Tuesday, December 20, 2005
News Round-Up on the Hysteria of the American Left on the "NSA Surveillance" Leak
We have two interesting angles on the leaking of the story to The NY Times on the Bush administration's orders, without court warrants, to monitor the calls and e-mails of certain persons in the United States calling or communicating to persons with ties to al-Qaeda.
First up:
Executive Orders by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton Allowed the Spying on American Citizens, not Terrorists
George W. Bush pushed the NSA to monitor the calls of people in this country - not American citizens, but people who happen to be here - to countries with ties to al Qaeda, without warrants from a court.
The liberals, in their usual hysteria, are calling this terrible, horrible, disgusting, and some are using the word "impeachment."
Unfortunately for the left, they have a small problem: their heroes, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, used the same surveillance, but on American citizens without court orders.
Let us see how many media outlets report this.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 12949: FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE PHYSICAL SEARCHES
That was February 9, 1995 - when Bill Clinton was President.
Oops. Now here is what Jimmy Carter did...in 1979:
Executive Order 12139: EXERCISE OF CERTAIN AUTHORITY RESPECTING ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE
So, once again, liberals are hoisted on their own pitard - this time, the pitard of truth.
Just once we would like to see the left be consistent on something. Just once.
So, now that the Left's argument that "Bush is doing this unlike any President before him" is dead, let us focus on the next fact: that President Bush had the full authority to conduct such no-warrant surveillance:
Court Case Shows That Bush Had the Authority for No-Warrant Surveillance
The left has been exposed again: lies, lies, lies.
A court case in 2002 held that the President has the right to order no-warrant surveillance under his constitutional responsibility.
Barbara Boxer, mouthpiece for the illiterate Left, had no comment, as usual.
[File in Adobe Acrobat PDF form]
In re: Sealed Case No. 02-001: On Motions for Review of Orders of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Nos. 02-662 and 02-968)
Now, this case was dug up with barely any research. In fact, the research in this entire entry was done with a search engine and the right queries. So, how come the MSM cannot do the same research and find out the whole story as we did here? It is just sheer laziness, or is their leftist media bias so prevalent that they cannot bother to find out the truth?
We have two interesting angles on the leaking of the story to The NY Times on the Bush administration's orders, without court warrants, to monitor the calls and e-mails of certain persons in the United States calling or communicating to persons with ties to al-Qaeda.
First up:
Executive Orders by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton Allowed the Spying on American Citizens, not Terrorists
George W. Bush pushed the NSA to monitor the calls of people in this country - not American citizens, but people who happen to be here - to countries with ties to al Qaeda, without warrants from a court.
The liberals, in their usual hysteria, are calling this terrible, horrible, disgusting, and some are using the word "impeachment."
Unfortunately for the left, they have a small problem: their heroes, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, used the same surveillance, but on American citizens without court orders.
Let us see how many media outlets report this.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 12949: FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE PHYSICAL SEARCHES
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including sections 302 and 303 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("Act") (50 U.S.C. 1801, et seq.), as amended by Public Law 103- 359, and in order to provide for the authorization of physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes as set forth in the Act, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Pursuant to section 302(a)(1) of the Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year, if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that section.
That was February 9, 1995 - when Bill Clinton was President.
Oops. Now here is what Jimmy Carter did...in 1979:
Executive Order 12139: EXERCISE OF CERTAIN AUTHORITY RESPECTING ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE
By the authority vested in me as President by Sections 102 and 104 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802 and 1804), in order to provide as set forth in that Act (this chapter) for the authorization of electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes, it is hereby ordered as follows:
1-101. Pursuant to Section 102(a)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(a)), the Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order, but only if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section.
So, once again, liberals are hoisted on their own pitard - this time, the pitard of truth.
Just once we would like to see the left be consistent on something. Just once.
So, now that the Left's argument that "Bush is doing this unlike any President before him" is dead, let us focus on the next fact: that President Bush had the full authority to conduct such no-warrant surveillance:
Court Case Shows That Bush Had the Authority for No-Warrant Surveillance
The left has been exposed again: lies, lies, lies.
A court case in 2002 held that the President has the right to order no-warrant surveillance under his constitutional responsibility.
Barbara Boxer, mouthpiece for the illiterate Left, had no comment, as usual.
[File in Adobe Acrobat PDF form]
In re: Sealed Case No. 02-001: On Motions for Review of Orders of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Nos. 02-662 and 02-968)
We reiterate that Truong dealt with a pre-FISA surveillance based on the President’s constitutional responsibility to conduct the foreign affairs of the United States. 629 F.2d at 914. Although Truong suggested the line it drew was a constitutional minimum that would apply to a FISA surveillance, see id. at 914 n.4, it had no occasion to consider the application of the statute carefully. The Truong court, as did all the other courts to have decided the issue, held that the President did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information.
Now, this case was dug up with barely any research. In fact, the research in this entire entry was done with a search engine and the right queries. So, how come the MSM cannot do the same research and find out the whole story as we did here? It is just sheer laziness, or is their leftist media bias so prevalent that they cannot bother to find out the truth?
