Link to story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10538136/
(Sorry I have no HTML skills)
Notes:
FISA is the high court that grants wiretaps for domestic phones that call overseas. They are a rubber stamp court; in their over 25 year existance they have denied exactly *four* wiretaps. You are even allowed to place the tap and then retroactively get a warrant within 72 hours. The question is: who was the President tapping that he and his advisors believed weren't going to somehow qualify for a warrant? Bush and his advisors knew they would get legal warrants, unless something wasn't above board. Tapping a line that needs a FISA warrant without obtaining one is a felony and Bush has admitted to the tapping publically.
2 comments:
I have mixed feelings about the Bush wiretap issue, and I'm not going to chime in on that one way or another, but I wanted to share yet another instance of political hyprocracy that has come up as a result of the wiretap issue:
Congressman Jim McDermott (D - Washington) issued a statement this week bemoaning Bush authorizing the monitoring of communications going overseas. This is the SAME Jim McDermott who got into a wagonload of legal trouble back in the mid 1990's after he illegally taped a phone conversation by a Florida couple. After he was slapped with a lawsuit for his illegal action, he sent fliers out to his constituents asking for financial help - to pay for his legal bills for committing a crime.
Bush's motivation for his wiretaps was for fighting terrorism. McDermott's motivation to illegally tape a private phone conversation was to politically hurt Newt Gingrich. And McDermott has the audacity to go on record criticizing Bush?
Time will tell if the President's wiretap efforts prove to be legal or not, but the motivation behind what McDermott did in the 1990's is a whole lot less noble, and his criticism of the President this week smacks loudly of the sort of hypocracy that make me wonder if he either needs his medication changed or his memory checked. McDermott can disagree with the President, but he should keep his mouth shut and let like-minded colleagues voice his frustration.
I didn't know that about McDermott. Sad.
It came out today that Bush also used the NSA for warrantless domestic wiretapping again in violation of the fourth amendment and even the patriot act.
Post a Comment