"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

CARTER AUTHORIZED COURT-ORDERLESS SEARCH AND SEIZURE

EXERCISE OF CERTAIN AUTHORITY RESPECTING ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE EO 12139 - 23 May 1979

By the authority vested in me as President by Sections 102 and 104 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802 and 1804), in order to provide as set forth in that Act (this chapter) for the authorization of electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes, it is hereby ordered as follows:

1-101. Pursuant to Section 102(a)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(a)), the Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order, but only if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section.

1-102. Pursuant to Section 102(b) of the Foreign Intelligence Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(b)), the Attorney General is authorized to approve applications to the court having jurisdiction under Section 103 of that Act (50 U.S.C. 1803) to obtain orders for electronic surveillance for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence information.

1-103. Pursuant to Section 104(a)(7) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1804(a)(7)), the following officials, each of whom is employed in the area of national security or defense, is designated to make the certifications required by Section 104(a)(7) of the Act in support of applications to conduct electronic surveillance:

(a) Secretary of State. (b) Secretary of Defense. (c) Director of Central Intelligence. (d) Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (e) Deputy Secretary of State. (f) Deputy Secretary of Defense. (g) Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.

None of the above officials, nor anyone officially acting in that capacity, may exercise the authority to make the above certifications, unless that official has been appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

1-104. Section 2-202 of Executive Order No. 12036 (set out under section 401 of this title) is amended by inserting the following at the end of that section: ''Any electronic surveillance, as defined in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, shall be conducted in accordance with that Act as well as this Order.''.

1-105. Section 2-203 of Executive Order No. 12036 (set out under section 401 of this title) is amended by inserting the following at the end of that section: ''Any monitoring which constitutes electronic surveillance as defined in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 shall be conducted in accordance with that Act as well as this Order.''.

Jimmy Carter.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes, Carter issues a publically available and well-known executive order stating repeatedly that the government will comply with all FISA regulations and Bush issues a secret order that Alberto Gonzales and President Bush both admit violates FISA. Your point is what exactly?

FISA allows warrantless searches with limits one of those limits is that "there is no substantial likelihood that the surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party". This is the part Bush violated. As far as I know, Carter never did. Certainly, what you quote provides no evidence of that. Do you have some other evidence suggesting that he did have warrantless searches conducted that violated the above clause?

Do you understand the difference between "electronic surveillance without a court order" that complies with FISA and "electronic surveillance without a court order" that doesn't.

Here's an analogy that might help. Let's say that Congress passed a law that stated that it was permissible to administer a lethal injection with the following restrictions:

1) the person having the lethal injection administered has been found guilty of a capital crime and senetenced to death by a court of law

2) the person administering the lethal injection is a duly appointed agent of the court, employed to carry out the injection

Now, obviously, you couldn't use this law to lethally inject a random person on the street. However, neither could you use it to inject a person on death row, unless you met requirement #2.

By analogy, Carter issued a public order that said the executive branch would now start executions in full compliance with #1 and #2. Bush just secretly sent people to inject everyone on death row. Does that make the difference a ltttle clearer?