Records Show Spying Started Before Order
Posted on: Wednesday, 4 January 2006, 18:00 CST
Records show spying started before order
WASHINGTON Even before the White House formally authorized a secret program to spy on U.S. citizens without obtaining warrants, such eavesdropping was occurring and some of the information was being shared with the FBI, declassified correspondence and interviews with congressional and intelligence officials indicate.
On Oct. 1, 2001, three weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Gen. Michael Hayden, who was running the National Security Agency at the time, told the House intelligence committee that the agency was broadening its surveillance authorities, according to a newly released letter sent to him that month by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Pelosi, the ranking Democrat on the committee, raised concerns in the letter, which was declassified with several redactions and made public Tuesday by her staff.
The secret NSA program, developed in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on Washington and New York as a way to find any hidden al-Qaida operatives still in the United States, was authorized in October 2001, a senior administration official said.
Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.
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