What does the FISC know that we don't?

Via Drudge, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a remarkable story investigating a possible reason for President Bush's decision to secretly wiretap Americans without a search warrant:

Government records show that the administration was encountering unprecedented second-guessing by the secret federal surveillance court when President Bush decided to bypass the panel and order surveillance of U.S.-based terror suspects without the court's approval.

A review of Justice Department reports to Congress shows that the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than from the four previous presidential administrations combined.

Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, "the government must show 'probable cause' that the target of the surveillance is a member of a foreign terrorist organization or foreign power and is engaged in activities that 'may' involve a violation of criminal law" -- not an unreasonable standard.

Before Bush, the FISC was arguably the most compliant court in the country. It had never rejected a warrant request and, according to the PI, "[t]he judges modified only two search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications that were approved over the first 22 years of the court's operation."

However, the warrant requests that the Bush administration brought before the court were apparently so weak that the court started demanding changes. "[S]ince 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for court-ordered surveillance by the Bush administration. A total of 173 of those court-ordered 'substantive modifications' took place in 2003 and 2004 -- the most recent years for which public records are available."

Here's a chart illustrating what a dramatic increase in modification rates this represents:

In addition, the PI reports that "[t]he judges also rejected or deferred at least six requests for warrants during those two years -- the first outright rejection in the court's history." Again, consider the difference. 0 rejections out of 13,102 before 2001. 6 rejections out of 5,645 from 2001-2004.

If the Bush administration can't get such a lenient court to sign off on its wiretaps after 9/11, then we have a serious problem. What do those judges know that we don't?

Comments

That's a purty dramatic graph, albiet fairly manipulative. Try incorporating the amount of approved unaltered requests and it shows a much different picture.