The US Department of Justice’s (USDOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) opened a review of the USDOJ’s role in the National Security Agency’s (NSA) warrantless wiretapping program on November 27, 2006, according to a letter from the OIG to US Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.

APN first reported on the apparent game of “hot potato” several federal agencies appeared to be playing after the call for an investigation by Congressional Democrats in January 2006.

US Reps. Lofgren, Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and 36 other lawmakers wrote a letter to the USDOJ’s Inspector General Glenn A. Fine in January requesting his office open an investigation into the NSA wiretapping program. Lofgren and others had requested other agencies investigate as well. (more…)

A December 17 Associated Press report falsely suggested that Congress would need to pass a law to prohibit the Bush administration from “eavesdrop[ping] on Americans’ electronic communications” without a warrant. In fact, such a law already exists — the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) — and the Bush administration’s apparent violation of FISA has given rise to bipartisan condemnation. The article, discussing what actions Congress could take in response to President Bush’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program, stated that “[t]he president … can veto legislation, including a law demanding the National Security Agency obtain warrants before monitoring communications.”

The AP report also stated that “[w]hen the Republican-controlled Congress adjourned last week, it left the spying program unchecked” and that “[t]he next move falls to the Democrats who take control in January and are considering a proposal to demands [sic] Bush get warrants and others lengthening the time between surveillance and when a warrant must be obtained.” But the article did not mention that FISA already “demands [that] Bush get warrants” and requires that “the National Security Agency obtain warrants before monitoring communications” of U.S. citizens and legal residents who are in the United States. (more…)

In a rare public comment on its intelligence operations, the National Security Agency said Monday that it had 39 documents containing references to the late Princess Diana but had never targeted her telephone communications for monitoring.

The statement came in response to British media reports that U.S. intelligence officials had intercepted Diana’s calls on the day she died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. According to the reports, the officials had assured Scotland Yard investigators working on a pending report that 39 classified documents about her final conversations revealed no sign that her death was anything but an accident.

In its statement Monday, the agency said it had released information about the documents earlier. “The 39 NSA-originated and NSA-controlled documents referenced in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request in 1998 only contained references to the Princess, and she was never the communicant,” the statement said. “NSA did not target Princess Diana’s communications.” (more…)

52% in Poll Back Hearings on Handling of Domestic Surveillance

Two-thirds of Americans believe that the FBI and other federal agencies are intruding on privacy rights as part of terrorism investigations, but they remain divided over whether such tactics are justified, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released yesterday.

The poll also showed that 52 percent of respondents favor congressional hearings on how the Bush administration has handled surveillance, detainees and other terrorism-related issues, compared with 45 percent who are opposed. That question was posed to half of the poll’s 1,005-person random sample.

Overall, the poll — which includes questions that have been asked since 2002 and 2003 — showed a continued skepticism about whether the government is adequately protecting privacy rights as it conducts terrorism-related investigations. (more…)