Fergie's Tech Blog

To Credibility: FISA Court to Govern Wiretapping Plan

So, I guess this akin to saying "Okay, we won't break the law anymore..."

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post:

The Justice Department announced today that the National Security Agency's controversial warrantless surveillance program has been placed under the authority of a secret surveillance court, marking an abrupt change in approach by the Bush administration after more than a year of heated debate.

In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said that orders issued on Jan. 10 by an unidentified judge puts the NSA program under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secret panel that oversees most intelligence surveillance in the United States.

Gonzales also wrote that the current NSA program will effectively be abandoned after its current authorization expires in favor of the new approach.

More here.

Note: The Bush administration, and specifically Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is sending mixed messages. As mentioned in this MSNBC/Associated Press article, Gonzales also says that "...federal judges are unqualified to make rulings affecting national security policy."

Checks and balances? What checks and balances...

posted by Fergie @ 1/17/2007 11:32:00 AM