Spy Chief Shares Surveillance Secrets

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

National Intelligence Director Reveals Previously Classified Details About Foreign Surveillance

(AP) National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell pulled the curtain back on previously classified details of U.S. government surveillance and of a secretive court whose recent rulings created new hurdles for the Bush administration as it tries to prevent terrorism.

McConnell's comments — made in an interview with the El Paso Times last week and posted as a transcript on the newspaper's Web site Wednesday — raised eyebrows for their frank discussion of previously classified eavesdropping work conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. Among the disclosures:

# McConnell confirmed for the first time that the private sector assisted with President Bush's warrantless surveillance program. AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies are being sued for their cooperation.

# He provided new details on court rulings handed down by the 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves classified eavesdropping operations and whose proceedings are almost always entirely secret. McConnell said a ruling that went into effect May 31 required the government to get court warrants to monitor communications between two foreigners if the conversation travels on a wire in the U.S. network.

# McConnell said it takes 200 hours to assemble a FISA warrant on a single telephone number.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/23/terror/main31...

[Kagemusha]

1. What does the AP mean, 'previously classified'?

What makes them think it's not still classified?

[annabanana]

2. Can Mike McConnell declassify "at will" like Cheney & Bush

and maybe Libby and Rove can? And maybe Gonzales and Addington... and... and... and...

[soothsayer]

3. so what if it takes 200 hours for a fisa warrant, they can submit it after the fact

and maybe they'll be more cautious about who they bug instead of doing it willy nilly

[JTFrog]

4. Anyone else

confused by the wording of this:

Offering never-disclosed figures, McConnell also revealed that fewer than 100 people inside the United States are monitored under FISA warrants. However, he said, thousands of people overseas are monitored.

I'm more likely to insert AS MANY AS instead of "fewer than" in this little snip as my head spins around trying to figure out exactly what they mean by "people inside the United States" but not specifically saying Americans.

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. Expanding on your thought...

"...as many as 100 at any one time..."

But, to further that concept...

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000989
<snip>
Finally, McConnell’s claims that the surveillance programs monitor fewer than one hundred people within the United States is simply, and categorically, untrue. It may be true that there are fewer than one hundred people residing in the United States who are targets of such surveillance, but the data mining operations that are used clearly affect millions of Americans, not a few dozen. McConnell is playing fast and loose with the facts or is engaged in a very creative reading of what data mining means. (Prof. Lederman parses the same statement in a typically well-crafted post this morning; I come out analytically where he does.) This remark stands right on the threshold between being cute and disseminating conscious disinformation; either way it reflects very poorly on McConnell.



Will we ever learn of all the crimes of these bastards????

[JTFrog]

7. Disseminating conscious disinformation.

Why did he decide to share this information now?

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. Maybe an attempt to lessen the impact of his crime when the real shit hits thefan? n/t

[EnricoFermi]

6. not 200 hours, 200 man hours

There is a big difference.

They could get a warrant in an hour with 200 people working on it.

[Earth_First]

10. Exactly.

It would take less than a week with a team of four individuals to assemble a FISA warrant.

Of course, there is always the ability to 'after the fact' the warrant.

[Trillo]

9. It seems that all the wiki edits could be one of the non-released

"National Security Programs".

If so, then everyone who reads wikipedia is likely affected. That's somewhat more than 100.