This all smacks of the COINTELPRO program, and
the DOJ stomping all over the Constitution during
the 60's and 70;'s with illegal buggings, break-ins, and burglaries.
-jma
April 16, 2009 New York Times
N.S.A.Â’s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
and JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency
intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in
recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits
established by Congress last year, according to government officials.
Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the
matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “over-collection” of
domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as
significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to
be unintentional.
The N.S.A. legal and operational issues have come under scrutiny from
the Obama administration, congressional intelligence committees, and a
secret national security court, said the intelligence officials, who
were speaking only on condition of anonymity because N.S.A. activities
are classified. A series of classified government briefings have been
held in recent weeks in response to a brewing controversy that some
officials worry could damage the credibility of legitimate
intelligence-gathering efforts.
The Justice Department, in response to inquiries from The New York
Times, acknowledged in a statement Wednesday night that there had been
problems with the N.S.A. surveillance operation but that they had been
resolved.
As part of a periodic review of the agencyÂ’s activities, the department
“detected issues that raised concerns,” the statement said. Justice
officials then “took comprehensive steps to correct the situation and
bring the program into compliance” with both the law and court orders,
the statement said. It added that Attorney General Eric H. Holder
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went to the national security court to seek a renewal of the
surveillance program only after new safeguards were put in place.
N.S.A. officials did not comment. The Office of the Director of National
Intelligence, which oversees the intelligence community, did not
specifically address questions about the surveillance issue but said in
a statement that “when inadvertent mistakes are made, we take it very
seriously and work immediately to correct them.”
The questions may not be settled yet. Intelligence officials say they
are still examining the extent of the N.S.A. practices, and
congressional investigators say they hope to determine if any violations
of AmericansÂ’ privacy occurred. It is not clear to what extent the
agency may have actively listened in on conversations or read e-mails of
Americans without proper court authority, rather than simply obtain
access to them.
The intelligence officials said that the problems have grown out of
changes enacted by Congress last July in the law that regulates the
governmentÂ’s wiretapping powers, and the challenges posed by enacting a
new framework for collecting intelligence on suspected terrorists and
spies.
While N.S.A.Â’s operations in recent months have come under examination,
new details are also emerging about earlier domestic surveillance
activities, including the agencyÂ’s attempt to wiretap a congressman
without court approval on an overseas trip, according to interviews with
current and former intelligence officials.
After a contentious three-year debate that was triggered by the 2005
disclosure of the warrantless wiretapping program approved after the
Sept. 11 attacks by President Bush, Congress gave the N.S.A. broad new
authority to collect, without court-approved warrants, vast streams of
international phone and email traffic as it passed through American
telecommunications gateways. The targets of the eavesdropping had to be
“reasonably believed” to be outside the United States. Under the new
legislation, however, the N.S.A. still needed court approval to monitor
the purely domestic communications of Americans who came under suspicion.
In recent weeks, the eavesdropping agency notified members of the
congressional intelligence committees that it has encountered
operational and legal problems in complying with the new wiretapping
law, according to congressional officials .
Officials would not discuss details of the over-collection problem
because it involves classified intelligence-gathering techniques. But
the issue appears focused in part on technical problems in the N.S.A.Â’s
inability at times to distinguish between communications inside the
United States and those overseas as it uses its access to American
telecommunications companiesÂ’ fiber-optic lines and its own spy
satellites to intercept millions of calls and e-mails.
One official said that led the agency to inadvertently “target” groups
of Americans and collect their domestic communications without proper
court authority. Officials are still trying to determine how many
violations may have occurred.
The over-collection problems appear to have been uncovered as part of a
twice-annual certification that the Justice Department and the Director
of National Intelligence are required to give to the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court on the protocols that the N.S.A. is
using in its wiretapping operations. That review, officials said, began
in the waning days of the Bush administration and was continued by the
Obama administration. It led intelligence officials to realize that the
N.S.A. was improperly capturing information involving significant
amounts of American traffic.
Notified of the problems by the N.S.A., officials with both the House
and Senate intelligence committees said they had concerns that the
N.S.A. had ignored civil liberties safeguards built into last yearÂ’s
wiretapping law.
“We have received notice of a serious issue involving the N.S.A., and
we’ve begun inquires into it,” said a congressional staff member.
Separate from the new inquries, the Justice Department has been
conducting an investigation for more than two years into aspects of the
N.S.A.Â’s warrantless wiretapping program.
As part of that investigation, a senior F.B.I.
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agent recently came forward with what the inspector generalÂ’s office
described as allegations of “significant misconduct” in the surveillance
program, people with knowledge of the investigation said. Those
allegations are said to involve the question of whether the N.S.A.
targeted Americans in eavesdropping operations based on insufficient
evidence tying them to terrorism.
And in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a
member of Congress without a warrant, according to a U.S. intelligence
official with direct knowledge of the matter.
The agency believed that the congressman, whose identity could not be
determined, was in contact as part of a congressional delegation to the
Middle East in 2005 or 2006 with an extremist who had possible terrorist
ties and was already under surveillance, the official said. The agency
then sought to eavesdrop on the congressmanÂ’s conversations to gather
more intelligence, the official said.
The official said the plan was ultimately blocked because of concerns
from some officials in the intelligence community about the idea of
using the N.S.A., without court oversight, to spy on a member of Congress.
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No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the
enemy until it is ripe for execution. - Machiavelli, The Prince, 1521
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:16 CST