CRS says the BRIEFINGS ON NSA SPYING WERE ILLEGAL TOO!!

[kpete]

Report Questions Legality of Briefings on Surveillance


By SCOTT SHANE
Published: January 19, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 - A legal analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service concludes that the Bush administration's limited briefings for Congress on the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping without warrants are "inconsistent with the law."

...........


The Congressional Research Service memorandum, sent to the Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, explores the requirement in the National Security Act of 1947 that the committees be kept "fully and currently informed" of intelligence activities. It notes that the law specifically allows notification of "covert actions" to the Gang of Eight, but says the security agency's program does not appear to be a covert action program.

As a result, the memorandum says, limiting the briefings to just eight members of Congress "would appear to be inconsistent with the law."



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/politics/19nsa.html?hp&ex=1137646800&en=0e2d0c573033c7de&ei=5094&partner=homepage
VIA:http://bornatthecrestoftheempire.blogspot.com/

[chat_noir]

1. Associated Press

Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said Wednesday that the administration's limited congressional briefings on the monitoring "appear to be inconsistent with the law."

The CRS memo backs the contention of California Rep. Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, that all the members of the intelligence oversight committees are entitled to hear closed-door explanations of the program.

Administration officials have, to date, briefed only the "Gang of Eight," which is made up of the top Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate and on the intelligence panels. This smaller group is scheduled to receive another briefing on the NSA program on Friday, said two congressional aides, speaking on condition of anonymity because the briefing has not been publicly announced.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/politics/13656492.htm

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Can't they JUST come out and SAY it's illegal???

A legal analysis concludes that the Bush administration's limited briefings for Congress on domestic spying are inconsistent with the law.

Doesn't "inconsistent with the law" MEAN it's ILLEGAL?

:shrug:

Edit to say K&R. Great find, kpete.:thumbsup:

[sofa king]

6. It's one step short of calling a spade a bloody shovel.

More often than not, "inconsistent with the law" means just that, illegal. Sometimes, however, it just barely does not. For example, sometimes juries can deliver sentences which are inconsistent with the law, but that's an accident (hopefully), not a crime. The term is also sometimes used when someone does something which probably should be illegal, but for some reason isn't. You don't see it used much in that sense here in America, because we have a law against everything.

[Sydnie]

3. Once the damn has a hole in it - there is no holding back the flood

of information about all the wrong doing, dare I say EVIL DOING, they have been up to.

EVIL DOER - all of them!

[me b zola]

4. K&R

:kick:

[kster]

5. When will *

request a Prosecutor to clear things up? Like Clinton did.
I think * has a lot more to worry about than Bill did. Innocent people are not afraid of being investigated. Guilty people are.

[ThomWV]

7. ALL NSA acitivity is Covert

None of it is ever overt.

[greiner3]

8. The lies don't stop.

Numb nuts admitted it to begin all the NSA crap, what else is going on. In other words, what is he covering up by admitting to one crime?

[Dinger]

9. Say It CBS: Spygate Is ILLEGAL!!!!!

bu$h DID BREAK THE LAW!!!! Say it, over, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
over, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over andover, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over andover, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over andover, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over andover, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over andover, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over . . . . .