Iraq Wiretap Delay Not Quite as Presented

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092801858.html

Lag Is Attributed to Internal Disputes and Time to Reach Gonzales, Not FISA Constraints

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 29, 2007; Page A08

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told Congress last week that a May wiretap that targeted Iraqi insurgents was delayed for 12 hours by attempts to comply with onerous surveillance laws, which slowed an effort to locate three U.S. soldiers who had been captured south of Baghdad.

But new details released this week portray a more complicated picture of the delay, which actually lasted about 9 1/2 hours and was caused primarily by legal wrangling between the Justice Department and intelligence officials over whether authorities had probable cause to begin the surveillance.

So Bush stalled and sacrificed a soldier’s life so he could use the incident to get more spy powers.


http://politicsplus.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-bush-sacrificed-troop-for-spy.html
. . . Bush wanted his spy powers expanded, and to do so he needed an incident to push it through Congress. So when US soldiers were kidnapped in Iraq, he too advantage of the opportunity to do so. As soon as the FISA court gave a de facto go ahead, the NSA could have initiated the wiretap on communications. But Bush's minions waited. The next morning the NSA's chief lawyer said it was good to go. But Bush's minions still waited and met for four hours in meaningless stalling. Then they stalled another two hours contacting Abu Gonzo. By then a soldier had died and Bush had the incident he wanted. As Congress prepared for recess, Mike McConnell lied to them in a classified closed session that delays obtaining a FISA warrant had cost the soldier his life. No wonder Congress caved-in! Had they not, Bush would have ordered another of his convenient leaks that Democrats were allowing soldiers to die, creating a media feeding frenzy of unprecedented proportion. So Bush got his power to spy on the people of the US with a lie, and sacrificed the life of one of our heroes to do it.