Posted on 02/04/2006 6:32:03 PM PST by blogblogginaway
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales plans to use a Congressional hearing on Monday to lash out at "misinformed, confused" news accounts about President George W. Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program, and to declare it "is not a dragnet," according to administration documents provided to TIME. "I cannot and will not address operational aspects of the program or other purported activities described in press reports," he plans to say in testimony prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee. "These press accounts are in almost every case, in one way or another, misinformed, confused, or wrong."
According to the documents, Gonzales plans to assert in his opening statement that seeking approval for the wiretaps from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court could result in delays that "may make the difference between success and failure in preventing the next attack." He will compare the program to telegraph wiretapping during the Civil War. In accompanying testimony, the Attorney General plans to leave open the possibility that President Bush will ask the court to give blanket approval to the program, a step that some lawmakers and even some Administration officials contend would put it on more solid legal footing.
In pointed written questions posed in advance by Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Gonzales was asked whether he would "consider seeking approval from the FISA Court at this time for the ongoing surveillance program at issue." According to 11 pages of answers to the 15 questions, Gonzales will reply, "We use FISA where we can, and we always consider all of our legal options."
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
does it make sense to even consider asking FISA to OK this at this time? what happens if they say no?
well certainly, these constant claims of "domestic spying" are just spin to make the sheeple believe that their phone calls to their friends are being tapped.
but Gonzales has to be careful here to - careful not to make the story coming out of this "Administration agrees to revisit FISA warrants for domestic spying case". that will be spun by the MSM as a de-facto admission that they should have used FISA from the beginning, and will simply fuel the idea of these being "warrantless wiretaps".
the administration has good approval numbers on this topic now, they have to be careful not to blow that.
It's just another red herring thrown out there by the Left in keeping with their twisted tradition of attacking Pres Bush with bogus accusations. They probably never believed that this would stick, but it's the smear factor they're interested in. Every day the media make themselves more and more irellevent to the American people.
Do you mean to tell me that Bush wants to listen to the phone calls of those that want to kill us? Who does he think he is, commander-in-chief?
This is a great discussion to be had ... let the looney left oppose this...
The President is on record as doing what needs to be done.
Do you think he would respect a "no" answer, when he believe he is asking out of courtesy, not out of need for permission?
OK, then why even float the idea of going back to FISA?
we need to stay on offense on this issue, we have done well so far. Spector is off the reservation on this issue, we need some other voices on that committee to be on offense.
FISA warrants are still used. The annual rate is at 1700+, up from 1200+ a few years ago. And the President has said that FISA is useful for long term surveillance.
we need to stay on offense on this issue ...
We need to think about how much overlap (in the government's eyes) of the population of "innocent" and "terrorist" is acceptable. We are safest if the government treats ALL of us as terrorists.
Spector is off the reservation on this issue, we need some other voices on that committee to be on offense.
There are voices on both sides. I suspect that Specter's will come off as rational compared with Leahy.
I see the eventual outcome of the hearings as 1) public agreement with the President's initiative and 2) Congress seeing eye-to-eye with the President. There will be a shift toward "administrative wiretap authority" and the process for advance judicial approval will be relaxed.
Well there's this little problem...
The FISA court has taken it upon itself to issue an edict that they will no longer admit information in a probable cause determination (to obtain a FISA warrant) that was gathered through warrantless intercepts. Never mind that they have no authority to issue such an edict, outside of a case holding.
I say a "little" problem, because most of the President's warrantless NSA intercepts will either remain entirely intelligence matters outside of FISA channels, or over time, they will be turned into criminal matters, for which a warrant will then be sought through the regular court process, again bypassing the FISA courts.
But for a small number of these cases, there may come a point in the intelligence gathering process, for a particular case, where the President may find it more advantageous to now obtain a FISA "warrant" (technically, they aren't called warrants under FISA, they are called "orders").
So because the FISA court has been throwing their hissy fit over the warrantless intercepts, that could throw a road block in the President's plans. That "little" problem needs to be resolved, but I don't think you'll find the President appearing, hat in hand, pleading for a reconsideration of their errant policy. It will be a bit more strident than that.
Wordy, but hopefully informative.
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