Cheney, Rumsfeld fought to impose wiretaps for foreign intelligence thirty years

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" Zepp " <zepp

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 22:03:46 -0800

[Zepps_News] #Cheney, Rumsfeld fought to impose wiretaps for

foreign intelligence thirty years ago

 

 

 

 

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/AP_Cheney_Rumsfeld_fought_to_impose_0203.html

 

 

AP: Cheney, Rumsfeld fought to impose wiretaps for foreign

intelligence thirty years ago

 

RAW STORY

Published: February 3, 2006

 

 

 

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, AP reports. Excerpts (and background on Foreign

Intelligence Surveillance Act follow). Full story here.

#

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

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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.

 

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.

 

This occurred before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA),

which restricted domestic spying.

 

Background on FISA from Facts on File:

 

" President Carter signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

into law Oct. 25, 1978. It was the first major legislation to restrict

national security wiretapping.

 

" The bill required the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central

Intelligence Agency and other federal agencies to obtain court

approval before conducting most electronic surveillance in foreign

intelligence cases.

 

" The exception was for certain National Security Agency operations,

such as the interception of communications between a foreign embassy

and its government. Unless evidence of criminal activity could be

presented to a court, the " bugging " of Americans was banned.

 

" All of the U.S. intelligence agencies were on record in favor of the

final bill. The American Civil Liberties Union also supported the

legislation but objected to the NSA warrant exemption. "

 

--

 

" Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government

talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court

order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about

chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order

before we do so "

-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

 

 

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

 

NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security

Agency (NSA) may have read this email without warning, warrant, or

notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative

oversight. You have no recourse, nor protection save to call for the

impeachment of the current President.

 

 

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