February 9, 2006
Breaking FISA Court Law Jeopardizes War on Terror
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
From the DNC:
Washington, DC- Today, the Washington Post disclosed two new facts that contradict President Bush's assertions about his domestic spying program by detailing how his possibly illegal program undermines the effort to detain terror suspects and how instrumental the standard FISA warrant process has been in tracking terror suspects around the globe.
First, according to the Post, information garnered from Bush's secret domestic spying program was improperly used to obtain FISA warrants, undermining the ongoing efforts to track down and lock up terror suspects in this country.
"Twice in the past four years, a top Justice Department lawyer warned the presiding judge of a secret surveillance court that information overheard in President Bush's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to obtain wiretap warrants in the court," they reported. The judges on the secret court were "furious," as they had previously expressed "serious doubts" whether Bush's secret domestic wiretapping program was legal, and had "insisted that no information" from the program "be used to gain warrants from their court." Both judges "had been assured by administration officials it would never happen," but apparently that was not the case. [Washington Post, 2/9/06]
Second, the story highlights the success of the FISA court and undermines Bush Administration assertions that a secret program "outside of FISA" is needed. Today's Post relays an incident that highlights the success of the FISA court program, and discredits Administration arguments for another secret program in addition to FISA procedures. Specifically, in 2002, "the FBI and Pakistani police arrested Abu Zubaida, then the third-ranking al Qaeda operative" and also found Zubaida's laptop computer. After Zubaida's capture, they "discovered that the vast majority of people he had been communicating with were being monitored under FISA warrants or international spying efforts." [Washington Post, 2/9/06]
"The latest revelations about President Bush's secret domestic spying program confirms what Democrats have been saying for weeks: the President's above-the-law mentality is undermining our strategy to protect America," said Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Josh Earnest. "The men and women on the front lines of the war on terror need access to tools that make it easier to track down and lock up terrorists, not ill-conceived programs that undermine law enforcement agents at every turn. Democrats believe that we must hunt down terrorists, protect our country from attacks and follow the law."
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT