Letters to the Editor
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Same thing for Woodward's book as for Tenet's
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/washington/29account.html?ex=1317182400&en=a33f6473f91c835d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
"The book, bought by a reporter for The New York Times at retail price in advance of its official release . . . "
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Almost 100 years of legal precedent down the can
That was posited as the underlying reason that Abu Grahib went so wrong. Not to say that our various agencies have always acted at their best, but when they are being encouraged to be their worst, and given to understand that there will be little or no consequences (as you brought forward in your snip from the desired FISA statute)...
-- Fraud Guy
Weeks v. United States, the Exclusionary Rule, The doctrine of fruit of the poison tree...
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OT--OMG
Just when it looked like some sense was coming out of Washington...
I had been encouraged by the reports in the last few days that the Bush Administration was actually starting to take notice of the fact that Saudi Arabia needs to stop exporting suicide bombers and other fighters to Iraq. Of course, this rational behavior could not last.
In a story just posted on the NY Times website, David Cloud reports that the Bushies now want to cut a weapons deal with the Saudis that will total $20 billion over the next ten years. Of course, since the Israelis depleted their resources with their recent bombing in Lebanon, they will need a package worth $30 billion over the same time so that the desired "balance of power" can be maintained in the region.
Buried in the last two paragraphs is the point I find most disturbing in all of this:
Israeli officials have made specific requests aimed at eliminating concerns that satellite-guided bombs sold to the Saudis could be used against its territory, administration officials said.
Their major concern is not a full-scale Saudi attack, but the possibility that a rogue pilot armed with one of the bombs could attack on his own or that the Saudi government could one day be overthrown and the weapons could fall into the hands of a more radical regime, officials said.
Emphasis added.
Yep, State Department officials don't even have to do their own thinking. The Israelis are happy to tell them that supplying this much weaponry to a country run by a royal family whose grip on power could slip might result in the weapons reaching the hands of unfriendly folks. Yes, let's put $20 billion worth of WMD in the backyard of the world's biggest hotbed of Al Qaeda recruits. The power of the logic is just overwhelming.
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Those damn Democrats
JIM ANGLE, FOX NEWS CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The director of national intelligence sent a letter to the House Intelligence Committee today calling for urgent and immediate action to fix a major roadblock in eavesdropping on terrorists; "We are significantly burdened in capturing overseas communication of foreign terrorists planning to conduct attacks inside the United States," he writes. "This situation is unacceptable in the current, heightened threat environment.
McConnell urged Congress to act without delay to fix the law known as FISA, a point he has made publicly to Congress for several months.
ADM MIKE MCCONNELL, DIRECTOR OF NATL INTELLIGENCE: Today's FISA requires judicial authorization to collect communications of non-U.S. persons, i.e. foreigners, located outside the United States. This clogs the FISA process with matters that have little to do with protecting civil liberties or privacy of persons in the United States.
REP. PETE HOEKSTRA (R), MICHIGAN: Foreign intelligence from foreign terrorists in foreign countries and we can't collect it....REP. HEATHER WILSON (R), NEW MEXICO: This is putting Americans at risk. It means our intelligence agencies are having their fingers stuck in their ears and their hands over their eyes when terrorists are using the communications networks that we have built to plot and plan to kill Americans.
ANGLE: Some Democrats have minimized the problems as recently as this week....
'Special Report With Brit Hume,' July 26, 2007 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291225,00.html
Another:
The U.S. homeland hasn't been struck by terrorists since September 11, and one reason may be more aggressive intelligence policies. So Americans should be alarmed that one of the best intelligence tools--warrantless wiretapping of al Qaeda suspects--has recently become far less effective and is in danger of being neutered by Congressional Democrats....
That's right: If an al Qaeda operative in Quetta calls a fellow jihadi in Peshawar, that call may well travel through a U.S. network. This ought to be a big U.S. advantage in our "asymmetrical" conflict with terrorists. But it also means that, for the purposes of FISA, a foreign call that is routed through U.S. networks becomes a domestic call. So thanks to the obligation to abide by an outdated FISA statute, U.S. intelligence is now struggling even to tap the communications of foreign-based terrorists. If this makes you furious, it gets worse.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010389
Senators Feinstein & Specter reintroduced their FISA bill on April 16 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.1114:)
While foreign-to-foreign communications are not covered now by FISA's requirements, the NSA can only conduct surveillance on these calls if it can be sure, in advance, that a telephone call of email won't transit the United States or unexpectedly end here. In the age of cell phones and the global telecommunications system, this a priori certification is very difficult to make. This legislation therefore specifies that in such inadvertent collection cases, the NSA must minimize the data, but that it has not violated the law.
Of course, this bill doesn't include all the fun stuff (and more) that ondelette quoted from the bill the administration wants. Yeah, I'm furious, all right.
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DO NOT PASS THIS BILL
If Bush wants a rush to judgment to pass this bill, there must be something nefarious in it that will be to the detriment of the country.
Is this a knee-jerk reaction? Yes, it is. But it is a knee-jerk reaction prompted by years of lying and abusing the deaths of September 11th.
You reap what you sow.
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such a simple concept
Now I'm going to become the guy who repeats something he feels needs to repeated.
Glenn said: "I think there are way too many of these cooperative rules between journalists and government and I'd be happy if they marched less in tandem."
How can anyone of any political affiliation argue against this being a problem?
The lines are blurry enough right now for those people out there who are trying to differentiate between political news and political opinion when they are watching TV or reading the newspaper. If you add in the poisonous ingredient of adoring "journalists" performing as high powered political mouthpieces...what chance do people have of figuring out that they are being manipulated? Where are we supposed to turn for actual unbiased news?
In the media business, you are supposed to be either a newsperson or an editorialist. Hybrids confuse the good folks out there who can't tell the difference. And now we get to deal with more ugly incarnations of irresponsible editorialism.....the mouthpieces. Who knows if these suck-ups even believe the crap that they spout off about?!? They may just be acting and passing along a message. Job security can be quite a motivator.