A U.S. Foreign Intelligence court released a ruling Thursday upholding the right of the president and Congress to wiretap private international phone conversations and intercept e-mail messages without a court-issued warrant.
I don't know why this is news. As I pointed out almost 3 years ago right here on this blog:
Additionally, a 2002 ruling by the FISA court (In Re Sealed Case) stated the following at the bottom of page 11:
"We take for granted that the President does have that authority (to conduct warrantless surveillance to obtain foreign intelligence information) and,
assuming that is so, FISA could not encroach on the President's constitutional power."
How could it be any more clear?
Having cleared this constitutional hurdle yet again, I'm curious what "assault on civil liberties" the President has conducted these past 8 years.
I'm sure a President Obama and his intelligence apparatus will be pleased to make use of this constitutionally-approved tactic in the effort to destroy those who would attack us.
Remember -- it isn't about facts or the limits of constitutional government for these folks. It never has been.
ReplyDeleteInstead it was about de-legitimizing George W. Bush -- and if that meant engaging in baseless lies about him, these folks were willing to do so. heck, we even saw major media outlets engage in treasonous acts of disclosure of classified information in pursuit of that goal.
I wonder how many sobering discussions President Bush has had with Obama. Until he had the security breifings, he probably had no idea what was at risk. Congress knows, but they would rather use it as leverage to remove a president who refuses to buckle and replace him with a neophyte figurehead. I sure hope Obama is as intelligent as people claim, because right now there are member of his own party who plan to use his popularity to scuttle the ship of state.
ReplyDelete"Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither."
ReplyDeleteGuess who said that, Darren?
I believe it was Ben Franklin.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who cries about giving up rights--and then voted for Obama and his government-run everything--has nothing.
In this case, though, I don't see that anyone has given up any rights.
I said nothing about rights.
ReplyDelete