extended far beyond wiretapping without warrantsPerhaps the only truly damning indictments in the report are, as the New York Times puts it,
Most intelligence officials interviewed "had difficulty citing specific instances" when the National Security Agency's wiretapping program contributed to successes against terrorists, the report said.And,
The initial authorization of the wiretapping program came after a senior C.I.A. official took a threat evaluation, prepared by analysts who knew nothing of the program, and inserted a paragraph provided by a senior White House official that spoke of the prospect of future attacks against the United States.(Who might that be? Take the POLL at TMB)
The report points to confirmation of The Big Brother Machine, about which Mark Klein blew the whistle in Wired Magazine as early as April 2006, and in late 2007 on MSNBC Countdown and at a Congressional hearing.
But this report serves Obama's apparent purpose of making sure nothing ever is done about the illegality:
GREENWALD: Obama opposes all Congressional investigations into Bush-era crimes and, worse, is engaged in extraordinary efforts to block courts from adjudicating the legality of Bush's surveillance activities by claiming that even long-obsolete and clearly criminal programs are "state secrets"The biggest joke of all in this story is the ?mind boggling? quote by Rep. Jane Harman (see the first link above). She mounted Bush on this Day 1 after the original NY Times story hit in Dec. 2005. Despite her posturing, she's never climbed down.
Obama? He was turned to favor telcom immunity last summer so that now his evident effort to sweep the illegality under the rug would be easier.
See also:
Consequences of telcomm immunity
Posted by The Owl at 12:13. Filed under: Police state
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