Category Archive

With national discussion still on fever-pitch about the legality of the NSA wiretapping, one thing to keep in mind is that nobody really knows exactly what the so-called "terrorist surveillance program" actually entails. Kevin Drum looks at two developments: (1)  The Bush Administration finally briefed a House subcommittee Wednesday on the NSA’s domestic spying program, causing Democrat Bud Cramer (a … Read More

Here’s the quote: The Founders well understood the difficult tradeoff between safety and freedom. “Safety from external danger … The Founders warned us about the risk, and equipped us with a Constitution designed to deal with it… Many think it not only inevitable but entirely proper that liberty give way to security in times of national crisis-—that, at the extremes … Read More

The New York Times is reporting that Representative Heather A. Wilson, a House Republican whose subcommittee oversees the National Security Agency, broke ranks with the White House on Tuesday and called for a full Congressional inquiry into the Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping program. The "defection" (if you can call it that) of a single Republican on this issue is not … Read More

Reuters: U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday resisted bipartisan appeals for changes in a hotly disputed warrantless eavesdropping program, saying he believed "we have all the legal authority we need." Not a tough standard to meet, when your "legal authority" amounts to nothing more than your own hand-picked attorney general who doesn’t believe in courts.

Stolen from Atrios: Uh, Washington? Alberto:  "President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale. " Aside from the rather obvious issue of, you know, lacking electronic communications at the time, what war was President Washington fighting? Then there’s this exchange: BIDEN: Thank you very much. General, how has this revelation … Read More

BIDEN: Can you assure us, General, you are fully, totally informed and confident that you know the absolute detail with which this program is being conducted? Can you assure us you personally can assure us no one is being eavesdropped upon in the United States other than — other than someone who has a communication that is emanating from foreign … Read More

Here: And in this post Kevin Drum hits on a key point … I’m also more tired than you can imagine of his constant invocation of presidents from Washington to Roosevelt who authorized warrantless surveillance in wartime. All of that happened before FISA was passed in 1978 and is completely meaningless. And he knows it. Kevin doesn’t fully unpack what … Read More

First Amendment lawyer Glenn Greenwald is going to butt heads with Powerline’s John Hindrocket on NPR’s To The Point today (2:10 pm EST) on the subject of the NSA hearings.  Should be fun, seeing as Glenn is on the forefront of blogger contributions to the wiretapping issue, and Hindrocket just scratches his head and wonders what all the fuss is … Read More

CNET News.com asked telecommunications and Internet companies about cooperation with the Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping scheme. The question asked: "Have you turned over information or opened up your networks to the NSA without being compelled by law?" Company Response Adelphia Communications Declined comment AOL Time Warner No [1] AT&T Declined comment BellSouth Communications No Cable & Wireless* No response Cablevision … Read More

The unwritten rule of comity states that ex-Presidents don’t criticize sitting presidents.  Thankfully, Carter isn’t sitting still for that: Former President Jimmy Carter criticized the Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping program Monday and said he believes the president has broken the law. "Under the Bush administration, there’s been a disgraceful and illegal decision — we’re not going to the let the … Read More

Glenn Greenwald is liveblogging the Senate Hearings on the NSA wiretapping.  Gonzales is the witness du jour. UPDATE:  Getting off to a bad start.  Gonzales isn’t being sworn in this time.  Video here. UPDATE 2:  John Podhoretz at NRO’s "The Corner" writes this: Kennedy wants to know what’s different between today and the earliest debates on this matter during the … Read More

MyDD gathers the evidence.  Bush Administration uses U.S. Army to spy on war critics.  The Bush Administration used top-secret U.S. Army spying capabilities to spy on domestic war critics such as Quakers, Students Against the War, People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and Greenpeace. An internal review forced the Pentagon to admit it had "improperly stored" information on potentially … Read More

Since January, First Amendment lawyer Glenn Greenwald has been doing extraordinary research and original thinking/blogging on the NSA wiretapping issue (I, myself, have linked to him dozens of times in the past few weeks).  I guess that’s why he’s been summoned to D.C. to provide assistance to senators looking in to the matter.  Kudos.