Record Number of Teror Warrants Approved

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- The government requested and won approval for a record number of special warrants last year for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies, 75 percent more than in 2000, the Bush administration disclosed Friday.

Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella revealed the figure in an annual report to Congress. Last year's total of 1,754 approved warrants was only slightly higher than the 1,724 approved in 2003. But the number has climbed markedly since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as authorities have moved aggressively against terror suspects. In 2000, there were 1,003 warrants approved under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Since passage of the Patriot Act, the FBI can use such warrants in investigations that aren't mostly focused on foreign intelligence.

Operating with permission from a secretive U.S. court that meets regularly at Justice headquarters, the FBI has used such warrants to break into homes, offices, hotel rooms and automobiles, install hidden cameras, search luggage and eavesdrop on telephone conversations. Agents also have pried into safe deposit boxes, watched from afar with video cameras and binoculars and intercepted e-mails.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-terror-warrants,0,381122.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[blogbear]

1. Red Scare Re-visited?

[vogonjiltz]

2. This reminds me

of a misinterpereted sign at a protest
www.portlandmercury.com/2003-09-18/city.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. ZooBombers! cool

Did they ever get the bikes back?

[VegasWolf]

3. McCarthy must be smiling in his grave. Wonder how many democrats

are on that list.

[Jim Sagle]

5. You mean the anthrax list? Daschle and Leahy for starters.

;-)

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Hey, this isn't the old Soviet Union

so stop saying that!

[dbt]

7. Damn right it's not!

It's the NEW, IMPROVED Soviet Union.

"USSA! USSA! USSA!" And the crowd goes wild!

[jukes]

6. how many

xian fundamentalsis terror organizations are being investgated?

[loro mi dicevano]

9. Record Number of Wiretaps, Searches Approved Last Year

"WASHINGTON (April 2) - The government requested and won approval for a record number of special warrants last year for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies, 75 percent more than in 2000, the Bush administration disclosed Friday.

Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella revealed the figure in an annual report to Congress. Last year's total of 1,754 approved warrants was only slightly higher than the 1,724 approved in 2003. But the number has climbed markedly since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as authorities have moved aggressively against terror suspects. In 2000, there were 1,003 warrants approved under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

...

"Operating with permission from a secretive U.S. court that meets regularly at Justice headquarters, the FBI has used such warrants to break into homes, offices, hotel rooms and automobiles, install hidden cameras, search luggage and eavesdrop on telephone conversations. Agents also have pried into safe deposit boxes, watched from afar with video cameras and binoculars and intercepted e-mails."

Link: http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050401190209990002

[stepnw1f]

10. Looks Like Terrorism is Winning Afterall

Take away freedoms and rights to protect those (same) "Freedoms and Rights"? An over-simplified statement, but then again, an over-simplified reaction to terrorism.

[Harlequin]

11. Source: Prez Cites Notrious B-I-G as inspiration

A spokesperson today said President Bush wished to be like the Notorious B.I.G. rapped,

"B-I-G, b-o-p-p-a,
on the run from the d-e-a
federal agents,
mad 'cuz I'm flagrant
tapped my phone
myself in the basement"

The president also cited Airforce One as his "whip", the White House as "Crib" and has taken to renaming his Secret Service agents "Dawg 1" and so forth.

In an unrelated story, 68 empty 40-oz bottles of malt liquor were found in the bushes outside of the Oval office, directly beneath a window.

[dArKeR]

12. Any luck tracing the Anthrax to Delay and Cheney?

Any wiretaps or search warrant on Novak?

[Us vs Them]

13. System wrought with wrongful accusation:

"Last year, for example, the FBI used a special warrant to search the home of Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield, who was jailed in May after his fingerprint was incorrectly matched to one found on a bag of detonators near the scene of train bombings in Spain that killed 191 people in March 2004. He was released after the FBI admitted its mistake."

...uhhh, whoops?