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Report: Bush permitted spying in US after 9/11
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-16 14:11
US President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on
Americans and others inside the United States 錕斤拷 without getting search warrants
錕斤拷 following the Sept. 11 attacks, The New York Times reports.
The presidential order, which Bush signed in 2002, has allowed the agency to
monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds, and
perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States, according to a story
posted Thursday on the Times' Web site.
Before the new program began, the NSA typically limited its domestic
surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court orders to do
so. Under the post-Sept. 11 program, the NSA has eavesdropped, without warrants,
on as many 500 people inside the United States at any given time. Overseas,
5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time.
The Times said reporters interviewed nearly a dozen current and former
administration officials about the program and granted them anonymity because of
the classified nature of the program.
Government officials credited the new program with uncovering several
terrorist plots, including one by Iyman Faris, an Ohio trucker who pleaded
guilty in 2003 to supporting al-Qaida by planning to destroy the Brooklyn
Bridge, the report said.
But some NSA officials were so concerned about the legality of the program
that they refused to participate, the Times said. Questions about the legality
of the program led the administration to temporarily suspend it last year and
impose new restrictions.
Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the
American Civil Liberties Union, said the group's initial reaction to the
disclosure was "shock that the administration has gone so far in violating
American civil liberties to the extent where it seems to be a violation of
federal law."
Asked about the administration's contention that the eavesdropping has
disrupted terrorist attacks, Fredrickson said the ACLU couldn't comment until it
sees some evidence. "They've veiled these powers in secrecy so there's no way
for Congress or any independent organizations to exercise any oversight."
The Bush administration had briefed congressional leaders about the program
and notified the judge in charge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,
the secret Washington court that handles national security issues.
Aides to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and West Virginia
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee,
declined to comment Thursday night.
The Times said it delayed publication of the report for a year because the
White House said it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert
would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. The Times said it omitted
information from the story that administration officials argued could be useful
to terrorists.
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