Surveillance went beyond warrantless wiretapping

You either follow the Rule of Law, the intent of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights or you have something else. How can the lessons of Watergate and the exposures of the Church Committee, etc. be ignored which were warnings that the Federal Government is essentially unaccountable and becoming a dangerous entity to the safety and well being of the people’s LIBERTY it purportedly claims to serve and protect.

AP News
Jul 10, 2009 12:44 EST

A new internal government report says President George W. Bush authorized secret intelligence activities shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that went beyond wiretapping without court orders.

Details of those activities remain classified, but are referred to in the newly released report as the President’s Surveillance Program.

Congress required the review of the warrantless wiretapping program by five inspectors general last year when it revised the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

FISA is the 30-year-old law that created a secret court to oversee the government’s electronic surveillance.

The Bush White House acknowledged in 2005 that it intercepted international communications that passed through U.S. wires without court orders. The program is popularly known as “warrantless wiretapping.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Attorney General John Ashcroft and ex-CIA Director George Tenet are among the Bush administration officials who refused to be interviewed for a government report on the warrantless wiretapping program.

The Bush-era program conducted electronic surveillance on calls and e-mails within the U.S. — without a judge knowing about it or giving the OK.

An unclassified summary of the report says the other officials who declined interviews are Bush’s ex-chief of staff, Andrew Card; Dick Cheney’s former top aide David Addington; and former top Justice Department lawyer John Yoo.

Congress last year told internal watchdogs at several agencies to report on the surveillance program.