On Hill, Anger and Calls for Hearings Greet News of Stateside Surveillance

[kpete]

On Hill, Anger and Calls for Hearings Greet News of Stateside Surveillance

By Dan Eggen and Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, December 17, 2005; Page A01

Congressional leaders of both parties called for hearings and issued condemnations yesterday in the wake of reports that President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 allowing the National Security Agency to spy on hundreds of U.S. citizens and other residents without court-approved warrants.

Disclosure of the NSA plan had an immediate effect on Capitol Hill, where Democratic senators and a handful of Republicans derailed a bill that would renew expiring portions of the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law. Opponents repeatedly cited the previously unknown NSA program as an example of the kinds of government abuses that concerned them, while the GOP chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he would hold oversight hearings on the issue.

The order issued by Bush in 2002, however, allowed the NSA to monitor without a warrant international telephone calls, e-mails and other communications between people in the United States and those overseas. The Associated Press reported last night that Bush reauthorized the order 36 times.


A government official familiar with the NSA order said the president urged that the change be explained to only a very limited group of people on a "need-to-know" basis. That meant that, for nearly four years, only two people in the judicial branch of the U.S. government knew about the warrantless searches: U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who presided over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and rotated off the court in May 2002, and U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who succeeded him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121601825.html

[CornField]

1. Let's all watch as the foxes guard the hen house

be sure to wear your feathered hat!

[darkmaestro019]

2. The pendulum has been hurtling away from us at terminal velocity

fast as a dream of hyperspace, knocking over people great and small in its wake, and then it.....seems to stop.....hanging at the farthest point of the arc, quivering with kinetic potential....

Ladies and gentlemen standing in its path, you may want to consider ducking. (smirk) Whole lotta motherfuckers on the other side--and counting--who have been itching to give it a great big shove for almost six years now.

[bryant69]

3. Ladies and Gentlemen we are Floating in Space

uh I don't know what you mean.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[acmejack]

4. You are certainly optimistic!

Not that it's a bad thing, just completely contrary to my current mindset. I have been becoming increasingly pessimistic, I just can no longer see any light at the end of the tunnel.

[SpiralHawk]

5. K and r

This treasonous act of a tyrant must not be allowed to fade from public view.

Bush must be held accountable for kissing off America's Bill of Rights.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

6. No one hates Dear Leader more than I

and this business of spying on Americans is hateful and odious in the extreme. But any cursory search of the relevant case law will tell you that the 4th Amendment has been under attack for a long, long time. It's a shame that the 4th Amendment didn't have the noisy guardians that the 1st and 2nd have had, for the truth is that without a vital 4th Amendment, the 1st and 2nd become mere showpieces.

The Busheviks only did this because there was already in place a long line of cases suggesting they could.

Nothing short of a million people surrounding the White House peacefully demanding his immediate resignation will do the job now. To the Republican Congress, politics is everything, and they will sacrifice everything at the altar of political expediency to preserve political power.

On edit: Typing skills minimized on Saturday mornings.

[electropop]

11. Half a million surrounded the White House on Sept 24th.

Most were demanding his removal. Nothing happened. The MSM ignored the story. Congress went about business as usual.

I do think though, that the pressure is slowly building. He will be out by August, and it will be done by his own party.

[Mythsaje]

15. The Drug War

punctured the 4th Amendment, and damn near everyone ignored the slow squeal as the protective bubble withered away. The Dems should've joined forces with the Libertarians a LONG time ago to attack the drug war for just this reason.

Ah, well...

I hear Ireland's nice, and authors don't have to pay taxes... <g>

[rodeodance]

7. the nytimes bush spy story was great timing.

Disclosure of the NSA plan had an immediate effect on Capitol Hill, where Democratic senators and a handful of Republicans derailed a bill that would renew expiring portions of the USA Patriot Act.....

[electropop]

12. I'm pissed the Times sat on it for a year, but on the other hand...

maybe they were waiting for a moment when it would do maximum damage? Though personally, I think that if they knew before the 2004 election, that would have been a better moment for it.

[wryter2000]

13. I'm not sure I'd give the NYT credit for that much acumen

But no matter how it happened, it punctured the bubble of his "great achievement" with the Iraqi elections the other day. I'll take it. :evilgrin:

[rodeodance]

8. but I assume the bubble people knew also?

.....A government official familiar with the NSA order said the president urged that the change be explained to only a very limited group of people on a "need-to-know" basis. That meant that, for nearly four years, only two people in the judicial branch of the U.S. government knew about the warrantless searches: U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who presided over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and rotated off the court in May 2002, and U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who succeeded him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[rodeodance]

9. as Russ Feingold said--this should send a chill down every Senators

back. He said this on the floor of the Senate yesterday.


...warrantless searches:

[FtWayneBlue]

10. The pResident has violated the 4th amendment -

Impeachment is now mandatory.

[in_cog_ni_to]

14. BINGO! They MUST impeach! He violated his oath of office.

How will they try get around that one?