Bush Began Spying on Americans Feb. '01--Why?
Further consider that the government could have issued "warrants" for such if it indeed had any "probable cause" with specific evidence to justify it. The fact that Bush government did not issue warrants, or attempt to get them, proves it was trying to circumvent the law, and the Constitution, to spy on Americans secretly, in order to do so in stealth.
Such a secret pattern by government, before 9/11, could be regarded as evidence of secrecy and providing for its own security, not against foreign terrorists, but from the American people at large whom its surveillance plans desired to freely sift through. The question of MOTIVE must be answered.
clipped from www.nytimes.com
N.S.A. officials met with the Qwest executives in February 2001 and asked for more access to their phone system for surveillance operations, according to people familiar with the episode. The company declined, expressing concerns that the request was illegal without a court order.
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