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Banned
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Please understand that....beneath my calm exterior, I am more than a little irritated by the Ground Hog Day, "FISA is a law from the days of rotary telephones...it needs to be modernized, I call on congress...." "Op"...and about the "blow back" caused by a failed and now disintegrating, two term US presidency:
Quote:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe...day/index.html
White House: Bush altered radio address in deference to Democrats
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One sentence in President Bush's weekly radio address was deleted overnight after some Democrats privately complained that it was overly partisan on the explosive subject of reforming the administration's warrantless wiretap program, White House officials confirmed Saturday.
In the initial radio address, which was taped Friday, Bush charged that the country is less safe because of Democratic delays in passing legislation that would reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
"Every day that Congress puts off these reforms increases the danger to our nation," the president originally said.
White House officials say that line of audio was deleted after Democrats saw a transcript of the remarks distributed Friday afternoon.
"We've been making good progress with the Democrats on this legislation," and the administration "felt the sentence sounded too political," a senior White House official told CNN. (Posted 3:43 p.m.)
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Is it any wonder that Dick Cheney, after he accidentally shot his friend in the face, in a hunting accident, and then refused to submit to police questioning in the local investigation of the shooting......turned to foxnews anchor, Britt Hume, to ask Cheney the probing questions, about what happened:
Quote:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/0...rly-seriously/
Brit Hume attacks Democrats on terrorism issue: “They do not treat it particularly seriously”
By: John Amato on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 12:32 PM - PDT
fox_fns_hume_terror_scam_070729b.jpg Brit Hume follows the GOP/Giuliani script by saying that most Democrats think the war on terror is some kind of a political scam. Notice how fiercely he breathes these words.
video_wmv Download (691) | Play (983)
Hume: Make no mistake about. This is what a lot of Democrats and those who support them think. They think the war on terror is some kind of a political scam which the administration is using to undermine civil liberties and expand the power of the executive branch of the government. They do not treat it particularly seriously.
Juan Williams called him a propagandist..
Williams: This is unbelievable to me. Wait a minute, when you say it’s likely to be passed, why doesn’t the administration therefore let’s just fix exactly this issue? (crosstalk). Let’s not put the addition…let me just say one other thing…
Hume: Excuse me, Juan, that is what McConnell is proposing.
<h3>Williams: No, McConnell and the administration have a great deal more to say, Brit, and they’re interested in advancing the idea that you don’t have to go before the FISA court in order to get the warrant. That you can do things and get retroactive approval.</h3> But here is the larger point about being scared: who is it, you know, Republicans or Democrats that didn’t properly arm this force to go out and fight this war? Who didn’t put enough boots on the ground in order to get the job done early? Who is it that confused the mission? And then you say, “oh no, it’s somehow Democrats who are running scared.” On the contrary, Democrats this week put in place money to protect the homeland and make it tougher for terrorists to crack our defenses here at home. I don’t see how you can say it’s anything but scare-mongering and puppeting propaganda to say, “oh no, it’s the Democrats, those bad guys.”
FOX has infested their “prime time” news broadcast during the day with a major GOP hack…It wasn’t the Democratic Party that used phony terror alerts or attack a country that had nothing to do with 9/11…Add to the list…
Fred Barnes wanks at the end…
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....and now, back for another dose of the Bush, <h3>Ground Hog Day "op" !</h3>
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...pt_072407.html
U.S. Senate Judiciary Commmittee Hearing on Oversight of the Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez Testifies
CQ Transcripts Wire
<h2>JULY 24, 2007</h2>
.......LEAHY: Thank you very much.
And I might mention Senator Specter has requested a hearing on OxyContin. And I think he's absolutely right on that.
We will have one, at your request.
Mr. Attorney General, please stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you will give at this time will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
GONZALES: I do.
LEAHY: Go ahead, Mr. Attorney General.
GONZALES: Thank you, Mr. Chairman........
....GONZALES: The department's many accomplishments are, in reality, their accomplishments. As attorney general, I have worked with these fine men and women to keep our country safe from terrorists, our neighborhoods safe from violent crime and our children safe from predators. As my written statement explains in more detail, when it comes to keeping our neighborhoods safe and protecting our children, the department has made great progress.
