Posted on 03/29/2006 9:28:16 AM PST by MikeA
A panel of former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges yesterday told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that President Bush did not act illegally when he created by executive order a wiretapping program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).
The five judges testifying before the committee said they could not speak specifically to the NSA listening program without being briefed on it, but that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not override the president's constitutional authority to spy on suspected international agents under executive order.
"If a court refuses a FISA application and there is not sufficient time for the president to go to the court of review, the president can under executive order act unilaterally, which he is doing now," said Judge Allan Kornblum, magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and an author of the 1978 FISA Act. "I think that the president would be remiss exercising his constitutional authority by giving all of that power over to a statute."
The judges, however, said Mr. Bush's choice to ignore established law regarding foreign intelligence gathering was made "at his own peril," because ultimately he will have to answer to Congress and the Supreme Court if the surveillance was found not to be in the best interests of national security.
The panel of judges unanimously agreed that the law should have been changed before now to deal with new threats from terrorists and new communications technologies, a point made by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat.
"It is confusing that if you take something off of a satellite it is legal, but if you take it off of a wiretap it's not," she said. "We need to include new technology."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Amazing the exhoneration of Bush has gotten ZERO attention from the MSM, although I hear the treasonous New York Slimes tried to spin this testimony to somehow favor their anti-Bush line on wiretapping. These people are utterly shameless. And as always happens when they create a firestorm against a Republican, the lapdog news media has totally underplayed the mitigating testimony and information which undermines the overplayed initial story.
Well, now that we have that out of the way and Bush has been cleared of any cloud from this FISA wiretapping, we can now get on with the important business of having the FBI frog march the editors of the New York Slimes out of their offices for having revealed this top secret national security program all for the benefit of feeding their Bush hating psychosis.
BTTT
Thanks for the post Mike!
See this?
PING
ping
ping
**Why has the mainstream media ignored this story...**
Uh...could it be because they are the free propaganda wing of the Democrat Party? Ya think?
Bump - another one I wouldn't have heard if it weren't for FreeRepublic.
You're a funny guy, Mike. HI-lariuus.
Ditto.
The judges, however, said Mr. Bush's choice to ignore established law regarding foreign intelligence gathering was made "at his own peril," because ultimately he will have to answer to Congress and the Supreme Court if the surveillance was found not to be in the best interests of national security.Pretty much the thrust of my comments on the subject. The surveillance may well be within Constitutional parmeters, even if outside the structure of FISA, but there is no way to tell except on a case by case basis, as the cases come into the courts.
One of my concerns is bad guys getting off because of a violation of the 4th amendment.
He'd have a helluva lot more to answer to had he NOT authorized these activities...and the 'Rats and media damn well know it.
Did Arlen Specter find their testimony "preposterous?"
The MSM ignored this story because ............................................... ........................................................it wasn't leaked to them by Karl Rove.
Ahhh....their spell checker is hung?
March 28, 2006 - Joshua Pantesco at 8:11 PM ET
Federal judges support Specter surveillance supervision bill at hearing[JURIST] Five federal judges appearing Tuesday before the US Senate Judiciary Committee expressed approval of committee chairman Arlen Specter's proposal [JURIST report] to require the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret panel established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text], to conduct regular reviews of the National Security Administration's warrantless surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. The judges,all familiar with the FISA court, said they were unfamiliar with the latest NSA program, but insisted that the court has struck the correct balance between civil liberties and national security concerns since its establishment and would continue to do so. Specter's proposed bill would also require the NSA to obtain a judicial warrant under FISA before conducting any domestic surveillance.
A group of Republican Senators led by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) have introduced a competing bill [JURIST report; PDF text] that would permit warrantless wiretapping for 45 days before court approval is required. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) has also introduced a resolution to censure President Bush [JURIST report] over the program, which will be the focus of Judiciary Committee hearing [JURIST report] Friday. Read Judiciary Committee Ranking Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy's statement at today's hearing. AP has more.
I haven't checked the Judiciary Committee website today to see if they have posted any transcripts, either of statements or of yesterday's Q&A.
See also Byron York's "Arlen Specter and the White House's 'Preposterous' Defense", discussed briefly at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1604901/posts.
The media make me sick. They will never report this story as prominantly as they did with the story by a FISA judge who resigned the panel.
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.