Why Doesn’t the 9/11 Commission Know About Mukasey’s 9/11 Story?

My comments on this news:

An article published yesterday in Salon.com addresses Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s recent revelation regarding 9/11. Author Glenn Greenwald explains,

“One of two things almost certainly happened here, each of which is of great importance. Either Mukasey is lying about the 9/11 attacks in order to manipulate Americans into believing that FISA’s warrant requirements are what prevented discovery of the 9/11 attacks and caused 3,000 American deaths — a completely disgusting act by the Attorney General which obviously cannot be ignored. Or, Mukasey has just revealed the most damning fact yet about the Bush’s administration’s ability and failure to have prevented the attacks — facts that, until now, were apparently concealed from the 9/11 Commission and the public.”

FISA refers to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, passed after Watergate. It prescribed procedures for physical and electronic surveillance. The Act allows surveillance of international telephone calls or other communication, regardless of parties’ citizenship.  In other words, in 2001, no legal impediment existed to prevent monitoring of any telephone call between and the .

Recent legislative proposals involve warrantless eves-dropping in purely domesticate settings. The House has so far refused to grant retroactive immunity to telephone companies which complied with warrantless government requests to turn over customer telephone records. As mentioned previously, of all domestic telephone companies only Qwest [operating primarily in the intermontane West] refused to cooperate with warrantless government spying on citizens.