FISA news stories on Newser

Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary

Jason Farago — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:24:53 CDT

Last week the inspectors general of the Justice Department, CIA, and other agencies suggested the Bush administration violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, singling out lawyer John Yoo for memos justifying warrantless wiretapping. Yoo defends himself today in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that FISA was "an obsolete law"...

NYPD Clashes With Justice on Surveillance

Jason Farago — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:24:33 CST

The Department of Justice has firmly rejected efforts by the New York Police Department to relax restrictions on eavesdropping, triggering a war of words between the agencies’ heads, the New York Times reports. The NYPD wants broader latitude for electronic surveillance, and less red tape for its requests, but Justice...

Obama Likely to Keep Bush Intel Policies

Kevin Spak — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:33:13 CST

Barack Obama isn’t likely to deliver the radical intelligence policy overhaul many civil liberty groups are craving, advisers tell the Wall Street Journal. Those advisers include former Republican supporters and centrist Clinton officials. “He’s going to take a very centrist approach,” said an ex-Bush and Clinton counterintelligence official. In particular,...

Send Blue Dogs to Pound, Elect Real Democrats

Jonas Oransky — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:30:01 CDT

A Democratic Congress has bowed to President Bush on Iraq, waterboarding and FISA, and Glenn Greenwald of Salon says enough is enough. With the help of progressive bloggers, he’s campaigning against so-called “Blue Dog” Dems, hoping to teach the party’s conservatives that they will “lose seats … the more they...

Big Brother Comes to Sweden

Paul Stinson — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:01:20 CDT

Don’t believe the hype: “Sweden is no cuddly liberal democracy,” writes Nathalie Rothschild for Spiked, berating her home country for “introducing the most Draconian surveillance law in Europe.” Known as the FRA law but nicknamed "Lex Orwell " by opponents, the legislation gives intelligence agencies the right to intercept all incoming...

Obama Playing With Fire Over FISA 'Sell-Out'

John Johnson — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:35:05 CDT

Barack Obama was never the great reformer his supporters made him out to be, but his decision to give telecom companies immunity for spying on Americans is nevertheless "unforgivable," writes Joan Walsh in Salon. She's tired of the "political cave-ins" and says Obama better not to take his base for...

Senate passes FISA, 69-28

Jonas Oransky — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:50:00 CDT

The Senate approved a bill today overhauling the rules on secret US government eavesdropping and granting immunity to telephone companies that helped it listen in after 9/11. The so-called FISA bill passed by a large margin of 69-28. The upper house also voted against three amendments that would have watered...

As Congress Caves on FISA, Coalition Urges Fighting Back

Jonas Oransky — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:43:19 CDT

With a vote set for tomorrow on a new domestic surveillance bill that grants immunity to telecoms involved in warrantless wiretapping of US citizens, Glenn Greenwald urges Salon readers to donate to a "coalition devoted to the preservation of basic constitutional protections and the rule of law." The "money bomb"...

Supporters Blast Obama on His Own Website

Harry Kimball — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:53:35 CDT

Barack Obama’s abrupt about-face on new FISA legislation that would grant immunity to telcos that aided the Bush administration in warrantless wiretaps has some supporters hopping mad—and they’re using the forums on the candidate's own website to protest, the New York Times reports. During the primaries Obama pledged to...