What is the most disappointing is the New York Times and Boston Globe infer that the transgressions were all part of the illegal wiretapping program when it went much deeper than that -- and they reported such just yesterday!
And WHAT do I FIND when I go to the WEB VERSION?
A REPLACED REWRITE!!!!
Yeah, readers, I HAVE FUCKING HAD IT with the GOD-DAMN GAMES from the BOSTON GLOBE!
What is in my PAPER!
"Report slams wiretap program; Secrecy seen as hindering efforts" by Carrie Johnson and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post | July 11, 2009
WASHINGTON - “Extraordinary and inappropriate’’ secrecy about a warrantless eavesdropping program undermined its effectiveness as a terrorism-fighting tool, government watchdogs have concluded in the first examination of one of the most contentious episodes of the Bush administration.
A report by inspectors general from five intelligence agencies said the administration’s tight control over who learned of the program also contributed to flawed legal arguments that nearly prompted mass resignations in the Justice Department five years ago.
But LET'S NOT INVESTIGATE THAT!
For the first few years of the program’s operation, only three Justice Department lawyers were aware of the highly classified initiative, and intelligence analysts whose “scary memos’’ helped certify the program initially were kept in the dark by supervisors who sometimes ordered up more data to prepare a “compelling case,’’ the watchdog report said.
Oh, like they did with IRAQ!!!
So the LAST who-knows-how-many-years has been a CROCK SHIT of LIES, huh?
The program, launched under President George W. Bush, involved electronic surveillance, including the interception without court approval of e-mail linked to people with suspected ties to Al Qaeda.
So they were reading CIA e-mail, 'eh?
The White House tightly restricted knowledge of the effort, and after The New York Times disclosed its existence in December 2005, the program became a symbol of the Bush administration’s expansive view of executive authority, especially regarding national security.
Yeah, that was AFTER the TIMES SAT on the STORY for TWO YEARS!
Yesterday’s release of the inspectors general’s summary findings renewed questions about the effectiveness of congressional oversight of intelligence activities, after a week of back-and-forth between House members and the CIA over an unrelated classified program that has been squashed by the new administration....
"Most online observers have concluded that the program in question is the assassination team that reported directly to Vice President Dick Cheney reported by Sy Hersch." -- Wake the Flock Up
YUP: Did newly announced top Afghan general run Cheney's assassination wing?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said: “No president should be able to operate outside the law.’’
Then WHY NO IMPEACHMENT, you fucking botox-filled whore?
The report also inspired fresh calls from congressional Democrats, including the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, to establish a commission to explore the Bush administration’s handling of its antiterrorism efforts. The lawmakers pointed out that several key Bush administration figures refused to cooperate with the inspectors general, who lacked the authority to compel testimony.
PFFFFFT!
Been HEARING that FART MISTING FOOLEY for HOW MANY YEARS now!
FUCK OFF, dickless DemocraPs!
Significant elements of the initiative are still unclear. But an unclassified version of the inspectors general’s report for the first time offers new details about its origins and its advocates.
The program was born in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, when then-CIA director George Tenet asked the National Security Agency’s chief, Lieutenant General Michael Hayden, “what he might do with more authority,’’ the report said. A short while later, Bush signed a single document paving the way for the plan.
And CUI BONO?!! These guys KNOW it is/was an INSIDE JOB!!
For the first few years, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and two senior aides - Office of Legal Counsel lawyer John Yoo and intelligence policy lawyer James Baker - were the only Justice Department officials made aware of the initiative, bypassing many of the aides’ superiors, the unclassified summary reported for the first time.
This is TREASON, readers!
One former department lawyer, Jay Bybee, told investigators that he was Yoo’s supervisor, but that he was never read into the program and “could shed no further light’’ on how Yoo came to be the point man on memos that blessed its legality. By following this route, investigators say, the memos avoided a rigorous peer-review process.
I DON'T BELIEVE the LYING SHIT, sorry!!!!!!!!!!
The White House determined access to the program, a former Bush official said. The report said that Yoo prepared hypothetical documents in September and early October 2001 before writing a formal memo in November, after Bush had already authorized the initiative.
Just like the PATRIOT ACT, this shit was ALL READY TO GO because THEY KNEW when the "terror" attack was coming!
In that memo, Yoo concluded that existing surveillance law could not “restrict the president’s ability to engage in warrantless searches that protect the national security,’’ and that “unless Congress made a clear statement . . . that it sought to restrict presidential authority to conduct warrantless searches in the national security area - which it has not - then the statute must be construed to avoid such a reading,’’ according to the report.
In other words, if it doesn't EXPLICITLY SAY you CAN'T DO IT, you CAN!!
I'm going to go JERK-OFF at the OFFICE on Monday because the handbook doesn't specifically say no beating off at work, so....
