Ironic that the Post-Production Director, Chris Fournelle, of this particular Frontline program is married to Connie Fournelle, one of the key persons involved in the multitude of TIA-spinoff data mining projects in the defense and intelligence agencies through her position at a defense contractor.

[arne]: WTF does Moussaoui's laptop have to do with FISA?!?!?

I'm surprised that you don't know this. FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It is designed to facilitate the collection of foreign intelligence. FISA warrants for search and surveillance are much easier to get than standard criminal warrants. Indeed, it authorizes warrantless surveillance of persons who are "agents of a foreign power". It also defines anyone engaged in international terrorism as an agent of a foreign power. A normal criminal warrant requires probable cause and a specific description of what is expected to be found by the search, but with the information available about Moussaoui's terrorist connections it would have been dead easy to get a FISA warrant to search the computer. The middle management yahoo who wouldn't apply for the warrant did so on the advice of the FBI's lawyers who clearly did not understand the FISA requirements and did not realize that the criteria for a FISA warrant had been met.

Oh, OK. In Rowley's testimony I posted earlier, they were asking for a "criminal" warrant to search the laptop.

I got a bit confused on the scope of FISA; I was thinking of 50 USC Chapter 36, Subchapter 1 (§§ 1801-11), and was not aware of Subchapter 2 (§§ 1821-1829).

FWIW, 50 USC § 1822(a) provides for physical searches without even a court order.

Thanks for the correction.

Cheers,

What Does It Mean??

"I'm sure it's some variation of "Please go fuck your mother in the ass", but still, it would be nice to see even a limited translation!"

Sorry about that. Not to be rude, but there's nothing in there whatsoever about either mothers or asses, let alone f*cking any permutations thereof.

I expected that the Genocidal Shark-Jumping Torture-Loving Polyglot would have been happy to show off his linguistic chops and translate for the others. My bad. Apologies for having FTT.

Now that we are seeing just how extensively the administration sought to convert the Department of Justice into a partisan political tool, I am even more concerned about the unknown surveillance programs.

It seems well within the pattern of behaviors and attitudes revealed so far in the DOJ scandal for them to have turned these "ears" on their domestic political opponents. In fact, at this point, I'd be surprised to discover they hadn't used these programs for their own partisan advantage.

AND spying on the home front.

arne: WTF does Moussaoui's laptop have to do with FISA?!?!?

I'm surprised that you don't know this. FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It is designed to facilitate the collection of foreign intelligence. FISA warrants for search and surveillance are much easier to get than standard criminal warrants. Indeed, it authorizes warrantless surveillance of persons who are "agents of a foreign power". It also defines anyone engaged in international terrorism as an agent of a foreign power. A normal criminal warrant requires probable cause and a specific description of what is expected to be found by the search, but with the information available about Moussaoui's terrorist connections it would have been dead easy to get a FISA warrant to search the computer. The middle management yahoo who wouldn't apply for the warrant did so on the advice of the FBI's lawyers who clearly did not understand the FISA requirements and did not realize that the criteria for a FISA warrant had been met.

"As I said, I lived through it AND have read everything about it since."

How many languages can he speak and/or read?

Bet he can't do this one: "Ahhn yo hee kahh say yoh"

;-)

Cheers,

Bill Clinton signed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in 1994, which basically created the hardware that would make possible centralized wiretapping of the public switched telephone network. Those of us at the time who said this was an abuse waiting to happen have been subsequently vindicated.

The NSA doesn't use CALEA equipment (to my knowledge; no one in a telco would have sufficient security clearance to administer these "warrants"; certainly not the mom and pop outfits). NSA has their own "technical means" (which, FWIW, might include that facility at the AT&T office in Ess Eff, but that's not CALEA equipment).

Cheers,

"shooter": I believe it also restricts said surveillance to specific phones leaving large gaps in communication from that person.

You believe mistakenly. Your problem, not ours.

Moussaoui's laptop was kept closed because of difficulty fulfilling then FISA requirements, and you know what happened next.

WTF does Moussaoui's laptop have to do with FISA?!?!?

But a clarification: One midddle manager put the kibosh on the criminal search warrant of the laptop (see http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,249997,00.html for more). Guess what happened to that middle manager? (you'll never believe it...) Dubya gave him a merit bonus (at a time when federal salaries had been frozen because of the sh*tty federal financial situation).

Better trolls, please. Or at least more sober ones.

Cheers,

So I'll put it up here (sorry for moving on and posting an O/T on the Fred Thompson subject).

I had posted earlier about the Total Information Awareness program never having quit, just moved to Singapore. Here is a link (I had promised one in my post):

http://tinyurl.com/38ver9

Given what Tukey once said about torturing the data until it confesses, could moving your datamining operation to a country that permits it be considered a form of extraordinary data rendition?

No, of course I don't believe that absurd headline, above.

Doesn't anybody remember April, 1995? Let me refresh your memories. Religious fanatics bombed a federal office building in Oklahoma City. People in America were shocked and saddened and angered. President Clinton proposed legislation (not secret illegal rule changes) to make it easier for the federal government to conduct domestic surveillance. Polls showed that the proposals had popular support. Nevertheless, Bob Dole said whoa, slow down, lets see whether increasing the federal government's police powers is both useful and necessary.

Those who are saying that it's no use, give up, politicians are skunks, the republic is sunk -- are saying that it's utterly romantic and foolish to even hope for a few Senators and U.S. Reps to start saying the kinds of things that Bob Dole said.

That kind of defeatism and despair is unwarranted.

As a matter of fact, in my crazy romantic foolish moments, I even dare to dream that this country may, some day, have leadership better than that of Bob Dole.

C'mon, that's not SO crazy.