SENATOR PAT ROBERTS - TERRORIST SURVEILLANCE LEGAL AND NECESSARY
Senator Pat Roberts, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee stated today that the terrorist surveillance program authorized by President Bush is legal and necessary for national security. Stating inherent Presidential powers that have been used by every President since George Washington in order to protect the nation Roberts also rejected criticism by Democrats in the Senate who have claimed that the President did not inform the Congress of the Program. Roberts said he was personally briefed a dozen times and seven members of the Intelligence committee including Democrats were briefed at least half that much. CIA Director Porter Goss stated in hearings yesterday that the leak of the program by the New York Times and the subsequent media coverage have greatly undercut United States intelligence. Vice President Dick Cheney in an interview stated the leak of the program, " gives information to our enemies about how we go about collecting intelligence against them." The program has been shown to have thwarted several attacks against the United States as well as our allies over seas. For this program to be compromised for political gain trying to bring down the Bush administration weakens our ability to gather necessary intelligence to prevent a repeat of 9/11 or worse. As the President stated in the State of the Union and in several speeches before and since, if someone is talking to Al Qaeda then it stands to reason the we MUST know what they are saying. Concerning the FISA court, I have posted information from the FISA act of 1978 that proves the legality of the program when looking at the acts definition of just who is considered and foreign agent. It is also a fact that the FISA court turned down warrant requests BEFORE 9/11 that were directed toward phone calls by Mohammed Attah and several of the other terrorists involved in the attacks through the Pentagon's Able Danger program. Even with the wall that was in place between intelligence agencies prior to 9/11 if calls had been intercepted showing a threat to the nation there is a possibility that 9/11 could have been prevented. To undercut this vital intelligence program as has been done by the political grand standing by the left is placing this country in danger! The Senate Intelligence committee will review this program and question key people including General Hayden, former NSA Director next week in closed sessions. The real result of this investigation should be to determine WHO leaked this to the press and whether their act is treason and punished accordingly!
Ken Taylor
Ken Taylor
posted by The Liberal Lie The Conservative Truth | 8:44 PM
6 Comments:
Out of 19,500 warrant requests that have been made of the FISA court, only 5 have been rejected. Bush and the Republicans are in full CYA mode.
No matter how much people deny it, the program is illegal. You never addressed the points I made on your faulty analysis of FISA and you are trying to pass it off as if the analysis was sound. Also, just because Pat Roberts says it is legal does not make it so.
The Congressional Research Service - where Members of Congress turn for the
nonpartisan research, analysis, and information they need to make informed decisions found that the President is in violation of the law. You can read the report at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/m010506.pdf. It is 44 pages long, you can just read the last paragraph to get the summary findings.
Look, at a much higher level, before 9/11 there was plenty of intelligence and information about the hijackers. An FBI informant was actually living with two of the hijackers in San Diego. Warrantless wiretapping to get more "dots" would not solve the problem - the problem was connecting the dots. How about this for a dot - the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) that Bush got a month before 9/11 entitled, "“Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.” Read the text Bush got while on vacation in Crawford (http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/10/august6.memo/). If Bush had acted and actually done someting - anything - perhaps the plot would have been stopped.
Dude, another ignorant libertard has struck, yet again.
Clinton's 8 years of sex, scandals and failure to defend America is what led to 9/11, not 7 months of President Bush.
The only time Clinton acted was when he was impeached. Even then all he did was bomb a camel and an aspirin factory.
Perhaps if he'd worried more about terorism than he did with selling intelligence to China, maybe this could've been stopped?
Perhaps if Clinton would've wiretapped for terrorists instead of wiretapping any American for "economic gain" then 9/11 would've never happened?
Bush's wiretapping is legal, Rob.
Go cry somewhere else.
It's Clinton's fault and the wiretapping is legal. Wow! Your analysis is so deep and convincing.
Pathetic. I guess if I was a Bush-lover, I wouldn't want to debate the issue and actually let facts and truth come out.
How do you address the Congressional Research Service report and the PDB issue? Is the problem that you cannot actually think for yourself or are you paid to just parrot false Republican talking points?
All of your points have been answered more times than can be counted. The August memo that you refered too had no actiionable information and spoke in generalities. Therefore ws just that INFORMATION about a possible threat. liberals would have gone mad if the President had shut down all air traffic prior to 9/11 which is what would have been necassary to act on the generalities in the August memo. Yes air traffic was shut down after 9/11 but that WAS not a generality is AS an attack. It is well known that because of a memo written by Reno's assistant Attorney General Jamie Gorelic that intelligence agencies, the military and the FBI could not share acguired imformation becuase of the wall that this created( this was addressed by the 9/11 Commission). Secondly, the points that I posted concerning the FISA act DOES give the President the legal authority to act to protect this country from a threat even if that threat involves, (in FISA defenition), a,"United States Person." A, "US person, " becomes a foreign agent when they are in contact with a foreign entity about anything that threatens this country or violates our laws. Whether you want to accept it or not this statute in FISA addresses the terrorist survelience program, which is only ONE aspect of connecting the dots. Liberals cry because dots weren't connected before 9/11 and now cry because they are being connected. I do have a mind of my own Rob and am tired of your accusations that I do not think on my own. I am intelligent enough to draw my own conclusions and make my own decisions and it would seem that since they do not agree with yours then I am not thinking on my own. Your elected people spend more time whining about their anger becuse they are out of power and if they were to actually find an agenda with real answers and ideas rather than just anger and hatred for the Presdient then maybe the American people would listen to them.
Ken
Dude, Rob, you're a lunatic. The wire tapping is legal. Why didn't you bitch when Clinton did it? Bush is doing it for the Defense of this nation. Clinton did it for economic tips.
Clinton didn't defend this nation throughout embassy bombings, Navy ship bombings, WTC attack (the 1st time) and his 4 offers to take bin Laden that he so graciously passed up.
Explain........
Ken, you obviously did not read my earlier response to your faulty analysis. Under FISA the president can conduct warrantless taps of people that you describe. However, the Attorney General must then report to the FISA court and to the two House and Senate Intelligence Agencies. The latter was not done, but Newsweek has now reported that Acting AG James Comey refused to sign off on the illegal program and when White House Counsel Gonzales and Andy Card went to Ashcroft's hospital room to get approval he refused and backed Comey.
You have Arlen Spector this morning saying it was illegal and I still go back to the CRS report (non-partisan) saying it is illegal.
If the program is useful and necessary then the law should be changed. However, there are very clear violations of the FISA statute - which is the law of the land. I don't believe any president is above the law. Ultimately, this is going to end up before the Supreme Court and they will decide. I am willing to accept their ruling on the issue.
Ken, I appreciate your willingness to engage in reasonable debate. I was referring to Rep Vet with respect to "thinking for yourself" in my last comment.
Rep Vet - name calling is not debate and saying the program is legal is not a defense. When you grow up you may realize the truth of my last sentence. As far as Clinton is concerned - show me where he conducted warrantless searches and did not follow the FISA statute.
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