Political Bloviation

Bush Is Pressed Over New Report on Surveillance - New York Times

Some Republicans, including Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, defended the N.S.A.’s activities and denounced the disclosure. Mr. Hoekstra said the report “threatens to undermine our nation’s safety.”

“Rather than allow our intelligence professionals to maintain a laser focus on the terrorists, we are once again mired in a debate about what our intelligence community may or may not be doing,” he said.

So Hoekstra thinks that neither the public nor NSA should worry that the NSA is engaging in illegal activity? If they have to worry about petty things, like following the constitution and the law, they won’t be able to do their job? Hardly. “Trust us we’re from the gubbermint” just doesn’t work for me. Not with the cabal of neo-con numbskulls running the country. If there ever was an administration that needed adult supervision from the courts and real congressional oversight, this is it.

But many Democrats and civil liberties advocates said they were disturbed by the report, invoking images of Big Brother and announcing legislation aimed at reining in the N.S.A.’s domestic operations. Fifty-two members of Congress asked the president to name a special counsel to investigate the N.S.A.’s domestic surveillance programs.

Well at least 52 of our elected represenstative manged to grow some pelotas overnight. Wonders never cease.

The recent revelations in the US Today article from yesterday makes this stroy about the Justice Dept. denying security clearances to it’s own employees investigating the NSA much clearer.

I applaud Qwest Communication for being the only major telcom with the guts to stand up and say no to the NSA, depsite threats to withold lucrative government contracts: (from the USA Today article)

The NSA, which needed Qwest’s participation to completely cover the country, pushed back hard.

Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest’s patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest’s refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.

In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest’s foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest’s lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

The NSA’s explanation did little to satisfy Qwest’s lawyers. “They told (Qwest) they didn’t want to do that because FISA might not agree with them,” one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest’s suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general’s office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

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