No. He did not say that. DOJ reviewed it. IMO, there is a legit beef on this and if Bush does not knock a home run tonight, we are in for a Constitutional showdown.
What's the legit beef if the DOJ does a review every 45 days and Congress has been repeatedly briefed on the NSA?
Where's the Constitutional showdown?
I agree the NSA matter needs to be handled and handled well. I'm not so sure tonight is the night the president will address some key issues, although he'll certainly have the country's attention and it might be a good time to remind folks that:
1) The spying is only done on those people within the United States who are known to have association with Al Qaeda.
2) The NYT article makes clear that no laws were broken. Any democrat saying differently is playing politics, imo.
3) The NYT article also says that the CIA seized the terrorists' computers, cellphones and personal phone directories, said the officials familiar with the program. The NSA. surveillance was intended to exploit those numbers and addresses as quickly as possible, the officials said. In addition to eavesdropping on those numbers and reading e-mail messages to and from the Qaeda figures, the NSA. began monitoring others linked to them, creating an expanding chain. While most of the numbers and addresses were overseas, hundreds were in the United States, the officials said.
They were tracking numbers that were tied to confirmed terrorists and according to reports, stopped 3 terrorist attacks within the US. This is EXACTLY how the 9/11 attacks were coordinated - between jihadists and sympathizers or other terrorists living in this country.
4) The NYT article also states that the government DID use subpoenas for domestic taps in a great many instances, mostly related to conversations between terrorist within the US.
5) Clinton used NSA satellites to spy on Americans after the Oklahoma City bombing incident. The leftists never had a problem with that and all the complaints we hear from them now about American's civil rights being abused pale in comparison when one remembers what happened to women and children at WACO and how Clinton abused his office and used the IRS to target his political enemies.
"It will be recalled that the case that set forth the primary purpose test as constitutionally required was Truong. The Fourth Circuit thought that Keith’s balancing standard implied the adoption of the primary purpose test. We reiterate that Truong dealt with a pre-FISA surveillance based on the President’s constitutional responsibility to conduct the foreign affairs of the United States. 629 F.2d at 914. Although Truong suggested the line it drew was a constitutional minimum that would apply to a FISA surveillance, see id. at 914 n.4, it had no occasion to consider the application of the statute carefully. The Truong court, as did all the other courts to have decided the issue, held that the President did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information.26 It was incumbent upon the court, therefore, to determine the boundaries of that constitutional authority in the case before it. We take for granted that the President does have that authority and, assuming that is so, FISA could not encroach on the President’s constitutional power."
There was a guy - Congresscritter, I think, but I did not get his name - who told Kiran on Fox & Friends this morning, that CONGRESS had to renew this act every 45 days - so they certainly knew.
"...if Bush does not knock a home run tonight, we are in for a Constitutional showdown."
BS