Bush Standing Behind Domestic Spying
WASHINGTON - President Bush is standing firmly behind his domestic spying program, saying his decision to let the intelligence community listen in on phone calls Americans have with suspected terrorists is lawful and does not result in widespread domestic eavesdropping.
Bush, whose decision is facing congressional hearings on the surveillance, said Sunday that the program, run by the ultra-secret National Security Agency, is limited. He left little doubt that he intends to vigorously argue that he acted within the law.
"The NSA program is one that listens to a few numbers," the president told reporters after visiting with 51 wounded troops and their families at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.
"In other words, the enemy is calling somebody and we want to know who they're calling and why," he said before returning to Washington.
Senators suggested, meanwhile, that congressional hearings were appropriate for considering Bush's assertion that he did not overstep his constitutional authority in authorizing the program after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. His order gave the NSA permission to eavesdrop without a warrant on communications between suspected terrorists overseas and people inside the United States.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., told CNN's "Late Edition" that Congress will focus in the new year on presidential powers in wartime. "The White House wants to expand that power in so many areas," he said. "Clearly, Congress is holding back."
So we're going to have a Congressional investigation. Not very surprising. It seems that these days if somone on Capitol Hill were to get their pen stolen we'd have a six month investigation complete with grandstanding Senators waxing poetic about the "importance of seeking the truth for the American people."
You know what I think will come of all this? Nothing much. We'll get all sorts of gloom and doom sound bites from Democrats talking about the seriousness of the charges against Bush. Leftist media types will act like they're working on the second coming of Watergate (just like they do with every controversy involving the President these days) then eventually the investigation will wind down and die a relatively quiet death largely unnoticed by the majority of Americans who are not obsessed with politics.
Here's one more interesting tid-bit from the article:
The New York Times disclosed last month that the NSA had been conducting the domestic surveillance since 2002. The Justice Department on Friday opened an investigation into who told reporters about the program.
"The fact that somebody leaked this program causes great harm to the United States," Bush said.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., appearing on "Fox News Sunday," said the Justice Department investigation should explore the motivation of the person who leaked the information.
"Was this somebody who had an ill purpose, trying to hurt the United States?" Schumer asked. "Or might it have been someone in the department who felt that this was wrong, legally wrong, that the law was being violated?"
I told you that this was how the left and the media were going to spin the leak part of the NSA story. They're going to play it off as a "courageous truth-teller bucking the system to do the right thing for America." Forget that there are legal channels through which to communicate concern over chief executives who may be overstepping their bounds without having to make illegal leaks to the press.
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