In my brief remarks this morning, I want to focus on the department's number one priority, keeping our country safe from terrorists and the urgent need, quite frankly, for more help from Congress in this fight.
As the recent National Intelligence Estimate has -- as well as the attempted car bombings in London and Scotland demonstrate, the threat posed to America and its allies by Al Qaida and other terrorist groups remains very strong.
To respond effectively to this threat, it is imperative that Congress modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, known as FISA. Doing so is critically important to intelligence gathering, and it really just makes plain sense.
<h3>When Congress drafted FISA in 1978, it defined the statute's key provisions in terms of telecommunications technologies that existed at that time. As we all know, there have been sweeping changes in the way that we communicate since FISA became law and these changes have had unintended consequences on FISA's operation.
For example, without any change in FISA, technological advancements have actually made it more difficult to conduct surveillance on suspected terrorists and other subjects of foreign intelligence surveillance overseas. </h3>
In April, at the request of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, <h3>the director of national intelligence transmitted a comprehensive FISA modernization proposal to Congress.</h3> The proposal builds upon thoughtful (ph) bills introduced during the last Congress, and the bill would accomplish several key objectives. Most importantly, the administration's proposal restores FISA's original focus on protecting the privacy of U.S. persons in the United States.
FISA generally should apply when conducting surveillance on those in the United States, but it should not apply when our intelligence community targets persons overseas. Indeed, it was advancements in technology and not any policy decision of Congress that resulted in wide-scale application of FISA and its requirement to go to court to overseas targets.
This unintended consequence has clogged the FISA process and, quite frankly, hurts national security and civil liberties.
GONZALES: As amended, FISA's scope would focus on the subject of the surveillance and the subject's location, rather than on the means by which the subject transmits a communication or the location where the government intercepts the communication.
FISA would become technology-neutral. Its scope would no longer be affected by changes in communications technologies.
The bill would also fill a gap in current law by permitting the government to direct communications companies to assist in the conduct of lawful communications intelligence activities that do not constitute, quote, "electronic surveillance" under FISA.
This is a critical provision that is a necessary companion to any change in FISA's scope.
Importantly, the administration's proposal would provide a robust process of judicial review for companies that wish to challenge these directives.
The administration's proposal would also provide protections from liability to companies that are alleged to have assisted the government in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
The bill also streamlines the FISA application process to make FISA more efficient, while at the same time ensuring that the FISA Court has the information it needs to make the probable cause findings required.
Finally, the administration's proposal would amend the statutory definition of an agent of a foreign power to ensure that it includes groups who are engaged in international proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or who possess or who are expected to transmit or receive foreign intelligence information while in the United States.
FISA modernization is critically important and we urge the Senate to reform this critical statute as soon as possible.
I am hopeful that this is an area that we can work together with the Congress and this committee. I think we can find common ground on the central principles underpinning the administration's proposal and in particular on the fact that we should not extent FISA's protections to terrorist suspects located overseas.
We already have had several helpful sessions with the Intelligence Committees in the Senate and House on this issue. We look forward to continuing to work with the Senate and this committee on this important endeavor.....
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....and, as Gonzales stated the other day, here's the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, inspiring our confidence by either blatantly attempting to mislead us by omitting the less than six years old "modernizing" of FISA, which was done in the age of all of the technological advancements that McConnell described in this propaganda essay.....OR he is too stupid (i.e., not qualified to supervise all of civilian national intelligence activities..) to have awareness that Bush said this:
Quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0011026-5.html
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 26, 2001
...The existing law was written in the era of rotary telephones. This new law that I sign today will allow surveillance of all communications used by terrorists, including e-mails, the Internet, and cell phones.
As of today, we'll be able to better meet the technological challenges posed by this proliferation of communications technology....
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea.../20011027.html
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 27, 2001
Radio Address of the President to the Nation
.....The bill I signed yesterday gives intelligence and law enforcement officials additional tools they need to hunt and capture and punish terrorists. Our enemies operate by highly sophisticated methods and technologies, using the latest means of communication and the new weapon of bioterrorism.