But when that analysis reached higher-level officials in the Justice Department by late 2003 and early 2004, lawyers were troubled by the conclusions. They grew convinced that the plan may have run afoul of the law and ignored key Supreme Court rulings on the subject of executive-branch power.
Like I SAID: TREASON!!!!!
And yet those WAR CRIMINALS are STILL WALKING AROUND!!!
Disputes prompted a series of meetings in March 2004, including lobbying by the White House, to try to persuade the Justice Department to temporarily continue the surveillance while any legal problems with it were being fixed. On March 9, 2004, intelligence officials and Vice President Dick Cheney met to discuss the issue without inviting Justice Department leaders.
I want these guys HUNG, readers!!!
Cheney suggested that Bush “may have to reauthorize without [the] blessing of DOJ,’’ according to previously unreported notes taken by FBI Director Robert Mueller. Mueller told investigators he would have had a problem with that approach and raised the prospect that the bureau would have withdrawn from the program.
That's when they ALL THREATENED to RESIGN!
Related: Breaking News: Obama Defends Dick Cheney
Analysts at the National Counterterrorism Center said that “only a portion of the . . . information was ever used’’ in threat assessments for the intelligence community because other sources “provided more timely or detailed information’’ about the Al Qaeda threat in the United States.
What, CIA fill you in about "Al-CIA-Duh?"
Or was that off the TORTURE of INNOCENTS?
Investigators concluded that information derived from the program “generally played a limited role’’ in the FBI’s overall counterterrorism efforts.
Translation: let's COVER THIS UP and make it go away!
What the WEB gave me!
"Report questions value of wiretaps; ‘Limited role’ in fighting terror" by Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, New York Times | July 11, 2009
WASHINGTON - While the Bush administration had defended its program of wiretapping without warrants as a vital tool that saved lives, a new government review released yesterday said the program’s effectiveness in fighting terrorism was unclear.
Well, considering that TERRORISM is a GOVERNMENT CREATED, FUNDED, and DIRECTED OPERATION that doesn't surprise me at all!!!
The report, mandated by Congress last year and produced by the inspectors general of five federal agencies, found that other intelligence tools used in assessing security threats posed by terrorists provided more timely and detailed information.
Like what? TORTURE?
Most intelligence officials interviewed “had difficulty citing specific instances’’ when the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program contributed to successes against terrorists, the report said.
While the program obtained information that “had value in some counterterrorism investigations, it generally played a limited role in the FBI’s overall counterterrorism efforts,’’ the report concluded. The CIA and other intelligence branches also viewed the program, which allowed eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of Americans, as a useful tool but could not link it directly to counterterrorism successes, presumably arrests or thwarted plots.
They are STILL BACK-FILLING and LYING!!
It was ALL COMMUNICATIONS, James!
YOU -- of all writers -- should KNOW BETTER!
The report also hinted at political pressure in preparing the so-called threat assessments that helped form the legal basis for continuing the classified program, whose disclosure in 2005 provoked fierce debate about its legality.
Nothing like a SELF-SERVING, SELF-CREATED SITUATION, 'eh?
The initial authorization of the wiretapping program came after a senior CIA official took a threat evaluation, prepared by analysts who knew nothing of the program, and inserted a paragraph provided by a senior White House official that spoke of the prospect of future attacks against the United States.
Un-fucking-real!
Yup, INSERTED DAMN LIES while they were "protecting us!" I'm SO ILL at this shit I can HARDLY CONTINUE!!
I can see why the Globe didn't want me reading the Times piece in the paper!
These threat assessments, which provided the justification for President George W. Bush’s reauthorization of the wiretapping program every 45 days, became known among intelligence officials as the “scary memos,’’ the report said. Intelligence analysts involved in the process eventually realized that “if a threat assessment identified a threat against the United States,’’ the wiretapping and related surveillance programs were “likely to be renewed,’’ the report added.
Oh, America, you have been SO PLAYED!!!
And you know what the WORST THING is?
"THE SPYING ON AMERICANS WILL CONTINUE!" -- Wake the Flock Up
The report found that the secrecy surrounding the program may have limited its effectiveness. At the CIA, it said, so few working-level officers were allowed to know about the program that the agency often did not make full use of the leads the wiretapping generated.
Honestly, I am SICK of this BULLSHIT!
The findings raise questions about assertions from Bush and his most senior advisers that the warrantless wiretapping program was essential in stopping terrorist attacks.
How about ASKING SOME QUESTIONS about that DAMN DAY 9/11?
Like HOW BUILDINGS FALL DOWN LIKE that because of fire!
In January 2006, for example, Bush said the surveillance program “helped prevent attacks and save American lives.’’ Former vice president Dick Cheney has made the same point, most recently in his public defense of the administration’s campaign against terrorism.
You mean his DEFENDING TORTURE, right, Jim?
