The Political Chase

Verizon Confirms Massive Surveillance, ATT Lawyers Up

Mr. President, can you hear me now?

Verizon has confirmed to Congress that it has had an open-door policy with the Bush administration — providing any information requested by “federal authorities,” regardless of whether the requests were accompanied by a court order or not. Although Verizon categorized National Security Letter (NSL) requests as subpoenas, technically and legally they are not the same. In fact, a federal judge recently ruled that NSL’s are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, and thereby unconstitutional.

Verizon Communications…told congressional investigators that it has provided customers’ telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005.

 

Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this “two-generation community of interest” for customers, but the request highlights the broad reach of the government’s quest for data.

 

From January 2005 to September 2007, Verizon provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis 720 times…The records included Internet protocol addresses as well as phone data. In that period, Verizon turned over information a total of 94,000 times to federal authorities armed with a subpoena or court order.

Now, this is where things get very interesting — in other words, all the lies of the past and the enormous scope of lawbreaking merge.

First, why did Verizon provide records beginning in January 2005, rather than back to 2001? The Times exposed Bush’s illegal wiretapping program on December 16, 2005, but had evidence of the program for approximately one year before reporting it, which would reasonably parallel the period covered by Verizon. Is that mere coincidence?

The Bush administration has been using NSL’s at an increasing rate since the Patriot Act was passed in 2001. In March of this year, a Justice Department Inspector General issued a scathing report stating that since 9/11, the FBI had issued more than 20,000 NSL’s each year, and the demand increased with each year. Moreover, FBI Director Robert Mueller testified in March, that the FBI had issued 142,000 NSL’s between 2003 and 2005.

It is important to remember that the majority of information discussed thus far as well as the information provide by Verizon is specific to the FBI, and not the NSA. Furthermore, Verizon is the only company that has cooperated, and that is on a limited basis.

Last week, the Times reported that AT&T began development of a monitoring center for the NSA seven months before 9/11 that would ““give the N.S.A. direct, unlimited, unrestricted and unfettered access to phone call information and Internet traffic on AT&T’s network.” And today the Times is reporting that the “three biggest phone carriers have refused to tell members of Congress what role, if any, they had in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program.”

So, if we take into consideration all that we know about Verizon, the FBI, and what we don’t know about the other companies including their refusal to even discuss the NSA’s wiretapping activities, is it not reasonable to assume the NSA is complicit?  Not according to DNI Mike McConnell. He testified on September 18 that no Americans had been spied upon without a court order and that there were only a few Americans that had been spied upon “legally.”

Listen to what he told House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers less than one month ago.

Click To Play

Are we really supposed to believe that?

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.

Via Wired:

“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.”

White House seeking immunity for FISA lawbreaking

The White House and lobbyists from the major telecom companies (e.g. AT&T, Verizon, etc.) are preparing a bill for congressional approval that will provide retroactive immunity to any company or individual that directly or indirectly violated federal wiretapping laws at the direction of President Bush or officials in his administration since September 11, 2001.

Simply stated, If allowed to become law, the slate would be wiped clean for the president and anyone in his administration (past or present), such as Alberto Gonzales, and the telecom companies. They would be absolved of the tons of pending civil lawsuits filed against them and criminal charges that will likely be brought under current law.

The telecom companies knew they were breaking federal laws when they allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) and other agencies to conduct warrantless eavesdropping, as evidenced by the companies that refused to comply with the administration’s secret demands (e.g. Qwest). Furthermore, after the New York Times broke the story about the administration’s illegal wiretapping in 2005, the president admitted he knowingly and willfully broke the law, the most pertinent of which is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, commonly referred to as FISA (see related posts).

Glenn Greenwald has a must-read piece on the sordid details of George Bush’s secret initiative to get himself, his minions, and his major corporation donors out of substantial criminal and civil trouble. According to Glenn, President Bush has more than just his standard Republican Guard in Congress protecting him, Democrats are signing up to help pass the proposed legislation.

If you want to contact Members of Congress about this issue, contact information is available here.

TPC Roundup - Managing Iraq with Filibusters

HEADLINES

• Republicans Support Bush with Filibusters
• Bush Wants Expansion of Warrantless Wiretaps
• Pentagon Report Highlights Failures in Iraq
• Agency Looking to Enhance Import Controls
• Rice, Palestinian and Israeli Leaders Hold Peace Conference

TPC MOST POPULAR

Will Wes Clark be Hillary’s VP?
Reid Gets Tough on Iraq
Cheney Rebuts Greenspan with Clinton Did It
Today’s Lunch - Hillary’s ‘Burger King’ Health Care Plan
McConnell: No Americans wirtetapped without court order

