February 06, 2006
Arlen Specter Not Sure of Bush Administration Motives
RINO Arlen Specter has a hard time understanding why the Bush Administration authorized wiretaps and other electronic monitoring of communications between known or suspected al Qaeda operatives and people here in the United States.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not adequately justified why the Bush administration failed to seek court approval for domestic surveillance, said the senator in charge of a hearing Monday on the program.
Sen. Arlen Specter said Sunday he believes that President Bush violated a 1978 law specifically calling for a secret court to consider and approve such monitoring. The Pennsylvania Republican branded Gonzales' explanations to date as "strained and unrealistic."
The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, predicted that the committee would have to subpoena the administration to obtain internal documents that lay out the legal basis for the program. Justice Department officials have declined, citing in part the confidential nature of legal communications.
Specter said he would have his committee consider such a step if the attorney general does not go beyond his prior statements and prepared testimony that the spying is legal, necessary and narrowly defined to fight terrorists.
Hey Arlen...here's a hint:
Now take that $160,000 plus that we pay you and buy yourself a clue.
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FBI agents have been openly quoted in newspapers as saying the wiretaps have given them mounds and mounds of dead-ends. many times, the numbers they finally retrieve will end up at a pizza hut or a small family in the middle of nowhere. they've said that the taps are making their jobs more difficult and haven't yet yielded any leads.
that's in addition to them being illegal.
Posted by: steve at February 6, 2006 12:11 PM"(2) The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 allows wiretapping of aliens and citizens in the US based on a finding of probable cause to believe that the target is a member of a foreign terrorist group or an agent of a foreign power. For US citizens and permanent resident aliens, there must also be probable cause to believe that the person is engaged in activities that "may" involve a criminal violation. Suspicion of illegal activity is not required in the case of aliens who are not permanent residents ? for them, membership in a terrorist group is enough, even if their activities on behalf of the group are legal.
...
Both Title III and FISA allow the government to carry out wiretaps without a court order in emergency situations involving risk of death or serious bodily injury and in national security cases."
http://www.cdt.org/wiretap/wiretap_overview.html
Posted by: Pam at February 6, 2006 02:29 PMthe government must then seek a warrant in a time period of up to 72 hours after the wiretap has taken place.
W. doesn't seem to like that.
Posted by: steve at February 6, 2006 02:52 PMi'll wait for your response to remind you that congress never declared war so the president's "wartime" powers haven't been authorized.
Posted by: steve at February 6, 2006 04:45 PMRead this. The whole thing.
http://www.henrymarkholzer.com/articles_truman_loss_bush_gain.shtml
Posted by: Pam at February 6, 2006 10:02 PM
