Congress creates wiretap catch-22 (Guardian)

[struggle4progress]

The wiretapping bill passed by Congress allows the attorney general to make surveillance decisions - something Congress is investigating him for.

Marcy Wheeler
August 6, 2007 10:00 PM

Cowardly chumps. That's the best description I can muster for the Democratic Congress, which just passed an expansion of the Bush administration's ability to wiretap within the United States. In passing the bill, Congress once again proved itself to be unable or unwilling to stand up to the bullying of the White House to provide necessary oversight. ~snip~

But the bill went further. It eliminated previous rules that limited such wiretaps to persons with suspected connections to al-Qaida. Under the bill passed Saturday, the government can wiretap communications of anyone as long as it asserts that the purpose is "in significant part" for intelligence purposes, and as long as one person involved in that communications is reasonably believed to be outside of the United States.

And this isn't even the biggest outrage about this bill. The biggest outrage is that the bill takes oversight out of the hands of the court and puts that "oversight" in the hands of... Alberto Gonzales.

Think of the absurdity! Even as the Democrats - and a growing number of Republicans - are making credible arguments that Gonzales perjured himself about this programme specifically, they have changed the programme such that if the administration wants to tap someone, they just have to have Gonzales give his word that the administration is using the programme appropriately. ~snip~

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marcy_wheeler/2007/08/the_democrats_chickens_again.html

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. How ironic is it that the vote took place during the same week as the Kos convention?

MKJ

[Poll_Blind]

2. (head in hands) n/t

PB

[regnaD kciN]

3. However justified all the anger may be...

...I admit I'm getting a little tired of the "they gave Gonzales all the authority to decide" meme.

The original White House bill gave that authority to Fredo. One of the concessions the Democrats got was that wiretapping needed the authority of not only the Attorney General but also the Director of National Intelligence.

I still think it was a terrible bill that should have been deep-sixed had the BlueDog/DLC Democrats not been gutless wonders, but the fact is that the Dems managed to put a degree of check on Fredo being able to order warrantless snooping on his own, whereas the original bill would have allowed that. Give them a bit of credit on that one.

[struggle4progress]

4. McConnell can only be in that office because BushCo expects him to be a reliable toady

McConnell may indeed be competent and have a good resume: but the criteria for BushCo appointment is an unwillingness to say Sir, no, sir!

[regnaD kciN]

5. Perhaps, but...

...not only the bill as originally written, but BushCo SOP before the bill itself gave Fredo all the authority on his own. The Dems put at least a small check on that -- so, while they (or at least the Gang of Fifty-Seven) should be getting blamed for the bill as a whole, to charge them with "giving all the authority to Gonzales" (when, in fact, that's just the opposite of what they did) is the height of unreasonable finger-pointing.

[struggle4progress]

6. It's a distinction without a difference: by ancient tradition, we want warrants issued by courts

under a probable-cause standard, not a slather of bobbly-headed happy-chat about how protective the requirement is, for the concurrence of two members of an Administration that has distinguished itself primarily through an unprecedented concentration of cronies, crooks, incompetents, and liars