2001 to 2012
After September 11
Warrantless surveillance and the Patriot Act, the Iraq war, Kelo, and the 2008 bailouts.
Key facts
- The president authorized warrantless collection on Americans on October 4, 2001, three weeks before the Patriot Act was signed.
- The Iraq Survey Group found no weapons of mass destruction. The Senate Intelligence Committee said the case for war was not supported by the intelligence.
- On October 13, 2008, nine bank executives were given $125 billion at one meeting, with no conditions on mortgages or pay.
Timeline
7 events in Surveillance & Privacy, oldest first
- 2001October 4, 2001Surveillance & Privacy
President authorizes warrantless collection on Americans
Drafted by the vice president's lawyer, kept in his safe, renewed every 45 days.
- October 26, 2001Surveillance & Privacy
The Patriot Act signed six weeks after the September 11 attacks
It expanded the government's ability to collect information on Americans. Most of those powers remain in place.
- 2004March 11, 2004Surveillance & Privacy
Program reauthorized over the Justice Department's objection
Signed by the White House counsel after the attorney general refused from his hospital bed. The internet collection was stopped eight days later and resumed under a court order in July.
- 2005December 16, 2005Surveillance & Privacy
New York Times reveals the NSA program after holding the story a year
The president confirmed a part of it the next day. The leak investigation that followed raided the homes of the people who had objected inside the agency.
- 20072007Surveillance & Privacy
Hemisphere begins: AT&T employees run call record searches for police
Records back to 1987, four billion a day, paid for by the White House drug office.
- 2010April 14, 2010Surveillance & Privacy
Thomas Drake indicted under the Espionage Act
For documents that were unclassified until after they were seized. The case collapsed before trial in 2011.
- 2011October 3, 2011Surveillance & Privacy
Secret court: the third substantial misrepresentation in less than three years
56,000 domestic communications a year; declassified August 21, 2013.
Stories (2)
- 2001 to 2013Stellar Wind: How the White House Ordered Warrantless NSA Wiretapping in October 2001On October 4, 2001 the president authorized the NSA to collect Americans' phone and internet records without a warrant. The order was drafted by the vice president's lawyer and kept in his safe. NSA employees who objected were told to stop asking questions, the Justice Department nearly resigned over it in 2004, the New York Times held the story for a year, and the people who talked were raided and one was charged under the Espionage Act. Congress made most of it legal in 2008.Surveillance & Privacy
- October 26, 2001The 2001 USA PATRIOT Act and Section 215 Bulk Phone Record CollectionThe USA PATRIOT Act was introduced on October 23, 2001, passed the House the next day 357 to 66, passed the Senate the day after that 98 to 1, and was signed on October 26, six weeks after the attacks. Most members had not read its 342 pages. Section 215, written for business records, was later used to collect the phone records of every American.Surveillance & Privacy