Saturday Nights alright for impeachment,
saturday night's alright, oh yeah!
"Bush Defends Secret Spying in the U.S." - but would anybody in their
right minds defend Bush at this moment?
He keeps invoking America's enemies. He demonstrates over and over
again what should have been obvious to everybody for years - he is
America's worst enemy at the moment.
The process of Stupification (tm) goes on... every 18 months, people
are twice as stupid as before. Thus, Bush is completely unaware that
he is BREAKING THE LAW. Is anybody in Congress still smart enough to
understand that? We'll see....
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 32 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Facing angry criticism and challenges to his authority in Congress,
President Bush on Saturday unapologetically defended his
administration's right to conduct secret post-Sept. 11 spying in the
United States as "critical to saving American lives."
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Bush said congressional leaders had been briefed on the operation more
than a dozen times. That included Democrats as well as Republicans in
the House and Senate, a GOP lawmaker said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she had been told
on several occasions that Bush had authorized unspecified activities
by the National Security Agency, the nation's largest spy agency. She
said she had expressed strong concerns at the time, and that Bush's
statement Saturday "raises serious questions as to what the activities
were and whether the activities were lawful."
Often appearing angry in an eight-minute address, the president made
clear he has no intention of halting his authorizations of the
monitoring activities and said public disclosure of the program by the
news media had endangered Americans.
Bush's willingness to publicly acknowledge a highly classified spying
program was a stunning development for a president known to dislike
disclosure of even the most mundane inner workings of his White House.
Just a day earlier he had refused to talk about it.
Since October 2001, the super-secret National Security Agency has
eavesdropped on the international phone calls and e-mails of people
inside the United States without court-approved warrants. Bush said
steps like these would help fight terrorists like those who involved
in the Sept. 11 plot.
"The activities I have authorized make it more likely that killers
like these 9/11 hijackers will be identified and located in time,"
Bush said. "And the activities conducted under this authorization have
helped detect and prevent possible terrorist attacks in the United
States and abroad."
News of the program came at a particularly damaging and delicate time.
Already, the administration was under fire for allegedly operating
secret prisons in Eastern Europe and shipping suspected terrorists to
other countries for harsh interrogations.
The NSA program's existence surfaced as Bush was fighting to save the
expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the domestic
anti-terrorism law enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Democrats and a few Republicans who say the law gives so much latitude
to law enforcement officials that it threatens Americans'
constitutional liberties succeeded Friday in stalling its renewal.
So Bush scrapped the version of his weekly radio address that he had
already taped — on the recent elections in Iraq — and delivered a live
speech from the Roosevelt Room in which he lashed out at the senators
blocking the Patriot Act as irresponsible and confirmed the NSA
program.
Bush said his authority to approve what he called a "vital tool in our
war against the terrorists" came from his constitutional powers as
commander in chief. He said that he has personally signed off on
reauthorizations more than 30 times.
"The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our
laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties," Bush
said. "And that is exactly what I will continue to do, so long as I'm
the president of the United States."
James Bamford, author of two books on the NSA, said the program could
be problematic because it bypasses a special court set up by the 1978
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to authorize eavesdropping on
suspected terrorists.
"I didn't hear him specify any legal right, except his right as
president, which in a democracy doesn't make much sense," Bamford said
in an interview. "Today, what Bush said is he went around the law,
which is a violation of the law — which is illegal."
Retired Adm. Bobby Inman, who led the NSA from 1977 to 1981, said
Bush's authorization of the eavesdropping would have been justified in
the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks "because at that point
you couldn't get a court warrant unless you could show probable
cause."
"Once the Patriot Act was in place, I am puzzled what was the need to
continue outside the court," Inman added. But he said, "If the fact is
valid that Congress was notified, there will be no consequences."
Susan Low Bloch, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown
University Law Center, said Bush was "taking a hugely expansive
interpretation of the Constitution and the president's powers under
the Constitution.
That view was echoed by congressional Democrats.
"I tell you, he's President George Bush, not King George Bush. This is
not the system of government we have and that we fought for," Sen.
Russell Feingold, D-Wis., told The Associated Press.
Added Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt.: "The Bush
administration seems to believe it is above the law."
Bush defended the program as narrowly designed and used "consistent
with U.S. law and the Constitution." He said it is employed only to
intercept the international communications of people inside the U.S.
who have been determined to have "a clear link" to al-Qaida or related
terrorist organizations.
Government officials have refused to provide details, including
defining the standards used to establish such a link or saying how
many people are being monitored.
The program is reviewed every 45 days, using fresh threat assessments,
legal reviews, and information from previous activities under the
program, the president said. Intelligence officials involved in the
monitoring receive extensive training in civil liberties, he said.
Bush said leaders in Congress have been briefed more than a dozen
times. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told House Republicans that those
informed were the top Republican and Democratic leaders of the House
and Senate and of each chamber's intelligence committees. "They've
been through the whole thing," Hoekstra said.
The president had harsh words for those who revealed the program to
the media, saying they acted improperly and illegally. The
surveillance was first disclosed in Friday's New York Times.
"As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not
have," Bush said. "The unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages
our national security and puts our citizens at risk."
Bush has more to worry about on Capitol Hill than his difficulties
with the Patriot Act. Lawmakers have begun challenging Bush on his
Iraq policy, reflecting polling that shows half of the country is not
behind him on the war.
On Sunday, the president was continuing his effort to reverse that by
giving his fifth major speech in less than three weeks on Iraq.
One bright spot for the White House was a new poll showing that a
strong majority of Americans oppose, as does Bush and most lawmakers,
an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The AP-Ipsos poll
found 57 percent of those surveyed said the U.S. military should stay
until Iraq is stabilized.
___
Associated Press Special Correspondent David Espo and writers Andrew
Bridges and Will Lester contributed to this report.
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