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NSA warrantless surveillance (2001–2007)

NSA warrantless surveillance — also commonly referred to as "warrantless-wiretapping" or "-wiretaps" — was the surveillance of persons within the United States, including U.S. citizens, during the collection of notionally foreign intelligence by the National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program.[1] In late 2001, the NSA was authorized to monitor, without obtaining a FISA warrant, phone calls, Internet activities, text messages and other forms of communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lays within the U.S.

"NSA wiretapping" and "NSA warrantless surveillance" redirect here. For the related controversy about data-mining of domestic call records, see MAINWAY. For the programs leaked in 2013, see Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present).

Critics claimed that the program was an effort to silence critics of the Bush administration and its handling of several controversial issues. Under public pressure, the Administration allegedly ended the program in January 2007 and resumed seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).[2] In 2008, Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which relaxed some of the original FISC requirements.


During the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) continued to defend the warrantless surveillance program in court, arguing that a ruling on the merits would reveal state secrets.[3] In April 2009, officials at the DOJ acknowledged that the NSA had engaged in "overcollection" of domestic communications in excess of the FISC's authority, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified.[4]

issues concerning the separation of powers and the Fourth Amendment immunities

Constitutional

The program's effectiveness and scope[106]

[105]

The legality of the leaking and publication of classified information and their implications for national security

Adequacy of FISA as a tool for fighting terrorism

Responses and analyses[edit]

Administration response to press coverage[edit]

On December 17, 2005, President Bush addressed the growing controversy in his weekly radio broadcast.[167] He stated that he was using his authority as President, as Commander in Chief and such authority as the Congress had given him, to intercept international communications of "people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations". He added that before intercepting any communications, "the government must have information that establishes a clear link to these terrorist networks." He speculated that had the right communications been intercepted, perhaps the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented. He said the NSA program was re-authorized every 45 days, having at that time been reauthorized "more than 30 times"; it was reviewed by DOJ and NSA lawyers "including NSA's general counsel and inspector general", and Congress leaders had been briefed "more than a dozen times".[168]


In a speech in Buffalo, New York on April 20, 2004, he said that:

NSA Spying Scandal is repeating Hewlett-Packard Spying Scandal (2006) story – (pdf) by Faraz Davani, publisher Scribd, August 14, 2011

Read HP Pretexting Scandal

Legal Authorities Supporting the Activities of the National Security Agency Described by the President, January 19, 2006

U.S. Department of Justice White Paper on NSA Legal Authorities

December 22 (PDF) via Federation of American Scientists

Department of Justice Letter to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee

Justice Dept Supplemental Brief to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Court of Review

– Congressional Research Service – April 2005 via Federation of American Scientists

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: An Overview of the Statutory Framework and Recent Judicial Decisions

FindLaw News Document Archive for

National Security Agency (NSA)

Cornell Law:

US CODE Title 50, Chapter 36—Foreign Intelligence Surveillance

FAS FISA Resource Page

Letter to George W. Bush

David Alan Jordan, – Boston College Law Review, Vol. 47, 2006

Decrypting the Fourth Amendment: Warrantless NSA Surveillance and the Enhanced Expectation of Privacy Provided by Encrypted Voice over Internet Protocol

Washington Monthly blog post on an opposed conservative reaction

partly on this issue

An Open Letter to George Bush

FindLaw News Document Archive for

National Security Agency (NSA)

The New York Review of Books: (Volume 53, Number 2, February 9, 2006)

ON NSA SPYING: A LETTER TO CONGRESS

JENNIFER VAN BERGEN, Findlaw (Monday, January 9, 2006)

The Unitary Executive: Is The Doctrine Behind the Bush Presidency Consistent with a Democratic State?

A reportage by The New Yorker's Jane Mayer from May 23, 2011 about the prosecution against Thomas Andrews Drake in general and in particular in the context of the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy

The Secret Sharer: Is Thomas Drake an enemy of the state?

Swire, Peter P., – George Washington Law Review, Vol. 72, 2004

"The System of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Law"

C-SPAN videos (require RealPlayer)

United Press International, February 14, 2006

Whistleblower says NSA violations bigger

Senator defends NSA program legality, February 3, 2006 via Federation of American Scientists

Letter from Senator Pat Roberts to Senator Arlen Specter

Washington Post's overview:

NSA: Spying at Home

which held that the NSA warrantless surveillance program is illegal and unconstitutional and must be halted immediately.

ACLU v. NSA ruling

Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine at HonestArgument.com

"NSA warrantless wiretapping is illegal" argument diagram

The Army Lawyer, October 1997

"So Judge, How Do I Get That FISA Warrant?": The Policy and Procedure for Conducting Electronic Surveillance

Amicus Filed in NSA Wiretapping Case