May 15 2013
Obama/Holder Bit By The Bush-FISA Fiasco
I have to laugh that Obama & Holder both just got nailed for snooping on the News Media by the very same conspiracy crap the liberal left tried to nail President George W Bush on!
Back in Bush’s first term, the NY Times tried to concoct a scandal for George W Bush on the FISA court and how its process had been changed after the attacks on 9-11. I spent years writing on this subject, and I concluded (with others) that the FISA process was never bypassed, but it was also not allowed to get in the way of promulgating evidence to the FBI related to terrorists who made it into the country. Back in the bad old days, if the terrorists we were monitoring overseas got inside our borders, we could not pass the evidence onto the FBI to take over monitoring and stepping in if things looked to be heading towards mass death. Thus 9-11 and 3000 dead Americans.
This barrier between overseas intelligence and the FBI was the result of a bureaucratic processes building up over years without anyone considering the danger that process was exposing us to.
Fast forward to today, and you find the Obama administration was faced with a really bad leak of intelligence to the news media. And to plug this leak, the Obama administration used the post 9-11 processes established by President Bush to do what the liberal left used to whine Bush was or would do himself!
But a different picture emerges if you look past the AP’s spin. DOJ is investigating a leak of national security information to AP reporters that culminated in a May 7, 2012 story that disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped a terrorist plot in early 2012. The story had the byline of five AP reporters. DOJ opened an investigation into the leak to the AP, and pursuant to its published special rules on investigations involving the media investigations, issued subpoenas to find out what numbers were dialed from the relevant AP reporters during the months of April and May 2012. Presumably the thinking is that AP reporters called their sources, and the investigators want to trace the phone numbers
As I said many times back during the FISA faux pas scandal, the only way the News Media could get in the FISA cross-hairs was to communicate to terrorists. Apparently I was wrong: they found another way by leaking sensitive information. Information which put Americans and allies providing the intelligence at risk, and of course could result in victims of attacks arising from losing this insight into the plans of terrorists.
The AP probably deserves to be investigated. And they probably realized they were about to get legally screwed, so they pulled the alarm bell and their media brethren jumped in. And of course the GOP took advantage of the mess to destroy Obama’s political base. But that looks to be all smoke screen to the core issue, which is a very serious leak of classified data.
In the end, the Bush-era fixes to FISA after 9-11 demand two things happen to get to this point. One is that only the Attorney General can make the case to the FISA court for these kinds of actions. And the second aspect of this is the AG is working as the voice and authority of the POTUS. And it is obvious no AG would go after the Press without POTUS authorization (since the AG cannot ac without POTUS concurrence).
So Obama and Holder cannot push this one off on anyone else (like they will try on Benghazi and the IRS scandal fronts). Worse yet, apparently Holder has ‘no recollection’ on what he did….
Yeah, right. You targeted the News Media with the power of the Department of Justice and you don’t remember much about it????
Live by the sword, die by the sword in DC.
Major Update: Roberto Gonzales, an AG under President George W Bush, came out and just knee capped Obama and Holder:
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday that the Bush administration once considered issuing the type of subpoena that the Justice Department issued against the Associated Press, but ultimately opted against it.
“There was at least one occasion in which we were engaged in a very serious leak investigation and we had to make some very difficult choices about whether or not to move forward, going after the reporters in order to try to figure out where the source of the leak is,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe. “And sometimes, the department finds itself in a situation where they have exhausted all means and they have to make a very hard determination as to whether or not they want to subpoena the reporter, if they want to subpoena the reporter’s notes. So yes, I’ve had that situation. In the instance that I have in mind, we ultimately decided not to move forward.”
This is all truly ironic. Holder and Obama are getting roasted for doing what Bush never did, but the liberal left claimed Bush did all the time.
Excellent article!
Anybody tired of being punished. This President must have had the bleakest childhood! What a miserable human being!
Oh the irony! Yes, President Bush was held to a completely different standard that Oba,ma was – until now. At this point in time, the scandals look very much like what the Left wanted to find in Bush but have now found in their own precious Dear Leader. The cognitive dissonance must be pushing the heads of a lot of those lefties towards exploding point. I mean, it’s one thing for Obama to waltz into Libya without getting congressional approval against the advice of his own attorneys; and it’s quite another thing for the IRS to be admitting that it targeted conservative groups, but for the DoJ to go after the media is to go into territory that is almost literally unimaginable for a large part of the far left. The 2nd Amendment can be overturned but the 1st (at least the bit about a free press) is sacrosanct. It’s a sacred cow to the left. And here is the Executive branch romping and stomping all over it – at least in their minds. “But, but, but,… it was BUSH that would do this!” Surely not our Dear Leader. This would be fun to watch except that the Executive Branch is essentially leaderless and rudderless now. I believe that the Executive Branch now cannot carry out its core functions because it has gone into “inward looking” mode. It’s very dangerous. I hold Obama directly responsible because he chose to run for an elected office that he thought was political but is in actual fact, an executive management position. And he has utterly failed to apply himself to the task of being an executive leader.
Culture of Revenge…
….and, now it appears there weren’t national security concerns afterall. AP alleges they held off on the story for days until CIA told them there were no longer national security concerns. AP only interfered with Obama PR strategy instead????
WaPo: CIA asked AP not to expose Yemen terror plot bust until White House was ready to crow about it publicly
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/16/wapo-cia-asked-ap-not-to-publish-yemen-terror-story-until-white-house-had-chance-to-announce-it-publicly/