NSA Wiretap Roundup

• A district court has ruled that the Department of Justice must comply with a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
• Writing at The Nation, FBI historian Athan Theoharis surveys the executive branch abuses of surveillance powers that prompted Congress to enact the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the first place.
• Blogger Digby argues that Democrats shouldn't be afraid to challenge White House lawlessness.
• The Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the conduct of the DoJ lawyers who signed off on the program.

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

I’m a’thinkin’ there’s no way EFF gets everything it has requested. I wish them luck, in any case.

[Stephen Macklin]

Any bets on whether or not the DOJ appeals?

When they do will SCOTUS Take the case?

Lastly, any predictions on a SCOTUS ruling?

[Ugh]

On FOIA, of course the judge ruled that way, EPIC and ACLU had filed a FOIA request, received no response, filed suit, and the judge ruled that Justice had to comply since Justice is subject to the FOIA statute. There’s nothing to appeal, I don’t think.

I’m a’thinkin’ there’s no way EFF gets everything it has requested. I wish them luck, in any case.

Nor should they, there are exceptions to disclosure under FOIA (try asking for Bill Gates tax return). What we should be worried about is that Justice won’t turn over what FOIA requires, which is highly likely given this administration.

[sans-culotte]

Scathing floor speech by the TX Republican.
A true conservative takes Bushco to task and points out why we really invaded Iraq.
The same reason we will soon be bombing Iran.

The End of Dollar Hegemony
Before the U.S. House of Representatives
February 15, 2006

[R C Dean]

Reason administrator – could you delete the immediately preceding off-topic spam?

I wouldn’t have any objection to banning off-topic serial spammers, either

[Math Guy]

Pro Libertate – It wasn’t the EFF, it was the EPIC.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, so it is. My mistake. Good luck, EPIC, then.

FOIA requests to any administration that at all implicate “national security” don’t generally get very far. I don’t object to that in principle, but the breadth of denials is as breathtaking as the sheer volume of documents that are classified.

[Rick Barton]

Hey sans-culotte,

The Ron Paul speech to which you linked is powerful, and your site looks interesting. Thank you. But that speech isn’t germane to the topic of this thread. Next time, find threads that are congruous with the stuff that you wanna link to and share with us. Stay on topic or suggest a topic to the Reason editors. They’re well-read and smart guys and will give your ideas a look-over to see if, in their opinion, they have merit.

[Larry A]

Blogger Digby argues that Democrats shouldn’t be afraid to challenge White House lawlessness.

Challenge it? Why? The White House has expanded government power. The Democrats are taking notes and looking forward to their turn to play with the new toys.