9-11 Families Pan NSA Snooping

By Jarrett Murphy Wed., Jan. 4 2006 at 1:46 PM

Categories: Fact Check

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President Bush has defended his decision to allow the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on phone calls connected to the United States by saying September 11 showed that the government needed to collect more information to prevent attack. But on Wednesday one group of 9-11 families members, September 11 Advocates, disagreed.

"Our government intercepted two al Qaeda communications, during routine monitoring, on September 10, 2001—'tomorrow is zero hour' and 'the match begins tomorrow,' " the group said in a statement. Those messages weren't interpreted until it was too late. "It was certainly not any FISA court issue that delayed such translation. Rather, the delay was ostensibly due to NSA's overwhelming workload created by its voluminous influx of information that needed to be translated and analyzed on a daily basis."

Plus, says the group, the existing FISA law gives the president the right to order eavesdropping on someone for three full days before he has to go to the secret court to get an order. "Moreover, in a time of war, the President is given a full fifteen days to retroactively ask for such a warrant," the statement reads. "Thus, why is there any need for the President to circumvent the law?"

According to the 2004 report to Congress on secret warrant requests to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court, "The Court did not deny in whole or part any application submitted by the government in 2004," when there were 1,758 requests. In the three previous years, the court saw 3,888 requests for FISA warrants. It denied four and modified two. The government appealed the modifications, and it won on both appeals. Even before September 11, the court wasn't exactly a tough hurdle: In 2000, it approved 1,003 applications, modified one, and denied zero.

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Somebody took the "Do Not Call List" concept a little further.
These so-called "9-11 Families" consist of four women. Report what they say, but do not report that they represent anyone but themselves.
I read the statement that a survivor of the holocaust wrote; something to the effect of "when they came for the bankers I did nothing, because it did not affect me. When they came for the teachers and scholars I did nothing, because it did not affect me. When they took the husbands and fathers I did nothing, because it did not affect me. When they came for me there was no one left to help." Does the NSA wiretap affect you?
A preipheral question: if NSA is tapping electronic communications throughout the USA, and no longer needs court approval, then what about the FBI, who till now needed court approval for taps? Are they too now free to tap at random as they see fit?
Hmmm. I am haunted by the events of 9/11, as are most of us "leftist jerks." I however, take my civil liberties very seriously and do not believe that compromising the constitution is at all patriotic. I love our country, the freedoms we enjoy and want to have faith in our leaders, which at the present time is impossible. The thinking that goes along with the first post, one that establishes a fascist belief of "The sky is falling, WHERE ARE YOUR PAPERS!" is not the brass ring I wish to grasp, rather I would like to hang on to something meaningful and solid; i.e. What our founding fathers labored over for so long, what America promised to all people: FREEDOM. Yes, living has risks but not at the expense of our foundation. God, save us from ignorance.
It's all smoke and mirrors again. The NSA had been "packet sniffing" and "data mining" for many years. James Bamford wrote about their efforts against Bin Laden in the '90's. This "revelation" came from with the Agency. Patriots who were fed up with the political subordination of Constitutional Rights. The rightwingnuts who would tear up the Bill of Rights in the name of "security" have a very partisan defintition of security. History may show that at best, this bunch has been guilty of criminal negligence. Going to war in Iraq on bogus information is another matter. Impeachment: it's not just for oral sex anymore!
Yeah and Amercia took the world to war for nothing September 11 2001 was not committed by terrorist but by the Amercia government working with big wealthy business and it had to have a war to try out it's new weapons and what a better way to do it than organise a massive attack upon it's own citizens, Amercia government leaders have hinted at this for years that it could afford to lose some tens of thousands of it's citizens in any war it started as long as it's allies would be convince to join the fight on a unknow face of attackers Mr Ronald Regan senior upon his assault on Iraq, followed by Mr Bush Senior, Bill Clinton and Now Geogre Bush Junior. When are Amercia Citizens going to wake up to the fact they are not safe under their own government and the constitution that is being taken away from them over the last twenty years come on and stand up for your rights and get rid of the government and it's congressional leaders and elect a real leader that understand the workers of the world who are being used as geniua pigs to fight a billionaires business resource war.
These "leftist weasels" are quite correct in their commentary of the FISA situation. Why is that anytime people disagree with Bush, they are destroying the country? Since when did Bush become "the country"? He has to be the first man on the face of this planet who is 100 percent correct 100 percent of the time. I also seriously doubt anyone "rejoiced" at the towers coming down. There is some strange stuff going on and people need to question it. That will hardly "destroy" anything.
I find the comment above to be no more compelling than the non-sense prior to Iraq invasion. Many valid questions were raised, to which only non-sense was given as a response. [More at link under my name. . . ] In the absense of credible-sensible discussion, we judge the same is occurring in re NSA spying: Lawless action, devoid of facts, and action taken on the basis of accusations, not law. There's plenty of evidence-indicators that DoJ and the White House are engaged in a coverup over the NSA domestic spying program. Big question for 9-11: Why didn't NSA pick up the information? Answer: It did, just like NSA knew there was no WMD in Iraq. [More at link under my name. . .]
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security Benjamin Franklin
These are the same leftist weasels that tear down anything the country does. I imagine most of them rejoiced when the towers fell because idiots would listed to them and make their worthless lives meaningful, at least to them. They are not the only ones to have lost loved ones to disasters but most realize there is no perfection. Living has its risks. Accept that or go take the gas pipe and do us all a favor!