Ok, so we have FISA wire taps, which can be obtained retroactively, so as not to impede the investigation of hot leads. These retro-warrants are apparently given out like candy - only handful had been turned down in 30 years.
The burning question is why GWB wasn't using them. Well, it seems he
tried at first, but when a few of them were denied, he said f*ck it and back-doored the process.
Now, the new burning question is: why wouldn't the FISA court - who had been giving these out pretty liberally, deny or require modifications to the ones GWB was submitting? We'll probably never know, but my suspicion is that it wasn't terrorists that he was going after.
...ince 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for surveillance by the Bush administration, the report said. A total of 173 of those court-ordered "substantive modifications" took place in 2003 and 2004. And, the judges also rejected or deferred at least six requests for warrants during those two years -- the first outright rejection of a wiretap request in the court's history.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051227-13333100-bc-us-surveillance-crn.xml
And now that it's coming out that GWB had set the NSA on UN diplomats, it's starting to become clearer
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1227-26.htm
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/After_domestic_spying_reports_U.S._spying_1227.htm l
Impeachment isn't good enough for this sleazeball.