Josh Marshall's excellent
Talking Points Memo this evening has posted images of
Sen. Jay Rockefeller's July 17, 2003, letter to VP Cheney. Rockefeller's letter was written after he received a briefing on NSA's domestic wiretapping.
The last paragraph of the first page of Rockefeller's letter raises all kinds of questions in my mind. To wit:
As I reflected on the meeting today, and the future we face, John Poindexter's TIA project sprang to mind, exacerbating my concern regarding the direction the Administration is moving with regard to security, technology and surveillance.
More, on the flip...
[TIA =
Total Information Awareness, a program Congress amazingly shut down in 2003.]
Note, also, that former Sen. Graham (D-FL) has been quoted in the last few days as saying he received a briefing, also, and concluded it had more to do with a technology than an interpretation.
To put that graf in context, ask yourself: "Why did Bush authorize this clear violation of the law? Why go around the FISA, when he could do anything he wanted with 72 hours' notification? Why risk the shitstorm of criticism now coming down on him?"
The answers must involve some combination of:
- Who was surveilled.
- The technology with which they were surveilled.
- Why they were surveilled.
- The uses of the resulting data.
So...
1. Who was surveilled?
Clearly, not just those thought to be communicating with al Quaida. Perhaps ... everyone is being surveilled with some new technology or combination of technologies?
Opposition party members, perhaps? Journalists, perhaps? Bloggers, perhaps?
2. What technology is being used?
Is this something new, something all-pervasive, something powerful enough that everything is being intercepted and sifted? Are my keystrokes being recorded to some NSA hard drive? My emails? Yours?
3. Why surveill them?
Why not, especially if they can? Why not grab everything we can on everyone we can? We'll let the tech weenies sort through it all later.
4. How was the data used?
More specifically, how will it be used?
Since the NSA already has the authority to wiretap foreign persons and monitor their communications with U.S. citizens by going to the FISA court and getting a warrant, this isn't about listening to a few phone calls or copying some emails destined for domains not based in the U.S. This is far bigger, and involves a mix of who was being monitored and how they were being monitored. Rockfeller's letter and Graham's statements are one key. Bush's clear desire to go around the FISA court and do all of this "in-house" are key to understanding it.
While Congress wrings its hands and the MSM tries to decide where this story's center of gravity is, the real issue in my mind -- in addition to whether he'll get away with it -- is why he did it. To understand why he did it, I think we have to understand what tools were employed, and against whom they were used.
I know I'm being paranoid, but am I being paranoid enough?
DCr