According to EO 12333, the relevant policy on intelligence oversight, and the implementing intelligence community regulations, to be a protected "US person", about whom intelligence may not be collected or retained, a person must be a citizen or a permanent resident alien.
A non-citizen "in the US legally", on a tourist visa, student visa, etc, is not a protected "US person" - unless they have a green card. The US government knew the al Qaeda terrorists were not green card holders at the time. That is easy to check.
So the question is: why did the lawyers demand that intelligence oversight protections be extended to foreign nationals not eligible for such protections according to the executive order? Were they just making up their own laws, or deliberately protecting the terrorists, for unknown reasons?
That is an excellent question. Someone should be called out to answer it. Thanks for the idea.
Commenting by HaloScan
