> In one of the court’s most important decisions, the judges have expanded the use in terrorism cases of a legal principle known as the “special needs” doctrin

> In one of the court’s most important decisions, the judges have expanded the use in terrorism cases of a legal principle known as the “special needs” doctrine and carved out an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of a warrant for searches and seizures, the officials said. This is political kabuki designed to make us think we have a representative government. We don't. We have an oligarchy composed of financial/industrial/military interests (as all oligarchies are) that runs the intelligence agencies of the government it owns. The fact of the matter is that the NSA has always considered itself exempt from the law and the Constitution: > "NSA does not have a statutory charter; its operational responsibilities are set forth exclusively in executive directives first issued in the 1950s. One of the questions which the Senate asked the Committee to consider was the "need for specific legislative authority to govern the operations of...the National Security Agency." > According to NSA's General Counsel, no existing statutes control, limit, or define the signals intelligence activities of NSA. Further, the General Counsel asserts that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to NSA's interception of Americans' international communications for foreign intelligence purposes." > http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/pdf/ChurchB3_10_NSA.pdf http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/pdf/C...