Related: Torture and the New York Times
The report provided previously undisclosed details about the legal and operational schisms that dogged the program in its five years of existence. The 38-page document released yesterday was an unclassified version. The bulk of the findings remain classified in separate reports from each of the five inspectors general, who represent the Justice Department, the NSA, the CIA, the Defense Department, and the Office of National Intelligence.
Which means WE will NEVER KNOW (especially with the unconstitutional retro-immunity this treasonous Congress granted the telecoms!)!
The inquiry included interviews with about 200 government and private-sector personnel, but a number of key players - including David Addington, a top aide to Cheney; George J. Tenet, the former director of Central Intelligence; John Ashcroft, the former attorney general; and John Yoo, a Justice Department lawyer who endorsed the wiretapping program - declined to be interviewed.
Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty!
Congressional Democrats who had been critics of the program said they found the report’s conclusions disturbing....
Well, WhereTF have you guys been?
Among other findings, the report concluded that Alberto R. Gonzales, as attorney general, provided “confusing, inaccurate’’ statements about NSA surveillance activities to lawmakers in 2007, but did not “intend to mislead Congress.’’
Pffft! Then WHAT ELSE COULD it have BEEN?
Gonzales had said that a dispute between the White House and Justice Department lawyers in 2004 did not relate to the wiretapping program.
Then WHAT DID IT RELATE TO? TORTURE?
The report states that at the same time Bush authorized the warrantless wiretapping operation, he also signed off on other surveillance programs that the government has never publicly acknowledged.
So WHY did it take the BOSTON GLOBE, WASHINGTON POST, and JEW YORK TIMES nearly TWO WHOLE ARTICLES before MENTIONING THIS!!!
While the report does not identify them, current and former officials say that those programs included data mining of e-mail messages of Americans. That was apparently what Gonzales was referring to in his congressional testimony.
Gee, that was reported by BLOGGERS and the TIMES FIVE DAYS AGO!
WHERE ya been, Globe?
The investigation stopped short of assessing whether the wiretapping program violated the law requiring court-ordered warrants before wiretapping Americans’ communications.....
In 2008, Congress restructured the federal surveillance law, the broadest such overhaul in three decades.Yeah, after BUSH THREATENED them with ANOTHER SCARY MEMO that turned out to be BULLSHIT!!!!!!
The inspectors general’s report said the new law “gave the government even broader authority to intercept international communications’’ than did the original program.
Once again, the PAPER ACTING as IF the communications were ONLY INTERNATIONAL! FUCK YOU, you obfuscating and omitting sacks of shit!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS is why NEWSPAPERS are TANKING!!!!
That same measure also gave legal immunity to the telecommunications companies that cooperated in the wiretapping program.
Yeah, the UNCONSTITUTIONAL IMMUNITY!
Article I, Section 9: "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."
--more--"
What the GLOBE CENSORED from LAST NIGHT!
"Report: Bush surveillance program was massive" by Pamela Hess, Associated Press Writer | July 10, 2009
WASHINGTON --The Bush administration built an unprecedented surveillance operation to pull in mountains of information far beyond the warrantless wiretapping previously acknowledged, a team of federal inspectors general reported Friday, questioning the legal basis for the effort but shielding almost all details on grounds they're still too secret to reveal.
One wonders why the Globe didn't LEAD with this article that was ON THEIR WEBSITE, huh?
We get a FIRST PARAGRAPH telling us the GUTS of the STORY!
The report, compiled by five inspectors general, refers to "unprecedented collection activities" by U.S. intelligence agencies under an executive order signed by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Just what those activities involved remains classified, but the IGs pointedly say that any continued use of the secret programs must be "carefully monitored."
So it is STILL OPERATING, folks!
Hey, they don't need to spy on me.
I'm ALL RIGHT HERE, Fascistas!!!!!
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.
Readers, WTF? Why did the Globe CLEAN THIS ALL UP for THIS MORNING?
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.
Translation: They are SPYING ON YOU, folks!!!!!
But FBI agents told the authors that the "mere possibility of the leads producing useful information made investigating the leads worthwhile."
That is a MOST FASCIST ATTITUDE! Oh, right, it's the FBI!
The inspectors general interviewed more than 200 people inside and outside the government, but five former Bush administration officials refused to be questioned. They were Ashcroft, Yoo, former CIA Director George Tenet, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and David Addington, an aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney.
How ODD that the GLOBE'S PREVIOUS REPORTS do NOT MENTION Mass. native Andy Card as refusing to testify! Isn't that INTERESTING, huh?
Can YOU SAY CENSORSHIP, readers?
I knew you could; goes with the Boston Globe like chocolate goes with peanut butter!
According to the report, Addington could personally decide who in the administration was "read into" -- allowed access to -- the classified program.
Readers, this article is SO MUCH MORE DETAILED!!!
So, the NYT and WaPo REALLY ARE GOVERNMENT MOUTHPIECES, aren't they?
