Comments on: White House Position on NSA Program Becomes Clearer

By: Cecil Turner

Cecil Turner — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 02:30:41 +0000

If you accept the Administration believes the NSA program is a wartime effort to obtain enemy intelligence from foreigners, then as a constitutional issue, it's hard to see where judicial oversight fits in. The view of FISA as an unconstitutional encroachment on the Executive's warfighting prerogatives is certainly an arguable position, and for those who hold that view, judges making warfighting decisions is particularly problematic.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 02:30:25 +0000

You know, Tom, the more I think about it, the more I think your principle regarding this issue can be phrased as a general one. More on that latter, I think…

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 02:26:22 +0000

I see- the key when watching Congress on this issue is that it will choose the path of least responsibility – now it all becomes clear!…

You should read Glenn, but not the one I referenced…rather his latest, that begins thusly:

Jane Hamsher just posted some initial thoughts which she and I have discussed concerning how the energy, vibrancy and desire for action which pervades the blogosphere can be translated and channeled into greater influence on actual events, beginning with the NSA scandal.

Glenn, if you’re reading this, your plan his one big flaw…people love to kvetch about Bush, but now you’re asking someone to put down the IPod and get involved…

Good luck with that!…

By: Tom Maguire

Tom Maguire — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 01:12:50 +0000

My impression of the political dynamic is that no politician wants to be responsible for stopping this program, since (Heaven forbid) we may be attacked again. For example, Jane Harman has said it is a valuable program which she supports – it is just the legal subtleties that vex her.

So, for Congress there are two choices: (1) as with the Patriot Act, Congress needs to do its cheap suitcase act and fold up.

or, (2) pass the buck to the FISA court, so that if a slow process effectively ends the program, it is not Cthe fault of Congress.

Duck, or pass the buck.

Should I go read Greenwald? One might have thought the absence of impeachment talk would disheartern him. Or is that imminent?

By: protein wisdom

protein wisdom — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 21:58:28 +0000

Reverse Polarity

If anyone in the blogosphere has been even more inspired than I have about providing correctives to the NSA "domestic spying" story, it's AJ Strata, who continues to push through the fog of major media spin (see today's WaPo and NYT…

By: dmac

dmac — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 21:35:13 +0000

The naysayers regarding the “killing” of the Patriot act wound up disappearing when the rubber hit the road on that issue – why does anyone think congress will somehow find a backbone on this proposal (yes, I know it’s a GOP – dominated Congress, but still…)?

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:32:26 +0000

Well, we don’t see eye-to-eye on much, but we do on this: I agree that the administration will not agree to judicial oversight without much, much more of a fight than we’ve seen thus far. If that’s what Congress intends as a solution, this story won’t go away anytime soon…

However, I’m not sure Congress has the stomach you give them credit for…I think at least a few more days in the news cycle will have to pass, maybe two weeks, before we can get a handle on how they can withstand the White House pressure…

By: Glenn Greenwald

Glenn Greenwald — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:25:50 +0000

The latest reports are like Christmas in February to Glenn Greenwald

Genuinely funny – and even more accurate. I don’t see how the Administration can ever accept a proposal to eavesdrop only within the parameters of FISA oversight – do you? After all, they have now staked out a position that national security requires them to eavesdrop with no judicial oversight. And if revisions are made to FISA that render them willing to eavesdrop within the law, then it will prove that those revisions could have been made all along and there was never any reason for them to violate FISA.

And I really don’t see them ever accepting any framework where Congress limits the eavesdropping they can do and where they need permission from the courts to do it. Such a framework contravenes their central belief about the world – that the President has the power to engage in any anti-terrorism measures without “interference” from Congress or the courts.

At the same time, even this GOP-controlled Senate won’t allow themselves to be so emasculated by simply giving the Administration a complete exemption to eavesdrop without judicial oversight. That seems to lead us to quite a stalemate/stand-off, doesn’t it?