Legal Rationale by Justice Dept. on Spying Effort - New York Times

Legal Rationale by Justice Dept. on Spying Effort - New York Times

MORE BU*SH*IT

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - The Bush administration offered its fullest defense to date Thursday of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying that authorization from Congress to deter terrorist attacks "places the president at the zenith of his powers in authorizing the N.S.A. activities (BU*SH*IT)

In a 42-page legal analysis, the Justice Department cited the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the writings of presidents both Republican and Democratic, and dozens of scholarly papers and court cases in justifying President Bush's power to order the N.S.A. surveillance program. (To make sure we don't know what they covered up)

With the legality of the program under public attack since its disclosure last month, officials said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales ordered up the analysis partly in response to what administration lawyers felt were unfair conclusions in a Jan. 6 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The Congressional report challenged virtually all the main legal justifications the administration had cited for the program.

Vice President Dick Cheney, meanwhile, once again defended the N.S.A. eavesdropping operation in a speech Thursday as "critical to the national security of the United States," even as House Democrats prepared to hold an unofficial hearing on Friday into a program that they charge is illegal and unconstitutional. Mr. Cheney is also scheduled to meet with Congressional leaders on Friday at a separate, closed-door briefing on the program.

When the Senate Judiciary Committee conducts an open hearing on the eavesdropping on Feb. 6, Attorney General Gonzales is expected to testify. The session organized for Friday by Democrats is intended to spotlight critics of the program; administration officials will not use that forum to offer a defense.

The White House has invited some members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to attend a briefing on Friday, according to Rep. Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

The analysis released Thursday by the Justice Department, with comments from lawyers throughout the department, expanded on the legal arguments made in two still-classified legal opinions as well as in a slimmer letter that the department sent to Congress last month.

The basic thrust of the legal justification was the same - that the president has inherent authority as commander in chief to order wiretaps without warrants and that the N.S.A. operation does not violate either a 1978 law governing intelligence wiretaps or the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.

This month's Congressional Research Service report was particularly critical of the administration's claim that the N.S.A. program was justified by a resolution passed by Congress three days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, authorizing the use of "all necessary and appropriate force" against those responsible for the terrorist acts. BU*SH*IT

The research service report found there was no indication that Congress intended to authorize warrantless wiretaps when it gave President Bush the authority to fight Al Qaeda and invade Afghanistan. But the Justice Department did not back away from its position in Thursday's report, saying the type of "signals intelligence" used in the N.S.A. operation clearly falls under the Congressional use-of-force authorization.

I've read enough, if the US had listened to pre 9/11 intelligence, instead of allowing 9/11 to happen we wouldn't be disputing the incessant power monger needs of this little menace to society, and his twisted, lying administration.

Isn't it convenient how Bush is getting so close to Impeachment, and Osama makes another apprearance...??? I wonder How much he paid Osama for that?