SOTU: Temporary FISA Extension Will Not Put Any Americans In Danger
SOTU: Temporary FISA Extension Will Not Put Any Americans In Danger
Bush said: “One of the most important tools we can give them is the ability to monitor terrorist communications. To protect America, we need to know who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they are planning. Last year, the Congress passed legislation to help us do that. Unfortunately, the Congress set the legislation to expire on February 1. This means that if you do not act by Friday, our ability to track terrorist threats would be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger. The Congress must ensure the flow of vital intelligence is not disrupted.”
FACT — TEMPORARY EXTENSION WOULD ALLOW NEW WIRETAPS TO BE IMPLEMENTED: A temporary extension would prevent the Protect America Act revisions from expiring on February 1, meaning new authorizations for surveillance would continue be governed by the Protect America Act revisions. If the extension is not passed, the Act’s “transition procedures” would cause all new authorizations to be governed by the FISA statute as it existed prior to the Protect America Act revisions. [Protect America Act]
FACT — GOVERNMENT WILL STILL BE ABLE TO WIRETAP TERRORISTS IF PROTECT AMERICA ACT EXPIRES: “Kenneth L. Wainstein, assistant attorney general for national security, said in an interview that if the August bill was allowed to expire in 10 days, intelligence officials would still be able to continue eavesdropping on already approved targets for another year under the law.” [NY Times 01/23/08]
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
The 3 words I want the next Prez to say as his/her first words after being sowrn in…
January 28th, 2008 at 10:02 pmARREST THESE MEN.
Whitehouse IS TAKING CALLS NOW.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:10 pm1-202-456-1111
We KNOW this. The FISA court was never any obstacle to the government spying on those that they believed were terrorists. It was only an obstacle to the Government when they were doing something OTHER than spying on suspected terrorists.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:03 pmBushy says he’d rather veto and let the program expire than give an extension. What a hero, what an important program that we can’t live without, yeah f#$#in right.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:07 amI fully expect Congressional Democrats to cave on this issue, too.
I mean, why grow a spine now?
January 29th, 2008 at 8:33 amI’d like to second buzzbomb’s point: if this law were so important, how could bush possibly veto it, under any circumstances?
January 29th, 2008 at 3:52 pm