CONGRESS

• “Senate Republicans” on Wednesday “rejected a bipartisan proposal to lengthen the home leaves of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, derailing a measure that war opponents viewed as one of the best chances to force President Bush to accelerate a redeployment of forces,” the Washington Post reports. “The proposal, sponsored by Sens. James Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), failed on a 56 to 44 vote, with 60 votes needed for passage — a tally that was virtually identical to a previous vote in July.” See TPC related post.
• “A Republican filibuster in the Senate” on Wednesday “shot down a bipartisan effort to restore the right of terrorism suspects to contest in federal courts their detention and treatment, underscoring the Democratic-led Congress’s difficulty with terrorism issues,” the Washington Post reports. “The 56 to 43 vote fell short of the 60 needed to cut off debate and move to a final vote on the amendment to the Senate’s annual defense policy bill.” See TPC related post. 
• “The Food and Drug Administration would gain new authority to ensure the safety of prescription drugs, including the power to mandate label changes that warn of newly emerging risks, under a bill passed Wednesday by the House,” AP reports. “The bill, heralded as the most significant drug safety legislation in more than 40 years, passed on a 405-7 vote.”  
• “A bill to offer legal status to illegal immigrant students who have graduated from high school was revived this week in the Senate, the first effort to advance a piece of broad immigration legislation that failed in June,” the New York Times reports. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., “who is an author of the student measure, said Wednesday that he would try this week to offer it as an amendment to the military authorization bill under debate in the Senate.”
• “The House on Wednesday passed a 15-year extension of a program to aid the insurance industry in the event of a terrorist attack,” AP reports. “The measure, passed 312-110, is aimed at ensuring that developers can get insurance against losses from potential attacks.”
• “House Republican leaders will launch a new offensive in the fight over earmark reform” this morning, “seeking to expand earmark disclosure requirements to tax and authorization bills,” The Hill reports. “Currently, only earmarks in appropriations bills are subject to new transparency requirements.”

WASHINGTON

• “President Bush said Wednesday he wants Congress to expand and make permanent a law that temporarily gives the government more power to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists,” the Washington Post reports. “Without such action, Bush said, ‘our national security professionals will lose critical tools they need to protect our country.’” See TPC related post.
• “U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is expected to resign” today “to clear the way for a Senate campaign in 2008, giving Republicans a welcome dose of good political news,” the Washington Post reports. “President Bush plans a White House announcement” this morning “with Johanns, a senior administration official said Wednesday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement has not been made, would not confirm that Johanns is resigning.”
• “The Bush administration, acknowledging a moral obligation, intends to sharply increase the number of Iraqi refugees it will admit to the United States next year, a senior State Department official said Wednesday,” AP reports. “So far this year, 900 have been given refuge in this country, Ellen Sauerbrey, an assistant secretary of State, told the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom at a hearing on Capitol Hill.”
• “The Bush administration on Wednesday appointed two senior officials to clear bureaucratic roadblocks blamed by Washington for the painfully slow pace of admitting Iraqi refugees to the United States,” Reuters reports.

IRAQ

• “In another sign of U.S. struggles in Iraq, the target date for putting Iraqi authorities in charge of security in all 18 provinces has slipped yet again, to at least July,” AP reports. “The delay, noted in a Pentagon report to Congress on progress and problems in Iraq, highlights the difficulties in developing Iraqi police forces and the slow pace of economic and political progress in some areas. ”
• “Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level since before a 2006 mosque attack which unleashed reprisal sectarian killings, the number two commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said” today, Reuters reports. “Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno said attacks in Baghdad had also fallen about 50 percent since January, just before Washington began pouring 30,000 extra troops into Iraq to try to drag the nation back from the brink of civil war.”
• “A suicide car bomber blew himself up Wednesday and wounded four civilians while trying to hit an Iraqi army base in the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi army officer said,” AP reports.
• “Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki proposed on Wednesday forming a cabinet of technocrats to replace his splintering national unity government and called for greater powers to push through his nominations,” Reuters reports. “Maliki’s 16-month-old government, which included Sunni and Shi’ite Arabs, Kurds, Islamists and secularists, has unravelled since a dozen Sunni and Shi’ite ministers quit.”
• “The United States and Iraq will form a joint commission to look into allegations that private guards protecting American diplomats killed Iraqi civilians and to review the U.S. Embassy’s security practices,” AP reports. “The size and composition of the commission have yet to be determined but its members are charged with assessing the results of both U.S. and Iraqi investigations of Sunday’s incident.”
• “The shooting incident involving private security guards in Baghdad on Sunday that left at least eight Iraqis dead has revealed large gaps in the laws applying to such armed contractors,” the New York Times reports. “Early in the period when Iraq was still under American administration, the United States government unilaterally exempted its employees and contractors from Iraqi law… thus the thousands of heavily armed private soldiers in Iraq operate with virtual immunity from Iraqi and American law.”
• “U.S. soldiers detained an Iranian” today “who was part of a commercial delegation visiting the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya, an Iraqi government official in Baghdad said,” Reuters reports. “The official said U.S. forces detained the man at his hotel in Sulaimaniya, a city in Iraq’s largely autonomous region of Kurdistan.”

