Posted on 12/17/2005 8:09:19 AM PST by joinedafterattack
Bush Raps Senators on Blocking Patriot Act
By JENNIFER LOVEN
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday that senators who are blocking renewal of the terrorism-fighting Patriot Act are acting irresponsibly and standing in the way of protecting the country from attack.
President Bush said Saturday that senators who are blocking renewal of the terrorism-fighting Patriot Act are acting irresponsibly and standing in the way of protecting the country from attack.
"In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment," the president said in a live broadcast from the White House of his weekly radio address.
Senate Democrats, with the aid of a handful of Republicans, succeeded Friday in stalling the bill already approved by the House. The vote to advance the measure, 52-47, fell eight votes shy of the 60 votes required to end debate.
"That decision is irresponsible and it endangers the lives of our citizens. The senators who are filibustering must stop their delaying tactics and the Senate must reauthorize the Patriot Act," Bush said.
Opponents of renewing the law, most of whom are Democrats, argue that it threatens constitutional liberties at home.
Most Republicans and other supporters say the act is essential for protecting the country against terrorists. The law was enacted in the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Of the 55 Republicans in the Senate, four helped to block its passage while two of the 45 Democrats pushed to pass it.
Some of the most contentious elements of the Patriot Act include powers granted to law enforcement agencies to gain access in secret to library and medical records and other personal data during investigations of suspected terrorist activity.
The law allows the government to conduct roving wiretaps involving multiple phones and to wiretap "lone wolf" terrorists who may operate on their own, without control from a foreign agent or power.
If the law is not renewed, its powers would expire Dec. 31 only for new investigations of people whose criminal activity began after Dec. 31 and who were not associated with anyone who was under investigation before Dec. 31.
The debate over the Patriot Act was fueled anew by a New York Times report that Bush had secretly authorized eavesdropping on individuals in the United States without first gaining permission from the courts.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
They held it at the request of federal officials until now..
It may be it was released to coincide with the Patriot Act Renewal..
It may be that they decided to reveal the info in coordination with someone's book release, but fact is, the knowledge, and any "leak" is over a year old..
They could have trumped up a scandal any time they wanted to over the last year..
NOTHING has made me feel less safe than these continuing leaks.
So, I would say that the intelligence community isn't napping, rather it's actively doing what it does best, destroying people it doesn't find useful to its ends.
Please, President Bush -- PLEASE stop trying to make the United States like the former CCCP.
Didn't Bush agree to this "terrorist bill of rights", too?
Yes....reluctantly.
"The NYT clearly stated that they have had the "spying" info about the NSA for over a year.."
So the only question is, were they keeping it tucked away for the right time, or is this a desperation move that just occured to them?
"He can't wholesale fire anybody."
Why not?
Remember when that scumbag clinton fired all the US attorneys?
If I understand what I read correctly, NYT claims they cooperated, kept their mouth shut, but there was no "reciprocity", in other words, the feds wouldn't agree to explain, give interviews, blah blah, so they finally said "screw it" and published..
" Once you give permanent powers over your private papers, and activities, you will never get that privacy back.. "
Most people don't understand that. Just look at the recent shenanigans of the Miami Police and thier little project to stop everyone on the street and check their ID. The police chief said he wants to "shock and awe" the citizens. It sounds to me as if this gomer is mentally ill or just drunk on power.
What's more disturbing is that so many Freepers agree with this sort of activity. They just love to see people bend their necks in submission while shouting from the rooftops how free we are.
"NYT claims"
Yes, but they are proven liars. Even pathological liars.
"NYT claims"
Yes, but they are proven liars. Even pathological liars.
Has it come to this here? In just five years? I've cut the administration a lot of slack over the need to do terror investigations, but there is a line somewhere that has to be respected and we here seem to be slowly sliding across that line.
"You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide"..
I always make a conscious effort to insure I'm not holding a "blunt object", and if I am, to put it down..
Look back to Richard Nixon and the War On Drugs..
Note the parallels concerning loss of rights and protections under the law..
Extrapolate..
The dem staffers leak classified details when ever they get information. They put party before country. They care about Bush's poll numbers not the safety of this country.
Dem staffers leaked the secret prisons in europe to the washington post. They went to the media to tell them where the top al queda suspects are being held. They put our troops in danger.
That is a line they crossed. Dems tipped off the media to these wiretaps from overseas to here. When will they stop?
We have patrict fitzgerald for plame but nothing on other leaks which have damaged us.
Loss of rights?
CIA overseas catches an al queda suspect and they then use his cell phone numbers to check out who those people are.
How is that losing your rights. That is going after our enemies.
Dems want to take away the powers of the cia so they can blame bush when the next attack hits. This is all what it is about.
Bush was lawfully allowed to do this the law says bush can do this in extreme measures. Imagine if we caught bin laden and he had numbers of contacts in the u.s wouldn't you want to intercept the phone calls between overseas and the u.s of terrorists. We are not talking even about terrorists communicating in the u.s. It is for the cia to be allowed to quickly intercept a call between a terrorist overseas that calls the u.s.
By the way it is the terrorists rights that are back. No more patriot act. No more wiretaps. No more aggressive interrogation techniques.
Law enforcement has never been weaker than it is now. The media has printed all our secrets to the enemy.
Bush will then get blamed for an attack.
That's all well and good, but tell what's the risk in getting a warrant when one of the parties is in the U.S.? It's not like the the FISA courts are particularly hard-line on issuing warrants.
Intelligence agents have said the warrant process can take hours. You need quick action on the ground for the intercepts on the ground sometimes.
The law lets bush do this. People that want to risk intelligence for a warrant when the law allows bush to do this are falling into the clinton trap.
Clinton made everything a EU legal matter. Do we want arlen specter's scottish laws making decisions or brave cia agents on the ground acting on real time intelligence.
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.