Domestic surveillance program began soon after 9/11, intelligence agencies say

By GottaLaff

All these various leaks and reports are inflating the narrative, and the stories are growing, the way kids blows up balloons... Huff, puff, bigger... bigger... huff.. puff... until... eventually...

Pop!

The highly controversial warrantless surveillance program initiated by President George W. Bush began within weeks of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a newly released report to Congress compiled by the inspectors general of the nation’s top intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, and the Justice Department.

The report, mandated by Congress, provides context to information that has been leaked in press accounts and buttressed by congressional testimony and in books authored by former officials involved in the surveillance effort.

The report notes that several members of Congress — including then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Nancy Pelosi — were briefed on the program on October 25, 2001, and a total of 17 times before the program became public in 2005.

Among other things, the report also cites a Justice Department conclusion that “it was extraordinary and inappropriate that a single DOJ attorney, John Yoo, was relied upon to conduct the initial legal assessment of the (surveillance program).”

“The lack of oversight and review of Yoo’s work … contributed to a legal analysis of the (program) that at a minimum was factually flawed,” it says.