Crossposted from Stop The ACLU
NEW YORK – In a full-page advertisement in today’s New York Times, the American Civil Liberties Union intensified its call for a special counsel to be appointed to determine whether President George W. Bush violated federal wiretapping laws by authorizing illegal surveillance.
The ACLU said President Bush’s actions were a clear violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was passed by Congress in response to revelations that former President Nixon was using “national security” claims to spy on American citizens he considered his “enemies.”
“President Nixon was not above the law and neither is President Bush,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “President Bush cannot use a claim of seeking to preserve our nation to undermine the rules that serve as our foundation. The Attorney General, who may have been involved with the formulation of this policy, must appoint a special counsel to let justice be served.”
The advertisement, as well as a similar ACLU ad that ran last Thursday, was spurred by revelations earlier this month that Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct electronic surveillance of people within the United States, including U.S. citizens, without a warrant.
The text of today’s advertisement compares the words of President Nixon and President Bush, both of whom denied allegations of illegal spying. Next to the image of Nixon, the advertisement says: “He lied to the American people and broke the law.” Below that is an image of President Bush, with the words, “So did he.”
The FISA wiretapping law made it a crime to intentionally engage in electronic surveillance without court approval. The president clearly violated the law when he authorized, and then repeatedly reauthorized, the NSA to spy on Americans without first obtaining a warrant, the ACLU said.
In a formal request sent last week to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the ACLU called for the appointment of “an outside special counsel with the independence to investigate and prosecute any and all criminal acts committed by any member of the Executive Branch in the warrantless electronic surveillance of people in the United States over the past four years by the NSA,” noting that “such crimes are serious felonies and they need to be fully and independently investigated.”
It makes me sick. Groups like the the ACLU and CAIR wanting sensitive, classified information released is as irresponsible a position as I can think of. It would only lead to our enemies obtaining the information, and avoid the trap. Perhaps this is what the ACLU wants.
It isn’t what the vast amount of Americans want. Michelle Malkin points out the latest Rasmussen Reports.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.
Notice that the ACLU have already made up their mind that Bush is guilty? This is nothing but a political hit piece.
Via a commenter at Free Republic:
The problem is that groups such as the ACLU are hitting the airwaves and print media demanding an investigation into the Bush admin. Meanwhile Repubs are not demanding an investigation into WHO leaked this info. We need to get the message out loud and clear cause it doesn’t look like our Congress critters are going to. Sign the petition calling for an investigation into the national security leaks!
Said Jay777 @ 1:03 pm | Permalink
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No where there do I see the ACLU wanting “sensitive, classified information released.”
They want an independent counsel to determine if there was wrongdoing.
Breaking the Fourth Amendment and subverting a law put in place to protect the integrity of our national securtiy (as FISA was) — is indeed a serious charge.
They may have already determined Bush to be guilty — but the ACLU is in the business of seeing any threat on Constitutional rights as a crime. Just as any prosecutor approaches his case as if the suspect is guilty.
But the ACLU is not alone in demanding an investigation, Republicans have already called for it — and not just ones you might label “RINOs.”
Look at this list of conservatives critical of the President’s actions:
–Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA)
–Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
–Sen Chuck Hagel (NE)
–Sen Olympia Snowe (MN)
–Bruce Fein, conservative constitutional scholar and former deputy attorney general in the Reagan Administration
–Norm Ornstein, a conservative scholar at the American Enterprise
–Former Secretary of State Colin Powell
–Former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA)
–Neil Boortz, conservative commentator & blogger
–Jon Henke, conservative commentator & blogger
4,000 wiretaps we know about, 0 arrests. That’s a lot of manpower pulled away from hunting REAL terrorists.
We’ve seen DoD and FBI documents that the government’s been spying on Catholic high schools and llama fur protests — not exactly al Qaeda hangouts.
That’s manpower wasted that could have been used to go after real terrorists — maybe even have kept al Zaqarwi from being released after our Iraqi allies had him in custody a few months back.
Comment by Denny Hix — 12/29/2005 @ 1:26 pm
Maybe if you followed the link where I said that you could see how they want all the information released. What do you think FOIA is? They want all the details layed out to the public.
