There Must Be a Secret Somewhere
05 February 2006 8:04 pm by Taylor Marsh
Out of thousands of Americans who have been watched, one source stating it's
5,000, fewer than 10 American citizens or residents aroused enough suspicion
through President Bush's illegal NSA wiretapping to warrant continuing the surveillance.
The Washington Post article is sobering in unveiling the stupidity
of the surveillance when juxtaposed against its effectiveness.
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| Courtesy: E.J. Fischer |
The scale of warrantless surveillance,
and the high proportion of bystanders swept in, sheds new light on Bush's circumvention
of the courts. National security lawyers, in and out of government, said the
washout rate raised fresh doubts about the program's lawfulness under the Fourth
Amendment, because a search cannot be judged “reasonable” if it is
based on evidence that experience shows to be unreliable. Other officials said
the disclosures might shift the terms of public debate, altering perceptions
about the balance between privacy lost and security gained.
Surveillance
Net Yields Few Suspects
We learned not that long ago that FBI
agents were sent on wild illegal searches, which ended up in dead end after
dead end that left Director Mueller questioning its legality.
And with all due respect to Gen. Michael Hayden, who has earned
the right to be taken seriously, his arguments in favor of Bush's “terrorist
surveillance program” are wholly and completely unpersuasive. On Fox “News” Sunday, Hayden talked about the NSA spying as a “detect and prevent” program. But as has been revealed in multiple reports, there is no there there, with a lot of time, money and energy being spent, privacy being breached, with no results to show for the efforts.
It sounds as if Bush's obstinacy and stubbornness over all things Iraq has met an illegal domestic spying program that has about as much success as our current efforts to effect security “over there.” In addition, according to the above article, American intelligence agencies
believe Bush's numbers on possible domestic terrorist threats don't come close to meeting reality.
Senator Arlen Specter believes President Bush “violated”
the 1978 FISA law. Translation, our president broke the law.
Specter vowed he “will not be timid” in delving into
the illegal wiretapping in which President Bush has been engaged. If he has
to issue subpoenas to the Bush appointed Justice officials no longer with the
department he will. On “Meet the Press,” Specter sounded as independent
as ever. So much rides on this hope being realized.
The other challenge as the hearings begin is that the question
before the committee is whether Bush had the authority to wiretap American citizens
without using the FISA court.
Most lawyers, starting with Jonathan Turley, but including Arlen
Specter, say the president has acted beyond FISA, going around the law, which
Turley has said many times is an impeachable offense.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will be in the spotlight, with
little grace given that has been offered before.
“The terrorist surveillance program
operated by the NSA requires the maximum in speed and agility, since even a
very short delay may make the difference between success and failure in preventing
the next attack,” Gonzales said in statements obtained by The Associated
Press. Specter was not so sure. “I believe that contention is very strained
and unrealistic,” Specter said. If the FISA law was inadequate, he said,
Bush should have asked Congress to change it rather than ignore it. “The
authorization for the use of force doesn't say anything about electronic surveillance.”
Specter
Criticizes Rationale for Spying
Several times on “Meet the Press,” Specter offered that
he was not impressed with Gonzales' arguments on the merits of President Bush's
rationale for evading FISA.
Senator Feingold is likely to concur, but I'm really looking forward
to hearing Gonzales' rationale for misleading the Senate during his confirmation
hearings, but that's only a starting point.
After the disaster of the Alito hearings, the Democratic senators
on Judiciary better come prepared to make the case, because there is absolutely
no doubt that President Bush broke FISA, ask a lawyer, just about any lawyer.
What to do about it will depend on the case the Democrats make in the hearings
that begin this week.
The country is close to split, with about a 5-point advantage
for the president on whether he has the authority to wiretap Americans. But
that advantage will disappear if the case is made that Bush not only broke the
law, but has done so repeatedly over the last years, without complying with
his duty to inform the Congress. As Senator Specter said today, the Congress
means the Congress, not just the gang of eight; meaning the majority and minority leaders in the Senate and House, plus the Intelligence Committee heads of both parties in Congress.
The hearings start at 6:30 Pacific, so I'll be up with the
birds.
The NSA hearings this week are as important as it gets.
