President Bill Clinton’s Echelon program intercepted literally millions of communications involving United States citizens. An NSA source says this included then-U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond.
Clinton also authorized the NSA to wiretap and search the home of CIA spy Aldrich Ames. He soon broadened the NSA’s authority to include classified electronic surveillance techniques, such as infrared sensors to observe people inside their homes.
Jamie Gorelick, the disgraced 9/11 Commission member and former high-ranking Clinton Justice Department official, told the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1994, The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes.
February 9, 1995Clinton signed Executive Order 12949, stating, the Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year.
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