Two Justice Department memos describing the National Security Agency’s (NSA) illegal warrantless wiretapping program were made public late Friday as part of an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
The memos, a May 2004 memo authored by the former head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel Jack Goldsmith and a November 2001 memo from John Yoo, then the deputy assistant attorney general, are most notable for what they don’t reveal. The memos are heavily redacted.
In 2005, the New York Times disclosed that the NSA was secretly intercepting the telephone calls and e-mails of people in the United States without a warrant in direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The ACLU, the National Security Archive and the Electronic Privacy Information Center quickly filed FOIA requests for documents about the NSA surveillance program.