Posted on 01/25/2006 10:11:37 AM PST by Pragmatic_View
President Bush on Wednesday will try to boost the morale of National Security Agency workers carrying out his controversial eavesdropping program.
While critics call it a domestic spying program, the White House calls it a "terrorist surveillance program." After receiving harsh criticism from civil liberties groups and Democrats when news of the program was leaked by The New York Times, defending the program is a top priority of the Bush administration.
The president on Wednesday will visit behind closed doors with employees of the super-secretive agency — which traditionally conducts only overseas surveillance. He will then make some remarks to the press.
The president will give NSA employees a bit of a pep talk, telling them the work they are doing is vital to the War on Terror.
Gen. Michael Hayden, who ran the NSA at the time of the surveillance program's launch, this week defended the program, saying investigators were able to target suspected communications if they had "reason to believe" that someone is connected to Al Qaeda, rather than the "probable cause" standard required by the FISA court. The difference, he said, is that the detection methods don't target individuals but trap communications. The probable cause standard, on the other hand, relates to individuals.
"The purpose of all of this is not to collect reams of intelligence, but to detect and prevent attacks. The intelligence community has neither the time, the resources nor the legal authority to read communications that aren't likely to protect us. And NSA has no interest in doing so. These are communications that we have reason to believe are Al Qaeda communications," Hayden said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
They also mention that the Senate Judiciary Committee will open hearings Feb. 6. How can these hearings be open?! Are the Senators trying to leak more helpful info for the terrorists?!
And of course McCain makes some comments, that makes one think, "with friends like this, who needs enemies" (see article for more detail). Instead of saying that he is confident based on many who came forward assuring the legality of this, he says this:
Asked if he thought Bush had broken the law, McCain replied, "I don't know. I want to be perfectly clear. I don't know the answer. That's why I welcome the hearings."
"How can these hearings be open?"
Saves the Dems the trouble of having to leak secretly to the NYT.
Outside of giving their moonbat base purient thrills.
Not that this will be news, but MSNBC just re re re re re jumped the shark. They actually had a reporter sitting in front of the White House with the caption underneath him readng:
"SECRET SPYING?"
No kidding, secret spying. My God, the scandal, spying, in secret!!!!
Do memories of this scenario affect Kerry's thinking on this issue?
Does Senator Kerry think that a current U.S. military officer's communication with known elements of today's enemy should be subject to NSA monitoring as a means of protecting the U.S. against terrorist attack (sabotage for instance)?
LOL!! Gotta love Rummy! ;*)
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