Posted on 01/25/2006 7:42:18 AM PST by SmithL
Washington -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that President Bush was following in the tradition of such other wartime presidents as Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt when he ordered warrantless domestic wiretaps.
Gonzales also reiterated Bush's contention that his order for the surveillance had been implicitly allowed by Congress shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when it authorized him to use force against al Qaeda. Gonzales, as White House counsel, helped create the Bush-ordered program in 2001 that allows the secret National Security Agency to intercept calls and e-mails within the country that intelligence officials believe are directed to terrorists abroad. The order allows the spying to occur without a warrant from a special court.
The attorney general's speech before Georgetown University law students -- some of whom silently protested Gonzales' appearance by turning their backs as he spoke -- was part of an administration campaign to sway public opinion in favor of the spying program. The effort included the release last week of a Justice Department report laying out the legal justification for the program, a Monday speech by the country's No. 2 intelligence official and numerous mentions by the president at his appearances.
Top White House aide Karl Rove, in a speech last week to national Republicans, also made the case that Republicans believe the much-criticized spying program is a political winner for the president and his party by focusing attention on the war on terrorism.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Lincoln declared martial law and suspended habeas corpus because of the rebellion.
If there was martial law in effect now most of the Left would be sitting in prisons waiting for the gallows.
The morale boost speech by the President to the NSA this afternoon is in preparation for indictments and arrest with the person(s) who leaked the info. I think the Slimes turned and gave up the source(s).
So the same same bunch that apologized away Hillary's FBI files, and WHoDB, and Clinton's goons used to intimidate political foes such as Kathleen Willey - go bananas at the current president not getting warrants for survellience involving the enemy.
It shows where their priorities are - it's all about political power, not national security. And it's why, as inept as the Bush Admin often has been politically, they keep kicking the Dems in elections.
The Administration is presupposing a basic fact, namely, that the dems even accept we are at war. They do not. That is where this battle should be fought. Yes, say that the President is exercising his legitimate war powers. Yes, say the President is safe-guarding civil liberties. But go no further. If the dems (and some Republicans) feel the President is not exercising war powers, then they must feel we are not at war. If that is the case, then the question must be asked, why do the President's critics feel we are NOT at war? Let them answer that question and see them shrink into nothing. Because if they believe we are at war, then they have NO case. If they do not believe we are at war, then they have no political future.
Wonder how that would have set with modern-day Democrats?
Did Truman get a court-order to drop the bombs on Hiroshima or Nagasaki???
If not, are the libs saying they think its OK to nuke people without a warrant, but do not surveil their communications?!?
Why not just throw ECHELON back in their faces when they bring this up?
Karl Rove said it best, the demonRATS have a pre-9/11 mentality and the pubbies have apost 9/11 view of the world. I been to the hole in the ground in ny, ny and it's real. It's amazing that so many new yorkers walk and drive by where the towers once were and still deny we are in a real war. Truman capote recently referred to the war on terror as akin to the war on dandruff. Liberals just can't accept reality, it hurts their head.
I guess it never occurred to Mr. Epstein that Administration might want to get the facts about the program into the public debate.
In Chicago, they had confederate POW camp called Camp Douglas.
History Channel aired "80 Arces of Hell" just recently.
Some Chicago residents were arrested for being sympathic towards the prisoners.
http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=75261&browseCategoryId=&location=&parentcatid=&subcatid=
Roosevelt also had "Purple" and "Magic" which decoded messages between Japan and "persons" in the United States.
its very easy to criticize the constitutionality of actions from Lincoln and FDR in hindsight - but at the time, under the circumstances, both of them did the correct thing.
courts have always done the "right today, wrong tommorrow" approach. one day Lee Malvo is scheduled to be executed, the next day the SCOTUS finds some new civil right for him to escape it. one day you have property rights, the next day the court says the state can take it from you for private concerns.
its very easy to judge FDR and Lincoln in hindsight - so long as we recognize that we are doing just that - judging in hindsight - and how it clouds the discussion.
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