Man, I was really worried that the Bush administration’s determination to engineer a crisis that it could then try to pin on House Democrats would leave the country’s security services dangerous lacking in legal tools necessary to subject people to electronic surveillance. It seems, though, that breaking the law has just become routine so we can all breath easy I guess.
In Radio Address, Bush Hypes Consequences of Wiretapping Law Expiration
In his weekly radio address, President Bush not only blames Congress for tonight’s expiration of the Protect America Act, he says that his government will have a harder time keeping you safe:
Because Congress failed to act, it will be harder for our government to keep you safe from terrorist attack. At midnight, the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence will be stripped of their power to authorize new surveillance against terrorist threats abroad. This means that as terrorists change their tactics to avoid our surveillance, we may not have the tools we need to continue tracking them — and we may lose a vital lead that could prevent an attack on America.
Nothing about the measure’s expiration prevents either law enforcement or intelligence officials from carrying out new surveillance against suspected terrorists. They will simply need to get a warrant. Nor is exigency a factor, as warrants can even be obtained after the surveillance has begun.
Furthermore, Bush’s hype over tonight’s midnight expiration is undermined by the words of his own top aides. Just 24 hours ago, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told NPR:
Some of the [surveillance] authorities would carry over to the period they were established for one year. That would put us into the August, September time-frame. However, that’s not the real issue. The issue is liability protection for the private sector.
McConnell let slip that the real goal in the debate over the Protect America Act is not to protect America, but to protect the telecommunication companies being sued for assisting in Bush’s illegal wiretapping. The president claims he wants to protect these companies to ensure their future cooperation. However, legal warrants compel cooperation.
The only reason to insist on telecom immunity is that the telecom lawsuits are the only remaining avenue for bringing to light the administration’s illegal activities. And that is what Bush and his conservative allies will not permit, regardless of how real the cost is to America’s intelligence-gathering apparatus.
– Tom
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UPDATE: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released this joint statement:
The Protect America Act will expire only because the President and congressional Republicans refused to approve an extension of that law. Their true concern here is not national security. Rather, they want to protect the financial interests of telecommunications companies and avoid judicial scrutiny of their warrantless wiretapping program.
Walking the Streets
An interesting observation from Ilan Goldenberg: When Ahmadenijad is planning to visit Iraq, he announces his trip well in advance much in the way that leaders normally do before visiting foreign countries. But when George Bush goes to Iraq, security concerns dictate that the visit take place in secret with no advance notice. This even though the country in question is currently under US military occupation. Or perhaps rather than “even though” we should say because.
Spreading Democracy
“U.S. Struggles to Tutor Iraqis in Rule of Law”. Maybe that’s because the modern-day Republican Party has had trouble explaining how concepts like “if the president says ‘terrorism’ a lot it’s not really a crime” and “if the companies that broke the law contribute a lot of money to my campaign they should be let off the hook” and “when executive branch officials don’t respond to subpoenas you should back them if they’re Republicans” translate over into the Iraqi context. it is, after all, a very different culture and society so it’s hard to know what the exact parallel would be so some of the wacky adventures in Xtreme Rule of Law the GOP has been experimenting with lately.
Bush Wont Expess Opinions On Genocide Olympics: ‘I View The Olympics As A Sporting Event
During a recent interview with the BBC, President Bush boasted that the United States is the “only nation” to have called the situation in Darfur “genocide.”
Yet later in the interview, Bush was asked if he would “applaud” Steven Speilberg’s recent decision to withdraw as artistic director of the Beijing Olympics because China is not doing enough to pressure Sudan to end the genocide in Darfur. “That’s up to him,” Bush said dismissively, adding, “I’m going to the Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event.” Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/02/busholympicssporting.320.240.flv]
Bush took a subtle jab at human rights activists who will want to “opine” during the Olympics. “I mean, you got the Dalai Lama crowd. You’ve got global warming folks. You’ve got, you know, Darfur,” he said. “I am not gonna you know, go and use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way.”
Transcript: Read more
