Specter On Domestic Spying: ‘There Has Been No Meaningful Congressional Oversight’
Specter On Domestic Spying: ‘There Has Been No Meaningful Congressional Oversight’
Yesterday, Bush said this in his weekly radio address:
The intelligence activities I have authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat.
Senate Judiciary Committee Arlen Specter (R-PA) disagreed with that assessment this morning. On Face the Nation, Specter said that Bush and others in the administration “still haven’t complied with the act to inform the full intelligence committees as required by law.â€
“[T]here really has to be in our system of law and government, checks and balance, separation of powers, congressional oversight,†Specter added, and “there has been no meaningful congressional oversight on these programs.â€
Full transcript:
SCHIEFFER: Senator Specter, I know you were listening when I asked the question that you had posed and that is how can a congressional oversight committee give proper oversight to a program if you can’t find out what the program is? Did you get the answer you were looking for there?
SPECTER: I did not get a satisfactory answer because when we called in the attorney general, and the judiciary committee has specific oversight over the department of justice and the attorney general, on our congressional oversight responsibility, we did not get answers.
When Mr. Hadley says that the intelligence committees have been informed, that’s only partially so. When the program was put into effect, the so-called gang of eight was informed – that’s the leadership of both the house and senate and chairman and ranking on the intelligence committees. Now Bob, the statute requires that the committees, all of them, be informed. And they still haven’t been informed.
After we put pressure on with our hearings and legislation which we proposed, the administration started to brief a subcommittee of intelligence and part of the house committee, 11 members, but they still haven’t complied with the act to inform the full intelligence committees as required by law. And there really has to be in our system of law and government, checks and balance, separation of powers, congressional oversight and bob, there has been no meaningful congressional oversight on these programs.
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“meaningful” – nice qualifier.
May 14th, 2006 at 2:42 pmAnd he couldn’t have thought of those checks and balances when he was voting in lockstep with Bu$hCo? Great timing …
May 14th, 2006 at 2:55 pmThe big question is whether or not Specter actually intends to give that “meaningful congressional oversight” some teeth or is he going to simply jawbone the topic until it exits the front page and then allow the administration to sweep it back under the rug.
I’m also waiting to hear Senator Graham sound the same ominous tone. It would be refreshing to see some Republicans do more than posture. Sadly, I’ve become a skeptic.
more observations here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
May 14th, 2006 at 2:58 pm“There Has Been No Meaningful Congressional Oversight On These Programs”
Translation: “They won’t tell me anything”.
May 14th, 2006 at 3:00 pmif you are so concerned about a constitutional crisis, ACT like it, chump. impeach, censure or storm the gate with a pitchfork, but do SOMETHING besides talk.
unless, of course, you are merely window dressing, and don’t actually BELIEVE a word you say…..
May 14th, 2006 at 3:06 pm“There Has Been No Meaningful Congressional Oversight On These Programsâ€
actually means that your lawless war-criminal is violating the National Securites Act of 1947:
that would be my guess…
have a nice day!
May 14th, 2006 at 3:12 pmHey Mr. No Congressional Oversight (aka Arlen Specter),
You are the head of the Judiciary Committee. This President is a member of your own party. Do something about it you turd!
May 14th, 2006 at 4:01 pmI’m beginning to wonder if all this NSA spying scenario isn’t just a sham concocted by the Republicans to have an evil crisis that they can save our country from right before election.
Kinda like raising the terrorism level…..
There are just too many suck ups turning against the president for this not to sound fishy.
May 14th, 2006 at 4:08 pmSen Specter, listen up — DUH!
May 14th, 2006 at 4:24 pmGet back to work and DO YOUR JOB!
You and your party have ALL the power right now.
You say there has been no meaningful congressional oversight as if you have nothing to do with it!
Stop whining NOW, and get your ass in gear!
If it takes more than the 93 days you’re working this year,
I think it’s worth doing.
Don’t you?
#8
it is so difficult to figure out what level of lies are coming from the wh… for example, i am guessing that hayden will get a recess appointment over the memorial day holiday… however, the wh had someone leak the ‘news’ that cheney in fact authorized the nsa programme and not hayden. this presumably was intended to ease the confirmation of hayden, so that conflicts with my initial guess.
the ‘evil crisis’ will occur in the first week of october when israel is hit with bomb that they will alledge is from iran, but, is actually from the us. this will allow a response from israel against israel; iran then kills every soldier in basra; the uk leads the retaliation against iran since most of those initially killed will be british. all the ass-clowns in congress do the ‘we must be behind our president in times of war’ and the congress remains republican.
once that happens, the fascists will have nothing to lose and will make the past six years look like kindergarten as they invade iran, syria and atrocities beyond our imagination will occur throughout the planet….
have a nice day!
May 14th, 2006 at 4:33 pmthis will allow a response from israel against israel should be this will allow a response from israel against iran…
May 14th, 2006 at 4:36 pmSpector can whine all he wants but he’ll do nothing about it. Our government has become a bad joke and no one’s laughing. Except maybe Cheney and Ossama.