The only piece of the intelligence-gathering operation acknowledged by the Bush White House was the wiretapping-without-warrants effort. The administration admitted in 2005 that it had allowed the National Security Agency to intercept international communications that passed through U.S. cables without seeking court orders.
Although the report documents Bush administration policies, its fallout could be a problem for the Obama administration if it inherited any or all of the still-classified operations.
Of COURSE HE DID and IS!!!!!!
And WTF, GLobe?
What is with the SELF-CENSORING, SELF-EDITING REWRITES, 'eh?
Bush started the warrantless wiretapping program under the authority of a secret court in 2006, and Congress authorized most of the intercepts in a 2008 electronic surveillance law.
Oh, I'm sorry, Pam!
Related: Boston Globe Knows About News Suppression
New York Times Admits Bush Administration Spying Began in December of 2000... BEFORE TAKING OFFICE!
Bush's Wiretapping Began BEFORE 9/11!!
The New York Times Tool
U.S. Illegally Spied on NGO's, Targeted Reporters
The U.S. Government is Reading Your E-Mail, AmeriKa!
Should have known she would have had to detour to a bunch of lies!
The fate of the remaining and still classified aspects of the wider surveillance program is not clear from the report.
Oh, I THINK IT IS!
These programs are NEVER SHUT DOWN, they just change the name.
See: Prop 101: Al-CIA-Duh and the OSI
The report's revelations came the same day that House Democrats said that CIA Director Leon Panetta had ordered one eight-year-old classified program shut down after learning lawmakers had never been apprised of its existence.
As noted above, that is CHENEY'S ASSASSINATION SQUAD!
The IG report said that President Bush signed off on both the warrantless wiretapping and other top-secret operations shortly after Sept. 11 in a single presidential authorization.
So WHAT are those OTHER OPERATIONS, dammit?
All the programs were periodically reauthorized, but except for the acknowledged wiretapping, they "remain highly classified."
Rep. Jane Harman, D-Ca., told The Associated Press she was shocked to learn of the existence of other classified programs beyond the warrantless wiretapping.
Oh, she is IN-FUCKING-CREDIBLE!
Please read: Harman's Huff
Former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made a terse reference to other classified programs during an August 2007 letter to Congress. But Harman said that when she had asked Gonzales two years earlier if the government was conducting any other undisclosed intelligence activities, he denied it....
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden -- the primary architect of the program-- told the report's authors that the surveillance was "extremely valuable" in preventing further al-Qaida attacks.
Have YOU HAD IT with the GOD-DAMN LIES, readers?
Hayden said the operations amounted to an "early warning system" allowing top officials to make critical judgments and carefully allocate national security resources to counter threats.
Hey, Mike! 9/11 was an INSIDE JOB! Oh, I seee, YOU WERE IN ON IT, huh?
Information gathered by the secret program played a limited role in the FBI's overall counterterrorism efforts, according to the report. Very few CIA analysts even knew about the program and therefore were unable to fully exploit it in their counterrorism work, the report said.
The report questioned the legal advice used by Bush to set up the program, pinpointing omissions and questionable legal memos written by Yoo, in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. The Justice Department withdrew the memos years ago.
So that makes it ll right, huh?
The report says Yoo's analysis approving the program ignored a law designed to restrict the government's authority to conduct electronic surveillance during wartime, and did so without fully notifying Congress.
How come this LAST AP piece is SO DETAILED and WHY did the Globe OMIT IT from their PAPER!?
And it said flaws in Yoo's memos later presented "a serious impediment" to recertifying the program. Yoo insisted that the president's wiretapping program had only to comply with Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure -- but the report said Yoo ignored the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act, which had previously overseen federal national security surveillance.
Well, it was STILL a CRIME because the program VIOLATED the 4th, too!
Just because GOVERNMENT SAYS IT DOESN'T, well, that's the most SELF-SERVING STATEMENT they could ever make!
"The notion that basically one person at the Justice Department, John Yoo, and Hayden and the vice president's office were running a program around the laws that Congress passed, including a reinterpretation of the Fourth Amendment, is mind boggling," Harman said.
That is TREASON, you traitorous whore!
And NOW she FEINS INDIGNATION!!!!!
House Democrats are pressing for legislation that would expand congressional access to secret intelligence briefings, but the White House has threatened to veto it.
Yeah, meet George W. Bush, the third term!
Related: Obama's First Veto Threat
--more--"Also Related: Bush Personally Ordered Visit to Ashcroft’s Hospital Bed
Did any of those articles mention that?
Hey, what is ONE MORE OMISSION, 'eh?
Of course, it is ALL for the GOOD, right?
"Surveillance cameras showed.... surveillance video captured captured"
Sig Heil, 'murka!
Oh, btw, George, HISTORY is going to HATE YOU NOW!!!!
