NYT: More Attacks and Meetings on a Program Under Fire

[Pirate Smile]

More Attacks and Meetings on a Program Under Fire


By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
Published: January 21, 2006

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 - Vice President Dick Cheney gave Congressional leaders a closed-door briefing at the White House Friday on the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, as Democrats escalated their attacks on President Bush over the operation by drawing comparisons to British tyrants and Nazi Germany.

-snip-
The day's events showed the White House's increasingly forceful effort to build public support for the program, as it seeks to demonstrate that Mr. Bush acted within constitutional authority in ordering the agency to monitor international e-mail and phone calls linked to Al Qaeda without seeking warrants.

-snip-
Meanwhile, House Democrats, frustrated that Republican leaders had refused to hold hearings on the matter, held an unusual unofficial hearing of their own on Friday.

The eight Democratic lawmakers at the event were unrelenting in their criticism of a program that they said would open the way to unlimited presidential powers. Some questioned whether Mr. Bush's authorization of it was an impeachable offense.
Several lawmakers and witnesses compared the administration to a British monarchy, casting Mr. Bush as George III. Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, even compared the president's powers to those the Nazis used early to cement their power.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/national/21nsa.html

[Drum]

1. Ouch! /eom

[KoKo]

2. It's an okay article....could have been much better, but I'm sure it was

heavily edited by the NYT's Censors.

Notice the emphasis on "liberals" and the lack of citing the testimony from the two lawyers who both said Bush doesn't have a case in any way to defend NSA spying. Article doesn't mention the Quaker group from Florida who were spied on and had Pentagon officials as "plants" at their meetings. Nor, did they mention Wexler's impassioned arguments about how ordinary citiczens were spied on and if Bush could spy on a group of Peace Activists at a Quaker Meeting House then what is he doing with spying on the rest of ordinary citizens. Didn't mention James Bamford (author of Puzzle Palace:History of NSA Spying) or the comments and questions by members of the panel which were thorough and revealing.

Amazing what the NYT's editors manage to censor out. Judy Miller still lives in that building.

[HuffleClaw]

3. 'closed-door briefing'

that is such bullshit. this stuff needs to be in the open, preferably in front of tv cameras. i expect they'll do their best to keep the public from the congressional hearings too.

"...ordering the agency to monitor international e-mail and phone calls linked to Al Qaeda without seeking warrants." <=-- and THIS is really pissing me off, this 'linked to al qaeda' crap.

[Rose Siding]

4. The way Harman talked about it on CNN, it was just for the gang of eight

which sounded like her whole beef, and doesn't go far enough, imo. She's interested in the whole intel committee's being briefed.