More on the NSA Intercepts
According to former Associate Attorney General John Schmid, under Bill Clinton, the NSA intercepts are LEGAL.
In the Supreme Court’s 1972 Keith decision holding that the president does not have inherent authority to order wiretapping without warrants to combat domestic threats, the court said explicitly that it was not questioning the president’s authority to take such action in response to threats from abroad.
Four federal courts of appeal subsequently faced the issue squarely and held that the president has inherent authority to authorize wiretapping for foreign intelligence purposes without judicial warrant.
In the most recent judicial statement on the issue, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, composed of three federal appellate court judges, said in 2002 that “All the … courts to have decided the issue held that the president did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence … We take for granted that the president does have that authority.”
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But as the 2002 Court of Review noted, if the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches, “FISA could not encroach on the president’s constitutional power.”
What the MSM doesn’t say is that President Bush is not the first to authorize surveillance without a court order for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence. According to Drudge former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter both signed executive orders allowing for warrantless searches. And I don’t remember any politicians then even hinting at impeachment, as Barbara Boxer is now doing.
December 21st, 2005 at 11:04 pm
Much to the dismay of MSM, bloggers never forget. Every time the MSM think they have a Bush gotcha, bloggers do research and determine that Clinton did exactly the same thing.
Speaking of Clinton, the left is so desperate that they held this sign up near the White House:
“Would somebody please just give him a blowjob so we can get him impeached? Somebody?”
http://rschultz.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-than-anything-else-we-need-in.html
December 21st, 2005 at 11:20 pm
This whole thing is getting really, really tiresome. The more the facts of the “case” are pointed out, and the more case law is stated, and the more specific law is brought to light enumerating presidential authority, the more the left screams “Bush lied!” and “He’s Hitler!”, and “Theocracy!”
There is no reasoning with unreasonable people. If the left/Dems/moonbats had a lick of sense they’d study societies like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, pre-war Afganistan and pre-war Iraq. Then they might, MIGHT, spend some time thinking about what an autocracy would be like if they weren’t the autocrats, what a fascist state is really like if you don’t happen to be a fascist of the proper stipe, and what a Theocracy is really like.
‘Course, that’d kinda be like askin’ an ostrich to fly. They just don’t have the capability to connect the dots OR to see reality. They jus’ like thinkin’, ’cause that adds so much to the GNP.