Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
how did you hear the words? they have 1700 people to listen to already. they don't need to churn the file. some low grade "hit" wouldn't justify this, and surely wouldn't justify have bush sign his name 30 times, unless something more was there.
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Actually Hank, to follow up on my last post. I got home tonight and saw a WaPo article on the program in which administration sources seem to explain BOTH that RT's suggestion is almost exactly right as to the method -- and that, indeed, Wonk may well be correct as to the motivation.
The main thrust of the article was about the FISA court's reaction to the program, but the article also indicates that the warrantless wiretaps are being used as part of a widescale "threat detection" program in which the G doesn't have the individualized evidence which FISA would require for a warrant.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...26.html?sub=AR
Here are a couple paragraphs:
"Still, Bush and his advisers have said they need to operate outside the FISA system in order to move quickly against suspected terrorists. In explaining the program, Bush has made the distinction between detecting threats and plots and monitoring likely, known targets, as FISA would allow.
"
Bush administration officials believe it is not possible, in a large-scale eavesdropping effort, to provide the kind of evidence the court requires to approve a warrant. Sources knowledgeable about the program said there is no way to secure a FISA warrant when the goal is to listen in on a vast array of communications in the hopes of finding something that sounds suspicious. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said the White House had tried but failed to find a way.
One government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration complained bitterly that the FISA process demanded too much: to name a target and give a reason to spy on it.
'For FISA, they had to put down a written justification for the wiretap,' said the official. 'They couldn't dream one up.'"
* * *
"The NSA program, and the technology on which it is based, makes it impossible to meet that criterion because the program is designed to intercept selected conversations in real time from among an enormous number relayed at any moment through satellites."
S_A_M
P.S. The news that the NSA has this capability is not new or secret (as my last post indicates). The difference is using it domestically.