May 14th, 2006 at 4:41 pmSpecter is correct, but what does he intend to do about it? Slapping Bush’s wrist and telling him to comply means nothing! Dubya Dunce Decider has violated the FISA law, so he must be impeached, or forced to resign!
May 14th, 2006 at 4:42 pmMr Spector, exactly what does it take for you people to take, to really, take action? You all know Bush and company are tyrants and traitors and worse. Hell, you gleefully impeached Clinton over a damn blow job. Bush is tearing this country to pieces. It’s maddening to see nothing, I mean NOTHING but tal and more talk come from any of you. Are you afraid? what? what is it? Are you going to sit back while he intentionally up ends the world by bombing Iran. Chaos! That is what they WANT! What easier way for this group of bonesmen to slide further in by creating more unnecessary terror, creating another illusion that we “need” them to protect us. Crap! What we need is protection from them. That’s where you guys come in. That’s your job Mr. Spector. To protect the Constitution and the citizens of America from this insidious conspiracy. And you know damned well that is exactly what it is!
May 14th, 2006 at 5:03 pmIn my above comment I may a mistake (Freudian, perhaps,) I didn’t mean to write Bush will intentionally “end the world” by bombing Iran. I meant that he Will intentionally bomb Iran to create chaos, if not stopped. That’s what I meant. End the world, humpf, I don’t know where that came from. Sorry.
May 14th, 2006 at 5:09 pmIn my above comment I made a mistake (Freudian, perhaps,) I didn’t mean to write Bush will intentionally “end the world” by bombing Iran. I meant that he Will intentionally bomb Iran to create chaos, if not stopped. That’s what I meant. End the world, humpf, I don’t know where that came from. Sorry.
May 14th, 2006 at 5:09 pmWhat thinkparanoid leaves out from Specter’s comments on Deface the Nation:
1) “Listen, it may come out that it’s entirely lawful. But until we know a lot
more about it, we can’t pass judgment, and we’re entitled to know.”
2) “[I]f the president is exercising Article 2, inherent
constitutional powers, that trumps or supercedes the statute (FISA).”
So, we have Specter who is suspending judgement, not anything like the knee-jerk reaction from liberals lookiing to score politcal points at the expense of our national security. Just another example why democrats can’t be trusted with protecting Americans.
May 14th, 2006 at 5:11 pmNow, this allegation would be particularly disturbing if it came from anyone actually on the congressional intelligence committees…
May 14th, 2006 at 5:13 pmwell, i trust arlen more than just about any of them, really… look at his cohort on the intelligence committee: roberts, the filthy lackey…
let us not forget senator reid making the headlines in, i think, 11.05 when he did the ’secret session’ of the senate nonsense to force roberts to release the 9.11 intelligence information…ummm, it still has not been released.
so, my question to the senate, is: why don’t you stand up every DAY and say ‘where is it, you filthy c/ck-sucker!!!!!’
the democrats have their head up their own asses as well on all of this…
May 14th, 2006 at 5:16 pmJust another example why democrats can’t be trusted with protecting Americans.
yes, the republicans are doing a swell job.
which party was in office on 9.11??? the democrats
which party was in office when afghanistan and iraq were illegally invaded? the democrats
which party was in office while 2500 soldiers and 15000 were wounded during an illegal war? the democrats
#18, you again show your knack at utterly ridiculousness! you are simply dense and not of this world… have the nurse look up ‘delusional’ in the dsm for you…he or she will have to read it slowly, and, i reckon about thirty times before you understand it, but, as a public service, please seek help for your sickness
May 14th, 2006 at 5:23 pmIt’s not just the spying stuff. They may turn out to be the least of Bushs’ indiscretions. It’s the lying like a 4 year old, it’s the blant, outright thievery by everyone connected to this cabal. It’s the placing of completely incompetent cronies in important posistions. It’s the constant refusal to recognize that billions of people hate him and more, his policies. Achieving victory in Iraq is no more on the plate than catching bin Laden or Zawahiri. Water boarding bin Laden may cause him to reveal a little more than Bushco wants revealed to a suckered world population. Just plain evil. Pure, plain evil.
May 14th, 2006 at 5:29 pmHey R and KP you’re so right democrats can’t be trusted to protect americans from americans who hate democrats and liberals like Timmy McVeigh , but they seemed to do a better job against the other bad guys .
May 14th, 2006 at 5:47 pmSpecter: “After we put pressure on with our hearings…”.
Yeah right knucklehead…who was under oath?
May 14th, 2006 at 5:56 pmSome pressure…jeeesh.
NEWS FLASH!!!: Senator Frist should be investigated by the DOJ because he is leaking classified information to the press.
May 14th, 2006 at 6:46 pmGee, a fascist totalitarian terrorist regime without checks and balances? Whota surprise!
May 14th, 2006 at 8:02 pm#17:So, we have Specter who is suspending judgement, not anything like the knee-jerk reaction from liberals lookiing to score politcal points at the expense of our national security.
Yeah, committing felonies and treason against America are no longer crimes when it’s a baby killing white male Christian committing them, huh, rightard?
