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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wonk who wrote (12700)	2/19/2006 9:00:03 AM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541403

If these numbers are monitored only from outside the U.S., as consistent with FISA requirements, the agency cannot determine with certainty the location of the persons who are calling them, including whether they are in the U.S. I think she meant an US "person" calling an AQ phone number from the US when the AQ phone number is monitored but the US number is not. Under those circumstances, I can see a FISA problem since an American is monitored without a court order. If a court order is required, a moment which could be critical may be lost. In any event, her writing is not very clear; this is the best I can tease out of that sentence. There is “new” technology that NSA is probably using - more along the lines of computer horsepower, pattern recognition and data mining, But there is nothing ‘new” about what she presupposes in the sentence above Again, this highly paid, presumably smart DC lawyer does not make herself very clear. I think she was referring to ADVISE. csmonitor.com straw man Agreed. I'm not even getting into rhetoric. As to the legal justifications, I think I stated that I considered them dodgy and the potential for abuse troublesome. I know it is a separation of powers issue on which the Supremes will have the last word should anyone push the issue. It seems that on the whole, there is no desire to push Bush to the wall and turn the matter into a burning constitutional question. As evidence, I see the recent political develpments--the negotiations, the agreement not to call for hearings, etc.--as being suggestive of a deal being worked out under which some of the things the Administration is doing are allowed under some sort of agreed-upon supervision. The obvious question is why are the Dems seemingly willing to give up such a juicy political opportunity? I think, and I'm seriously speculating here, that perhaps some of the new efforts are genuinely groundbreaking. Perhaps there is some new technology that is having success which doesn't fit neatly under FISA. Perhaps the Dems have finally wised up, and are unwilling to pursue Bush when most Americans think that we are genuinely at war and Bush genuinely acted in good faith. The potential for political blowback on the Democrats is simply huge despite what you and I and the rest of the chattering classes may think. Just a guess.