Posted on 02/05/2006 8:46:56 PM PST by Carl/NewsMax
Ex-president Bill Clinton said Friday that "to the best of my knowledge," his administration always sought a court warrant before wiretapping terrorist suspects who might have been preparing to attack America.
And he double-checked with disgraced former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, just to make sure his recollection was accurate.
"To the best of my knowledge, all of the wiretaps we did were conducted in accord with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act," Clinton told WCBS News Radio 880 in New York.
"I called my former National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, about this," Clinton revealed. "And he said, you know, they would ask me and I would approve probably two to five wiretaps a week to the [FISA] court."
"And as far as I know," Clinton said, "they approved them all. If they turned any down, it would just be one or two."
The former president said he "actually liked" operating within the restrictions of the FISA law.
"I actually liked it because none of us are immune from error," he told WCBS. "And if, for example, we wiretapped a conversation of a totally innocent person, you would not want that conversation to be used in some other way, for some other reason.
"So I never had any problem with it," Clinton insisted.
Asked if he thought President Bush's terrorist surveillance program was both legal and constitutional, Clinton replied: "I haven't researched it enough to know."
"You know, the last cases on this that were relevant were probably Lincoln's suspension or the writ of habeas corpus and two cases around the Civil War called Ex-parte Yeager and Ex-parte McArdle," he explained.
"You can go back and read those cases but there has not been a great deal of litigation that goes directly to the inherent authority of the president.
"But for me," Clinton continued, "the statute never presented a problem. As far as I know we always followed the statute. I don't think we ever went outside it. And it seems to me that I haven't seen any indication that it would have been an impediment here."
Clinton reiterated: "To the best of my knowledge, we never went outside [the law]. If we did, I don't know about it."
The narcissistic liar and opportunist is always true to form. He doesn't remember breaking the law and, you know, if he did he doesn't know a thing about it.
no, he never knows anything when it comes to breaking the law.
Bush`s fault.
LOLOL!
Klinton always was a one-eyed Jack, and still "is"
Clinton ran the most ethical administration in American history, don't cha know? Only when Bush was selected did MSM revisionist American history begin (after the Watergate and "Decade of Greed" chapters)
Ask Bill if the FISA court was in Sandy's pants.
Maybe it did but I didn't know about it but sandy burglar says, blah blah blah blah.
And this is the same person that used "I fon'y trvsll" so many times UNDER OATH that he now remembers he actually did do somthing within the law?/s
And we're supposed to belive "Old Stuff It In The Pants Berger: that Clinton did everyting right?/more Sarc
Again, the republicans refusing to take Bill Clinton down once and for all is continuing to plague the country. Why does this idiot still have a platform? Because the Senate wimped out. He now endangers the country by sticking his nose into security matters, for no other reason but selfish ones...to get his wife elected president. Not gonna happen Bill.
No money to the RNC or the RINO network until the wussyness is supplanted by testosterone.
Can we get Maureen Dowd to decode this. (photo bait)
Sorry for the typos...It is "I Can't Recall" that Clinton used so many times.
If Vince Foster "comes back," I guarandamteeya, he'll be carrying.
The man is a liar. Just like he lied about NOT having Ben Ladin offered to us by Sudan. When he admitted it on tape he then lied about what his words meant. The MSM gladly repeat his lies as truth even as they know it is a lie.
The buck didn't stop here. Hell, the buck never got here.
It depends what the meaning of [the law] is.
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
From the 1995 Presidential Documents Online via GPO Access [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:pd13fe95_txt-21]
[Page 223-224]
Monday, February 13, 1995
Volume 31--Number 6
Pages 193-230
Week Ending Friday, February 10, 1995
Executive Order 12949--Foreign Intelligence Physical Searches
February 9, 1995
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and
the laws of the Unit-
[[Page 224]]
ed States, including sections 302 and 303 of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act of 1978 (``Act'') (50 U.S.C. 1801, et seq.), as amended
by Public Law 103-359, and in order to provide for the authorization of
physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes as set forth in the
Act, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Pursuant to section 302(a)(1) of the Act, the Attorney
General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court
order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to
one year, if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by
that section.
Sec. 2. Pursuant to section 302(b) of the Act, the Attorney General
is authorized to approve applications to the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court under section 303 of the Act to obtain orders for
physical searches for the purpose of collecting foreign intelligence
information.
Sec. 3. Pursuant to section 303(a)(7) of the Act, the following
officials, each of whom is employed in the area of national security or
defense, is designated to make the certifications required by section
303(a)(7) of the Act in support of applications to conduct physical
searches:
(a) Secretary of State;
(b) Secretary of Defense;
(c) Director of Central Intelligence;
(d) Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation;
(e) Deputy Secretary of State;
(f) Deputy Secretary of Defense; and
(g) Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.
None of the above officials, nor anyone officially acting in that
capacity, may exercise the authority to make the above certifications,
unless that official has been appointed by the President, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate.
William J. Clinton
The White House,
February 9, 1995.
[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 2:30 p.m., February 9,
1995]
Note: This Executive order was published in the Federal Register on
February 13.
Clinton wears this as a badge of honor? You'd think he'd have a second thought knowing how the September 11 gang planned and triggered their attack. It might have been nice if he had either intercepted some of those planning calls or had an established program that he passed along to the Bush administration.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.