Fact check
Is it true: Stellar Wind: NSA warrantless wiretap programme (2001-07)?
Yes — this is confirmed.
Confirmed by declassified NSA documents, the 2009 multi-agency Inspector General report, congressional testimony from Comey and Mueller, and Bush's own public acknowledgement. Stellar Wind intercepted Americans' international communications without FISC warrants from 2001. The 2004 DoJ revolt (Comey/Ashcroft hospital scene) is documented in Comey's 2007 Senate testimony. Revealed by the New York Times in December 2005.
The claim
President Bush secretly authorised the NSA to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans' international communications beginning in October 2001, in a programme codenamed Stellar Wind. The programm
Key evidence
Multi-agency Inspector General report (2009) confirms programme
Administration argued legal authority existed under Article II and AUMF
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