Posted on 12/21/2005 10:43:04 PM PST by XHogPilot
Finally, some good may come from the Valerie Plame kerfuffle -- if President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez have the stones to do what's right.
A grave crime was exposed Dec. 16th when New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau published a story revealing President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to listen in on conversations between al Qaida suspects abroad and people in the United States without first obtaining a warrant.
"We're seeing clearly now that (President) Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator," wrote Newsweek's Jonathan Alter. But the scandal was not the program Risen and Lichtblau wrote about. The scandal is that they wrote about it.
The intercept program has uncovered al Qaida plots, and public exposure cripples it, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden said at a news conference Monday. Now deputy director of National Intelligence, Hayden was head of the NSA went the intercept program was started.
Among the plots uncovered was one by Iyman Faris, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Ohio, to blow up the Brooklyn bridge, sources say. Faris discussed the plan on the phone with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, then al Qaida's operations officer.
Alter and others in the news media assert the intercept program is illegal, and unprecedented. It is neither.
"The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has the inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes," said Jamie Gorelick, deputy attorney general under President Clinton, in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 14th, 1994.
"It's important to understand that the rules and methodology for criminal searches are inconsistent with the collection of foreign intelligence and would unduly frustrate the president in carrying out his foreign intelligence responsibilities," she said.
Risen and Lichtblau chose not to mention this story, which appeared in the New York Times on Nov. 7th, 1982:
"A federal appeals court has ruled that the National Security Agency may lawfully intercept messages between United States citizens and people overseas, even if there is no cause to believe the Americans are foreign agents."
Even the feckless Jimmy Carter issued on May 23rd, 1979, an executive order authorizing the attorney general "to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order."
Carter cited as the authority for issuing his order the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Congress had passed the year before, and which Alter and other hyperventilating hypocrites claim Bush has violated.
Why would Carter think that? Perhaps he read -- as evidently Alter hasn't -- section 1802 of the FISA law, which says: "the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order... to acquire foreign intelligence information..."
In a 2002 case, the special court that hears appeals in FISA cases said the president "did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information."
The news media didn't think warrantless electronic surveillance was a threat to our liberty when Democratic presidents authorized it. National Review's Byron York, who dug up the Gorelick testimony mentioned above, noted the Washington Post reported on it on Page A-19.
It is despicable, but not illegal, for the news media to publish vital national secrets leaked to them. But the leakers have committed a felony.
Those who have demanded severe punishment for whoever it was who told reporters Valerie Plame worked at the CIA have been remarkably forgiving about who leaked the existence of the NSA intercept program, which -- like the earlier leak of secret CIA prisons for al Qaida bigwigs and unlike the Plame kerfuffle -- has done serious harm to our national security.
But fortunately, by clapping New York Times reporter Judith Miller in irons until she talked, overzealous special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has set a valuable precedent.
Attorney General Gonzalez should subpoena Mr. Risen and Mr. Lichtblau, and have them cited for contempt of court if they do not disclose their source or sources. Maybe they could share Judy Miller's old cell.
Jack Kelly is national security columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Blade of Toledo, Ohio.
None dare call it treason.
Indeed. BTW, love the Google Bombs on your profile!
My money's on Jay Rockefeller (Rat-WV).
My guess is that the trail would lead us right to the US Senate.
Man I hope they frickin do.
A week ago I'd say "Dream on," but Bush is CLEARLY pissed about this.
Didn't the Times story cite the very letter tnat Rockefeller released two days later? I would say that Sen. Rockefeller has some 'splainin' to do.
Sadly, Bush isn't going to do it. "New tone, compassionate conservatism," you know.
"Attorney General Gonzalez should subpoena Mr. Risen and Mr. Lichtblau, and have them cited for contempt of court if they do not disclose their source or sources. Maybe they could share Judy Miller's old cell.
Man I hope they frickin do."
Amen to the frickin' do! I have a feeling though, nothing will come to pass. Every time some of these morons on the left commit treason, it's overlooked. I'm so tired of these games. These reporters and their leaker (Rockefeller, probably) should be imprisoned for decades.
Two weeks ago I would have agreed with you, but he now seems to understand the importance of fighting the traitors. He is speaking of them in terms so harsh that I am stunned, and impressed.
If Gonzalez does not go after the leak then I can only go with that it was the Admin. that leaked it. Testing the waters to see what the public's feelings on this is. If good then they can go with tougher new intel laws.
I hope and pray he's angry enough to do it.
Yes, it is.
I think he is, because as he's said in his inexpert but honest-seeming comments on this, now the MSM is actively thwarting specific anti-terrorist actions. It's not politics, it's not creating an atmosphere of rancor, they're derailing specific life-saving actions. I think Bush feels he's been pushed to the wall here, and although I can't find the line, I swear he said he was going to look into the leak.
Sedition is probably a better choice
I disagree. It wasn't the Bush administration who leaked it...it had to be Rockefeller who has an axe to grind and is in cahoots with the LSM and against America's national security.
The members of the entire senate intel committee should be completely removed and replaced, IMO. They have a MAJOR security problem and they cannot be trusted with classified material.
Like I said. If AG Gonz. does not go after them, then the Admin. leaked it.
That is my only other choice. Either that or Bush is weak and would rather have treason than punish them.
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