As we have probably all heard by now, the NYT printed leaked information informing us that the Bush Administration has been selectively spying domestically with the NSA via FISA. [I think in 30 instances].
Was this legal? Check out this post by a level headed libertarian with full legal analysis. Good stuff. Read it all.
And Pejman reminds us that this is really just the nature of gov’t and quotes an excerpt that deomstrates just how disingenuous the dems are being:
In a little-remembered debate from 1994, the Clinton administration argued that the president has “inherent authority” to order physical searches — including break-ins at the homes of U.S. citizens — for foreign intelligence purposes without any warrant or permission from any outside body. Even after the administration ultimately agreed with Congress’s decision to place the authority to pre-approve such searches in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, President Clinton still maintained that he had sufficient authority to order such searches on his own.
“The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes,” Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 14, 1994, “and that the President may, as has been done, delegate this authority to the Attorney General.”
So much for philosophical consistency. Of course, asking a partisan hack or a politician not to be a hypocrite with double standards is like asking a bear to shit in a toilet. And use paper. And flush.
December 22nd, 2005 | Global War On Terror, Liberty, Politics