Specter: But you have heard public statements from Rockefeller and others that they were informed about the program. So it's wrong to say it was secret.
Fein: As a citizen of the US, I care about a republic rather than a monarchy. (Stupid dodge)
Fein is appearing to be as big a fool as Dean.
Specter: Prof. Turner, you are a strong defender of presidential authority. What would be wrong with the president submitting to the FISA court the program that he has? He's obligated to make adisclosure to the FISA court. It's in part domestic surveillance. What would be wrong with the prez disclosing to FISA his program?
Turner: What we know about the program, what was reported in the NYT and by Gen. Hayden and AG all say that one party to every conversation was a foreign national outside the country. It's the target that matters. The targets are foreigners.
There are two problems with FISA. I'm told there is new technology that I don't undedrstand but makes it hard to do FISA. We know cell phone numbers used by AQ but we don't know who is talking.
Delay is a problem. If law enforcement wants to intercept a phone call, two days might pass by the time they go through teh hoops. They need signatures, committees, meetings, then they put together a binder about an inch thick for each case and get in line in the court. The court judges deserve high praise for workign hard, but they can't respond quickly enough.
Before you can listen you have to go through this entire process. FISA works sometimes and provides a useful check. But when the president decides that immediate action is required sometimes, the thought of censure is that Congress doesn't have in mind national security but the next election.