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McConnell Says He Won't Rush in a Surveillance Emergency
So far, in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, McConnell hasn't been asked about his account that FISA Court-created restrictions prevented the NSA for 12 hours from spying on Iraqi insurgents who had kidnapped U.S. troops. But McConnell did say something that touches on the issue.
Two knowledgeable sources have told me that McConnell's account is inaccurate. One of them said that the real reason for the surveillance delay in the kidnapping case is attributable to cumbersome -- and elective -- Bush administration procedures for executing an emergency wiretap, and not court-created restrictions.
Today McConnell specified that no matter what, even in an emergency case -- whereby surveillance can proceed for 72 hours before acquiring a FISA warrant -- he's still not going to hurry, as long as the probable cause standard holds. Referring to himself, the attorney general and the NSA director, he said, "We're not going to go fast until we have the facts in front of us, because it ultimately has to withstand the scrutiny of the court." The "facts" McConnell refers to here is the justification that the target of surveillance is the agent of a foreign power. In the case of the insurgent kidnappers, one of my sources said such a determination would take "approximately five seconds."
We'll see if anyone holds McConnell's feet to the fire on this case. Leahy, early in the hearing, excoriated McConnell for misstatements the intelligence chief has made in recent testimony.
Comments (3)
hardheaded liberal wrote on September 25, 2007 12:22 PM:PLEASE tell me that the Dems on the Senate Judiciary Committee are going to demand McConnell's resignation!
Duckman GR wrote on September 25, 2007 6:23 PM:I'll bet Pat just torched the lyin Admiral, didn't he?
Cinderella Ferret wrote on September 28, 2007 1:15 AM:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1152AP_Iraq_FISA.html
Above is a link to a good article about this very issue with this time line:
The soldiers were ambushed on May 12 south of Baghdad. On May 13 and 14, intelligence officials got leads on insurgent communications they believed were related to the case, and on May 14 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was asked for and granted a court order to target some communications.
On May 15, intelligence agents met at 10 a.m. to discuss collecting additional intelligence. By 10:52 a.m., the NSA had notified the Justice Department it would need a FISA order for some of it.
At 12:53 p.m., the NSA general counsel agreed that all the requirements for an emergency FISA authorization existed. The attorney general makes the authorization.
From 12:53 p.m. until 5:15 p.m., "administration lawyers and intelligence officials discussed various legal and operational issues associated with the surveillance."
At 5:15 p.m., they made the formal request for emergency authority to the Justice Department's FISA office, the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review.
Fifteen minutes later, the OIPR attorney on duty attempted to reach the solicitor general, Paul D. Clement, who in Gonzales' absence was acting attorney general. Clement had left for the day.
Nearly two hours later, at 7:18 p.m., Gonzales authorized the requested surveillance. The FBI was notified, and at 7:28 p.m., the FBI notified intelligence agencies and personnel of the approval. Surveillance began at 7:38 p.m.
Sounds like these guys are NOT ON A WAR FOOTING and they are over lawyering everything. They couldn't get in touch with the AG for two hours during a time of war? Sounds to me like more resignations would be in order.