“Snoopgate” has reached Day Six and, as with every preceding day, key bits of information keep trickling out.
Today, for example, we learn that the judge in charge of the FISA court is organizing a little get together with the Bush administration’s lawyers to find out why the president feels he can circumvent the legal process.
The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush’s domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources.
Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president’s eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court.
But the WaPo report alluded to one tidbit that I hadn’t heard before — the administration wanted FISA court approval for the searches, but didn’t like what the court had to say.
Sources knowledgeable about the program said there is no way to secure a FISA warrant when the goal is to listen in on a vast array of communications in the hopes of finding something that sounds suspicious. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said the White House had tried but failed to find a way.
One government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration complained bitterly that the FISA process demanded too much: to name a target and give a reason to spy on it.
Yes, how burdensome. Judges want to know who you’re spying on and why before granting a warrant. What kind of monsters do we let wear judicial robes?
Of course, the point is what happened next. The Surveillance Court wanted cursory information and the administration didn’t (or couldn’t) answer the questions. They then decided to do the surveillance anyway.