The American intelligence community intercepted drastically fewer foreign-based communications in June and July than they had in previous months. This was, of course, interpreted as a serious problem by the intelligence community, a problem in need of congressional remedy. A handful of Congresscritters, tired of having their collective chain yanked, “were skeptical” according to a New York Times report by Eric Lichtblau, James Risen, and Mark Mazzetti.
But the timing was impeccable. Instead of limiting the authority of the Bush administration to eavesdrop without warrants on the American citizenry, Congress couldn’t trip over itself fast enough and “broadened the administration’s authority to wiretap terrorism suspects without court oversight.”
Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) told the Times reporters the White House “has identified the one major remaining weakness in the Democratic Party, and that’s its willing less to stand up to the administration when it’s making a power grab regarding terrorism and national security. ... They have figured out that all they have to do is start talking about an imminent terrorist threat, back it up against a Congressional recess, and they know the Democrats will cave.”
Oh, if only that were the only major remaining Democrat weakness. Remember that last January the Bush administration agreed to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court oversight of its warrantless wiretap program. Then, when the FISA court was overwhelmed with warrant requests for surveillance, the intelligence community became restless.
So, here we have a sitting US president who knowingly and willingly broke the law, combined with an attorney general’s less than truthful testimony about the law breaking activity all on the record. And what happens? The Democrats make the warrantless wiretapping program legal and hand control of the program to the attorney general. You can’t make this stuff up.
“When the administration proposed its revisions in April, ‘everyone kind of laughed at us,’ said a Justice Department official who insisted on anonymity. ‘We got bludgeoned. People just said: ‘Are you kidding? We’re not even going to consider it.’”
Just what happened between April and July?
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