Thursday, February 09, 2006 FISA Judges Knew Wiretaps Illegal & DeLay is the Fox Watching Over the Henhouse WaPost: Twice in the past 4 yrs, a top Justice Dept lawyer warned the presiding judge of a secret surveillance crt that info overheard in Bush's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to obtain wiretap warrants in the crt, according to 2 sources w/ knowledge of those events. The revelations infuriated US Dist Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly--who, like her predecessor, US District Judge Royce Lamberth, had expressed serious doubts about whether the warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails ordered by Bush was legal. Both judges had insisted that no info obtained this way be used to gain warrants from their court, according to government sources, and both had been assured by admin officials it would never happen. Oh yeah... TRUST BushCo. They are so trustworthy that they had to put Tom DeLay on the committee in charge of overseeeing the Justice Dept, while he himself is being investigated by that very dept in the Abramoff prosecution! What's next for DeLay? Oh yeah... after being forced to step down as the #2 Repub in the House after being indicted in TX on campaign fund-raising charges, he was rewarded by party leaders Weds w/ a seat on the Appropriations Committee! Kinda like having Enron handle your investments, eh? |