[Clips] Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Probe

[R.A. Hettinga]

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  Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 10:28:16 -0400
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  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Probe
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<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060511/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/domestic_spying&printer=1;_ylt=AlV5mebdzQ8EIgEYOBt606SWwvIE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE->

  Yahoo!


  Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Probe

  By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer

  1 hour, 24 minutes ago

  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.

  --
  -----------------
  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
  [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'