NATION

• “Leaders of the agency responsible for protecting consumers from faulty products said Wednesday that Congress should increase their budget and power in the wake of huge recalls of lead-contaminated toys,” AP reports. “The testimony from Consumer Product Safety Commission officials came as Mattel Inc., producer of 1.5 million of the 13.2 million toys recalled in the past month, said its tests found lead levels in paint in recalled toys as high as 200 times the accepted safety ceiling.”
• “Federal authorities are expected to file civil charges against current or former employees at several brokerage firms in connection to a years-long investigation into abusive stock lending, people familiar with the matter said,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which also may involve the filing of criminal fraud charges, could come as soon as today, these people said.”
• “Spurred by the Internet and a popular disc jockey’s nationwide urban radio program, tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on a sleepy rural Louisiana town to protest what they say are excessive criminal charges against six black teenagers involved in a schoolyard brawl,” the Washington Post reports. “About 500 tour buses bearing thousands of riders were scheduled to depart from cities across the United States in the wee hours today for Jena, La., about 230 miles northwest of New Orleans.”
• “At the close of a two-day hearing on charges that Special Forces soldiers murdered an Afghan man near his home last October, it is increasingly evident that the Army is also examining itself and how it is fighting the war in Afghanistan,” the New York Times reports. “A Special Forces colonel presiding over the hearing must determine whether sufficient evidence exists to recommend courts-martial for the two soldiers accused of killing the man, Nawab Buntangyar, who had been identified as an ‘enemy combatant,’ while he walked unarmed outside his home near the Pakistan border. ”

WORLD

• “Palestinian leaders sought details” today “from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the goals of what they hope will be a breakthrough Mideast peace conference, but the talks were overshadowed by Israel’s declaration of Hamas-run Gaza as ‘hostile territory,’” AP reports. “The Palestinians want the conference, tentatively set for November, to yield an outline for a peace deal, complete with timetable, while Israel wants a vaguer declaration of intent.”
• “A powerful car bomb in a Christian neighborhood just east of Beirut killed a Christian lawmaker from the governing coalition and six others Wednesday evening,” the New York Times reports. “It was the latest in a deadly string of bombings that have rocked Lebanon’s teetering political order as the country prepares to select a new president.” 
• “President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will seek a new five-year term in a presidential election set for Oct. 6, officials said” today, “even as opponents urged the courts to stop him from running and vowed to quit Parliament in protest,” AP reports. “After the U.S.-allied leader signaled his plan to resign as army chief if re-elected, the Election Commission announced that the ballot by federal and provincial lawmakers would be held Oct. 6.”
• “Al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri urged Sudanese Muslims in a video posted” today “to fight a force of African Union and U.N. peacekeepers set to deploy to Sudan’s volatile western region of Darfur,” Reuters reports. “In an 80-minute compilation video that touched on a several conflicts, Zawahri criticised Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s decision to accept a U.N. resolution that lays the ground for a 26,000-strong joint AU-U.N. operation.”

SCANDALS

• “Besieged Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) is expected to announce as early as today that he is retiring from Congress, weeks after a Chicago newspaper exposed potentially questionable land deals in Central America,” Roll Call  (sub. req.) reports. “Republican sources confirmed late Wednesday that Weller will not seek an eighth term but were uncertain as to when he would announce his decision…Earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune published an investigation into Weller’s Nicaraguan land deals, suggesting that Weller has bought and sold several beachfront properties that he did not disclose on his financial disclosure forms. Weller was a strong advocate of the Central America Free Trade Agreement, which critics note provides protections to land investors in Central America — including Weller.”
• “The House Ethics Committee announced an investigation Wednesday of” California Rep. Bob Filner’s (D) “run-in with a baggage worker at Dulles International Airport last month,” AP reports. “The incident resulted in misdemeanor assault and battery charges against the congressman.”

Give me, give me, give me

More fear-mongering and ripping up the Constitution.

President Bush said Wednesday he wants Congress to expand and make permanent a law [FISA] that temporarily gives the government more power to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists.

Without such action, Bush said, “our national security professionals will lose critical tools they need to protect our country.”

“It will be harder to figure out what our enemies are doing to train, recruit and infiltrate operatives into America,” the president said during a visit to the super-secret National Security Agency’s headquarters. “Without these tools, our country will be much more vulnerable to attack.”

Not no, but hell on.

