Exactly When Did The Illegal NSA Spying Start?

[ThomWV]

Was it before or after 9-11?

I do not recall anyone actually saying that it only began after 9-11.

[elehhhhna]

1. before. as in shortly after GW's coronation.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. Before 9/11 apparently. Fat lot of good that did!

:shrug:

[Marie26]

3. So how can they argue this was a response to 9/11?

Just another lie, I guess.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. "They" can "argue" this NSA wiretapping of Americans anyway they want too

and we "Libruls" can just STFU! And yes, it is "Just another lie"
The repugs are LIARS and HYPOCRITES

A fact that is lost on them, apparently.

[Nutmegger]

4. Apparently it was before 9/11.

Article from TruthOut:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011306Z.shtml

[Marr]

5. They couldn't be bothered to have a meeting with Richard Clark pre-9-11,

and even Bushbots will admit that 'terrorism was not on the radar' at that time. But they were spying on Americans illegally before 9-11.

So who were they spying on?

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. BEFORE 911.

Bush Authorized Domestic Spying Before 9/11
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Friday 13 January 2006

The National Security Agency advised President Bush in early 2001 that it had been eavesdropping on Americans during the course of its work monitoring suspected terrorists and foreigners believed to have ties to terrorist groups, according to a declassified document.

The NSA's vast data-mining activities began shortly after Bush was sworn in as president and the document contradicts his assertion that the 9/11 attacks prompted him to take the unprecedented step of signing a secret executive order authorizing the NSA to monitor a select number of American citizens thought to have ties to terrorist groups.

In its "Transition 2001" report, the NSA said that the ever-changing world of global communication means that "American communication and targeted adversary communication will coexist."

"Make no mistake, NSA can and will perform its missions consistent with the Fourth Amendment and all applicable laws," the document says.

However, it adds that "senior leadership must understand that the NSA's mission will demand a 'powerful, permanent presence' on global telecommunications networks that host both 'protected' communications of Americans and the communications of adversaries the agency wants to target."

What had long been understood to be protocol in the event that the NSA spied on average Americans was that the agency would black out the identities of those individuals or immediately destroy the information
<snip>

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011306Z.shtml

[Kansas Wyatt]

8. More importantly, were there covert activities to tamper with...

Elections in the United States by the NSA, which would help the BushCo administration?

If spying on U.S. citizens that did not have terrorist connections is okay, which they tried to keep from the public, what other covert activities did they pull out of the NSA bag without any oversight?