Posted on 02/09/2006 8:29:47 PM PST by smoothsailing
Death Wish
By Oliver North
February 10, 2006
"[T]he president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."
So reads "S.J. Res. 23," a Joint Resolution of the Congress, sponsored by then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and signed into law on Sept. 18, 2001, seven days after the most devastating attack that has ever occurred on American soil. Honest people may disagree about whether the Congress needed to give -- or should have given -- the commander in chief the power "to use all necessary and appropriate force." But the Senate voted 98 to 0 and the House 420 to 1 to pass Public Law 107-40 -- giving him just such authority.
Now, in the fifth year of a war America did not start or want, the Congress seems intent on reigning in the president's ability to fight the Global War on Terror.
That is clearly the intent of many -- perhaps even a majority -- on the Senate Judiciary Committee that grilled Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez during a nine-hour-long public hearing this week. The issues -- cloaked in a mind-numbing array of acronyms and the arcane jargon of intelligence collection -- are really quite simple:
First, since the 1970's, Congress has sought to circumscribe the president's powers to collect intelligence and use military force by various laws -- among them, the War Powers Resolution and FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. During a war, does President Bush -- or any other commander in chief -- have the inherent constitutional authority to gather all manner of intelligence on our enemies using a full range of electronic and other collection capabilities?
Second, does Public Law 107-40 -- widely described in Washington as the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) -- supersede normal peacetime proscriptions in intelligence collection?
The Bush administration says "yes" in response to both questions. Many, perhaps most, in Congress seem prepared to say "no" to both. Setting aside the partisan rhetoric from the likes of Sens. Edward Kennedy and Patrick Leahy, there are members who understand the stakes: a delicate balance between Constitutionally protected civil liberties for the American people -- and the legality of intercepting communications between and among those plotting attacks on the American people. What is not at issue is the ability of the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect such information -- using methods that were never envisioned when FISA was written.
The 4th Amendment is very explicit that, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause." To enshrine these protections, FISA requires -- with very limited exceptions -- that a warrant be obtained before any government listening or peeking is conducted against Americans. Given what we now know of those who attacked us on Sept. 11, and those who killed in London, Madrid, Bali, and Casablanca, Morocco, such "collection restrictions" make it possible to determine who plotted an attack in its aftermath -- but unlikely that we will be able to prevent such an attack before it occurs.
A retired NSA official and friend put it this way: "Our problem, given the broad array of modern telecommunications technology, is that we don't know what we have until we have it." Put differently, we have the ability to monitor massive amounts of information between persons in the United States and others overseas. Any one of millions of messages, phone calls, faxes, e-mails or data transfers could be an instruction to carry out another Sept. 11. Do we want our government to intercept and act on such communications before an attack and save lives? It has worked before.
Nineteen years ago this month, our intelligence services intercepted a message from an overseas capital instructing a terrorist "sleeper cell" in a Washington, D.C. suburb to assassinate a U.S. military officer living in northern Virginia. The FBI alerted the target, and the Department of Defense secretly moved the officer, his wife and children to a military base in North Carolina. The terrorists were apprehended as they prepared to carry out their attack. The technology used to detect the attack is still secret. The lives that were saved were mine and those of my wife and children.
Do we want our government to be able to save lives like this -- very likely on a far broader scale -- in the future? If so, then at the very least, we should take the debate behind closed doors and stop risking the compromise of very sensitive collection capabilities.
Attorney General Gonzales put it succinctly in his testimony before the Judiciary Committee this week: "Our enemy is listening. And I cannot help but wonder if they aren't shaking their heads in amazement at the thought that anyone would imperil such a sensitive program by leaking its existence in the first place -- and smiling at the prospect that we might now disclose even more or perhaps even unilaterally disarm ourselves of a key tool in the war on terror." Failing to heed this advice is nothing short of a death wish.
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COPYRIGHT 2005 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.
Yes I do and he is a very handsome man :)
He looks like lurch to my eyes.
You are suffering from foot in mouth disease.......You are a veritable cesspool of verbiage. You are a REAL Richard Head.
(Star,that's a great pic of you and Ollie! :)
ROFL -- very funny -- yes, I clicked.
I stayed up for it, and yes, it was worth it!
No, I haven't.
BTW, I was only able to listen to about 20 minutes of Tom Sullivan subbing for Rush today. Had a team lunch meeting. Got out of the car just when Tom went to a break, holding a caller from New Orleans over the break. The caller was claiming that Tom & others weren't telling the truth about the levees, money that had been allocated for the levees, etc. Did you hear how Tom answered him?
Its kinda funny how you guys can make all these assumptions about a total stranger online yet you cant even accept the straight history about Oliver North. I personally think rewarding terrorists for kidnapping Americans is the height of treason, no matter what the motive. I think you guys miss that because you've made the guy into some sort of movie star, he betrayed his oath, his president and our nation - thats enough for me.
It's a very good nonfiction account of some things that happened during the Vietnam war. A military officer recommended hubby read it for a research paper he was doing. Oliver North was a character witness for one of the accused, and that person got off. It was an enlightening read.
5.56mm
North was a character witness,that is correct.But do you know for whom? And do you know why?
Yes, I read the book.
What was your assessment of North's testimony?
IIRC, they were caught as they approached his house. I don't know what happened to them after that, but I think the one who sent them to kill Colonel North and his family was Abu Nidal.
My take on what happened was that Colonel North wanted to repay someone who had saved his life during war by being a character witness for him. It disturbed me greatly that the ones who were following orders and did not have such a defender were convicted but their leader who was right there with them was found not guilty. As far as North's testimony goes, I would have to read the book again. It's been several years, and I don't remember specifics.
North, a 1st Lt. at the time of Son Thang, was virtually unknown to the general public then.The courts martial of the five Marines were publicized at the time, but nothing like the publicity the My Lai horrors generated.
North didn't have to involve himself at all.He was a young officer,a West Pointer, and had a fine record and a promising future.
His going to bat that way for Private Herrod, showed his good character and the sense of duty he felt to a fellow Marine.I read the book about 7 years ago and although North plays a small but significant part in the trial, it re-inforced my opinion of him.
He's a solid guy, and someone I would be proud to have served with back then.
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