TPC Round Up - Cover-Ups, Tasers, and Staged Rallies

HEADLINES

• State Department Official Investigated for Cover-Up
• NSA Claims No Warantless Wiretapping
• Democrats Demand Troop Withdrawal Deadline
• U.S and British Officials Downplay Iraq Differences
• Immigrants Protest at Capitol
• Student Protestor Tasered at Kerry Speech
• Rice Scolds U.N. over Iran Strategy

TPC MOST POPULAR

Will Wes Clark be Hillary’s VP?
Telegraph: Bush-Cheney Planning War with Iran
Bush Selects Mukasey for Attorney General
Bush and Reid spar, Mukasey is nominated

WASHINGTON

“Howard J. Krongard, the State Department’s inspector general, has repeatedly thwarted investigations into contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, including construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and censored reports that might prove politically embarrassing to the Bush administration, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform charged” on Tuesday “in a 13-page letter,” the Washington Post reports. See TPC related post.

“The National Security Agency has not conducted wiretapping without warrants on the telephones of any Americans since at least February, the nation’s top intelligence officer told Congress on Tuesday,” the New York Times reports. “Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told the House Judiciary Committee that since he took office that month, the government has conducted electronic surveillance only after seeking court-approved warrants.” See TPC related post.

“President Bush, cheered on by Iraq war veterans and their families on the White House’s South Lawn, urged lawmakers Tuesday to back his plan to withdraw some troops from Iraq but keep at least 130,000 through next summer or longer,” AP reports. “‘I ask the United States Congress to support the troop levels and the strategies I have embraced,’ Bush said, to loud cheers and chants of ‘USA! USA!’”

“President Bush defended himself Tuesday defended himself from criticism by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who said Bush has not been a good shepherd of the economy,” according to a FOX News interview with the president. “Our fiscal record is admirable and good. After all, the deficit as a percentage of GDP is low relative to the 30-year average. It’s about 1.5 percent of GDP which is good, and we submitted a budget that shows we can get to balance.” See TPC related post.

“Internal discord in the office of U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose has led to an investigation of complaints that she retaliated against dissenters,” the Star-Tribune reports. “The internal upheaval that roiled the upper ranks of the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota last spring has prompted an investigation by an independent federal agency that looks into whistleblower and discrimination complaints involving federal employees.” TPC reported on Ms. Paulrose back in April as the DOJ scandal was unfolding.

CONGRESS

“Unable to garner enough Republican support, Senate Democratic leaders said” on Tuesday “that they are abandoning a bipartisan effort to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq by next spring,” the Washington Post reports. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., “will again push for a firm deadline, this time June 2008, along with a stronger effort at cutting off war funding.” See TPC related post.

“Four new Senate Republicans signaled Tuesday that they may vote for a Democratic amendment aimed at giving U.S. troops in Iraq more time at home between deployments, helping Democrats inch closer to a rare victory on the conduct of the Iraq war,” The Hill reports. “The talks came amid tense backroom negotiations over the terms of the Iraq debate in the Senate, which is expected to dominate the floor schedule during the next two weeks. ”

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., “and 11 other members of Congress have been subpoenaed to testify in the trial of a defense contractor charged with bribing jailed” former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif.,, USA Today reports. “All of the lawmakers said they do not intend to comply with the subpoenas.”

“Even as Senate Democrats on Tuesday softened demands that the White House provide thousands of documents in advance of a hearing to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general, they warned that it remained highly improbable that a vote on his installation would occur before the October recess,” Roll Call (sub. req.) reports. “The White House has asked Democrats to complete the confirmation process by Oct. 8 — a date on which Democrats said they are unlikely to meet.”

The House Federal Workforce Subcommittee split along party lines yesterday “over proposed legislation that would ban discrimination against federal employees and job applicants based on sexual orientation.” the Washington Post reports. “Republicans asked for a roll call, and Democrats, as the majority party, prevailed, 5 to 3.

“Twelve years after conservative Republicans in Congress were blamed for shutting down the government, they are introducing legislation to ensure that government continues to function no matter what,” The Hill reports. “Anticipating a showdown with Democrats that could force government offices to close, President Bush is backing the legislation.”

IRAQ

“The top two American military and diplomatic officials in Iraq sought to play down differences over Iraq policy as they met with senior British officials on Tuesday, at a time of mounting pressure here for the withdrawal of Britain’s remaining 5,200 soldiers from southern Iraq,” the New York Times reports. “At a news conference with Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, Gen. David H. Petraeus sought to ease strains that developed this month when British commanders withdrew the 500-man contingent that comprised their last remaining troops in central Basra.”

