Shouldn't Bolton be suspected of using NSA intercepts from Joe Wilson?

Bolton, in his official capacity, was in a position to get information on Joe Wilson and his wife from NSA intercepts.

During the John Bolton hearings for the UN post, it was revealed that when he was at the State Department, he requested and recieved summaries of intercepts between foreigners and "U.S. persons" and got the NSA to tell him who the U.S. citizens were. They gave up whatever files he requested without asking why he wanted the dossiers or what they were to be used for.

from a NYT article Aug.10:

"In April, Mr. Bolton told Congress that when he was an under secretary at the State Department, he repeatedly circumvented the privacy protections that govern federal eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant. In Mr. Bolton's defense, it emerged that his actions were in keeping with a widespread - though unacknowledged - practice in Washington.

Newsweek reported that from January 2004 to May 2005, the National Security Agency had supplied names of some 10,000 American citizens to policy makers throughout the government, other American intelligence services and law enforcement agencies"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/opinion/10keefe.html?ex=1281326400&en=bd9166e55789a526&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


and this:


"John Bolton, the former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs who is now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was contacted by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in late May 2003 to find out who sent Ambassador Joseph Wilson on a fact-finding mission to Niger, lawyers involved in the CIA outing investigation told RAW STORY over the weekend. Wilson was sent to Niger to ascertain whether Iraq had sought to purchase uranium from the African country."

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Laywers_involved_in_leak_case_say_1102.html



It's not a far leap to assume that the NSA intercepts were used through Bolton to Libby and others. No clear evidence yet, but, it would explain the scramble by Bush to disassociate himself from any muckraking by his surrogates, at his direction or not. The prospect of a Fitz indictment is no secret.

The Bush administration viewed Joe Wilson as more than just a domestic nusiance. He represented a threat to their campaign to sell the war, and to them, opposition to their march to war was akin to treason. The way they put the need for war with Iraq was that any other course was a threat to our national security. They had to knock Joe Wilson down because he threatened support for their expedition at a crucial point. He was, in their mind a threat akin to the terrorists themselves.

By Larry Johnson TPMCafe

"The revelation that the National Security Agency was allowed to conduct non-FISA intercepts of American citizens should bring last summer's hearing on John Bolton's nomination to the United Nations back into focus. As Legal times noted in September of this year, "During the confirmation hearings of John Bolton as the U.S. representative to the United Nations, it came to light that the NSA had freely revealed intercepted conversations of U.S. citizens to Bolton while he served at the State Department. . . . More generally, Newsweek reports that from January 2004 to May 2005, the NSA supplied intercepts and names of 10,000 U.S. citizens to policy-makers at many departments, other U.S. intelligence services, and law enforcement agencies."

We still don't know who he was looking at and what information was contained in those intercepts. More importantly, were they legally obtained? In light of the latest revelation, we have another possible explanation why the Bush Administration fought so strenuously to keep those intercepts secret and out of the hearing. Snooping without judicial review is wrong and must be punished."

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/12/16/142620/20