Posted on 12/19/2005 6:48:51 PM PST by stocksthatgoup
Boxer’s letter is as follows:
On December 16, along with the rest of America, I learned that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without getting a warrant from a judge. President Bush underscored his support for this action in his press conference today.
On Sunday, December 18, former White House Counsel John Dean and I participated in a public discussion that covered many issues, including this surveillance. Mr. Dean, who was President Nixon’s counsel at the time of Watergate, said that President Bush is “the first President to admit to an impeachable offense.” Today, Mr. Dean confirmed his statement.
This startling assertion by Mr. Dean is especially poignant because he experienced first hand the executive abuse of power and a presidential scandal arising from the surveillance of American citizens.
Given your constitutional expertise, particularly in the area of presidential impeachment, I am writing to ask for your comments and thoughts on Mr. Dean’s statement.
Unchecked surveillance of American citizens is troubling to both me and many of my constituents. I would appreciate your thoughts on this matter as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
Boxer Asks Presidential Scholars About Former White House Counsel's Statement that Bush Admitted to an 'Impeachable Offense'
December 19, 2005
No doubt Boxer fears someone will start picking up her secret communications with the People's Republic politburo.
FYI
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1543688/posts
Jimmy Carter Assumed Same Spy Power As Bush
She is a really wierd person. Here is what SMASH has to say about all this:
We know that Congressional leaders were briefed on this program. Some claim to have expressed concerns about the legality of such unusual measures. How were those concerns addressed? Were changes subsequently made to the program to ensure that the rights of law-abiding citizens were not violated? The Bush Administration claims that these intercepts were made without acquiring warrants because of time concerns. Was any officer of the courts consulted after-the-fact? Was the judicial branch involved at any time, in any way?
In short, what checks and balances were present, if any?
I'm also concerned with the apparent eagerness on the part of some partisan Democrats to declare a "Constitutional Crisis" and start the ball rolling towards their ultimate goal: the impeachment of President Bush. While the possibility that the Executive Branch might be ignoring the Fourth Amendment is indeed disturbing, the proper remedy in this instance would be to obtain a court injunction halting such intercepts, and to disallow any evidence so garnered to be used in a court of law (as is routine when evidence is obtained through illegal searches in criminal cases). Calling for the President's impeachment seems a little extreme.
If President Bush has done anything wrong by ordering these intercepts, he was clearly motivated by his constitutional duty to protect American citizens from foreign threats. There is no evidence whatsoever of any malicious abuse of power in this case; the targets of this program were members of the same organization that gleefully slaughtered almost 3,000 men, women, and children on that horrible Tuesday morning four years ago.
Congress has the power to investigate this program, and is already making preliminary moves to launch such an investigation. In doing so, they should keep two principles in mind:
1. Avoid further damage to our national security, and
2. Consider the Constitution first, and their partisan interests not at all.
I urge them to follow the above advice, but I doubt that they will -- 2006 is an even-numbered year, after all.
As we say in the Navy, "stand by for heavy rolls."
http://www.indepundit.com/archive2/2005/12/domestic_intell.html#
Is this scrappleface? She can't be serious!
I love it, the nutso left really is going to go all all out on this. Chalk up a few extra seats in Congress.
By the authority vested in me as President by Sections 102 and 104 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802 and 1804), in order to provide as set forth in that Act for the authorization of electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes, it is hereby ordered as follows:
1-101. Pursuant to Section 102(a)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(a)), the Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order, but only if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section.
1-102. Pursuant to Section 102(b) of the Foreign Intelligence Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(b)), the Attorney General is authorized to approve applications to the court having jurisdiction under Section 103 of that Act to obtain orders for electronic surveillance for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence information.
1-103. Pursuant to Section 104(a)(7) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1804(a)(7)), the following officials, each of whom is employed in the area of national security or defense, is designated to make the certifications required by Section 104(a)(7) of the Act in support of applications to conduct electronic surveillance:
(a) Secretary of State.
(b) Secretary of Defense.
(c) Director of Central Intelligence.
(d) Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(e) Deputy Secretary of State.
(f) Deputy Secretary of Defense.
(g) Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.
None of the above officials, nor anyone officially acting in that capacity, may exercise the authority to make the above certifications, unless that official has been appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.
1-104. [Deleted]
1-105. [Deleted]
[Secs. 1-104 and 1-105 amended Executive Order 12036 of Jan. 24, 1978, which was revoked by Executive Order 12333 of Dec. 4, 1981.]
Jimmy Carter
1978
Once more, with feeling:
[T]he Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order, but only if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section.
I'm surprised this took 24 hours.
Barbara Boxer could use a straitjacket, and she seems to comb her hair with a firecracker.
more blaa blaaa blaaa from Boxer......
" On December 16, along with the rest of America, I learned that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to ..."
Well, along with the rest of America except for the large group of Democrats (Reid, Daschle, Pelosi, Rockefeller, etc) that were briefed on the program.
Over here. Boxer impeachment letter.
"Chalk up a few extra seats in Congress."
Exactly. These people show their mental illness each and every day.
Also, I found this little piece moments ago. Seems to apply .....
From:
http://www.slate.com/id/117041/
(snip) --
In time, Congress grew concerned about the FBI's power, and after Prohibition's repeal it outlawed all non-consensual wiretapping (but not bugging) as part of the 1934 Communications Act. In 1939, the Supreme Court upheld that law, ruling that since taps were illegal, evidence obtained from using them was inadmissible in court.
Even so, executive officials kept using wiretaps. In particular, Franklin Roosevelt sought to carve out a large exception to the statutory ban. In 1940, he wrote his attorney general, Robert Jackson, that while he accepted the court rulings that upheld the 1934 law, he didn't think those prohibitions applied to "grave matters involving the defense of the nation"—an increasingly high priority as world war loomed. On the contrary, Roosevelt ordered Jackson to proceed with the secret use of "listening devices" (taps or bugs) to monitor "persons suspected of subversive activities … including suspected spies."
Concerned about a German "fifth column" in the United States, Roosevelt specified that his order applied to espionage by foreign agents. But when Harry Truman succeeded FDR in 1945, America's enemies list was changing fast. The next year, as the Iron Curtain fell and the Red Scare flared, Truman's attorney general, Tom Clark, expanded FDR's national security order to permit the surveillance of "domestic subversives." Clark and Truman endorsed wiretapping whenever matters of "domestic security" were at stake, allowing taps to be placed on someone simply because he held radical views.
****
George Bush did the right thing.
Can we re-impeach Clinton for this too? After all, he did the very same thing, only worse. Boxer needs to be removed from office and jailed as a traitor along with the other RAT leaders.
What a beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight!
Watching babbling Babs slit her throat!
I saw the title and thought that Boxer the Commie had been impeached.
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