“The U.S. military has introduced ‘religious enlightenment’ and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday, the Washington Post reports. “Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to “bend them back to our will” and are part of waging war in what he called ‘the battlefield of the mind.’ ”

“A preliminary Iraqi report on a shooting involving an American diplomatic motorcade said Tuesday that Blackwater security guards were not ambushed, as the company reported, but instead fired at a car when it did not heed a policeman’s call to stop, killing a couple and their infant,” the New York Times reports. “The report, by the Ministry of Interior, was presented to the Iraqi cabinet and, though unverified, seemed to contradict an account offered by Blackwater USA that the guards were responding to gunfire by militants.”

“A vast internal migration is radically reshaping Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian landscape, according to new data collected by thousands of relief workers, but displacement in the most populous and mixed areas is surprisingly complex, suggesting that partitioning the country into semiautonomous Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish enclaves would not be easy,” the New York Times reports. “In Baghdad alone there are now nearly 170,000 families, accounting for almost a million people, that have fled their homes.”

NATION

“About 1,000 highly skilled legal immigrants, carrying placards and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with American flags, rallied Tuesday at the Capitol to protest long delays and vast bureaucratic backlogs in the immigration system,” the New York Times reports. “The immigrants, including doctors, medical technicians and computer engineers from India and China, came from as far as California and Washington State to call on Congress to provide more permanent visas for highly educated immigrants and more resources for the overburdened immigration system.”

“Video of police Tasering a persistent questioner of Sen. John Kerry became an Internet and TV sensation Tuesday, generating fierce debate about free speech and the motives of the college student involved — a known prankster who often posts practical jokes online,” AP reports. “University of Florida President Bernie Machen said Monday’s takedown, in which the student loudly yelled, ‘Don’t Tase me, bro’ was ‘regretful.’”

“Advocacy groups sued the FBI and the Department of Justice on Tuesday for failing to turn over records they requested on surveillance in the Muslim-American community,” AP reports. “The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Muslim groups, alleges that the FBI has turned over only four pages of documents to community leaders, despite a Freedom of Information Act request filed more than a year ago. The documents were not related to surveillance.”

WORLD

“U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scolded the U.N.’s atomic watchdog agency” today “over its Iran strategy and called for diplomacy with ‘teeth’ to end Tehran’s nuclear plans,” Reuters reports. “While repeating the U.S. stand that ‘all options’ remained on the table — a reference to military action against Tehran — Rice sought to ease fresh concerns over talk of war.”

“A multinational force commanded and led by British troops has launched a major offensive against the Taleban in the southern Afghan province of Helmand,” BBC News reports. “The operation involves about 700 men, mostly infantry and engineers. ”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “refused on Tuesday to rule out the possibility of military operations into northern Iraq to root out armed Kurdish separatist groups that he said had taken refuge in the border region,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Erdogan also criticized some Western countries for what he called their increasingly hawkish stance against Iran.”

“Pro-Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan attacked a military checkpost” today “and captured seven paramilitary soldiers,” Reuters reports. “The raid was the latest in a series of bloody militant attacks on security forces and abductions of soldiers since July, when a pact with militants broke down and commandos stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad.”

McConnell: No Americans wiretapped without court order

Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee today, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said that out of the billions of telephone conversations and emails intercepted abroad, only a “very small number” of Americans have been spied on.

The first issue is, define “small,” which McConnell did not do when questioned by Chairman John Conyers (D-MI).

Furthermore, McConnell said that no there have been no Americans wiretapped without a court order.

I can’t possibly make that up. Watch the video.

Click To Play

TPC Roundup - White House v. Congress

HEADLINES

• Democrats Threaten to Delay Mukasey Confirmation
• Congress Continues Negotiation on Children’s Health Bill
• Clinton Releases Health Care Plan
• Iraq Withdraws Blackwater USA License
• Muslim Charity Trial Ends
• National Foreclosures Up 36%
• Musharraf Military Command in Limbo

TPC MOST POULAR

(updated 11:41 AM ET)

Telegraph: Bush-Cheney Planning War with Iran
Will Wes Clark be Hillary’s VP?
Bush Selects Mukasey for Attorney General
Judge Mukasey and the rule of law

