORD WIRETAPS

 

Docs: Ford Admin. Debated Use of Wiretaps

By MARGARET EBRAHIM, Associated Press Writer

23 minutes ago

 

 

 

An intense debate erupted during the Ford

administration over the president's powers to

eavesdrop without warrants to gather foreign

intelligence, according to newly disclosed government

documents. George H.W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick

Cheney are cited in the documents.

 

The roughly 200 pages of historic records obtained by

The Associated Press reflect a remarkably similar

dispute between the White House and Congress fully

three decades before President Bush's acknowledgment

he authorized wiretaps without warrants of some

Americans in terrorism investigations.

 

" Yogi Berra was right: It's deja vu all over again, "

said Tom Blanton, executive director for the National

Security Archives, a private research group that

compiles collections of sensitive government

documents. " It's the same debate. "

 

Senate Judiciary Committee hearings begin Monday over

Bush's authority to approve such wiretaps by the

ultra-secretive National Security Agency without a

judge's approval. A focus of the hearings is to

determine whether the Bush administration's

eavesdropping program violated the Foreign

Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law with

origins during Ford's presidency.

 

" We strongly believe it is unwise for the president to

concede any lack of constitutional power to authorize

electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence

purposes, " wrote Robert Ingersoll, then-deputy

secretary of state, in a 1976 memorandum to President

Ford about the proposed bill on electronic

surveillance.

 

George H.W. Bush, then director of the CIA, wanted to

ensure " no unnecessary diminution of collection of

important foreign intelligence " under the proposal to

require judges to approve terror wiretaps, according

to a March 1976 memorandum he wrote to the Justice

Department. Bush also complained that some major

communications companies were unwilling to install

government wiretaps without a judge's approval. Such a

refusal " seriously affects the capabilities of the

intelligence community, " Bush wrote.

 

In another document, Jack Marsh, a White House

adviser, outlined options for Ford over the wiretap

legislation. Marsh alerted Ford to objections by Bush

as CIA director and by Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger and

Brent Scowcroft over the scope of a provision to

require judicial oversight of wiretaps. At the time,

Rumsfeld was defense secretary, Kissinger was

secretary of state and Scowcroft was the White House

national security adviser.

 

Some experts weren't surprised the cast of characters

in this national debate remained largely unchanged

over 30 years.

 

" People don't change their stripes, " said Kenneth C.

Bass a former senior Justice Department lawyer who

oversaw such wiretap requests during the Carter

administration.

 

The National Security Archives separately obtained

many of the same documents as the AP and intended to

publish them on its Web site Saturday.

 

The documents include one startling similarity to

Washington's current atmosphere over disclosures of

classified information by the media. Notes from a 1975

meeting between Cheney, then White House chief of

staff, then-Attorney General Edward Levi and others

cite the " problem " of a New York Times article by

Seymour Hersh about U.S. submarines spying inside

Soviet waters. Participants considered a formal FBI

investigation of Hersh and the Times and searching

Hersh's apartment " to go after (his) papers, " the

document said.

 

" I was surprised, " Hersh said in a telephone interview

Friday. " I was surprised that they didn't know I had a

house and a mortgage. "

 

One option outlined at the 1975 meeting was to " ignore

the Hersh story and hope it doesn't happen again. "

Participants worried about " will we get hit with

violating the First Amendment to the Constitution? "

 

CIA Director Porter Goss told lawmakers this week that

recent disclosures about sensitive programs were

severely damaging, and he urged prosecutors to impanel

a grand jury to determine " who is leaking this

information. " The National Security Agency earlier

asked the Justice Department to open a formal leaks

investigation over press reports of its terrorism

wiretaps.

 

___

 

Associated Press writer Ted Bridis contributed to this

report.

 

http://news./s/ap/20060204/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ford_era_spying & printer=1;_yl\

t=AkUanvI5a0CwK9oVbCa0U64Gw_IE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-