Posted on 01/20/2006 8:12:54 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Democratic senators took the Bush administration to task Friday for four years of domestic spying, while the president fought back with a planned embrace of the intelligence agency that is carrying out the effort.
In preparation for Senate hearings, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts noted that President Bush asserted in 2004 that "when we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so."
That Bush statement came at the same time the National Security Agency was engaging — at the president's direction — in warrantless eavesdropping on Americans.
"If President Bush can make his own rules for domestic surveillance, Big Brother has run amok," Kennedy said in a statement.
Introducing a proposed Senate resolution, Kennedy and Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont rejected White House assertions that congressional action after Sept. 11 authorized warrantless eavesdropping inside the United States.
A joint resolution of Congress authorized the use of force against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, but it "says nothing about domestic electronic surveillance," Kennedy declared.
Pushing back, Bush plans a Wednesday visit to the NSA, where he will reassert his claim that he has the constitutional authority to let intelligence officials listen in on international phone calls of Americans with suspected ties to terrorists.
"We are stepping up our efforts to educate the American people," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said of the trip to the NSA, based at Fort Meade in Maryland. McClellan called the program "a critical tool that helps us save lives and prevent attacks. It is limited and targeted to al-Qaida communications, with the focus being on detection and prevention."
Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, said the new audio tape of Osama bin Laden threatening attacks on American soil "is a vivid reminder why we must continue to intercept communications between al-Qaida overseas and potential operatives in the United States."
On Monday, deputy national intelligence director Mike Hayden, who led the National Security Agency when the program began in October 2001, will speak on the issue at the National Press Club.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is delivering a speech on the program in Washington.
Gonzales also plans to testify Feb. 6 about the secret program before the Senate Judiciary Committee where Kennedy and Leahy are members.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department on Wednesday issued a 42-page legal justification for the eavesdropping program, an expanded version of a document the agency sent Congress last month.
"Making their argument longer didn't make it any better," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (news, bio, voting record), D-Md., a Judiciary Committee member. He said Bush's secret approval of warrantless eavesdropping had made congressional debate on the Patriot Act meaningless.
The NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program is "an intelligence operation in search of a legal rationale," said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.
"What the president ordered in this case was a crime," added Turley, who said House Republicans are establishing a terrible precedent by not holding oversight hearings.
To fend off criticism, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and White House spokesman Scott McClellan referred to statements by John Schmidt, a Clinton administration associate attorney general who defended the program.
Schmidt wrote last month in the Chicago Tribune that Bush's authorization of the NSA surveillance is consistent with court decisions and Justice Department positions under prior presidents.
What else would they do? The hate America and everything it represents.
Err, "liberals."
I think Dumbocrats should pursue impeachment. We should encourage them every chance we get. Go to daily KOS and insist on it.
With the MSM - it's anything they want it to be.
I see the political logic....but, I would rather have the POTUS be the CIC right now...not the defendent.
After watching the antics of the Congresscritters over the last 6 years...I do NOT want the CIC to have to get permission from any of those people to secure my country.
It probably takes them half a day to figure out where to get "take-out"...could you imagine having to go to them for a split second decision on ANYTHING???
What? Fight back? Why...that would be defending ourselves. Do you want to make them mad at us? What'll France think?
It would never get any traction--we just need them talking about it every chance they get.
If you're consorting with al-Queerdo you deserve to have your calls monitored.
Franklin
Franklin
Franklin
Franklin
Senator Clinton: Thank you Senator Kennedy. Ladies and Gentleman of the Senate ... I have over 900 of these incriminating files right here in my briefcase ......
THAT has been the laughable thing to me in this whole NSA "scandal"...
WHY do Congresscritters believe that ANY POTUS, worth his salt would tell ANY congresscritter about a "secret, classified" intelligence operation???
I will even go so far as to say...that even if (HEAVEN FORBID)..there was ever a Hillary Administration...or any other DEM Admin...I would EXPECT them to do whatever it takes to keep America safe...and do at the LEAST the same things that Bush is doing...and I wouldn't WANT them to tell someone that would spill the beans.
Dunno, don-o...I guess, until the shark realizes it is a Great White Shark, and eats them whole.
ROTFLOL!!! I think you're right!!
Exactly. It wasn't Republicans or Democrats that won WW2, it was Americans (and British and Russians).
All of the naysayers about what President Bush supposedly did re: the NSA "scandal"...use the excuse..
WHAT IF a Hillary was elected..would you want her to have that power...and I have to say YES...of course...
and, if she doesn't use that power...then she would be derelict in her duty as CIC...
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