Wash. Post, CNN ignored McConnell's retraction on role of newly expanded FISA in German terror arrests
SUMMARY: After reporting on National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell's claim that the recently approved law expanding the government's ability to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens contributed to arrests in Germany, The Washington Post and CNN have not subsequently reported that McConnell has since acknowledged that the newly passed law did not factor into the German arrests.
On September 11, The Washington Post and CNN reported that, during his September 10 Senate testimony, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell claimed that recently approved legislation expanding the government's authority to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens without warrants had aided the German government in its September 5 arrests of three people suspected of plotting terrorist attacks against U.S. and German targets. However, neither the Post nor CNN has noted that McConnell has since retracted that claim, even though both outlets reported his initial statements.
On August 6, President Bush signed into law the Protect America Act of 2007, which, as The New York Times reported, "broadly expanded the government's authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants." According to the Times, the law, set to expire six months from its enactment, "gives the attorney general and the director of national intelligence the power to approve the international surveillance, rather than the special intelligence court."
On September 10, during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-CT) said to McConnell, "[B]efore we broke for August we had quite a go-round about FISA, and we adopted legislation. I wanted to ask you to speak for a moment about that, and if you can in this open setting, there have been some press suggestions, media suggestions that the U.S. through your office was able to assist the German government in the apprehension of those plotting terrorist attacks against American targets in Germany." McConnell went on to claim that the new legislation assisted in the German arrests:
MR. McCONNELL: With the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act under consideration for updating, we found ourselves in a position of actually going backwards, losing capability, because of the interpretations of the law. And --
SEN. LIEBERMAN: Right, by courts.
MR. McCONNELL: Yes, sir. By the FISA Court looking at the requests it was actually taking us too much time, and because of the interpretations, we were losing ground. So the approach we took was to ask for basically three things.
First of all, do not require the intelligence community to obtain a warrant when we're targeting a foreigner, a terrorist in a foreign country. We had found ourselves in the position, based on the interpretation of the law, we were being asked to get warrants against terrorists operating in a foreign country. So we asked for relief for that.
The second thing, for those that -- private entities that assisted us, we needed to have some protection for them with regard to liability.
And the third thing, quite frankly, was in the interests of protecting civil liberties and the privacy of Americans we felt it was appropriate to be required, as we were in the old FISA legislation, to have a warrant for any time we target a U.S. person. That would include even a foreigner in this country suspected of being a terrorist. So we thought it had the right balance.
It was passed, as you well know, and we're very pleased with that. And we're better prepared now to continue our mission; specifically Germany, significant contributions. It allowed us to see and understand all the connections with --
SEN. LIEBERMAN: The newly adopted law facilitated that during August?
MR. McCONNELL: Yes, sir, it did.
Both the Post and CNN reported McConnell's claims the following day. From a September 11 Washington Post article:
Under questioning by senators, McConnell suggested that U.S. intelligence on the men was enhanced by a controversial measure approved by Congress last month. The law, signed by President Bush on Aug. 5, gave U.S. spy agencies greater freedom to eavesdrop on overseas calls without a warrant, even when those calls are routed through phone lines and cables on U.S. soil.
But other U.S. officials confirmed that the German cell was discovered last October, more than 10 months before the law was adopted. A spokesman for McConnell declined to elaborate further on his remarks. Surveillance of overseas communication has always been permitted under U.S. law.
From the September 11 edition of CNN's American Morning:
JOHN ROBERTS (co-host): Yeah, it took a long time, but finally coming back to life.
As we remember 9-11 today, the government is trying to prevent the next terror attack. Top counterterrorism officials testified before a Senate committee yesterday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says the government is better prepared to disrupt a terror plot now than it was six years ago.
CHERTOFF [video clip]: It is clear to me that we are much safer than we were prior to September 11, 2001. It's also clear to me that we have more work to be done, because, as you said, Mr. Chairman, the enemy's not standing still. They are constantly revising their tactics and adapting their strategy and their capabilities. And if we stand still or worse yet, if we retreat, we are going to be handing them an advantage that we dare not see them hold.
ROBERTS: And the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, also said eavesdropping on potential terrorists helped break up a major plot that targeted Americans at Ramstein Air Base and elsewhere in Germany.
However, as the Los Angeles Times reported on September 13, the validity of McConnell's claim was questioned almost immediately after the hearing, and that McConnell himself -- under questioning from reporters and pressure from congressional Democrats -- acknowledged that the newly passed law had not factored into the German arrests:
But the U.S. intercepts were given to the Germans over the last year or so, according to intelligence officials, which meant that many of them would have been obtained under an old version of FISA that McConnell and some other administration officials had said was inadequate.
