[Infowarrior] - Deletions in Army Manual Raise Wiretapping Concerns

[Richard Forno]

(c/o DanO)

January 14, 2007
Deletions in Army Manual Raise Wiretapping Concerns
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/washington/14spyside.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
&pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 ‹ Deep into an updated Army manual, the deletion of 10
words has left some national security experts wondering whether government
lawyers are again asserting the executive branch¹s right to wiretap
Americans without a court warrant.

The manual, described by the Army as a ³major revision² to
intelligence-gathering guidelines, addresses policies and procedures for
wiretapping Americans, among other issues.

The original guidelines, from 1984, said the Army could seek to wiretap
people inside the United States on an emergency basis by going to the secret
court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, or
by obtaining certification from the attorney general ³issued under the
authority of section 102(a) of the Act.²

That last phrase is missing from the latest manual, which says simply that
the Army can seek emergency wiretapping authority pursuant to an order
issued by the FISA court ³or upon attorney general authorization.² It makes
no mention of the attorney general doing so under FISA.

Bush administration officials said that the wording change was
insignificant, adding that the Army would follow FISA requirements if it
sought to wiretap an American.

But the manual¹s language worries some national security experts. ³The
administration does not get to make up its own rules,² said Steven
Aftergood, who runs a project on government secrecy for the Federation of
American Scientists.

The Army guidelines were finalized in November 2005, and Mr. Aftergood¹s
group recently obtained a copy under the Freedom of Information Act. He said
he was struck by the omission, particularly because of the recent debate
over the National Security Agency¹s domestic surveillance program. President
Bush has asserted that he can authorize eavesdropping without court warrants
on the international communications of Americans suspected of having ties to
Al Qaeda.

Like several other national security experts, Mr. Aftergood said the revised
guidelines could suggest that Army lawyers had adopted the legal claim that
the executive branch had authority outside the courts to conduct wiretaps.

But Thomas A. Gandy, a senior Army counterintelligence official who helped
develop the guidelines, said the new wording did not suggest a policy
change. The guidelines were intended to give Army intelligence personnel
more explicit and, in some cases, more restrictive guidance than the 1984
regulations, partly to help them respond to new threats like computer
hackers.

³This is all about doing right and following the rules and protecting the
civil liberties of folks,² Mr. Gandy said. ³It seeks to keep people out of
trouble.²