Empty Hands
Senior Master
The previously known warrantless wiretapping authorized by the Bush Administration was revealed today to be much more extensive and widespread than known. However, the nature of the extended activities remain secret. Fun quotes:
'"The report says too few relevant officials knew of the size and depth of the program, let alone signed off on it. They particularly criticize John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general who wrote legal memos undergirding the policy. His boss, Attorney General John Ashcroft, was not aware until March 2004 of the exact nature of the intelligence operations beyond wiretapping that he had been approving for the previous two and a half years, the report says.
Most of the intelligence leads generated under what was known as the "President's Surveillance Program" did not have any connection to terrorism, the report said. But FBI agents told the authors that the "mere possibility of the leads producing useful information made investigating the leads worthwhile."'
So, we have a secret, unaccountable program that only a handful of officials even knew existed. This program engaged in massive surveillance, with no effort to contain that surveillance to relevant subjects. The primary officials responsible refuse to be questioned, and we the public still don't know exactly what has occurred, beyond the warrantless wiretapping already known.
This is pretty ****ed up. How much we find out and whether the programs are continued will be a major test of Obama's character and leadership. We are watching Mr. President. Please get the FBI out of our lives.
'"The report says too few relevant officials knew of the size and depth of the program, let alone signed off on it. They particularly criticize John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general who wrote legal memos undergirding the policy. His boss, Attorney General John Ashcroft, was not aware until March 2004 of the exact nature of the intelligence operations beyond wiretapping that he had been approving for the previous two and a half years, the report says.
Most of the intelligence leads generated under what was known as the "President's Surveillance Program" did not have any connection to terrorism, the report said. But FBI agents told the authors that the "mere possibility of the leads producing useful information made investigating the leads worthwhile."'
So, we have a secret, unaccountable program that only a handful of officials even knew existed. This program engaged in massive surveillance, with no effort to contain that surveillance to relevant subjects. The primary officials responsible refuse to be questioned, and we the public still don't know exactly what has occurred, beyond the warrantless wiretapping already known.
This is pretty ****ed up. How much we find out and whether the programs are continued will be a major test of Obama's character and leadership. We are watching Mr. President. Please get the FBI out of our lives.