WASHINGTON

• “Two Senate Democrats warned Monday that the Judiciary Committee would delay confirmation of President Bush’s choice for attorney general unless the White House turned over documents that the panel was seeking for several investigations,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Bush announced the selection of Michael B. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York who has presided over several high-profile terrorism trials, during a morning Rose Garden ceremony.”
• “The White House on Monday rejected demands by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that the administration release thousands of documents related to the U.S. attorneys scandal and other Justice Department controversies before hearings begin on” Bush’s nomination of Mukasey, Roll Call  (sub. req.) reports. “A showdown between Leahy and President Bush over largely procedural matters could turn what is widely seen as a relatively noncontroversial nomination into a political lightning rod for both parties.”
• “The White House in recent days told nearly a dozen Cabinet secretaries to send letters to Capitol Hill rejecting Democrats’ proposed new funds for their agencies, escalating a confrontation between lawmakers and President Bush over domestic spending priorities,” the Washington Post reports. “The Democratic Congress is considering 2008 spending bills that increase funding for politically popular programs including health care for veterans, education, medical research and infrastructure improvements.”
• “The top U.S. intelligence official is asking Congress for even more changes to a law that he says limited the government’s ability to eavesdrop, not just on terrorists but also on more traditional potential adversaries,” AP reports. “Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, says China and Russia are aggressively spying on sensitive U.S. facilities, intelligence systems and development projects, and their efforts are approaching Cold War levels.”
• “The White House threatened on Monday to veto a bill that would add 15 years to a post-Sept. 11 government insurance program that supporters say is critical for major projects like the new World Trade Center,” the New York Times reports. “The legislation, known as the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, was originally passed by Congress after the 2001 attacks. It is due to expire this year, and the House had planned to vote this week on a 15-year extension.”

CONGRESS

• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday “unveiled a proposal to provide health insurance to all Americans, placing herself at the center of an issue that provided perhaps the greatest setback of her political career,” the Washington Post reports. “In a speech in Des Moines, the Democratic front-runner said she would expand insurance to the 47 million people who do not already have coverage and would attempt to reduce costs for others without spawning a massive new bureaucracy.”
• “Key lawmakers in the House and Senate negotiated into the night” on Monday “on a deal that would expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over the next five years,” the Washington Post reports. “That would set up a clash with President Bush, who has promised to veto such a plan.”
• “Three senators who are considered potential swing votes on war policy said Monday that a weekend visit to Iraq left them discouraged about prospects for political reconciliation there and convinced that the United States must quickly shift more responsibility for security to the Iraqi Army,” the New York Times reports. “‘We must take decisive action to force the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people to secure the peace for Iraq,’ said Senator Ken Salazar, Democrat of Colorado, as the Senate opened a pivotal debate on the war.”
• “Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) are among the biggest winners in the 2008 Appropriations defense bill, according to data gathered by The Hill and the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS),” The Hill reports. “Senate appropriators disclosed about 936 earmarks worth a combined $5.1 billion in the 2008 defense-spending bill, with top committee members in both parties securing the highest dollar amounts.”

IRAQ

• “At least 12 people were killed and 37 wounded today after Baghdad was hit by two parked car bombs and two roadside bombs, police said,” the Guardian reports. “A car bomb blew up in the centre of the Iraqi capital at 9.30am in a car park near the health ministry and the so-called Medical City complex of buildings, which includes several hospitals and a forensic institute.”
• “Blackwater USA, an American contractor that provides security to some of the top American officials in Iraq, has been banned from working in the country by the Iraqi government after a shooting that left eight Iraqis dead and involved an American diplomatic convoy,” the New York Times reports. “A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, said Monday that authorities had canceled the company’s license and that the government would prosecute the participants.”
• “Despite efforts by U.S. forces to recruit and train women for jobs in the Iraqi security forces, just over 1,000 have been trained, many have quit and those who remain say they are struggling for acceptance,” the LA Times reports. “We’re in our posts because the Americans are here,” the army commander said. “Once they leave, we will all be out.”

NATION

• “As the government’s signature terrorism-financing trial moved toward a close here Monday, federal prosecutors reaffirmed their charge that the largest Muslim charity in the United States was not simply trying to help poor Palestinians but was in fact an arm of the radical Islamic group Hamas,” the New York Times reports. “The charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, and five of its officers have been on trial here since July 16, charged with conspiracy, money laundering and providing financial support to a foreign terrorist organization.”
• “National foreclosure filings in August were up 36 percent from July and 115 percent from August 2006, according to a market forecast out today,” the Boston Globe reports. “Nevada, California, and Florida posted the top state foreclosure rates in August, and Massachusetts was ranked 12th, said RealtyTrac, which defines foreclosure filings as default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions.”

WORLD

• “In a controversial step, election officials Monday announced a rule change under which President Pervez Musharraf would be allowed to stand for reelection while still serving as head of Pakistan’s military,” the LA Times reports. “At the same time, though, the Supreme Court began hearing legal challenges to Musharraf’s plan to remain army chief as he seeks reelection by lawmakers as head of state early next month.”
• “France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, sought Monday to tone down remarks he made in a radio and television interview the day before that the world had to prepare for possible war against Iran,” the New York Times reports. “Attacked verbally by Iran and quietly criticized within his own government, Mr. Kouchner shifted the focus away from the threat of war and back to a call for hard negotiations as the way to force Iran to abandon key nuclear activities.”
• “Every effort should be made to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but failing that, the world could live with a nuclear-armed regime in Tehran, a recently retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Monday,” AP reports. “John Abizaid, the retired Army general who headed Central Command for nearly four years, said he was confident that if Iran gained nuclear arms, the United States could deter it from using them.”
• “The Sept. 6 attack by Israeli warplanes inside Syria struck what Israeli intelligence believes was a nuclear-related facility that North Korea was helping to equip, according to current and former American and Israeli officials,” the New York Times reports. “Details about the Israeli assessment emerged as China abruptly canceled planned diplomatic talks in Beijing that were to set a schedule to disband nuclear facilities in North Korea.”

