Daschle: Congress Denied Bush War Powers in U.S. (Bush dead in the water)

[ProSense]

Daschle: Congress Denied Bush War Powers in U.S.

By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 23, 2005; Page A04

The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected, war-making authority "in the United States" in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an opinion article by former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) in today's Washington Post.

Daschle's disclosure challenges a central legal argument offered by the White House in defense of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It suggests that Congress refused explicitly to grant authority that the Bush administration now asserts is implicit in the resolution.


snip...

"Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote, the administration sought to add the words 'in the United States and' after 'appropriate force' in the agreed-upon text," Daschle wrote. "This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas -- where we all understood he wanted authority to act -- but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens. I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority. I refused."

Daschle wrote that Congress also rejected draft language from the White House that would have authorized the use of force to "deter and pre-empt any future acts of terrorism or aggression against the United States," not only against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Republican legislators involved in the negotiations could not be reached for comment last night.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR2005122202119.html?nav=rss_politics/administration

[Hello_Kitty]

1. I swear MIHOP is getting more and more plausible to me all the time

Trying to get the power to make war IN the United States IMMEDIATELY after 9/11?!?!

THAT was their priority?!?! :nuke:

[Pachamama]

25. I swear, I feel like I'm trapped in some John Le Carre, or Robert Ludlum

or George Orwell story...... :scared:

Unreal....your right...MIHOP is getting to be more and more plausible...And the Anthrax letters sent to members of Congress, the timing etc....too scary.....

Could this explain why for the last 4 years it seems everyone follows lock step and the Dems and presstitutes remained so quiet?

[merwin]

2. Iraq was not involved in 9/11, according to GW Bush. There is audio of him

saying "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the September the 11th."

Therefore he didn't even have the authority to invade Iraq.

[regnaD kciN]

10. Not really...

There is audio of him saying "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the September the 11th."

Ah, but, as Dick Cheney (or was it Donald Rumsfeld?) put it, "Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence." :grr:

[merwin]

13. Well, theoretically they have to prove that they were involved if congress

decides to question him... which may happen soon enough.

[bettyellen]

27. Yet he says he would do it again,... Totally lawless!

and i think you're right, haven't they been denying they even tried to connect 9/11 and Saddam....
yes they have, even though it's the only reason they could have used their authorization.
HE DID NOT GET A BLANK CHECK_ HE IS JUST PRETENDING HE DID!!!!!

[speedoo]

3. What goes around.... comes around.

heh. heh.

The Coward is so fucked.

[C_U_L8R]

4. He WHAT ????

Oh this is absolutely insane..... someone please
put a straightjacket on this pint-sized Idi Amin of a President

[w13rd0]

5. If this is true...

...there is NO DOUBT in my mind that, upon being rejected, the Bush administration sought to circumvent the Congress and justice itself, and conducted illegal, unconstitutional surveilance activity within the United States, against it's own citizens. And yes, it makes MIHOP far more plausible. Remember where the administration stood on September 10th, 2001. Recall what was to be published that very week.

[speedoo]

6. OK, I'll ask.

What was to be published that week?

[w13rd0]

11. Concerning Election Theft 2000...

...and there was also a lot of "chatter" going on about Cheney's meetings with Energy and Bush's tax cuts, basically, everyone but his rightwingnut base was dogging him, and his approval was sub40%...

[eve_was_framed]

17. not to mention that his poll numbers were in the crapper

[Wilms]

7. Uhhhh, Recommended.

:scared:

[Doctor_J]

8. On the upside,

when * goes to prison, the cocaine he so loves will be readily available.

[MadisonProgressive]

9. The wording was rejected on Sept 18th 2001

same day as the postmark on the first anthrax letter!

Daschle just 'happened' to get one sent to his office...

[w13rd0]

12. hurm...

interesting "coincidence"

[global1]

14. I Said It Before - The Choreographed War - The Choreographed...

pResident. Everything we've thought to be true about these thugs is turning out to be true. The lying, the torturing, the outing, the spying ---- why is it so hard to believe either MIHOP or LIHOP?

Will this come to roost in *Co's lap?

[MadisonProgressive]

15. I'm convinced of MIHOP. Without a doubt in my mind.

[bettyellen]

28. OMIGOD

i think i just skipped over LIHOP straight to MIHOP.

[bettyellen]

29. The anthrax was also the 18th.... I wanted everybody to see that so....

i started this. i am still sort of stunned by the... timing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5674426&mesg_id=5674426

[MadisonProgressive]

16. KAY AND ARE

[Fovea]

18. I sense a great disturbance in the force

and I think we are already deep in interesting times.

[MadisonProgressive]

20. The FREEPERS are disturbed

"This is like manna from heaven. Dipstick admits that the democrats tied the CIC's hands when this nation was a battlefield. If the republicans can't make hay with this, they are lost."

[bettyellen]

23. i am disturbed by your avatar

is that jocelyn wildenstein?
she's real purrrrrdy!
:HI:

[ebayfool]

19. Kicked & rec'ed! n/t

[texpatriot2004]

21. Thank you Daschle, you were right to protect Americans nt

[bettyellen]

22. "deter and pre-empt any future acts of terrorism or agression".....didn't

Condi or Rummy say that they believe the president DOES have that power even if it's not tied to 9/11?
I remember this.... Now, do we need to remind the govt they ain't authorized.
As it is, they make a big mistake, and misused their authorization, and * says he'd do it again- doesn't he realize that would be breaking the law?

[arcane1]

24. they were trying to link Iraq and 9/11 the VERY NEXT DAY!!!!

[bettyellen]

26. yes they were.

but i remember someone big being quoted that the presidents authority isn't limited to agressors from Al Queda or 9/11.
i'm going to have to look it up.

[flordehinojos]

30. this sounds like bush was AND STILL IS seeking the slow establishment of a

dictatorship. It has the smell of REICHSTAG BURNING and the powers Hitler slowly acquired after that.

slick bastard georges--poppy and sonny!