....When earlier laws were written, some of these methods did not even exist. The new law recognizes the realities and dangers posed by the modern terrorist. ....
But for a long time, we have been working under laws written in the era of rotary telephones.
Under the new law, officials may conduct court-ordered surveillance of all modern forms of communication used by terrorists.....
...... These measures were enacted with broad support in both parties. They reflect a firm resolve to uphold and respect the civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, while dealing swiftly and severely with terrorists.
Now comes the duty of carrying them out.
And I can assure all Americans that these important new statutes will be enforced to the full.
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If they are methodically stripping all of the constitutional safeguards that were intended to minimize the conflict of interests of those who investigate our activities, arrest and confine us, and judge us. convict us, and mete out our punitive sentences, <h3>do they have to insult us, too, by using the same exact lines of bullshit that they used to initially jusitfy "trimming" away our protections against unreasonable search and seizure ?</h3>
Here's McConnell, using the same script that Bush used in October 2001, that Gonzales used in December, 2005, and in July, 2007, and that Bush recited "one mo' time"....yesterday:
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn..._Comments.html
A Law Terrorism Outran
We Need a FISA For the 21st Century
By Mike McConnell
<h3>Monday, May 21, 2007; A13</h3>
In 1978, the first cellular mobile phone system was still being tested, a personal computer's memory had just been expanded to 16 kilobytes and our greatest threat was the largest nation-state on Earth, the Soviet Union. That same year, the framework governing electronic surveillance of foreign powers and agents of foreign powers -- the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- was signed into law.
Today, cellular phones are the size of credit cards, you would be hard-pressed to find a computer with memory less than 512 megabytes and our greatest threats are independent transnational terrorists and terror networks.
FISA was created to guard against domestic government abuse and to protect privacy while allowing for appropriate foreign intelligence collection. <h3>Technology and threats have changed, but the law remains essentially the same.</h3> If we are to improve our ability to protect the country by gathering foreign intelligence, this law must be updated to reflect changes in technology and the ways our adversaries communicate with one another.
Many Americans would be surprised at just what the current law requires. To state the facts plainly: In a significant number of cases, our intelligence agencies must obtain a court order to monitor the communications of foreigners suspected of terrorist activity who are physically located in foreign countries. We are in this situation because the law simply has not kept pace with technology.
The failure to update this law comes at an increasingly steep price. The congressional joint inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks recognized that there were systemic problems with covering communications of potential terrorists.
As director of national intelligence, I see every day the results of FISA-authorized activity and its contribution to our efforts to protect America. This surveillance saves lives -- the lives of our children and grandchildren. I also see the flaws inherent in the current law.
Because the law has not been changed to reflect technological advancements, we are missing potentially valuable intelligence needed to protect America. We simply cannot predict how communications technology will change in the coming years, but these changes may widen the gap between the law and technology. We need to adopt that understanding into FISA -- a law that does not address today's global systems in today's terms.
In seeking to update the law, in response to bipartisan congressional requests, the intelligence community is keeping faith with the foundation of credibility and legitimacy in which the law was grounded. Just as Congress in 1978 could not have anticipated today's technology, we cannot know how technology will advance in the next 30 years. Our job is to make the country as safe as possible by providing the highest possible quality intelligence available. We should not tie the nation's security to a snapshot of outdated technology.
I am encouraged that in my discussions with members of Congress, and in congressional hearings on this subject over the past year, there is recognition of the need to improve our intelligence efforts and close critical gaps created by changes in technology. We will continue to collect intelligence under strong congressional, executive and judicial oversight mechanisms. Protecting our nation against terrorist attacks and safeguarding privacy protections and civil liberties is not an either/or proposition.
The first responsibility of intelligence is to achieve understanding and provide warning. As the head of the nation's intelligence community, it is my duty to encourage changes in policies, procedures and legislation to improve our ability to warn of terrorist attacks and other threats to our security. Bringing FISA into the 21st century is one such improvement that can and should be made now. The recommended changes will protect the civil and privacy rights of our citizens while enabling the U.S. intelligence community to provide a higher level of protection against terrorist attacks.
The writer is director of national intelligence.
