Mukasey backs Bush efforts on wiretapping

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Attorney General Michael Mukasey defended the Bush administration's wiretapping program Thursday to a San Francisco audience and suggested the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could have been prevented if the government had been able to monitor an overseas phone call to the United States.

The government "shouldn't need a warrant when somebody picks up a phone in Iraq and calls the United States," Mukasey said in a question-and-answer session after a speech to the Commonwealth Club.

Before the 2001 terrorist attacks, he said, "we knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went. You've got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn't come home, to show for that."

Mukasey did not specify the call to which he referred. He also did not explain why the government, if it knew of telephone calls from suspected foreign terrorists, hadn't sought a wiretapping warrant from a court established by Congress to authorize terrorist surveillance, or hadn't monitored all such calls without a warrant for 72 hours as allowed by law. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for more information.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/28/BA69VROE9.DTL&tsp=1

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

1. Ya know, I think there was an easier way...

Maybe paying attention to that pesky PDB in early August. Hmmmm?

But anything to further push America into a proto-fascist state, right, Mukasey?

On edit: Driest. Powder. Ever.

[Doctor_J]

2. They can share a prison cell after we take the country back

and tell each other how they were doing the right thing

[Peggy Day]

3. oh, thank you so much Diane Feinstein!!! not!!!

[Preston120]

8. Don't forget his buddy Mr. Schumer who vouched for him.

[FreepFryer]

4. LIAR! LIAR! -- THEY WERE ALREADY MONITORING IN FEBRUARY 2001 -- LIAR! LIAR!!!

Mukasey is the worst kind of fascist apologist.

Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio testified he refused to participate in the NSA wiretapping program in February 2001.

AT&T and Verizon were already participating.

The Bush propaganda on this is completely transparent, obvious and is causing their downfall on this issue (just like Nixon).

Warrantless Wiretapping would NOT have prevented 9/11.

Mukasey, you are a fucking liar.

[calimary]

14. I was just going to inquire about that. Didn't they really start the illegal spying

just a few weeks or a couple of months after bush "took" office?


And let me just say a big rousing THANK YOU AGAIN to dianne feinstein among those who decided that, yes, once again, bush's choices should be okayed, because we should just always give bush the benefit of the doubt. And hope for the best. And keep our fingers crossed.

Yeah. SURE. :sarcasm:

Funny, enough time had gone by when mukasey came up for confirmation - and enough shit had already been exposed, that you'd think at least all the Dems would have been suspicious enough to hold up the nomination.

:eyes:

[FreepFryer]

16. In NY, Schumer is now persona-non-grata to many former supporters. Hope it was worth it, Chucky.

[calimary]

17. I know that feeling. HOW COULD THEY???

SURELY they knew enough by then not to trust ANYTHING short of the reincarnation of Mother Teresa that comes from this White House. SURELY by that time they knew...

Well, we certainly know the answer to that, don't we?

Yeah. Same thing to DiFi. Hope it was worth it, lady. Happy now? How's it workin' out for ya? We were correct AGAIN and you should have listened to us AGAIN, and AGAIN, you did not. Gonna keep us on ignore?

Damn. This just sucks. It's the "gift that keeps on giving." :sarcasm:

[Pastiche423]

18. It's funny how they keep forgetting to acknowledge

that the wire tapping began at least seven months before September 11, 2001, eh?

[FreepFryer]

19. EXPLOITING THE DeAD OF 9/11 TO COVER REPUBLICAN DOMESTIC POLITICAL WIRETAPPING. Treasonous. (n/t)

[Pastiche423]

20. Every single person living in the U.S

needs to know this. This extremely important FACT needs to be stated every time FISA is brought up.

[indepat]

5. Heil mein Mukasey and may hell swallow up all Dems who supported his confirmation

:mad: :D

[Supersedeas]

11. Feinstein and Shumer were the Dems pushing his nomination

[Supersedeas]

6. so he is saying definitively that there was NO pre-9/11 phone surveillance

[FreepFryer]

7. And he is lying. (n/t)

[kimmylavin]

9. What the hell is he talking about?

No one was EVER denying the government a chance to monitor an overseas phone call.
NOTHING ever held them back.
They even had 72 hours in which to retroactively get permission!

The current system of wiretapping is for one thing only - spying on Americans.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. Once again

trying to (subliminally) tie Iraq to 9-11 ("shouldn't need a warrant when somebody picks up a phone in Iraq and calls the United States," ). That line is a red herring, anyway, since there is no wiretapping restrictions placed on international calls.

[dhill926]

12. exactly....

and check out his language. "we knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went. You've got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn't come home, to show for that."

This shit could have come out of Cheney's mouth. He is a dangerous man.

[Deny and Shred]

13. I truly hope the FISA pressure is on Senators to rethink their position.

Mukasey is useless, now a bald faced liar, too.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

15. Utter Bullshit by a DOJ that acts like Shrub's personal Gestapo.