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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 SurveillanceNSA Leak Case Watch: New York Times’ Reporter James Risen
NSA Leak Case Watch: Justice Deptartment Probing Domestic Spying LeakNSA Surveillance Watch: President Had Legal Authority to OK Taps
NSA Surveillance Watch: Calls for Congressional HearingsTechnorati Tags: NationalSecurityAgency, NSA, NSALeakCase, NewYorkTimes, PatrickFitzgerald, CIA, CIALeakCase, ValeriePlame, JudithMiller, AlbertoGonzales, BillKeller, ByronCalame, MichelleMalkin
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Cox & Forkum: One Man’s Whistleblower
From AP: Senators Differ on Leak of Domestic Spying Information.
And what about James Risen parroting Schumer on the Today Show this morning?
Hypocrites and Opportunists BOTH! (Even with National Security at stake!)
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Global War on Terror Watch: Why the NSA Monitors Communications of Al-Qaida
Suspected al-Qaida militant Syrian citizen Loa’i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, center, shouts ‘Allahu Akbar,’ Arabic for ‘God is great,’ as he leaves from a courthouse between plainclothes Turkish policemen in Istanbul, Turkey, on this Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005 file photo. The Syrian accused of serving as a key point man between suicide bombers and al-Qaida flew so far beneath the radar that even fellow militants thought he was dead. Loa’i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, wanted by Turkey for 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 58 people, is said to have eluded intelligence services by using an array of fake IDs, employing aliases even with his al-Qaida contacts and finally faking his death in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004.
And the Democrats wonder about the NSA Survelliance Program and the Patriot Act?
Technorati Tags: NationalSecurityAgency, NSA, NSALeakCase, NewYorkTimes, AlQaeda, CIA, CIALeakCase, AlQaida, al-Saqa, Iraq, Turkey
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NSA Surveillance Leak Case Watch: President Bush Defends NSA Surveillance
President Bush delivers remarks after visiting wounded soldiers at Brooke Army Medical Center, Sunday Jan. 1, 2006, in San Antonio, Texas.
The ASSociated Press has Bush Defends Domestic Spying Program
President Bush on Sunday strongly defended his domestic spying program, saying it’s a limited initiative that tracks only incoming calls to the United States.
The Quotes:
“It’s seems logical to me that if we know there’s a phone number associated with al-Qaida or an al-Qaida affiliate and they’re making phone calls, it makes sense to find out why.”
“They attacked us before, they’ll attack us again.”
Asked how he responds to Americans worried about violations of their privacy, he responded, “If somebody from al-Qaida is calling you, we’d like to know why.”
“This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America and, I repeat, limited.”
“The NSA program is one that listens to a few numbers called from the outside of the United States of known al-Qaida or affiliated people,” he said, adding that he believes that he is acting within the law.
“The fact that somebody leaked this program causes great harm to the United States,” he said. “There’s an enemy out there.”
The president was asked whether he misled the American people in 2004 when, during an event promoting the Patriot Act, he said that any wiretapping required a court order and that nothing had changed. He made the statement more than two years after he approved the NSA program.
“I was talking about roving wiretaps, I believe, involving the Patriot Act,” Bush said. “This is different from the NSA program.”
The President did a good job responding to the press and outlining this reasonable program.
Flap doubts that Senator Arlen Specter will continue with his call for hearings. The hearings would have to be closed to the public in any case due to the classified nature of the NSA program.
This is a necessary and reasonable LIMITED program to protect Americans from Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in the Global War on Terror –
WHAT IS SO WRONG?
Previous:
NSA Leak Case Watch: New York Times’ Reporter James Risen
NSA Leak Case Watch: Justice Deptartment Probing Domestic Spying LeakNSA Surveillance Watch: President Had Legal Authority to OK Taps
NSA Surveillance Watch: Calls for Congressional HearingsTechnorati Tags: NationalSecurityAgency, NSA, NSALeakCase, NewYorkTimes, PatrickFitzgerald, CIA, CIALeakCase, ValeriePlame, JudithMiller, AlbertoGonzales, BillKeller, ByronCalame, MichelleMalkin
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NSA Leak Case Watch: Justice Deptartment Probing Domestic Spying Leak
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, left, speaks during a news conference about the Patriot Act at the Justice Department in Washington, in a Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2005 photo. The Justice Department has opened an investigation Justice officials said Friday, Dec. 30, 2005. into the leak of classified information about President Bush’s secret domestic spying program.
The ASSociated Press has Justice Dept. Probing Domestic Spying Leak
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leak of classified information about President Bush’s secret domestic spying program, Justice officials said Friday.
The officials, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, said the inquiry will focus on disclosures to The New York Times about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Times revealed the existence of the program two weeks ago in a front-page story that acknowledged the news had been withheld from publication for a year, partly at the request of the administration and partly because the newspaper wanted more time to confirm various aspects of the program.
Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for The Times, said the paper will not comment on the investigation.
Flap wonders if Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the CIA Leak Case is available? Or, if the Justice Department will finally end his futile attempt to prosecute Scooter Libby?
The Justice Department’s investigation was being initiated after the agency received a request for the probe from the NSA.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been conducting a separate leak investigation to determine who in the administration leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name to the media in 2003.
Several reporters have been called to testify before a grand jury or to give depositions. New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail, refusing to reveal her source, before testifying in the probe.
Looks like more jail time for New York Times reporters.
Prosecute this case!
Update #1Michelle Malkin has FINALLY: JUSTICE DEPT. OPENS NSA LEAK PROBE
AJ Strata and Stop the ACLU are tracking the story. Mac Ranger has an inside source. Flopping Aces reports on Beltway Buzz.
Random thoughts:
1) Won’t be long before we start hearing the Bush-haters at the Times and elsewhere moaning about how this probe is a waste of time/distraction from the important business of Congress/politically motivated(!).
2) Look for the Plamegate apologists to argue that the NSA leaks were “good” leaks, justified in the name of safeguarding civil liberties and the national interest, and should therefore be exempt from criminal prosecution.
By contrast, they argue that disclosures about Valerie Plame were “bad” leaks worthy of pulling out all prosecutorial stops–though no one has been charged with leaking classified info, and even if they did, the adverse effects on national security are infinitesimal compared to the damage done by the NYT/NSA leaks.
The law, may I remind the Bush-bashers, does not grant an exception based on leakers’ motives. See Scott Johnson’s analysis of the statutory language here.
3) The chickens will be coming home to roost at the Times, which crusaded loudly for a special prosecutor in Plamegate. Any bets on how long it will take for Eric Lichtblau and James Risen to roll over? I’d guess a few weeks after Risen’s book launch.
Technorati Tags: NationalSecurityAgency, NSA, NSALeakCase, NewYorkTimes, PatrickFitzgerald, CIA, CIALeakCase, ValeriePlame, JudithMiller, AlbertoGonzales