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Here is the first reader's comment posted at the comments link that followed the preceding article, on the WaPo web page:
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn..._Comments.html
Your Comments On...
A Law Terrorism Outran
Terrorists use up-to-date technology. Too bad our surveillance laws haven't kept pace.
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By Mike McConnell
Bartron wrote:
<h2>Mr. McConnell, you are LYING.</h2>
"Technology and threats have changed, but the law remains essentially the same."
In fact, the FISA Act was amended in October 2001. When he signed the FISA amendments into law, George Bush stated that <h3>"This new law I sign today will allow surveillance of all communications used by terrorists, including e-mails, the Internet, and cell phones.</h3> As of today, we'll be able to better meet the technological challenges posed by this proliferation of communications technology."
<h3>Weirdly enough, the words you yourself have written in this article as an explanation for why FISA "needs" [further] amendment closely parallel the statements given by President Bush in 2001</h3>, when he claimed that the newly-amended FISA Act fixed exactly the problems which you claim were never addressed.
Let's compare what you wrote here with what Bush said in 2001:
You: "Technology and threats have changed, but the law remains essentially the same. If we are to improve our ability to protect the country by gathering foreign intelligence, this law must be updated to reflect changes in technology and the ways our adversaries communicate with one another."
Bush, in 2001: "When earlier laws were written, some of these methods did not even exist. The new law recognizes the realities and dangers posed by the modern terrorist. It will help us to prosecute terrorist organizations -- and also to detect them before they strike. . . .
Surveillance of communications is another essential method of law enforcement. But for a long time, we have been working under laws written in the era of rotary telephones. Under the new law, officials may conduct court-ordered surveillance of all modern forms of communication used by terrorists."
In short, Mr. McConnell, your boss asked for and GOT everything which you claim he did not get, and which you are demanding today.
I deeply suspect that the new changes you are pushing for will enable you to continue to hide the illegal FISA violations which Mr. Bush has been covering up these past five years. You, sir, have no business running a whelk stall, let holding the position of Director of National Intelligence.
And the Washington Post would do well to start fact-checking its guests' editorials.
5/23/2007 11:35:32 AM
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....and here is the latest on how the "centerpiece" of "the Decider", Bush's.... "War on Terr-urrr", is actually coming along:
Quote:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/0...aeus-the-boot/
July 29th, 2007
Iraqi Prime Minister Asks Bush To Give General Petraeus The Boot
By: Logan Murphy @ 1:32 PM - PDT
Via <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/28/wirq128.xml">The Telegraph</a>:
Relations between the top United States general in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, the country’s prime minister, are so bad that the Iraqi leader made a direct appeal for his removal to President George W Bush.
Although the call was rejected, aides to both men admit that Mr Maliki and Gen David Petraeus engage in frequent stand-up shouting matches, differing particularly over the US general’s moves to arm Sunni tribesmen to fight al-Qa’eda.
One Iraqi source said Mr Maliki used a video conference with Mr Bush to call for the general’s signature strategy to be scrapped. “He told Bush that if Petraeus continues, he would arm Shia militias,” said the official. “Bush told Maliki to calm down.”
At another meeting with Gen Petraeus, Mr Maliki said: “I can’t deal with you any more. I will ask for someone else to replace you.” <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/28/wirq128.xml">Read more…</a>
<h3>Calm down? President Bush armed Maliki’s enemies in a bloody civil war and now he wants him to calm down.</h3> Nobody could have predicted this outcome. Howie has <a href="http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/07/mailki-and-petraeus-at-each-others.html">more on this</a>. Apparently, Saudi Arabia refuses to work with Maliki and accuse him of being an agent of Iran. The thlot pickens…
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So the president blatantly misleads us, as to why he wants to further usurp our constitutional rights, in his saturday radio address, contradicting his own, 2001 statements, still visible on the white house web pages of Oct., 2001, and as a prelude, he has his intelligence Czar, in May, 2007, and his Attorney General, under oath, just a few days ago...make the same blatantly misleading statements to us about the 1978 era FISA laws failure to take today's technological advances into account. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO INSPIRE CONFIDENCE AND TRUST in his leadership?
Last edited by host; 07-29-2007 at 05:54 PM..
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