Snoopgate

Bush already had the power to do all the eavesdropping that he has admitted doing. So who is it that was being watched that the law would not have allowed being monitored? Who else besides the terrorists does Bush consider enemies of his admiastration? Journalists? Bloggers? Evil book readers? From Newsweek Bush’s Snoopgate The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times’ eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper’s editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn’t just out of concern about national security. By Jonathan Alter Updated: 6:17 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005 Dec. 19, 2005 - Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus liberty and the reasonable bounds of presidential power. President Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times not publish its story on the National Security Agency eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant, in what lawyers outside the administration say is a clear violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I learned this week that on December 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the meeting, but one can only imagine the president’s desperation. From The Washington Post " 'Obviously we have to do things differently because of the terrorist threat,' said Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, former general counsel of both N.S.A. and the Central Intelligence Agency, who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations. 'But to do it without the participation of the Congress and the courts is unwise in the extreme.' " .......... Democratic Senator Russell Feingold said Saturday in a statement : "The President believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed. This is not how our democratic system of government works. The President does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow. He is a president, not a king." Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. - Benjamin Franklin Bush will continue the scare tactics that he is protecting us. I have no doubts that we may be hit again but that is the world we live in. We can fight them and keep our liberties and our laws "...with liberty and justice for all."