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The purpose was to look at linkages. That’s what we were doing. So, any given byte of information
probably wouldn’t even have been looked at [individually] because it didn’t fit the criteria of our search.
There was [vast amounts] of information. Out of all that, we’re only going to look for things that are
relevant to the target, Al Qaeda.
If I take information off the Internet and put it into a file, I’m doing that electronically, with the database.
That was the issue. You’re doing it electronically. The argument was, “When you take all this information
off the Internet, how do you then protect U.S. citizen rights?” The lawyers were looking at all the
information that was coming in. They had to vet everything. They were personally looking at it and had a
validation process.
GSN:
What would they have pointed to and said, “This is a violation. We can’t allow you to do this”?
SHAFFER:
That’s where the whole issue comes in of lawyers saying, “You can’t look at these guys, who are
suspected as being terrorists.” All this information is coming in. They had this vetting process. And then,
all this information comes to us regarding these [suspected terrorists] who were here legally, as part of
these data runs. But, the lawyers are now saying, “You can’t look at that. We’re going to put that in the
‘U.S person’ category that you can’t look at.”
There is a vetting process. They’re trying to protect U.S citizens’ rights. I briefed the general counsel on
this. I briefed George Tenet on this. The problem was, where do you draw that line regarding protection of
U.S. persons -- between U.S. citizens, such as yourself, and these other folks who are here legally, but
not technically deserving of the same protections? That’s the kernel of the issue.
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