[Quilla]

Excellent analysis.

[Peach]

Congressman Pete Hoekstraw (sp?) was just on FNC explaining about the briefings Congress received from the administration regarding the NSA spying matter.

He was so detailed about the briefings, it's hard to believe Democrats are going to complain now that they didn't understand the nature of the spying.

[freema]

I agree.

I also expect this investigation to be one hell of a lot shorter and much more efficient than the Fitz BS seems to be.

[Publius6961]

and the normal law enforcement model using warrants constitutes an archaic and impossible hurdle.

That model never in recorded history has been considered rational or even reasonable.
It is a pathological and embarrassing recent development in the ultimate deterioration of political helplessness.

[Publius6961]

... Even retroactive authorization may be too cumbersome and in any event ...

Particularly so if the concept of treason has, in deed if not in word, ceased to be a capital offense.

[OldYank1]

Federal Shield Law???????

Congress needs to pass a law forbidding any sort of shield in these cases. Protection should be given to whistle blowers only when they report actual abuses to the proper authorities. There is no circumstance where the proper authority could possibly include a reporter. If the charges are true, they can be brought to the public attention by the proper authority but if proved false, the whistle blower should lose all rights of protection and should be subject to prosecution.

It's about time the media was held responsible for what they print. Nameless sources should be outlawed for the sake of accurate and truthful journalism.

[atomicpossum]

Because executive editor Bill Keller and publisher Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger may well have been involved in the story and know the identity of the sources...they too could be subpoenaed and compelled to testify or else endure jail time.

Oh, that is TOO sweet.

Look for 'Punch' to fold once they pry him out of his nicely-appointed posh offices and send him somewhere where the water is (gasp) not bottled.

[Publius6961]

Finally, it is also possible that the disclosure of any details about the search and scan strategies and the algorithms used to sift through them would immediately allow countermeasures by our enemies to evade or defeat them.

D'OH!

Maybe we've all been wrong about the true nature of the Constitution. It is a suicide pact! Those clever Founding Fathers!

[G.Mason]

bump

[Publius6961]

This, in fact, was the reason why the agency had not sought a warrant to view the contents of Moussaoui’s computer, a search which as we now know might have prevented 9/11. Indeed, the Joint Senate and House Intelligence Committee report detailed just that.

The most frustrating thing about being an ordinary citizen with no control whatsoever over foreign threats, is the inability to learn the name of the person or persons responsible.

Stupidity is too kind a term. Criminal incompetence is more appropriate.
As far as I know, here over 4 years later, no specific names have been presented.

[Alia]

(per Byron York) Markos Moulitsas obviously knows his party hasn't done too well on this issue (has in fact "blown it") and therefore Moulitsas goes for the "gender" button -- hoping, I guess, to activate the radical fem-bot wing of the Democrat party into attack-dog mode, obviously, since Moulitsas himself has only his pen to defend himself and his party...

lol. A sad moment in Democrat Party history, IME. Moulitsas is drawing upon Patrick Henry! Or is he thinking (gender/history revisionism) Patricia Henry?

[Matchett-PI]

"The New York Times" is not some monolithic faceless alien oracle.

It is run by this man Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and his cadre of socialist crook propagandists from NYC's 42nd st.

Sulzberger is an enemy of the state and should be surveilled and brought up on charges of sedition.

2 posted on 12/26/2005 10:51:52 AM EST by Rome2000

[Mariner]

Dead on...

[Publius6961]

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, expressed outrage at the Justice Department investigation into who leaked classified information to The New York Times about the Bush administration’s controversial domestic spying program, saying it is even more serious than the Valerie Plame probe.

It might be very useful to look into the record for previous statements by this particular rat having the light shined on her.
I have a very strong suspicion that if she's not a regular contributor to the People's Daily Worker, her statements have always been consistently indistinguishable from one.

[Publius6961]

Dalglish said. “The public needed to know about it and that is a classic reason why reporters need to protect their sources and it is even more reason why there is a need to have a federal shield law.”

Only an idiot or a foreign agent would argue that there is never an area of national security where absolute and continuing secrecy is not only warranted, but crucial, rising to the level of an essential responsibility.
It would be interesting to know if this foreign security expert agrees, and exactly under what circumstances.

The public need to know can never trump the security of 300 million...

[TC Rider]

I had a friend who was a high level civilian manager at NATO in the 90s. He cautioned me against using key words, like "missiles" even when emailing his civilian address.

[Publius6961]

I have no idea in what precinct of Planet Zongo the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is located, but Ms. Dalglish, this is the worst possible case for protecting sources. Those sources, dear lady, just violated federal laws designed to protect national security in the middle of a war started on our own soil. And the reporters who abetted that disgusting act are not worthy of our sympathy.

This can't be repeated often enough!
It's the classic definition of Treason.

[cookcounty]

Interesting that the Democrats apparently now admit that Clinton should have been impeached, but for domestic spying, not the reasons brought by the Pubbies.

[mnehring]

EXECUTIVE ORDER 12949

- - - - - - - FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE PHYSICAL SEARCHES



By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including sections 302 and 303 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("Act") (50 U.S.C. 1801, et seq.), as amended by Public Law 103- 359, and in order to provide for the authorization of physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes as set forth in the Act, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Pursuant to section 302(a)(1) of the Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year, if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that section.

Sec. 2. Pursuant to section 302(b) of the Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court under section 303 of the Act to obtain orders for physical searches for the purpose of collecting foreign intelligence information.

Sec. 3. Pursuant to section 303(a)(7) of the Act, the following officials, each of whom is employed in the area of national security or defense, is designated to make the certifications required by section 303(a)(7) of the Act in support of applications to conduct physical searches:

(a) Secretary of State;

(b) Secretary of Defense;

(c) Director of Central Intelligence;

(d) Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation;

(e) Deputy Secretary of State;

(f) Deputy Secretary of Defense; and

(g) Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.

None of the above officials, nor anyone officially acting in that capacity, may exercise the authority to make the above certifications, unless that official has been appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 9, 1995.