Illegal Wiretaps started long before September 11th.

The President, Press Secretary Scott McClellan and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have done their best to use September 11th as the reason to violate the Constitution and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the President's authorization of illegal wiretaps.

On December 12, 2005, Gozales said in a White House Press Briefing, "Now, in terms of legal authorities, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provides -- requires a court order before engaging in this kind of surveillance that I've just discussed and the President announced on Saturday, unless there is somehow -- there is -- unless otherwise authorized by statute or by Congress. That's what the law requires. Our position is that the authorization to use force, which was passed by the Congress in the days following September 11th, constitutes that other authorization, that other statute by Congress, to engage in this kind of signals intelligence."

First he admits the FISA Court authorization is necessary and then he says Congress gave the President unilateral authority when the House and Senate rammed through the Authorization for Use of Military Force on September 14th.

Later he reaffirms the same:

Q But while you're getting an additional efficiency, you're also operating outside of an existing law. If the law would allow you to stay within the law and be slightly less efficient, would that be --

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALEZ: I guess I disagree with that characterization. I think that this electronic surveillance is within the law, has been authorized. I mean, that is our position. We're only required to achieve a court order through FISA if we don't have authorization otherwise by the Congress, and we think that has occurred in this particular case.

In the same Press Conference General Hayden added more to the ruse that 9/11 necessitated the illegal wiretaps.

GENERAL HAYDEN: "Across the board, there is a judgment that we all have to make -- and I made this speech a day or two after 9/11 to the NSA workforce -- I said, free peoples always have to judge where they want to be on that spectrum between security and liberty; that there will be great pressures on us after those attacks to move our national banner down in the direction of security. What I said to the NSA workforce is, our job is to keep Americans free by making Americans feel safe again. That's been the mission of the National Security Agency since the day after the attack, is when I talked -- two days after the attack is when I said that to the workforce."


One of the reporters got close to some juicy stuff, we find out now, but General Hayden changed the subject:

Q "What was the date, though, of the first executive order? Can you give us that? "

GENERAL HAYDEN: "If I could just, before you ask that question, just add -- these actions that I described taking place at the operational level -- and I believe that a very important point to be made -- have intense oversight by the NSA Inspector General, by the NSA General Counsel, and by officials of the Justice Department who routinely look into this process and verify that the standards set out by the President are being followed."

But, all of that was just Republican-NeoCon smoke and mirrors. Now we find out that the NSA informed the President this mission started right after the inauguration. Thanks to Truthout we've linked to the declassified document that tells all.

These bastards were spying on Americans for months prior to September 11th and now use that horrible tragedy as an after-thought alibi for their illegal activities.

If Congress still values what used to be America, they must oust these crooks. If they do not, one must wonder, why do we need a Congress?

posted by Stash @ 10:30 PM