On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:42:45 CST, Paul Schmehl said: > communications as well. Under existing law (if you believe that FISA > applies) they would have 72 hours maximum to submit the necessary > paperwork and obtain the necessary approvals to go before the FISA court > and obtain a warrant. Otherwise they would have to cease all > surveillance. Meanwhile the terrorists aren't going to sit around waiting > for the warrant to be issued to continue their plans. Actually Paul, you have that bass-ackwards, and it's important. They are allowed to start wiretapping immediately, and then have 72 hours *after they already started listening* to find a FISA court judge and do the paperwork. So yes, the terrorists don't wait for a warrant, and the NSA doesn't need to wait either. So let's see.. You're the NSA. You develop a person of interest. You start wiretapping the crap out of this guy. You now have 72 hours to call the FISA judge you almost certainly have on speed-dial. The request will almost certainly be granted (one source list 18,761 FISA warrants requested from 1978 up to the end of 2004, of which *4* were rejected - but then granted after modification). But even *that* is apparently too onerous. The only reasonable conclusion is that you wanted to wiretap people that even the fairly lenient FISA rules wouldn't get you a warrant. And that's important, because the entire reason the FISA court was created in 1978 in the *first* place was because Nixon got caught using government agencies to illegally spy on political enemies and activists.
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