Mike McConnell for $500 Please

(updated below) 

I feel like I’m in a Jeopardy game.

DNI Mike McConnell “reveals” heretofore classified information about the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program to an El Paso newspaper of all places, which the Justice Department claims he may have broken the law for “discussing the secret FISA court.”

The administration releases a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq that is overly ambiguous and complex if read properly, and it raises a ton of questions.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court with its recently rejuvenated powers allows the return of a former prime minister, which is a direct threat to President Musharraf’s dictatorial reign.

And to top all that off, scientists are inducing “out-of-body” experiences.

I’ll take Mike McConnell for $500 please and sort through the rest later. Actually the recently released NIE will take more time time to step through, and I think McConnell’s El Paso expose is a bit of a red herring.

All of a sudden, Mike McConnell has this overwhelming urge to tell the El Paso Times about the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program that is, according to George Bush, so secret and profound, that he wants to have everyone at the New York Times thrown in the dungeon for just publishing a story revealing that it even existed. No details about the program - just the fact that it existed.

I read the NYT’s Cliff-Notes-version of McConnell’s interview and either I’m too cynical or McConnell, and whatever motivated him, is full of himself or any other noun you would like to substitute for ‘himself.’ On the surface, McConnell’s confessional appears to be laden with hyperbole, disconnects, and the motive is highly suspect.

The NYT piece begins with McConnell whining about the grave injustice that may fall on AT&T, Verizon et al. for being complicit in the Bush administration’s illegal pursuit of intelligence.

AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies are being sued for their cooperation. ”Now if you play out the suits at the value they’re claimed, it would bankrupt these companies,” McConnell said, arguing that they deserve immunity for their help.

I’m sorry, but that is simply a crock. It is obvious Bush and company are trying to salvage their conglomerate buddies’ butts. I don’t believe for a minute that these companies just opened the door to the NSA without their high-profile lawyers checking the legal basis and the potential liability to their companies first. They can read can read Title 50 Chapter 36 of the United States Code as well as I can. The government may have released them from any criminal liability, but that does not absolve them of civil liability.

Next, McConnell complains about the burdensome task of paper work, but it’s not clear whether McConnell is referring to the paper work required before or after the fact. FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows the government to wiretap, if necessary, without a court order, but the government must provide the court documentation and justification after the fact within a limited timeframe. Hence, there is no reason, theoretically, that the NSA should be precluded from getting vital information immediately. The paper work may be burdensome after the fact, but that is a separate issue. Too much to do is no excuse for violating civil liberties. Operational procedures and processes can always be improved through management or statute.

McConnell goes on to make light of the implications of illegal surveillance, saying “fewer than 100 people inside the United States are monitored under FISA warrants.” First, I don’t believe less than 100 have been effected, but quantity is irrelevant. So it is a mere 100 today, if Abu Gonzales is driving the bus it may be 1,000,000 tomorrow. Besides, if I only rob three banks instead of 500, does that make it OK?

Now comes the fear factor. Bush and Cheney must have planted this seed. McConnell asserts that if Congress even debates the issue “Americans are going to die.” If there is any truth to that statement, we have a far greater problem. Is this country so vulnerable that the greatest deliberative body in the world cannot discuss the basic principles of the Bill of Rights? If the threat is that great, then the American people need to understand the threat, which renders the fear-mongering worthless. I sense a Dick Cheney rape, pillage, and plunder argument being presented.

Now, let’s put together the disparate pieces in the article together, which cumulatively leads me to believe McConnell’s El Paso confessional is more Bush-Cheney-Gonzales shenanigans.

Out of the blue, McConnell has to all of a sudden “come clean” with an El Paso reporter. He puts forth a scorched-earth scenario that we are “in extremis” (to the point of death) if Congress doesn’t give him and Bush what they want.

McConnell, to cite just a few, is a retired Vice Admiral of the Navy, former staffer/member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a graduate of Furman University, George Washington University and the National Defense Intelligence College. He suddenly is stricken with a dumb-as-a-brick moment and starts rattling off all this “classified” information to some guy down the street (reporter).