McConnell acknowledged so himself after the hearing, when questioned about the timeline by reporters. He said the FISA law in general was responsible for the intercepts, not the recently passed version of the law, which many Democrats opposed as lacking controls.
McConnell also called Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the committee chairman, on Tuesday to "clarify his testimony," a senior intelligence official said Wednesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal policy matters.
But several lawmakers pressed McConnell for a public clarification, in letters and calls to his office, according to the intelligence official.
One of them, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), said in public statements Wednesday morning that McConnell was improperly acting as a political cheerleader for the new FISA law when his job demands impartiality -- and that he was getting his facts wrong in the process.
"Excuse me, those people were under surveillance for 10 months," she said, citing news reports. Harman, chairwoman of the intelligence panel of the House Committee on Homeland Security, also criticized McConnell for disclosing classified information about the surveillance effort to a Texas newspaper last month while Congress was debating revisions to the law. And she accused him of improperly lobbying Congress on the issue.
"Jane to Mike, please stop undermining the authority of your office," Harman said during a panel appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
McConnell released a public statement on September 12, obtained by ThinkProgress, in which he acknowledged that "information contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act."
McConnell issued a public statement on September 12, obtained by the Think Progress blog, in which he acknowledged that "information contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act."
That's just sloppy media work anyway you look at it. The bigger question is whether or not McConnell knew he was being untruthful when he testified. I would hope that he had a better handle on the issues he was testifying on and just was not "confused" as he will probably claim later.
At the very least, he owes the Congress an explanation.
UGH "any way" not "anyway"
Psst. A Bush nominee fed us a line of BS. Shhhhhhh!
as if there was any problem getting warrants before this law. you could go ahead and listen in and then afterward get the warrant from the court. they were all but automatic. but it's easier to keep portraying the government as hamstrung by all those silly rules.
Why is this here?
One of Bush's toadies toed the anti-Constitutional line, carrying water for Bush's agenda without regard for the facts, and the media followed along, nodding its collective head without lifting a finger to do any journalism. Stenography is the order of the day.
Move along. Nothing to see here!
It's not so much the process of getting warrants that the current administration objects to, they've never encountered any significant difficulties in getting them. What their real problem is, is that going through the legal process creates a document of who they are surveilling and the reasons they put forward for conducting the surveillance. The Bush Administration hates paper trails, even classified ones.
This item is very well written, and comprehensive; and with all the links provided, it makes for the basis of a complete understanding of the matter.
Thanks MMFA and S.S.M.
Of course, it also highlights how clever and manipulative and self-serving are the many members of the Bush administration, in this case DNI McConnell. He claims a credit for something he did not do; not him or anyone else in the Bush administration.
Typical of them.
But you know what else that indicates to us, what else it is we already know about the many members of the Bush administration?
This is nearly the same thing as what we've seen them do so many times before, which is to accept no responsibility or blame (discredit!) for things they have done (or failed to do)...
...it's simply a weasel-like flipside, to claim credit were none is due, to the other side of evading responsibility and blame, when it is truly due.
And that's where the recently revised FISA comes into consideration.
Were the Congress to hold out against the pressures being brought by the Bush administration (DNI McConnell most particularly), to revise and expand the FISA, then they would have been giving the weasels of the Bush administration an excuse to use (and they love to use excuses) in the event that any attack had occured against the American People.
In such a tragic circumastance, they the weasels of the Bush administration, would have shouted with a phony righteous indignation, that had they been given the expanded FISA by Congress, they would have stopped or otherwise detected in a timely manner, the attack...
You know this as well as I do, that this is how those weasels work.
Well, seeing as they hold all the cards in this matter (they administer the various Intellegence agencies, and the various Law Enforcement agencies involved), and seeing as they hold these cards closely (which is how they're to be held in these matters; without disclosure or transparency), the Congress knew what barrel they were over...
...and they granted the revised and expanded FISA...
...and in so doing, they at least removed an excuse, that those weasels without a doubt would have used, were any dreaded thing to happen, in this matter.
It's not so easy to understand and appreciate, I know, but it is the best I can do to explain why it was necessary, to give the Bush administration and DNI McConnell the FISA they requested.
They hold nearly all the cards in this matter, we were over a barrel, but we removed from them the excuse that they would have loved to make, that the provisions of the FISA had handicapped their efforts, and that the Congress was to blame for that.
We're a little bit at their mercy, and will continue to be so, until we take back the administration of our Federal Government, from the weasels of the Bush administration.