SBD
Everytime I think of Carter, I am reminded what an awful, awful president he was, and what a despicable friend of dictators and thugs he has been.
Interesting that this sort of article was published less than 100 hours before the 1980 Presidential election (also considering how recent the Iran hostage situation was at the time). NY Times trying to help get Peanut Farmer reelected, no doubt.
Can Democratic presidents order wiretaps on U.S. soil without a court order, but not Republicans? We ask because that's the standard critics appear to be using against President Bush over National Security Agency surveillance of al Qaeda operatives. Every president, Democrat or Republican, has exercised this authority since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act became law in October 1978. But it appears to be deemed problematical only for President Bush, whose wiretaps are said to have caught Iyman Faris, a naturalized U.S. citizen who wanted to bomb the Brooklyn Bridge.
The ink on FISA was barely dry when the first president to order extrajudicial surveillance -- a Democrat -- did so. Jimmy Carter exercised his authority on May 23, 1979 with Executive Order #12139, seven months after signing FISA into law, declaring that "the Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order," subject to the section's requirements. The order cites a FISA section helpfully titled "Electronic Surveillance Authorization Without Court Order."
The precedent was even more firmly established by President Clinton. Top Clinton administration officials are on record defending the practice. As Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick testified before Congress in 1994: "The Department of Justice believes -- and the case law supports -- that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes and that the president may, as he has done, delegate this authority to the attorney general." She remarked that: "It's important to understand that the rules and methodology for criminal searches are inconsistent with the collection of foreign intelligence and would unduly frustrate the president in carrying out his foreign intelligence responsibilities."
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FISA Court Discouraged Moussaoui Warrant
Unit 8 Investigation: Nuclear terror threat to Portland?
Bin Laden deputy aimed to kill Bush, Musharraf, officials say
Did Jimmy Carter say this in the last few days, or is the NYT just getting around to acknowledging that it was he who started the practice?
I'm betting the latter. If Jimmeh makes a current statement, it will be to say that HIS domestic spying was lawful and warranted, and Bush's is somehow different and therefore illegal.
There is NOTHING to thank Jimmy Carter for.
He used the same powers, that's all.
He is NOT coming out and endorsing what President Bush is doing.
NYT = NY Slimes WPO = Washington Post TRB = Chicago Tribune and LA Slimes
After what commie carter did to this country...I'd never thank him for nothing.
. . . which no true conservative would ever do.
Has such probable cause been claimed in this case? Earlier in the week, Bill Kristol and Gary Schmitt wrote a column defending the President's actions, and their defense specifically argued that the "probable cause" requirement is too stringent. An excerpt:
FISA requires the attorney general to convince the panel that there is "probable cause to believe" that the target of the surveillance is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist. Yet where is the evidence to support such a finding? Who knows why the person seized in Pakistan was calling these people? Even terrorists make innocent calls and have relationships with folks who are not themselves terrorists.Did Kristol and Schmitt misread the situation? Is there information out there that contradicts them on this?
Blind squirrel / nut
When you atone for releasing this Islamic scourge upon the world, then we'll give you your proper thanks.
Evad
It should be fun to see how the MSM tries to spin this. Either it will be "It was legal but..." or they will just ignore the peanut farmer altogether.
>>>I never thought the words “Thank you Jimmy Carter” would come out of my mouth, but it just did!! <<<
He will deny he ever said it. Besides the MSM will never report this anyway.
Thank you Jimmy Carter
An executive order issued by President Carter in January 1978 established the standard that governs the use of searches for intelligence purposes today. Such searches, it said, ‘’shall not be undertaken against a United States person without a judicial warrant, unless the President has authorized the type of activity involved and the Attorney General has both approved the particular activity and determined that there is probable cause to believe that the United States person is an agent of a foreign power.'’
I do NOT know which part of this the left doesn't get. Are they deliberately obtuse or just plain evil?
I've always thanked Jimmy Carter for fighting off that killer rabbit.
There's no telling how much death and devastation would have resulted if that rabbit had been allowed to rampage throughout the country.
Looks like a different title anyway.