Since you hate everything America stands for, shouldn’t you leave? Shouldn’t you move to some place you like better that’s more in accord with your theofascist ideals? Like Iran or Saudi Arabia, maybe, rightard?
May 14th, 2006 at 8:08 pmTranslation of dumbya’s comments…..(you think he said everything’s OK)
But what he really said is ….
Ameri-KKK-a, I’ll do anything I please and when caught, I’ll lie to you about it and look at me the War Presnit…..There ain’t a G****damn thing you can do to me. I’m the decider, I decide who to let escape, and I decide which innocent Ameri-KKK-ans I’ll spy on. This is how my daddy and nixon did it, and I have larger balls than they did.
May 14th, 2006 at 8:14 pm[...] And there was a lot of criticism of the guy. Just as there was some criticism when John Ascroft appointed special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald because Fitz is a Republican (of course we now know that Fitz is the man, more on that this week, heh, heh, heh, if you know what I mean). I for one bit my tongue because I hoped that he would in fact turn out to be a very significant positive force in this. And I think he just might be. He has promised to subpoena telco executives that illegally cooperated with the NSA before Congress, and ThinkProgress is reporting that Specter is admitting that he hasn’t gotten anywhere with this. The man is pissed off, and I certainly expect some fireworks to occur during General Hayden’s confirmation process in the Senate, due to Hayden’s work as the Chief of the NSA, and his work installing this illegal program. Sunday May 14th 2006, 8:30 pm by Arlen Parsa Permalink No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> [...]
May 14th, 2006 at 8:33 pm#17 Reich Wingnut,
May 14th, 2006 at 8:52 pmNowhere in Article II does it provide for the ability of the president to violate the law, or other provisions of the Constitution. Get back on your lithium
anyone know where i can get a copy of this dartmouth plan that folks have been talking about on some of the blogs?
May 14th, 2006 at 10:50 pmWhen the Bush administration says they are unable to devulge top secret information because of national security and the “war on terror,” what they really mean is we are doing things that are unlawful and we do not want to get caught.
This administration will never give congress, the supreme court or anyone full disclosure into their real agenda. As more is revealed to the American public through concerned citizens who do not want to loose this decmocracy, we will finally get the truth. There is not just one “deep throat” leaking information right now but dozens. When a people have been raised with a democratic form of government their hearts still beat for freedom.
May 15th, 2006 at 12:07 amSilverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 505, 512 (1961)
May 15th, 2006 at 12:40 amJUSTICE STEWART
#32- EXACTLY!! Thanks for putting that up.
May 15th, 2006 at 6:03 ami wonder if our homes, the air our phone signals travel through, and the phone company systems are free speech zones. seriously.
May 15th, 2006 at 8:12 am#17 Red and Kurly……you forgot to mention terrorist sympathizers Rep. Curt Weldon and Fox News when they pushed to expose pentagon data mining program “Able Danger”
May 15th, 2006 at 8:54 amSure thing man-chimp, you are one trustworthy WAR PIG.
May 15th, 2006 at 9:06 amAnything and everything you spit out of yer pie-hole has zero credibility.
By the end of the month, your approval will be at 25 percent.
Just resign already . . . . you are . . . and always have been . . . . a total failure.
Oh, and by the way, the drug infested Laura can’t save ya.
He’s a lap dog. He’ll snarl & make public statements like this, then he’ll go on & vote for reichtwingnutz judges for the federal courts & won’t do a damn thing to stop bushco.
Olympia Snow really pissed me off over this one too.
May 15th, 2006 at 9:51 amMaybe our Constitution and Bill of Rights are not as strong as we have been led to believe. We have a man in the Executive that has allocated unlimited power to himself, a Congress that sits by silently, and a Judiciary that hasn’t made a peep while this power grab proceeds on schedule. They are all sworn to uphold the Constitution, yet they watch it torn apart with equanimity. Maybe the strength of those documents is just an illusion after all.
May 15th, 2006 at 10:02 amPerhaps we should all ignore laws we find inconvenient, and claim that Georgie and God speak directly through us. And if you attack us, you are un-American and aiding terr-a-ists.
How far do you think they would let us get?
May 15th, 2006 at 12:52 pm[...] In what universe did NSA wiretapping "founder on the good sense of the American people"? Even House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin Republican whose good sense the White House has been happy to trust up until now, thinks the attorney general has been stonewalling on this issue. For those who don't follow politics closely, the "stonewalling" comment is a reference to Watergate, and for one prominent Republican to accuse another of it in public is as close as you will ever come to seeing one of them calling another a liar. And on Sunday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican and a generally reliable water-carrier for the administration, said bluntly, "There has been no meaningful congressional oversight" of NSA surveillance. Last December, the New York Times reported that after 9/11 the National Security Agency began listening to overseas phone calls of suspected terrorists, including calls placed from or received inside the U.S. This was supposed be a scandal because the tapping was done without a warrant from something called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. But as the debate wore on, it became clear that the 1978 FISA statute didn't block a President's power to allow such national-security wiretaps, and that most Americans expected their government to eavesdrop on terror suspects. [...]
June 8th, 2006 at 1:18 pm