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The Furher Flails
This man is a veritable shoe in for the new Hitler. The new nazi's are setting up shop.
Date: 12/20/2005 2:51:14 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 1488 times Bush defends eavesdropping, blasts senators on Patriot Act
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Monday, December 19, 2005
Washington -- President Bush said Monday it was a "shameful act" for someone to disclose that he has secretly allowed anti-terrorism wiretaps and e-mail intercepts without court orders and warned that planned congressional hearings into the eavesdropping would assist America's terrorist enemies.
At a White House press conference, Bush also assailed senators who have held up renewal of 16 provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire on Dec. 31 over civil liberties concerns, warning that "we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment.''
Bush's critics fired back, saying that he has erroneously claimed legal authority for sanctioning the wiretaps and blaming him and Republican congressional leaders for the impasse over the Patriot Act's reauthorization.
The two issues have melded together ever since the New York Times disclosed last Friday that since 2002, Bush has repeatedly authorized the super-secret National Security Agency to intercept communications between people in this country and others abroad without following usual procedures for getting a court order. Some senators cited the newspaper report in voting last Friday to hold up the Patriot Act renewal unless it included some civil liberties guarantees that the House had balked at.
Referring to the NSA wiretap program, which he said is reviewed and renewed every 45 days, Bush told reporters, "This program has targeted those with known links to al Qaeda. I've reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill American citizens.''
The president was clearly angered that someone had apparently leaked word of the program -- one of the war on terrorism's top secrets -- to the Times. He indicated that the Justice Department will launch an investigation into who leaked the secret information, plunging his administration into a second potentially explosive leak probe.
In the first investigation, into who disclosed the identity of CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame Wilson, Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, Lewis "Scooter'' Libby, has been indicted and top Bush aide Karl Rove could face indictment.
"My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy,'' said Bush.
Several members of Congress, outraged that Bush ordered eavesdropping in this country outside of usual judicial processes, have called for hearings early next year. The president, who said top congressional leaders have repeatedly been briefed on the program, warned against public hearings because they will help terrorists who want to attack Americans.
"Any public hearings on programs will say to the enemy, here's what they do -- adjust,'' he said.
Before Bush's press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the NSA wiretaps were broadly authorized when Congress passed a resolution shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, authorizing the president to use force against terrorists. He also emphasized that the eavesdropping is strictly limited.
Gen. Michael Hayden, former NSA director who now is deputy national intelligence director, said there was no doubt the eavesdropping had paid off. "This program has been successful in detecting and preventing attacks inside the United States,'' he said.
Bush said the secret eavesdropping, which has taken place outside the usual procedures laid out in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was necessary because there sometimes isn't time to gather material to obtain a wiretap order from the secret FISA court in Washington.
The FISA law, created after disclosures of CIA covert action excesses, was broadened under the Patriot Act to include terrorism suspects who aren't working expressly for a recognized foreign government.
But the FISA court, which consists of seven federal district court judges from different circuits around the country who are appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States for staggered terms, can frequently take days to issue a wiretap order, although it can do so retroactively after agents have started eavesdropping. The administration continues to use the FISA court in many cases, Bush said.
The FISA law allows the president to conduct surveillance operations outside its jurisdiction after a congressional declaration of war. Bush maintains that is just what the 2001 vote by Congress amounted to, while critics say it wasn't a formal declaration of war.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has called for hearings into wiretaps, said Bush's press conference hadn't changed her view.
"The president and members of his administration have tried to assert that the original authorization for the use of force following 9/11, coupled with the president's role as commander in chief, allows him to act without statutory authority. I believe this interpretation of the Constitution is both incorrect and dangerous, and I am requesting an inquiry into this issue," she said.
One of the congressional leaders who was informed about the wiretaps is House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-S.F. She has also called for congressional hearings, and has made it clear that from the outset she objected to the program, which under secrecy laws she could not publicly discuss.
"When I was advised of President Bush's decision to authorize these activities, I expressed my strong concerns verbally and in a classified letter to the administration. The Bush administration, however, made clear that it did not believe that congressional notification was required and it also did not believe that congressional approval was required to conduct these activities,''' Pelosi said in a letter to House colleagues.
On the Patriot Act, Bush criticized Feinstein and California's other Democratic senator, Barbara Boxer, without mentioning them by name for voting last Friday to hold up the renewal.
'The United States Senate is going to let this bill expire. Not the Senate -- a minority of senators. And I want senators from New York or Los Angeles or Las Vegas to go home and explain why these cities are safer'' without the Patriot Act, he said.
On the Senate floor, Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said blame for the Patriot Act deadlock rests with Bush, whom he accused of playing politics with the nation's safety. The extension's critics have proposed a three-month extension of the current law to allow the House and Senate to work out their differences, but Bush has rejected that idea.
If the law lapses, Reid said, "the burden of it not being in effect is on the president, no question about it. All he has to do is pick up the phone and talk to the majority leader,'' Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., about passing the extension.
"Maybe he thinks this gives him a political advantage,'' Reid said of Bush. "But the responsibility for this bill going up or down is solely his.''
The House left Washington early Monday morning, but could return later this week to vote on the Patriot Act or other stalled bills.
E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein@sfchronicle.com
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