Strata-Sphere: Democrats In Full Retreat On NSA

Spying Necessary, Democrats SayBut Harman, Daschle Question President’s Legal ReachBy Walter Pincus Two key Democrats yesterday called the NSA domestic surveillance program necessary for fighting terrorism but questioned whether President Bush had the…

As the Democrats back away from their noisy critique of the NSA wiretapping scandal it is instructive to look at what might have motivated them to raise the alarms. Dr. Sanity has an excellent summary of the Democrats climb-down, and

Is the left beginning to back away from the NSA wiretapping non-scandal? It sure seems like it. AJ Strata has a great post up, as does Stop the ACLU, showing how Dems are starting to say “it’s ok to do this” (gratned, with qualifiers).

I was wa…

Via Washington Post
Two key Democrats yesterday called the NSA domestic surveillance program necessary for fighting terrorism but questioned whether President Bush had the legal authority to order it done without getting congressional approval.
Rep….

AJ Strata details the retreat of Democrats on the NSA issue. As I said here as well, they don’t want this fight. Just in the case “God forbid” that we are attacked, what would they say then. Yeah, they would try to shift blame on the President or Ch…

Are simply not reading the links? The FISA Court refused to issue warrants for leads here in the US discovered through the NSA’s monitoring of overseas terrorists. Forget about the gray-area examples of a terrorist in the US being monitored – FISA refused to consider warrants. Even after 9-11 they refused to issue warrants if the only evidence was the NSA intercept of a conversation with a known terrorist. A KNOWN terrorist. Even if the were OPENINGLY planning an attack. There was no 72 hour option because you cannot get independent evidence in 72 hours.

you wrote

“Dubya’s end-run on the FISA Court added nothing to already exsisting capabilities.”

naively thinking what FISA would do is sufficient. It clearly is not. In light of these revelations only a fool would say we can live with FISA. They refused even the most obvious linkages based on the source of the information. Not the content or accuracy or the potential impact.

Get a clue my friend.

It has become fashionable to say that this controversy is about the always difficult problem of balancing civil liberties and national security. However, the issue is starker than that. The real issue is Dubya’s apparent belief – stoked at every opportunity by that zealot of zealots, Dick Cheney – that he can do just about anything he wants (mistreat prisoners, lock people up forever without filing charges), and justify it in the name of fighting terror.

“There’s an enemy out there,” says Dubya.

That’s also true. But this is not China or the old Soviet Union. The United States should be the one place on the planet where even a devastating terror strike by Al Qaeda is unable to shake the foundations of the government, which is grounded in the rule of law, the separation of powers and a constitution that guarantees the fundamental rights of the citizenry.

The public should be aware of two important points about the president’s domestic spying program: it’s illegal, and it’s not catching terrorists.

If the program were legal, there is no chance so many Republicans would be upset about it.

When Gonzalez was questioned about what the government was doing with all these terrorists that were being “identified” by the surveillance, he might just as well answered: “Duh?”

The fact is, not only is the whole thing illegal, it is totally ineffective and does not constitute any “new” capability that the NSA brings to the table…nothing that couldn’t have been done through FISA or, at worst, a legislative modification to FISA.

Biden suggested that Al Qaeda operatives have most likely been aware for some time that the government is trying to intercept their phone calls.

Gonzales agreed. “You would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance,” he said. “But if they’re not reminded about it all the time in newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget.”

Biden managed to laugh. Probably to keep from crying. This was the attorney general of the United States speaking, yet another straight man for an administration that has raised governing to new heights of witlessness.

This is Pincus, frustrated yet again, he wasn’t able to make it stick. Nice spin Walter.

Unfortunately, the DOJ investigation will continue, Sucks to be you.