Spygate Update

Let's synthesize a bunch of the new information coming in:

-Showing just what how important the USA Today article was to the national debate, the Bush Administration relented and will now brief all members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees about the NSA program. They couldn't hold back the walls of the dam any longer.

-The major telecom companies have all kinds sorta denied the USA Today report, but they (a) did it several days after the initial story (long enough to have full conversations with legal and very carefully craft their responses), and (b) really focused their denials on the lack of a contract with the NSA, which doesn't deny the existence of the program... at all, really. This is clearly designed to strengthen their case in one of the many class action lawsuits sure to come out of this release of data.

-Meanwhile Think Progress reports that on May 5 of this year, the President signed a memorandum allowing John Negroponte, the National Intelligence Director, to "authorize a company to conceal activities related to national security." Interesting timing on that memorandum, isn't it? Surely the White House wasn't completely surprised by the USA Today article: the press would typically refer the information to them for comment. This has "cover your ass" written all over it.

-The White House still will not confirm or deny the article. But Orrin Hatch had no problem doing so:

Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that at least two of the chief judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had been informed since 2001 of White House-approved National Security Agency monitoring operations.

“None raised any objections, as far as I know,” said Hatch, a member of a special Intelligence Committee panel appointed to oversee the NSA’s work.

I hope the White House will launch an immediate investigation into which CIA case officer living inside Orrin Hatch's larynx leaked this classified information.

-Arlen Spector, who Jack Cafferty of CNN called "our last hope to save us from a dictatorship" last week, has abdicated that responsibility by changing a bill regarding oversight of the NSA program. His bill would have required the NSA to get a legal judgment from FISA on the program's legality; that part has been scrapped. Of course, the White House does not want judicial review of this program, primarily because they must know they're in the wrong, and that their fanciful arguments about "the unitary executive" are literally being laughed out of court.

-Emptywheel at Kos suggests that there was no transfer of data between the Telcos and the NSA. The telcos merely gave the NSA access to the switches, the large gateways that connect domestic and international calls. The supporting evidence sounds about right. So Verizon's argument that they don't track local calls, so how could they give that information to the NSA, is pointless, since the NSA could generate that information at the switch level.

-A win for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in their lawsuit against AT&T. The judge has forced AT&T to reveal documents relating to its authorizing access to the NSA to switches, databases, and all other information regarding their collaboration.

All of this suggests that we're still at the beginning of this story, that while Congress takes two steps forward and two steps back regarding its oversight, the courts are cracking this wide open, and the White House is feeling the heat. Obviously this will be the big story tomorrow, when Gen. Michael Hayden testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee in confirmation hearings for his nomination as CIA Director. There could be some real fireworks tomorrow.

This was mostly for MY benefit, to try and understand where the story is going. I hope it helps you too.