WAR: Bush Allowed NSA to Spy on U.S. International Calls, page 1


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Topic started on 16-12-2005 @ 01:00 AM by djohnsto77
The New York Times is reporting that a previously undisclosed executive order signed in 2002 by President Bush allows the National Security Agency to intercept phone calls and e-mails between the U.S. and other countries without a court order. According to anonymous Times sources, hundreds to thousands of people may have had their communications tapped by the NSA in an effort to locate phone numbers and e-mail addresses used by terrorist organizations. Purely domestic calls still need a warrant from a federal court before they can be tapped. Although most of the communication eavesdropping led nowhere, a few cases did result in the breakup of terrorist plots.




www.nyti mes.com
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches.


Please visit the link provided for the complete story.


I'm surprised the NSA wasn't already doing this, perhaps if they had been 9/11 could have been averted. It looks to me like the difference is they could target phone numbers outside the U.S. making calls into the U.S. before, but not target numbers within the country making or receiving international calls. The NSA is one of the most secretive organizations within the U.S. government, so I don't really know much about it, but they apparently have an amazing ability to eavesdrop on electronic communications worldwide.

I'm sure civil libertarians will up in arms over this, but as long it is just aimed at international terrorism, I have no problem with it and am, in fact, glad it's being done.

Related News Links:
en.wikipedia.org



[edit on 12/16/2005 by djohnsto77]


reply posted on 16-12-2005 @ 06:09 AM by Seekerof
Originally posted by Mainer
I am honored to bestow the
First Titor!


As I am honored to say and predict that Titor's prediction of civil war will soon become a debunked fairy tale.
The American Civil War of 2005 as predicted by John Titor

As for this topic, Bush allowed? At any rate:

The following Report was required by the FY 2000 Intelligence Authorization Act, and was transmitted to Congress at the end of February 2000.

Legal Standards for the Intelligence Community in Conducting Electronic Surveillance

Desperately seeking signals

United States Signals Intelligence Directive (USSID 18)
USSID 18






seekerof

[edit on 16-12-2005 by Seekerof]


reply posted on 16-12-2005 @ 08:56 PM by sigung86
It doesn't happen to be a matter of right or left. It doesn't happen to be a matter of protecting the civilians of the United States of America. It may not even be that there is an NWO conspiracy to take over the United States, and/or ultimately the world. It is, however, a matter of government being government.

Given it's druthers, any government, left to it's own devices, will expand to fill the void and take over every aspect, both large, and small, of life, that the people will let it.

It isn't necessarily a huge conspiracy of any sort. It is, simply the nature of the beast. Those in power are greedy, and want more. Otherwise, they would not be politicians. Many, who are not in power, do not want those in power to have any more of that power. Most of the people, not in control, don't want to be bothered; want the government to take over every aspect of their lives that they don't wish to be bothered with or do not understand.

This, large conspiracy aside, turns us into a nation of ho-hum... Non-thinking, non-excelling, non-independent automatons, "by the nature of the beast called government".

I understand that this type of thing will catch the occasional terrorist operation, and act, but ... It seems to me, and I'm not really a moron, that there are more effective ways that are less invasive to achieve the same results. I'm not necessarily a right wing, nor am I a left wing, I am simply a human being who wishes to have the right to live and die as he wishes, as long as there is no harm to another person. and yet, I am beginning to believe that this is an illusory paradigm.

Leave me alone Bushie! I have fought for my country! I would do it again! I'm not planning on bombing anything, blowing up, subverting, or doing anything to any aspect of our country or it's people, that will cause angst amongst the politicians or those many, who willingly surrender their rights to live, die, laugh, love, and make the mistakes that are inherent in this thing called life.

A government that spends so much product in the process of spying on it's own citizens has much, I suspect, to fear from the possibilities of those same citizens.

[edit on 16-12-2005 by sigung86]
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