Broad Secret Spy Program Confirmed
The director of national intelligence revealed yesterday that President Bush issued an executive order after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks authorizing a wide range of secret surveillance activities.
The letter makes clear that a warrantless terrorism surveillance program was just one aspect of the government’s surveillance activities, the Washington Post reports. The Terrorist Surveillance Program, known as TSP, allowed the National Security Agency to wiretap calls between people in United States and overseas terrorism suspects without the approval of a special court.
Intelligence chief Mike McConnell made the disclosure in a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., in an effort to defend Attorney General Alberto Gonzales from accusations he lied about the program. Gonzales had testified that congressional disagreements were focused on “other intelligence activities” rather than the TSP program.
In January, Bush decided to put the TSP under the jurisdiction of a special court. Now he is seeking congressional approval to do away with the need for court-approved warrants.
The letter “underscored that the full scope of the NSA’s surveillance program under Bush’s order has not been revealed,” the Post says. The newspaper suggests that one part of the program may be data mining of telecommunications records.
