This is what I expect in the War on Terror. The President should take action that he believes reasonable to protect the nation. That includes, scanning calls that have key words like "bomb", Kill Americans, and whatever the NSA wants to do. I don't care if the phone lines are tapped, as long as the mission is to prevent an attack. Who really cares about the phone line being listened to. I always assume that I could be listened to, you people out there with 1 gig portable phones are broadcasting for miles on your house phone. It's obvious that the Democrats and Liberal Mealy Mouth Press is trying to generate an issue to impeach the President on. It's not going to happen, but they (the Democrats) are so fun to watch. Everything they do has been exposed for what it is. NYT down to 5 bucks a share in 3 months.
And screw the laws, screw the constitution, screw liberties and freedoms, screw the system of checks and balances if they get in the way of presidential fervor. Good thinking my totalitarian minded conservative friend.
How true. I am fairly new to ET but already amazed and almost dumbfounded at how many people here are quite comfortable watching the breaking of the laws of our land. It almost sounds like many here would have no problem living in Italy under the fascist Benito Mussolini. The FISA Act has been around for 25 years. There is a procedure that is in place that allows the President to monitor and wire-tap on a domestic basis without a warrant just as long as the action is presented to the 11 member FISA Judicial Court within 72 hours of the surveillance having taken place. But in this case, the FISA Judicial Court was never notified. Furthermore, government officals have refused to define the standards theylre using to establish such a link or to say how many people are being monitored. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of S.C., called that troubling. If Bush is allowed to decide unilaterally who the potential terrorists are, he becomes the court," Graham said earlier today on CBS's "Face the Nation." President Bush appears to have violated the FISA Act, and law of our Land. Period.
According to President Bushâs radio address today, as White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales personally approved Bushâs program for warrantless domestic wiretaps. By circumventing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, those wiretaps violated federal law. In a classified legal opinion, the administration argued the President had the power to order the warrantless search pursuant to his authority as commander-in-chief to wage war against al-Qaeda. During his confirmation hearings for Attorney General in January 2005, Sen. Russ Feingold asked Gonzales about this precise issue: SEN. FEINGOLD: I â Judge Gonzales, let me ask a broader question. Iâm asking you whether in general the president has the constitutional authority, does he at least in theory have the authority to authorize violations of the criminal law under duly enacted statutes simply because heâs commander in chief? Does he â does he have that power? ... MR. GONZALES: Senator, this president is not â I â it is not the policy or the agenda of this president to authorize actions that would be in contravention of our criminal statutes. http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/18/gonzales-january/
I guess I was being too kind to our President. As stated above, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales has already admitted that the FISA Act was circumvented. My bad.
The law was not broken but just circumvented... please be advised that the current president of USA has the best of us, the US citizens, in his mind always. He makes informed decisions and bases his actions on solid evidence. As a citizen of New Orleans all I can offer you as evidence... heckuva job Brownie!!!
If that's the case then there is no issue of course but on the surface it appears to me that "Interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications" is still very illegal in this country. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002511----000-.html Unless the administration can come up with some kind of a loophole in the law allowing them to spy on americans without a warrant (which they have not yet done) they may be in serious legal trouble. You may meanwhile continue keeping your head in the sand and promoting your totalitarian ideas that presidents can do whatever the hell they please...at least republican presidents cause I am sure you would not trust Bill Clinton's administration and future Hillary Clinton's administration to spy on americans without warrants.