General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm astonished so many DUers are cool with ending Habeas Corpus [View all]boppers
(16,588 posts)Sure, the CIA, FBI, DoD, NSA, (etc.) couldn't legally do lots of things anymore. So they farmed the work out in legal ways. Need phone records, but can't get it through a court? Ask a private business (say, a cell phone company) to "help out" and disclose their "business records". Need somebody vanished in a strange country? Pay unsavory locals a "consulting fee". Want to inspect every phone call, email, and web page leaving the United States? Tap them as soon as they hit international waters. It goes on and on. Why do you think the "contractor" component became so big?
It's all common tradecraft now, to officially do everything "legally", while rendering the Church Committee completely moot, with the occasional rubber stamp from FISA/FISC (if you want to go to court). That's the way it's been for at least the last 30 years, and nobody seems to have noticed... nothing ever really changed, other than a bunch of peacock hearings, and intelligence people having to exert a bare minimum of creativity.