(Disturbing) Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Probe

[EEkid at aol.com]

Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Probe

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 22 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the
warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security
Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary
security clearance to probe the matter.

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or
OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey (news, bio, voting record), D-
N.Y., on Wednesday saying they were closing their inquiry because
without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers' role
in the program.

"We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our
investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for
access to information about the NSA program," OPR counsel H. Marshall
Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey's office shared the letter with The
Associated Press.

Jarrett wrote that beginning in January, his office has made a series
of requests for the necessary clearances. Those requests were denied
Tuesday.

"Without these clearances, we cannot investigate this matter and
therefore have closed our investigation," wrote Jarrett.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the terrorist
surveillance program "has been subject to extensive oversight both in
the executive branch and in Congress from the time of its inception."

Roehrkasse noted the OPR's mission is not to investigate possible
wrongdoing in other agencies, but to determine if Justice Department
lawyers violated any ethical rules. He declined to comment when asked
if the end of the inquiry meant the agency believed its lawyers had
handled the wiretapping matter ethically.

Hinchey is one of many House Democrats who have been highly critical
of the domestic eavesdropping program first revealed in December. He
said lawmakers would push to find out who at the NSA denied the
Justice Department lawyers security clearance.

"This administration thinks they can just violate any law they want,
and they've created a culture of fear to try to get away with that.
It's up to us to stand up to them," said Hinchey.

In February, the OPR announced it would examine the conduct of its
own agency's lawyers in the program, though they were not authorized
to investigate NSA activities.

Bush's decision to authorize the largest U.S. spy agency to monitor
people inside the United States, without warrants, generated a host
of questions about the program's legal justification.

The administration has vehemently defended the eavesdropping, saying
the NSA's activities were narrowly targeted to intercept
international calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the
U.S. with suspected ties to the al-Qaida terror network.

Separately, the Justice Department sought last month to dismiss a
federal lawsuit accusing the telephone company AT&T of colluding with
the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.

The lawsuit, brought by an Internet privacy group, does not name the
government as a defendant, but the     Department of Justice has
sought to quash the lawsuit, saying it threatens to expose government
and military secrets.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060510/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/domestic_spying

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