Glenn Greenwald : The FBI's lawbreaking is tied directly to President Bush

News Type: Opinion — Seeded on Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:21 PM EST

Article Source: Salon.com

politics, congress, law, george-w-bush, fbi, nsa, doj, fisa, op-eds, glenn-greenwald, national-security-letters

Multiple media outlets are focusing on the unsurprising story that the FBI seems to have been abusing its powers under the Patriot Act to issue so-called "national security letters" (NSLs), whereby the FBI is empowered to obtain a whole array of privacy-infringing records without any sort of judicial oversight or subpoena process. In particular, the FBI has failed to comply with the legal obligations imposed by Congress, when it re-authorized the Patriot Act in early 2006, which required the FBI to report to Congress on the use of these letters.

That the FBI is abusing its NSL power is entirely unsurprising (more on that below), but the real story here -- and it is quite significant -- has not even been mentioned by any of these news reports. The only person (that I've seen) to have noted the most significant aspect of these revelations is Silent Patriot at Crooks & Liars, who very astutely recalls that the NSL reporting requirements imposed by Congress were precisely the provisions which President Bush expressly proclaimed he could ignore when he issued a "signing statement" as part of the enactment of the Patriot Act's renewal into law. Put another way, the law which the FBI has now been found to be violating is the very law which George Bush publicly declared he has the power to ignore.

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Aine MacDermot's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: Activism, Left of Center, SpyWorld
Regions: United States

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3.1

{"commentId":579113,"authorDomain":"breacadh"}

breacadh

What a shock that our Maximum Leader would use his private detective agency to violate privacy rights of US citizens. I hope we'll eventually get to see a breakdown of the violations according those that may have national security impacts and those clearly 'rovian' in character.

{"commentId":579113,"threadId":"83696","contentId":"608338","authorDomain":"breacadh"}

1 vote

#1 - Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:03 PM EST

{"commentId":579162,"authorDomain":"aine"}

Aine MacDermot

Right now, the MSM is concentrating on solely the FBI, but there's much more to it than just the FBI. The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition would love to tell us all about it, but State Secrets Privilege and assorted court-ordered gag orders are keeping them from doing so.

{"commentId":579162,"threadId":"83696","contentId":"608338","authorDomain":"aine"}

2 votes

#1.1 - Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:39 PM EST

{"commentId":579205,"authorDomain":"breacadh"}

breacadh

My money's on the good guys. I'm betting the efforts of people like Daniel Ellsberg and Ray McGovern will pay off in the end.

Unfortunately, I don't think the New York Times would publish anything like the Pentagon Papers these days...

{"commentId":579205,"threadId":"83696","contentId":"608338","authorDomain":"breacadh"}

1 vote

#1.2 - Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:02 PM EST

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"83696","isPrivate":false}

ACLU Refutes FBI's Claims of "Unintentional" Patriot Act Abuses, Citing Lies About Authority to Demand Phone Company Records	aclu.org	Mon Mar 12	1
Justice: FBI Misused Patriot Act Powers	Associated Press	Thu Mar 8	1
Exclusive: Report Says FBI Violated Patriot Act Guidelines	ABC News Blogs	Fri Mar 9	6
Gonzales, Mueller Admit FBI Broke Law	Associated Press	Fri Mar 9	44
FBI Misused Patriot Act	Yahoo! News	Fri Mar 9	1

AINE MACDERMOT

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Glenn Greenwald : The FBI's lawbreaking is tied directly to President Bush

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