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Domestic Spying Records Ordered Released
CokoBWare wrote to mention an eWeek report on the NSA's domestic spying program. A federal judge has ordered the Department of Justice to release records from the program by March 8th. From the article: "In ordering the Justice Department to expedite the FOIA request processing, Judge Henry Kennedy Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said that the department's opinion that it could determine how much time is needed was 'easily rejected ... Under DOJ's view of the expedited processing provisions of FOIA, the government would have carte blanche to determine the time line for processing expedited requests,'"
It's safe to release all of the domestic spying records, now that Bush got his literal "get out of jail free" deal from his Republican Congress.
After terrorists attack our ports through infiltrating the royal United Arab Emirates corporation that just got handed the ports management contracts, I expect Congress will pass a law that says that "no one could have anticipated that the ports would be infiltrated through their foreign managers".
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make install -not war
Also, the article summary is wrong in one little detail. The actual article continues the sentence with "or else explain the legal basis under which the records cannot be released."
So basically, the judge set a deadline by with the government must respond to the FOIA request (which could just be a denial saying you can't have the records cause it's classified, likely in this case), he didn't order them to actually release the records.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
One thing about this is story is everybody has an opinion about what NSA is doing, and what the law is. Then of course there is the reality of what the NSA is really doing and what the law really is. General Hayen used to run the NSA, and was running it when the program was set up. He was the briefer of members of Congress (remember from both parties) on what the program was doing during his time at the NSA. Here is the transcript http:///http://www.dni.gov/release_letter_012306.h tml/>
of Gen. Hayden's appearance Jan. 23, 2006 with the Washington Press Club about this program.
James Woolsey may have been appointed by Clinton, but he also was a member of The Project for a New American Century. Mr. Woolsey's buddies in that organization included Bill Kristol, the Scaife Family, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. That is not exactly a list of names you would find listed in the Democratic National Committee fundraising book.
I'm not saying that Mr. Woolsey's arguments are invalid. I am saying that you shouldn't (intentionally or unintentionally) insinuate Mr. Woolsey is a liberal Clintonite....
National security data (specifically, "matters that are -- specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and are in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive order") is exempted from FOIA requests, so I'm guessing the judge is expecting the DOJ to claim that most of the requested documents are classified.
I thought only the President had the legal authority to unilateraly declassify something without going through channels.
Actually, "channels" means anyone with Original Classification Authority, which includes the President, Vice-President, Director of Central Intelligence, and other intelligence community leaders (I believe DIRNSA, and presumably also the new DNI).
I believe that each individual is responsible for certain kinds of information. For example, the Director of NSA would obviously have some authority over information regarding crypto, so he wouldn't be authorized to declassify information about human spies. Higher-level authorities like DCI, DNI, and obviously VPOTUS and POTUS, would be able to declassify more and more.
So, yes, I would expect that VP Cheney would have the authority to declassify certain information, including, most likely, whatever it is "Scooter" is up the creek over (I honestly have forgotten). But I'm equally certain that such a declassification would have to have a paper trail, and anyone who simply "takes [someone]'s word for it," even the Vice-President's word, that something is now open for release, well, they're not doing *their* job to protect classified information.
I can't remember which Executive Order it is that covers all this...I think 12958 or something along those lines. Okay, I just checked, and OMG, I *did* remember the order. Check it out here: Executive Order 12958 - Classified National Security Information, as Amended . It's actually fairly interesting reading....
>Last I checked Germans weren't American citizens and afforded the rights granted by the Constitution Hate to break this to you, but in fact during World War II there was massive scale surveillance of US citizens communicating with people in Europe in order to keep tabs on what Nazis and Nazi sympathizers in this country were up to. In most case there was no warrant, no discussion with a Judge. Back then it was understood this was a war and the goal here was to win, not be scored on how well you followed the rules. Did they (for a while) shred the constitution, you betcha. Did it snap back when the war was over? Same as it always has before and since. A different time and a different world to be certain.
and...
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell