Posted on 07/19/2013 11:10:19 PM PDT by WilliamIII
Former vice president Dick Cheney said Sunday that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was wrong to suggest that the government’s recently revealed sweeping surveillance techniques are an invasion of Americans’ privacy. “Two-thirds of the Congress wasn’t here on 9/11, or for that period immediately after when we got into this program,” Cheney said on “Fox News Sunday.” He later added: “When you consider the possibility of somebody smuggling something like a nuclear device into the United States, it becomes very, very important to gather intelligence on your enemies and stop that attack before it ever gets launched.”
Cheney defended a National Security Agency program to collect phone records from millions of Americans, about which Paul has expressed deep concerns. The Kentucky senator announced last week that he has taken steps toward bringing legal action against the government over its surveillance efforts.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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Cheney is wrong on this one. We are gathering intelligence on regular Americans and storing it for who knows how long. Wonder how much information VP Cheney thinks the NSA should gather to protect us? How much is enough? Where’s the limit?
I’ll stand with Rand on this one.
The Bushs and collaborators have not been very outspoken about the need to honor the intent of our Founders Constitution. Bush1 took the USA to war to help his friend the Saudi King out of a jam by preserving his oil fields. Then Bush1 steps out and boldly declares that there has been a ‘world order’ established, nothing about any benefit for maintaining the Founder’s Constitution. Bush2 follows with a crusade to keep the evil forces from retaliating against Bush1 and the Saudi oil interests even as far as into Afghanistan. Then comes Bush3,Jeb, who says he wants to flood the USA with all kinds of people from south of the USA border. Of course the fact that the Bush family has some important members who seem to care more about illegal immigrants than keeping citizenship according to the Founders intentions for growth of this Nation gets buried in the feely-goodie mentality. I can recognize and respect military service to/for this Nation as I myself am a vet of WWII and lost my only brother in the battle of Okinawa, but I do not honor the ideas of a ‘new world’ order apart from the Constitution.
“When you consider the possibility of somebody smuggling something like a nuclear device into the United States, it becomes very, very important to gather intelligence on your enemies and stop that attack before it ever gets launched.”
Sweeping up my emails and phone calls don’t do any of that.
It was wrong when initiated and has only become worse.
” the more hay you gather, the worse your chances of finding the needle.”
Brilliant!
Too the point and pithy.
And how does Lynn Cheney feel about it? I'm sure the fine folks in Wyoming would be interested in hearing.
To be fair, these decisions are for the approximate equivalent of search warrants. I don't recall the target of a proposed search warrant ever being given the opportunity to show why it should not be granted.
Actually, if there's a needle somewhere in the hay field, you will have zero chance of finding it unless you search the entire field. (Come to think of it, that's not true, as you might find the needle in your first five minutes of search. But I wouldn't place a large bet on it if I were you.)
Unless you have some way of narrowing the location down to some extent. But we can't do that, because it would be "profiling."
Oh, yeah, Dick Cheney, the guy who gave blessings to Judge Greer’s killing of Schiavo... What a hero.
The lithmus test is that Cheney would be against YOU AND I getting a lawyer and drones of our own to supervise our government and his own shenanigans in his tower of cushy empire chicken hawk GOPe RINOs.
THe problem is that the like of Dick Cheney make the like of RAnd needed as a lawyers.
Whenever a government is in so much encroaching that people feel the need to have a lawyer 24 7 to protect their right each time a cop is around, we got a problem.
IT should not be that way, but now it is that we have to find the muster to supervise our own government back.
This is no go and should be somewhat of a test of how far this war has gone crazy and mismanaged because of cowardice in the face of Islam.
Father protecting daughter, gonna get messy.
“However in this case Cheney is supporting Obama as a side effect.”
I respectfully disagree. They’re two sides of the same coin. Neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism aren’t all that different in practice. Both support essentially unlimited government.
I’ve been saying for years now that Bush’s ROP nonsense set us back 25 years in appropriately dealing with Islam.
Dick Cheney is wrong and Rand Paul is right.
Paul believes in the Constitution’s provision that a warrant be issued specifically detailing the wwwwwh’s of a search.
I see the Constitution as our guiding document, and if Cheney or anyone wants it changed, then they are free to pursue and amendment. The “Fisa” court is an attempt to amend the constitution by legislative vote IF it’s given ANY authority to short-circuit that constitutional requirement.
We don’t have secret courts issuing secret, rushed warrants in the Constitution. Anything in the Bill of Rights should be held to a HIGHER standard and not to a lower one.
Some say this makes us vulnerable to terrorists. I disagree. If they’ve only found a terrorist plan by painstaking research or field work, then the extra few days to do this properly is no impediment.
If they have discovered an act to be carried out against the US, then the President is the Commander in Chief, and he has the authority to make immediate strikes to protect our security.
At one time I thought Cheney actually stood for Free America, I now know I was 100% wrong! Cheney was the worst sort to be near the seat of power when the bona-fide dimwit GWB was Prez. Cheny sat in the DC and ordered the US Air defense to stand down. Cheney promoted the ill conceived ME takeover, Cheney/Bush don’t give a damn about this country as they refused to deal w/ the border and prosecuted Border Patrol Agents that tried to do their jobs! Don’t get me started on their precious ROP!
FU cheney! This guy should be tried for war crimes and treason.
Dick Cheney, GHWB, and GWB were all Ford supporters in 1976; GHWB had to keep quiet as he was in a diplomatic assignment in China at the time. Ford said his best contribution to the American people was John Paul Stevens.
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