NSA Surveillance Leak Case Watch: Vice President Cheney Strongly Defends Eavesdropping Operation
U.S. President George W. Bush speaks about Iraq and Afghanistan after being briefed by top brass at the Pentagon January 4, 2006. Standing with Bush from left are National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Reuters: Cheney strongly defends eavesdropping operation
Vice President Dick Cheney strongly defended a secret domestic eavesdropping operation in use since the September 11, 2001, attacks, saying it was not violating American civil liberties and has helped fend off potential terrorist attacks.
“The enemy that struck on 9/11 is weakened and fractured yet it is still lethal and planning to hit us again. Either we are serious about fighting this war or we are not,” Cheney said in remarks prepared for a speech at the Heritage Foundation think tank.
Outside the raising of questions of impropriety by the MSM (spelled New York Times) and the call for Congressional hearings the American left has been craven in their attacks on the NSA Program.
Why NO lawsuit before the United States Federal Courts for injunctive relief?
The Quotes from the Vice President:
Cheney, in speech excerpts released by the White House, called President George W. Bush’s decision to intercept “a certain category of terrorist-linked international communications” a vital step.
“There are no communications more important to the safety of the United States than those related to al Qaeda that have one end in the United States. If we’d been able to do this before 9/11, we might have been able to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon.”
On protecting civil liberties: “He has made clear from the outset, both publicly and privately, that our duty to uphold the law of the land admits no exceptions in wartime.”
Cheney said as more time passes since the September 11 attacks, “some in Washington are yielding to the temptation to downplay the ongoing threat to our country, and to back away from the business at hand.”
“This is perhaps a natural impulse, as time passes and the alarms don’t sound,”“America has been protected not by luck but by sensible policy decisions by decisive action at home and abroad and by round-the-clock efforts on the part of people in law enforcement, intelligence, the military, and homeland security.”
All of this BLUSTER about this previously secret anti-terrorist program is American politics at its worst.
The America people support the President in this program. The Rasmussen poll has American overwhelmingly supporting this program:
Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.
The New York Times and some Senate Democrats (spelled Charles Schumer) may attempt to develop this story into more than it is.
In the meantime, the NSA will continue its intercepts and America will be safer for it.
Stay tuned for more bluster……..
Previous:
Cox & Forkum: One Man’s Whistleblower
Global War on Terror Watch: Why the NSA Monitors Communications of Al-Qaida
NSA Surveillance Leak Case Watch: President Bush Defends NSA Surveillance
NSA Leak Case Watch: New York Times’ Reporter James Risen
NSA Leak Case Watch: Justice Deptartment Probing Domestic Spying Leak
NSA Surveillance Watch: President Had Legal Authority to OK Taps
NSA Surveillance Watch: Calls for Congressional Hearings
Technorati Tags: NationalSecurityAgency, NSA, NSALeakCase, NewYorkTimes, PatrickFitzgerald, CIA, CIALeakCase, ValeriePlame, JudithMiller, AlbertoGonzales, BillKeller, ByronCalame, MichelleMalkin
2 Comments
Pingback:
Pingback: