So much for that "innocent Americans aren't being wiretapped" talking point-Congressional Quarterly

[kpete]

FISA: Wiretapping Without A Warrant. It Could Be You Next.
By: Christy Hardin Smith Sunday January 27, 2008 7:11 am

So much for that "innocent Americans aren't being wiretapped" talking point. A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist was not only wiretapped while doing his job in following-up on some sources, but it resulted in the FBI coming to his house to ask questions about his daughter -- who was away at college at the time and not a party to any calls being made to or from the family home.

Think it couldn't happen to you? Read on:

CQ HOMELAND SECURITY
Jan. 25, 2008 – 6:46 p.m.
Collateral Damage: Surveillance Aimed at Terrorists Can Easily Go Awry
By Jeff Stein, National Security Editor, CQ Staff

FISA: Wiretapping Without A Warrant. It Could Be You Next.
By: Christy Hardin Smith Sunday January 27, 2008 7:11 am

U.S. intelligence tapped the telephone calls of Lawrence Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, starting in 2002....

As far as I can tell, only Pam Hess of the Associated Press picked up on Wright’s confrontation with spy chief Michael McConnell over the phone taps, and no major paper ran it. The version of her story that The Washington Post printed recounted McConnell’s telling Wright that water boarding would be “torture” if it were done to him, but dropped the five paragraphs Hess wrote on the eavesdropping. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal skipped Wright’s wiretap account altogether.

But The New Yorker’s Web site did feature an audio interview with Wright in which he described the visit of FBI agents to his Texas home in 2002 to quiz him about the telephone calls intercepted by U.S. intelligence.

The encounter came, mind you, amid the constant assurances from the Bush administration that the U.S. has not, and is not, “spying on Americans” or running a “warrantless domestic spying program.”

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=hsnews-000002661145

The Congressional Quarterly report from which this was taken is a must read for anyone concerned with the incursions on the rule of law, and in having more effective, carefully targets surveillance and intelligence -- not illegal band-aids that mask the fact that without on-the-ground live intelligence work. All the sifting of phone calls and e-mails in the world only provides an illusion of security. And that sort of shoddy work results in a lot of calls to Pizza Hut...but is that the best use of our nation's national security apparatus?

http://firedoglake.com/2008/01/27/fisa-wiretapping-without-a-warrant-it-could-be-you-next/#comments

[Richard Steele]

1. K&R

[havocmom]

2. Questions about a daughter away at college and not a party to the calls in question

sounds like a not-so-veiled threat!

Any more questions about how the cheny gang keeps all pols and people of influence in line?

[bluesmail]

8. no questions

just like the mafia

[OwnedByFerrets]

9. Ive been saying it for over 2 yrs...its why we dont get the votes

we want in congress. Blackmail and threats are serious things. Would you be willing to risk your family for a vote on the floor? I wouldnt. I couldnt.

[baldguy]

3. If they're not innocent, it should be no problem to get a warrent.

[Echo In Light]

4. But...but...that's so "TINFOIL!" ...it CAN'T be true! HAS to be exaggerated!

:sarcasm:

[midnight]

5. Well since he wasn't doing anything wrong............

Everything is hunky dory......Thanks congress for your oversight. Glad things are moving in a new direction.

[IDemo]

6. "distressingly sloppy — some would say incompetent — counterterrorism agencies"

I don't believe for a second that sloppiness and incompetence are the reasons for this story to have occurred, any more than they were to blame for the invasion of Iraq. The appearance of such may make it a forgivable mistake in the minds of the Five Percenters (face it, it ain't 29% anymore), but certainly not anyone else.

Excuse me, someone is pounding on the front door..

[Echo In Light]

7. Funny how "coincidence theorists" conveniently abide or disavow based on subject matter

[Jim Sagle]

12. It's a Homeland Security Positivity Squad...be sure to leave the door unlocked.

[MissWaverly]

10. agree, somehow I think the 60,000 FBI wiretap bill

was not to listen to 500 suspicious characters, the FISA court never handed out thousands of authorizations for blanket wiretaps,
that happened with the NSL letters and various maneuvers under the Patriot Act. I have had a sneaking suspicion
all along that 90% of this was politically motivated.

[Hissyspit]

11. If the power can be abused, it will be abused. n/t