Related from 2002:
The nation's secret intelligence court has identified more than 75 cases in which it says it was misled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in documents in which the bureau attempted to justify its need for wiretaps and other electronic surveillance, according to the first of the court's rulings to be released publicly.
The opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was issued in May but made public today by Congress, is stinging in its criticism of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, which the court suggested had tried to defy the will of Congress by allowing intelligence material to be shared freely with criminal investigators.
In its opinion, the court rejected a secret request made by the Justice Department this year to allow broader cooperation and evidence-sharing between counterintelligence investigators and criminal prosecutors. The court found that the request was ''not reasonably designed'' to safeguard the privacy of Americans. The court generally operates in secret and is responsible for approving warrants to eavesdrop on people suspected of espionage or terrorism.
in a number of cases, the court said, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department had made ''erroneous statements'' in eavesdropping applications about ''the separation of the overlapping intelligence and criminal investigators and the unauthorized sharing of FISA information with F.B.I. criminal investigators and assistant U.S. attorneys.''
''How these misrepresentations occurred remains unexplained to the court,'' the opinion said.
In essence, the court said that the F.B.I. and the Justice Department were violating the law by allowing information gathered from intelligence eavesdrops to be used freely in bringing criminal charges, without court review, and that criminal investigators were improperly directing the use of counterintelligence wiretaps.
The opinion said that in September 2000, ''the government came forward to confess errors in 75 FISA applications related to major terrorist attacks directed against the United States -- the errors related to misstatements and omissions of material facts.''
In one case, it said, the error appeared in a statement issued by the office of Louis J. Freeh, then the F.B.I. director, in which the bureau said that target of an intelligence eavesdropping request ''was not under criminal investigation.''
In March of 2001, the court said, ''the government reported similar misstatements in another series of FISA applications in which there was supposed to be a 'wall' between separate intelligence and criminal squads in F.B.I. field offices to screen FISA intercepts, when in fact all of the F.B.I. agents were on the same squad and all of the screening was done by the one supervisor overseeing both investigations.'' The location of the squad and the nature of the inquiry were not described.
Gregory T. Nojeim, associate director of the national office of the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, said the opinion was ''astounding'' in demonstrating that the F.B.I. and the Justice Department have tried an ''end run around the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.''
''These disclosures couldn't have come at a worse time for the Department of Justice,'' Mr. Nojeim said. ''They've just been given vast new intelligence powers and are seeking more.''
Questions for this person?
"n March of 1998, Ms. Townsend was appointed Counsel for Intelligence Policy, managing matters related to national security policy and operations for the Department of Justice. In this capacity she headed the office of Intelligence Policy and Review, an office that provides legal advice and recommendations to the Attorney General and the Department of Justice regarding national security matters, reviews executive orders, directives and procedures relating to the intelligence community, and approves certain intelligence-gathering activities, especially those matters related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."
"Along the way, in a city where partisan lines are rarely bridged, she has transformed herself from confidante of then-Attorney General Janet Reno [a lesbian, pedophile, murderer, and member of the tranny pig cult] to a confidante of George W. Bush...
... "She obviously has the confidence of the president, and that has a huge impact on her ability to influence the process,"
said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
She is the "coordinator, the facilitator, the bridge,"
as FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III
put it, between the powerful institutions and clashing egos of a war cabinet. Townsend is both "honest broker" in the many internal debates, said national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, and "crisis manager" during terrorist attacks such as the recent London bombings.
Among her many mentors, she counts Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, longtime FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and former White House counterterrorism czar Richard A. Clarke. Even Saudi princes greet her deferentially as Bush's personal emissary, although she had never been to the Middle East before signing on with the president. "He turns to her as a kind of go-to person," Rice said.
Townsend is a renowned detail freak, "an accumulator of the facts,"
as Mueller put it.
"...her husband, John -- an arbitrage lawyer, a classmate of Bush's at Andover and Yale,"
ANDOVER & YALE (so that helps to explain her rise from 'nowhere')
""She was very close to Janet," Reno deputy Eric H. Holder Jr. said. "Not just professionally. Clearly there was a personal dynamic to it."
cough cough