Comment by Jay777 — 12/29/2005 @ 1:32 pm
The Freedom of Information Act has seven exceptions under which one can refuse to release the requested information. Information that is classified will not be released nor info that is deemed to be law enforcement sensitive, nor information that is part of a deliberative process or part of an ongoing investigation or that violates the Privacy Act. So Jay they may ask for it, they may want it but if it falls under one of the exceptions, they are not going to get it.
Comment by Carol — 12/29/2005 @ 2:46 pm
That is good news, but just the fact that they want the info released speaks for itself.
Comment by Jay777 — 12/29/2005 @ 2:47 pm
I am demanding that the government appoint a special investigator to investigate whether the ACLU is, in fact, a front for a communist organization that has the goal of destroying the U.S. as it’s goal, and I further demand that the ACLU release all records relating to everything they have done in court, including all internal memo’s, that date back 10 years.
The ACLU kidnapped me and held me in secret ACLU prisons in Poughkeepsie for the last 5 days, dousing me in rum and dropping me in front of a nudie bar at 3 AM.
I demand 250 thousand in compensation and an end to the tyranny of the ACLU.
Comment by Kender — 12/29/2005 @ 8:08 pm
A free society cannot stay free when it’s government keeps secrets — that need now be secrets.
Carol pointed out cases where the FOIA will not allow material released.
We have a right to see that our government is doing the job it promises to do. That is why we have the FOIA.
Comment by Denny Hix — 12/30/2005 @ 11:22 am
We also have a right to not have the government undermined by factions within this country that would see it destoyed.
Comment by Kender — 12/30/2005 @ 12:57 pm
Sounds to me, Kender, as though you would equate any challenge to the legality of the actions of the President as an attempt to destroy the country. Is that not just a tad melodramatic? Perhaps you need to be reminded that the President is not the country itself.
Comment by Ernie Pearce — 12/30/2005 @ 3:27 pm
Regardless of ones political affiliation, the media is grooming this one… As we continue to fight an unknown enemy, who is willing to trust their lives and security of our country, divided between declarations of the FOIA, and the expectations of the ACLU.
…Speaking of which… I’m always wondering what’s next with the ACLU. Will voting soon become unconstitutional? (Perhaps, on the basis that Democracy is NOT majoritarianism, I suppose?) Relying upon the articulations, comprehencabilities of those with hands tied behind their backs, just doesn’t cut it for me.
Comment by MB — 12/31/2005 @ 2:53 am
“ernie” pearce, what I object to is a blatant bias in certain people cough**fukinleftees**cough that demand investigations only when it would be politically advantageous, and if a conservative tried that the left would yell “politics!!!”.
Comment by Kender — 12/31/2005 @ 5:00 pm
You originally accused the ACLU of wanting to help the terrorists, Kender. Would you make up your mind what your objection to the FOIA request, and stick to that position, please?
There is little point in whining that the ACLU has already decided that the President is guilty of lying. That is an established fact, given that he made claims that warrants were sought for wiretaps well after he authorized the warrantless wiretaps.
Comment by Chase Cooper — 12/31/2005 @ 10:20 pm
Chase, you seemingly obtuse piece of grabasstic amphibian shit, the ACLU is only calling for an investigation of the monitoring programs of the NSA and the warrantless wiretaps of the Bush administration, (and fighting an investigation of who leaked sensitive, classified info) because it is part of their agenda to take Bush, (and conservatives) out of power.
They didn’t say one word when Clinton did much worse to American CITIZENS when he sent in agents w/o warrants to search houses.
If someone is not a CITIZEN or legal resident of the U.S. they should have no rights under our laws.
Comment by Kender — 1/2/2006 @ 5:25 am
Actually, Kender, they did say much the same thing.
That’s why Congress closed THAT loophole on Clinton and Clinton issued a new executive order telling officials in government the proceedure to follow that new law.
Bush has violated not only the 1978 FISA, but the 2001 Patriot Act — which he supposedly supports.
Both require the President to obtain warrants before wiretapping inside the US.
And these are CITIZENS Bush has ordered spying on. Some naturalized, many more BORN and raised in the USA.
People who hold politicians accountable to the people those politicians work for are not undermining the government. They are supporting the government — and the Constitution.
Comment by Denny Hix — 1/3/2006 @ 3:34 pm
Denny, you’re a complete and total loon. But we already knew that.
If Bush broke the law (which he did not), then every president since Roosevelt did as well.
Comment by Ogre — 1/4/2006 @ 6:23 am