Hagel: Bush Must Explain Spy Program More

AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/29/06 | Hope Yen -ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - A Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday that President Bush has more explaining to do on his domestic spy program and cast doubt on the administration's assertion of broad executive power.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), R-Neb., said he is looking forward to congressional hearings on the legal justification for the secretive National Security Agency program. He remains unconvinced that Bush could allow the program without fully consulting with the courts or Congress.

The Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings beginning Feb. 6; the Senate Intelligence Committee will hold similar closed-door sessions on the matter.

"If in fact the president does believe that our current laws are restricting him because of new technologies ... then he should come together with Congress and say we need to amend it," Hagel said on ABC's "This Week."

Bush has defended his decision to bypass a 1978 law that requires government lawyers to go to a secretive court for warrants to conduct domestic surveillance, saying the law is too cumbersome to deal with in a post-9/11 world of heightened security threats.

On Sunday, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett said Bush has ample constitutional authority as commander in chief and under a 2001 congressional resolution authorizing force in the war against terror. Additional briefings and debate with Congress could risk security by tipping off the enemy, he said.

"There's no way that we can confidently say that by having a debate about changing the law would not unearth new operational details that would only tell the enemy exactly how we're surveilling them," Bartlett said on CNN's "Late Edition." "That's something that is just unacceptable."

Hagel and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said they remain open to hearing testimony from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other administration officials but were uncertain that a president could have broad "blank check" authority.

They said both Republicans and Democrats were equally committed to fighting terrorism, and they rejected as unhelpful efforts by White House aide Karl Rove to make national security the top partisan issue in the November midterm elections.

"I think that I can make certain that we have the tools that are necessary to monitor calls from al-Qaida to U.S. citizens without going overboard and creating a situation in which, randomly, we are rifling through the e-mails and cell calls of ordinary American citizens," said Obama, who appeared on ABC.

Added Hagel: "National security is more important than the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. And to use it to try and get someone elected will ultimately end up in defeat and disaster for that political party."

[NormsRevenge]

Look who else said much the same thing not so long ago..

Dean: President Bush Fails to Explain Domestic Spying Program

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1563465/posts

[NormsRevenge]

In this photo provided by ABC News,Sen. Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., appears for an interview with George Stephanopolous on ABC's This Week, in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006. (AP Photo/ABC News, Terry Ashe)

[MNJohnnie]

Bye bye Chuckie, BYE BYE. So long Hagling don't cry.

[Mo1]

"If in fact the president does believe that our current laws are restricting him because of new technologies ... then he should come together with Congress and say we need to amend it," Hagel said on ABC's "This Week."

You mean like with the Patriot Act that is due to expire in just 2 DAYS????

Hey Hegal .. YOU AND CONGRESS ARE A JOKE!

[new yorker 77]

Chuck 'Iraq is Vietnam' Hagel is only relevant in front of his own bathroom mirror and even then no one is paying attention to him.

[Dog Gone]

Hagel is the pits.

[oceanview]

Hagel would like Bush to actually publish the numbers they are tracing.

[NormsRevenge]

Here Chuck, the ap even seems to sort of get it..

Q&A: NSA Domestic Surveillance Program ^

[xcamel]

A lie will travel how many times around the world befor the truth makes it out the front door?

[MNJohnnie]

It is so not appropriate for Chuckie to be indicate with his fingers the size of he personal unit in an ABC News photo.

[new yorker 77]

Hagel - Senator/Media Whore

[marron]

Is he now claiming he wasn't told about it?

Is he now demanding that details of a once-secret operation be revealed publicly, during wartime, just in case there is some detail the enemy hasn't yet figured out from press accounts?

Is this a guy who wants to be president, and wants me to believe he is capable of directing a war against people who want to kill us?

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Must be an election year......sigh......

[Mike Darancette]

A Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday that President Bush has more explaining to do on his domestic spy program and cast doubt on the administration's assertion of broad executive power.

Bush, on advice, tell people what to do and they do it. Hagel could call the people doing the work into secret session of his committee and ask them. If Hagel don't know what is being done Bush sure doesn't.

[nightdriver]

After all these seditious politicians have their soapbox orations about it, this operation to intercept terrorists plans is about worthless anyway.

We wonder just how long America can last with these jerks in high office cutting it down all the time.

[new yorker 77]

Hagel will only be President in his tree house.

[stocksthatgoup]

Hagel should STFU

[badgerbengal]

I would give anything to see bozos like Hagel lose to a true conservative instead of the having to listen to the ankle biting rants of the likes of this MSM suckup.

[Mo1]

Hagel would like Bush to actually publish the numbers they are tracing

That and give the names and places of the terrorists that we are tracking

Because it's only fair to give them a heads up .. they have rights too ... / sac>

[COEXERJ145]

UpChuck is trying to compete with McLame for the title of biggest Media Whore.