by Stanley Rogouski, 1/26
In a performance worthy of I.F. Stone, First Amendment
Lawyer Glenn Greenwald dug up information that refutes former NSA director
General Hayden’s talking point that the Bush administration could not obtain a
FISA warrant because the ‘probable cause’ standard of obtaining the warrant was
‘too ‘onerous’.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn
/content/article/2006/01/25/AR2006012502270.html
As Greenwald says, ‘in June, 2002, Republican Sen. Michael
DeWine of Ohio introduced legislation (S. 2659) which would have eliminated the
exact barrier to FISA which Gen. Hayden yesterday said is what necessitated the
Administration bypassing FISA.’ And yet the Bush administration refused to
support S.2659 even though it would have eliminated the ‘probable cause
barrier’ that Hayden was using as the justification for the warrantless
wiretaps in the first place. Greenwald
concludes that ‘The Administration is stuck with the excuse given by Gen. Hayden
yesterday as to why it had to eavesdrop outside of FISA, but that excuse is
plainly contradicted by these events and by the Administration’s own statements
at the time.’
In other words, Congress was prepared to give Bush precisely
what he wanted in terms of being able to monitor potential terrorists but the
Bush administration rejected it. As disturbing as it is to ponder the
implications of the DeWine bill for civil liberties in the United
States, it’s more disturbing to realize the
implications of Bush’s rejection of S. 2659. This little incident makes it
clear that Bush’s using the NSA to spy on American citizens had nothing to do
with stopping terrorism and everything to do with consolidating executive
power. In effect, the Bush administration is using the issue of terrorism to
undermine Congress and to attack the checks and balances written into the
Constitution.
As a previous World Can’t Wait press release phrased it
‘Bush Spies on American Citizens and Dares Congress to Stop Him’. Greenwald has done his job by revealing
Hayden’s talking point to be a blatant lie. Do your part by joining us on
January 31st to ‘drown out’ Bush’s State of the Union address and by
joining us in Washington on
February 4th .