Bearing the title of Director of National Intelligence, he then “cautions” a relatively small-town reporter (pop. 609, 415) “that he should consider whether enemies of the U.S. could gain from the information he just shared in the interview.”

Finally, McConnell said he is “hurt by the personal attacks on him during the FISA debate.” [Congress vs. White House]

That does not add up to coincidental innocence. It’s just too fishy. Either this is a White House orchestrated scenario, including the DOJ part, or something within the administration is troubling McConnell and this is a calculated, albeit very strange, whistle-blowing. And the latter is very hard to grasp given the way this has rolled out.

George Bush wants Congress to give him a blank check to poke around anywhere he wants - unfettered access to anybody and everybody - and this could just be part of his sell pitch.

Think about it. What golden nuggets did you really find in the news accounts? AT&T and Verizon were part of the gang? That’s not new. Scorched-earth fear-mongering is the dominant element.

Late Update: Glenn Greenwald has a good perspective, as always, on Mike McConnell’s “interview” on the illegal surveillance. He agrees McConnell’s pitch to protect, financially and otherwise, AT&T, Verizon et al. from their complicities is a crock.

 Think about how amazing this is. McConnell clearly described that in 1978, we enacted a law prohibiting warrantless eavesdropping; the Bush administration broke that law repeatedly; and the telecommunications companies actively participated in that lawbreaking. And now — as a matter of national security — the Bush administration is demanding that Congress pass a new law declaring that telecom companies are immune from any and all consequences — both civil and criminal — in the event they are found to have violated the law. It is hard to imagine open contempt for the rule of law being expressed more explicitly than this.

What possible reason is there to protect anyone — including telecom companies — with a special law enacted to declare that they are relieved of all accountability for illegal behavior? And the premise of this argument is even more dangerous than the conclusion: it is all premised on the claim that these companies were only acting at the behest of George Bush, and therefore were entitled, even obligated, to do what they did. In other words, the President has the power to order private actors to break the law and when those orders are obeyed, the private actors are immune from the consequences of their lawbreaking, because they acted at the Leader’s behest.

Bush Resorts to Extortion to Get His Way

 Who does this narcissistic bastard think he is?

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.

Cheney: I have wiretap documents but you’re not getting them

Na, na, na, na, na, na…I’ve got something you want, but I’m not going to give it to you.

Yes indeed. History has been made. Vice President Dick Cheney actually admitted something — he has “dozens of documents related to the administration’s warrantless surveillance program,” but intends to “resist efforts by congressional Democrats to obtain them.”

So, Fred Fielding, White House Counsel, tells Congress it is the White House’s goal to avoid a conflict with Congress, but Darth Vader tells Congress to shove it. Hmm…I wonder who’s telling the truth?

Dick Cheney, whose only Constitutional role is to preside over the Senate and check daily to see if the president is still alive, has vital documents pertaining to the national security of the country and deems Congress is not entitled to them.

Thomas Jefferson would turn over in his grave.

Leahy Threatens White House with Contempt

Returning to Washington yesterday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) held a press conference to announce the White House had failed to meet the deadline to comply with subpoenas the Senate Judiciary Committee issued demanding information related to the Bush administration’s intelligence surveillance program administered by the N.S.A.

The White House has refused to comply with any subpoenas Congress issued thus far. Ironically, White House Counsel Fred Fielding sent a letter to Leahy yesterday saying, “It remains our goal to avoid a conflict between the branches on this important issue of national security.”

Interesting, it is the White House’s goal to avoid a conflict, but simply ignore the lawful demands of the subpoenas.

Leahy accusing the White House of “dilatory unresponsiveness,” responded via reporters, “Follow the law, and don’t act like you’re above the law. Go ahead and answer the subpoena.”

Although Leahy did not confirm unequivocally yesterday he would pursue criminal contempt charges, I fully anticipate Leahy to unload on the White House when the full Senate returns from recess in September.

Conyers Comments on Mueller’s Notes

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyer’s (D-MI) remarks on FBI Director Robert Mueller’s recently released notes on the Ashcroft hospital visit.

“Director Mueller’s notes and recollections concerning the White House visit to the Attorney General’s hospital bed confirm an attempt to goad a sick and heavily medicated Ashcroft to approve the warrantless surveillance program,” said Conyers. “Particularly disconcerting is the new revelation that the White House sought Mr. Ashcroft’s authorization for the surveillance program, yet refused to let him seek the advice he needed on the program.

“Unfortunately, this heavily redacted document raises far more questions than it answers. We intend to fully investigate this incident and the underlying subject matter that evoked such widespread distress within the Department and the FBI. We will be seeking an unredacted copy of Director Mueller’s notes covering meetings before and after the hospital visit and expect to receive information from several of the individuals mentioned in the document.”