| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Powell defends Bush on surveillance |
| 2005-12-26 |
| Former secretary of state Colin Powell has defended the US administration arguing there was "nothing wrong" with President George Bush's not seeking warrants before engaging in domestic spying. "I see absolutely nothing wrong with the president authorising these kinds of actions," Powell told ABC television Sunday after revelations last week that Bush authorised the National Security Agency to intercept communications by Americans with no approval from a special foreign intelligence court. "The president made a determination that he had sufficient authority from the Congress to do this in the way that he did it, without getting warrants from the courts or reporting to the courts after doing it," Powell said. "And the Congress will have to make a judgment as to whether or not they think the president was using the law correctly or not." Though Powell said he was not aware of the operations, he said "my own judgment is that it didn't seem to me, anyway, that it would have been that hard to go get the warrants. "Even in the case of an emergency, you go and do it. The law provides for that. And then, three days later, you let the court know what you have done and deal with it that way," Powell said. But "for reasons that the president has discussed and the attorney general has spoken to, they chose not to do it that way." Asked if such spying should continue, Powell said: "Yes, of course it should continue." US media also reported that the government runs a secret program to monitor homes, workplaces and mosques of Muslims in six US cities for signs of possible nuclear radiation. Both programs involve surveillance without search warrants or court orders, and agents who questioned the legality of the practise were allegedly rebuked, according to the news magazine US News and World Report. The federal government had previously said it had installed radiation-detection equipment at ports, subway stations and other public sites. The reports revealed that surveillance of private property was also under way. Bush and his top aides have stressed that the order for eavesdropping was limited to those suspected of ties to Al-Qaeda. But the latest reports about vetting vast amounts of data indicate the spying is more far-reaching. In its effort to track terrorist threats, the Bush administration has secured groundbreaking cooperation from major telecommunications companies, which have passed along information on calling patterns from a large volume of telephone traffic to the NSA, according to US media reports. Similar revelations about domestic spying led to legislation in the 1970s that allows for wiretapping but requires government agencies to obtain a warrant from a special court. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #4 Just consider the judge who quit in disgust from the FISA court-- a lefty from the Clintonoid Era. Who steered cases of Clinton corruption to judges he knew would go easy on the Clintons. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-12-26 16:09 |
| #3 We can only hope that the donks make this a campaign issue. Every poll I have seen indicates this is a non-issue as far as the general public. Of course the fever swamp is whining about impeachment, but I really doubt that it will get any traction outside their echo chamber. It will be fun to listen to them whine for the next three years. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2005-12-26 16:00 |
| #2 This issue is a big time loser for Democrates. This makes Democrates look like the "we will only fight with one arm tied behind our back" party. The real question for the average voter is: Do you feel safer if we give those people who want to kill you the full rights of an American citizen. |
| Posted by: canaveraldan 2005-12-26 10:22 |
| #1 Well, kinda sorta.. As with much Colin says, his comments are loaded with caveats. As in his saying that Bush should have gone to FISA afterwards. There is absolutely no obligation to report surveillance to FISA and to voluntarily do so would be to give up presidential authority needed to fight the war on terror. Just consider the judge who quit in disgust from the FISA court-- a lefty from the Clintonoid Era. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-12-26 09:37 |