Originally Posted by DVPGSR
What is not known is whether not the people in the US that were part of this were citizens or aliens. What is known is that the authorizations were for calls to or from foreign countries. This was not used to tap calls between two US citizens in LA and NY. Because this was foreign to domestic or domestic to foreign surveillance is the reason it fell under the NSA.
From the Wikipedia article on the NSA: "...the NSA's United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) strictly prohibits the interception or collection of information about "...US persons, entities, corporations or organizations..." without explicit written legal permission from the Attorney General of the United States. The Supreme Court has ruled that intelligence agencies cannot conduct surveillance against American citizens."
So there you have it. The only time the NSA is allowed to spy on "US persons" is when the AG signs off on it. Still, given that the FBI is actually chartered for domestic investigations and is empowered to arrest criminals -- which the NSA is not -- I have to ask again: why was the NSA doing this? What else is there that we don't know?
Originally Posted by DVPGSR
Kestrel, I read almost the whole thing. So far there is nothing in there, coupled with the information that is currently available, that says President Bush or the NSA broke the law.
I know you guys hate President Bush and oppose everything he does but right now you are grasping at straws.
I don't oppose everything he does; just the stuff he does when he's lying, or going to war based on a lie, or taking a huge dump on the constitution, or limiting my freedom, or passing bad but politically expedient legislation, or limiting the freedoms of others, or fellating big corporations, or... umm... well I'm definitely not a fan, is all.
And I can't understand why you still like him so much. I honestly don't get what he's doing that you're so thrilled with. You're from the "live free or die" state, aren't you? Isn't the civil libertarian inside you going crazy over all of the fascist, hypocritical shenanigans?
FYI, I'm not grasping at straws, and I'm definitely not the only person asking questions right now:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie...nG=Search+News