Thursday, December 22, 2005
NSA Scrupulously Protects Americans' Civil Liberties?
Today's New York Times article entitled News of Surveillance Is Awkward for Agency is typically understated:
In other words, if publicly passing the Patriot Act was considered not to be a national security risk, then simultaneously amending FISA would not have been either.
Testifying before a Senate committee last April, Gen. Michael V. Hayden,
then head of the National Security Agency, emphasized how scrupulously the
agency was protecting Americans from its electronic snooping....As a
PowerPoint presentation posted on the agency's Web site puts it, for an
American to be a target, "Court Order Required in the United States."
So, in other words, he lied. A Bush administration official lied to the
American people? What a shock!
Had the agency openly sought the increased power in the immediate aftermath of
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "I'm sure Congress would have approved,"
said Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, a former general counsel of both the N.S.A. and
the Central Intelligence Agency.
In other words, if publicly passing the Patriot Act was considered not to be a national security risk, then simultaneously amending FISA would not have been either.
Stumble It!