NSA Spying Part of Broader Effort

[cal04]

Intelligence Chief Says Bush Authorized Secret Activities Under One Order
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 1, 2007; Page A01

The Bush administration's chief intelligence official said yesterday that President Bush authorized a series of secret surveillance activities under a single executive order in late 2001. The disclosure makes clear that a controversial National Security Agency program was part of a much broader operation than the president previously described.

The disclosure by Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, appears to be the first time that the administration has publicly acknowledged that Bush's order included undisclosed activities beyond the warrantless surveillance of e-mails and phone calls that Bush confirmed in December 2005.

(snip)
Kate Martin, executive director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the new disclosures show that Gonzales and other administration officials have "repeatedly misled the Congress and the American public" about the extent of NSA surveillance efforts.

"They have repeatedly tried to give the false impression that the surveillance was narrow and justified," Martin said. "Why did it take accusations of perjury before the DNI disclosed that there is indeed other, presumably broader and more questionable, surveillance?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/31/AR2007073102137.html?hpid=topnews


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20044214/

[MissWaverly]

1. notice that this order was "late in 2001"

it was not done the day after 9-11, no it was done months afterwards, could it have been related to the upcoming 2002 elections?