It's FISA! Not whatever....

[Karl Magnus <magnus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Getting *legitimate* wiretaps against *legitimate* suspected terrorists is
the easiest thing in the world to get.

The NISA Court okays 99% of all requests, including those which are
requested after the fact.

If the NISA Court happens across a wiretap that cannot justify a warrant,
the only consequence is that the information gained cannot be used in a
court of law.

Well, fuck, "courts of law."  "This is war!" right?

George WMD Bush isn't gonna dilly-dally around with "legalisms" if it means
"protecting the United States from terrorism," is he?!

Under the cover of "National Security" and "the war against 'Terrorism'"
the
Shrub Administration obviously is wiretapping political opponents.

Any *legitimate* wiretaps would get an automatic okay.

The only wiretaps that wouldn't get an okay from the NISA Court are, by
experience of some 30 years, *illegitimate."

The proof is already on the record.

For example:

Remember that seemingly goofy episode in Texas a while back?

Tom DeLay orchestrated a massive gerrymandering scheme to re-draw
congressional districts but Texas Democrats took it on the lam to prevent a
quorum in the legislature.  Some when to Albuquerque, some went to Oklahoma.

How were there whereabouts found?

The Republicans used the "P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act" to track them down.

Lord knows, there are plenty of right-wing Republicans who can rationalize
that anyone who doesn't fall in lockstep behind the neo-con agenda must
some
way, somehow, be considered a "terrorist," and I'm perfectly willing to let
someone post here and now the legal justification of imposing the
"P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act" to track down a handful of absentee state legislators:

But, after 30 years of NISA Court approvals of warrantless wiretaps for
just
about any and every pre- and post-hoc wiretap in the interest of *real*
national security issues, the George WMD Bush Administration has to hide
its
motives.

Because they're illegal as hell, as unconstitutional as could ever be
imagined, and as sleazy as the Commander in Thief.