President Bush has decided not to reauthorise the government’s domestic spying programme in its present form, the White House has said.
The government is now seeking approval from a special court for wiretaps, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.
Mr Bush authorised the secret intercept scheme in 2001 after the 11 September attacks but it did not come to light until December 2005 when it was uncovered by the New York Times newspaper.
Senator Patrick Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, welcomed the announcement that approval for all wiretaps would be sought from the court, “as the law has required for years”.
“The issue has never been whether to monitor suspected terrorists but doing it legally and with proper checks and balances to prevent abuses”, Mr Leahy said.
So, everyone is confident Bush is telling the truth — this time?
Rest assured Eideard, I believe him.
The truth? You can’t handle the truth!
In other words, No, I don’t believe he is telling the truth. For GW the truth is the last option.
First request:
Dear court,
Executive Branch: Please grant us a warent to tap all phone lines anywhere in the world.
Court:
As in our mandate, created by you, we are required to approve all warant requests regardless of cause, here you go… But if were were a real court we would have the option to say no, and we would tell you NO.
EB: Okay, thanks.. but because of those last words, and we want to make sure you don’t talk we declare you are terrorists and are sending you to.. a secret place for the rest of your lives. Have fun
…decided not to reauthorise the government’s domestic spying programme in its present form, the White House has said.
So, he will just authorise it in a different form…
They are going to stop talking about it at least.
>>BUSH: I believe what I’m doing is constitutional, and I know it’s necessary.
>> CHENEY: I can tell you the terrorist surveillance program has been absolutely essential. http://tinyurl.com/3e4tuw
Uh, OK. Maybe not so much. OK. Uncle!
I thought this is what you (Liberals) wanted, FISA Court oversite of the program.
And since we are talking about it, the program is to spy on terrorists making international phone calls into and out of the U.S. Not domestic phone calls.
WikiPedia article (start of second paragraph)
“Under the “terrorist surveillance program”, the NSA monitors phone calls between the United States and a foreign country,…”
This is good news. It’s also very interesting timing, given that he can now conceivably be impeached if these things kept adding up.
#7, What the government says and what the government does are two different things. Frankly, when I listen to a government official I assume they are lying.
Oh you mean they’re going to revise the Patriot Act before renewing it? The Act that so many ignorant idiots were all for right after 9/11. Somehow everyone is in an uproar about the government spying on us but it was spelled out quite clearly as one of the provisions under the Patriot Act. All I can say to everyone who was so panicked after 9/11 that they thought the Patriot Act was a good idea without reading what it did. You lay down with the dogs you wake up with fleas.