Hat tip to
shock for digging up this story:
WaPo - Secret Court Rebuffs Ashcroft - Justice Dept. Chided On MisinformationDan Eggen and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 23, 2002; Page A01
The secretive federal court that approves spying on terror suspects in the United States has refused to give the Justice Department broad new powers, saying the government had misused the law and misled the court dozens of times, according to an extraordinary legal ruling released yesterday.
A May 17 opinion by the court that oversees the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) alleges that Justice Department and FBI officials supplied erroneous information to the court in more than 75 applications for search warrants and wiretaps, including one signed by then-FBI Director Louis J. Freeh. <...>
"We believe the court's action unnecessarily narrowed the Patriot Act and limited our ability to fully utilize the authority Congress gave us," the Justice Department said in a statement.
The documents released yesterday also provide a rare glimpse into the workings of the almost entirely secret FISA court, composed of a rotating panel of federal judges from around the United States and, until yesterday, had never jointly approved the release of one of its opinions. Ironically, the Justice Department itself had opposed the release.
In the shock's DailyKos diary
RedDan puts it succinctly, and much better than I ever could:
And therein lies the (4.00 / 32)
reason why the NSA was used this way, and why the Administration did what they did.
The FISA shoved their stupid warrants and idiotic behavior back in their faces, so the fools decided to break the law rather than correct their errors.
Their use of the FBI and surveillance was deemed illegal, based on falsified and sloppy documents, and improperly handled at almost every level.
The FISA court panel said so in no uncertain terms.
The FISA court panel said that these problems could be corrected with a combination of proper procedure and practice, coupled with congressional review of the relevant statutes.
The appropriate congressional panel chairmen and chairwomen indicated that they would be willing to conduct such a review, and if necessary, reworking of the laws and statutes, but voiced their dissatisfaction with the Administration's behavior, openness, and honesty regarding that process.
The administration then decided to secretly authorize continuation of the SAME, now-deemed illegal, procedures via presidential fiat, and to carry out those procedures using the NSA (highly secretive, part of the Defense Department), rather than the FBI directly (less secretive, subject to FOIA and other civil oversight, NOT in the Defense Department)...in direct violation of the law, both written law, and direct statements by the arbiters of that written law.
Bad, bad, bad.
The only way to ensure a free press is to own one
by RedDan on Tue Dec 20, 2005 at 12:41:17 AM PSTThis has completely gone beyond the pale.
Get your printers ready, type the word
IMPEACH to cover the entire sheet of paper, and plaster it everywhere you can!
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