Fighting the War on Terror before it existed
(Updates I, Update II, and Update III below)
Oh, this is rich. W. has claimed ever since the warrantless eavesdropping was exposed in 2005 that his lawbreaking was all related to the Global War on Terror, which began after September 11, 2001. The Imbecile in Chief has declared from every podium in the country it seems like, that it was his job and bounden duty to protect “Ameruhicans” from those Evil People that attacked us on 9/11.
Well, it appears W. has been fighting the Global War on Terror before it ever started — like maybe the moving van was still parked in the White House driveway. Moreover, this little expose points to domestic wiretapping rather the foreign surveillance W. has been pounding his chest over.
A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal.
Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week.
Details about the alleged NSA program have been redacted from the documents, but Nacchio’s lawyer said last year that the NSA had approached the company about participating in a warrantless surveillance program to gather information about Americans’ phone records.
In the court filings disclosed this week, Nacchio suggests that Qwest’s refusal to take part in that program led the government to cancel a separate, lucrative contract with the NSA in retribution. He is using the allegation to try to show why his stock sale should not have been considered improper.
Nacchio was convicted for selling shares of Qwest stock in early 2001, just before financial problems caused the company’s share price to tumble. He has claimed in court papers that he had been optimistic that Qwest would overcome weak sales because of the expected top-secret contract with the government. Nacchio said he was forbidden to mention the specifics during the trial because of secrecy restrictions, but the judge ruled that the issue was irrelevant to the charges against him.
Nacchio’s account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts.
Ohhh. So, that’s why its so important Congress give the Bush administration and the major telecom companies immunity. How quaint. W. and his cronies don’t want to go to jail for the countless felonies they have committed.
Rotten to the core.
Update: Assuming the Post’s information is accurate, Bush’s assertion of inherent extraordinary Constitutional power as Imbecile in Chief during wartime as the legal basis for the warrantless surveillance program just blew up in his face. Furthermore, this may shed considerable light on why W. has been so adamant to no give Congress the legal opinions issued by the Office of Legal Counsel. David Addington and John Yoo probably drafted the opinions within days of the 2001 Inauguration.
Update II: This smart-alek response the White House sent Congress back in August just became a little more interesting.
The Bush administration yesterday signaled to Senate Democrats that it will provide the legal rationale for its domestic surveillance program if Democrats reciprocate by permanently updating the key law governing foreign spying.
The Bush administration yesterday signaled to Senate Democrats that it will provide the legal rationale for its domestic surveillance program if Democrats reciprocate by permanently updating the key law governing foreign spying.
Update III: It gets deeper. Qwest is not the only one.
“In May 2006, a lawsuit filed against Verizon for allegedly turning over call records to the NSA alleged that AT&T began building a spying facility for the NSA just days after President Bush was inaugurated. That lawsuit is one of 50 that were consolidated and moved to a San Francisco federal district court, where the suits sit in limbo waiting for the 9th Circuit Appeals court to decide whether the suits can proceed without endangering national security.
“According the allegations in the suit (.pdf):
“The project was described in the ATT sales division documents as calling for the construction of a facility to store and retain data gathered by the NSA from its domestic and foreign intelligence operations but was to be in actuality a duplicate ATT Network Operations Center for the use and possession of the NSA that would give the NSA direct, unlimited, unrestricted and unfettered access to all call information and internet and digital traffic on ATTÃŒs long distance network. [...]
“The NSA program was initially conceived at least one year prior to 2001 but had been called off; it was reinstated within 11 days of the entry into office of defendant George W. Bush.
“An ATT Solutions logbook reviewed by counsel confirms the Pioneer-Groundbreaker project start date of February 1, 2001.”
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