Repubs resist spying probe to keep Ashcroft and Comey from testifying

[ProSense]

Senate Rejects Wiretapping Probe

But Judge Orders Justice Department to Turn Over Documents

By Charles Babington and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 17, 2006; Page A06

The Bush administration helped derail a Senate bid to investigate a warrantless eavesdropping program yesterday after signaling it also would reject Congress's request to have former attorney general John D. Ashcroft and other officials testify about the program's legality. The actions underscored a dramatic and possibly permanent drop in momentum for a congressional inquiry, which had seemed likely two months ago.

Senate Democrats said the Republican-led Congress was abdicating its obligations to oversee a controversial program in which the National Security Agency has monitored perhaps thousands of phone calls and e-mails involving U.S. residents and foreign parties without obtaining warrants from a secret court that handles such matters.

Snip...

"We do not believe that Messrs. Ashcroft and Comey would be in a position to provide any new information" to the Judiciary Committee, Moschella said in his letter Wednesday to Specter.

In a victory for three privacy advocacy groups seeking Justice Department records about the program, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. ruled yesterday that the department cannot decide on its own what documents it will provide, because news reports in December revealing the program's existence have created a substantial public dialogue about presidential powers and individual privacy rights. Kennedy rejected Justice's argument that, because so much of the surveillance program involves classified information, the agency alone can determine when it is feasible to review and possibly release documents.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602155.html

[jaysunb]

1. Page 6 , huh.....

This gives me a real sinking feeling. The MSM has completely capitulated to the regime. :evilfrown:

[savemefromdumbya]

2. The media have probably been threatened

[ProSense]

3. Agree, the media has sold out. n/t

[ProSense]

4. Spying Inquiry Blocked by GOP

Spying Inquiry Blocked by GOP

The Senate intelligence chair buys time, saying the White House is open to legislation on Bush's surveillance program. Many are doubtful.

By Greg Miller and Maura Reynolds
Times Staff Writers

February 17, 2006

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans blocked a proposed investigation of President Bush's domestic spying operation Thursday as the chairman of the Intelligence Committee said he had reached an agreement with the White House to pursue legislation establishing clearer rules for the controversial program.

But Senate aides described the discussions with the White House as very preliminary. And angry Democrats expressed skepticism over the negotiations, with some describing them as a ploy to protect the Bush administration and the highly classified surveillance operation from congressional scrutiny.

The political maneuvering underscored the stakes surrounding a secret intelligence-gathering program that the White House describes as crucial to preventing future terrorist attacks in the United States, but which critics see as unconstitutional and an abuse of executive power.

The tactics by Republicans on the Intelligence Committee leave the surveillance operations in place while giving the White House time to influence the debate on Capitol Hill. Separately, the House Intelligence Committee is considering its own inquiry. Among members of the panel raising questions about the program is Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.).


more...


http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-spying17feb17,0,804056.story?track=rss

[Supersedeas]

5. Pat Colaborator Roberts to the rescue

[ProSense]

6. (Roberts) Doing the President's Dirty Work

Editorial

Doing the President's Dirty Work

Published: February 17, 2006
Is there any aspect of President Bush's miserable record on intelligence that Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not willing to excuse and help to cover up?

For more than a year, Mr. Roberts has been dragging out an investigation into why Mr. Bush presented old, dubious and just plain wrong intelligence on Iraq as solid new proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was in league with Al Qaeda. It was supposed to start after the 2004 election, but Mr. Roberts was letting it die of neglect until the Democrats protested by forcing the Senate into an unusual closed session last November.

Now Mr. Roberts is trying to stop an investigation into Mr. Bush's decision to allow the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without getting the warrants required by a 27-year-old federal law enacted to stop that sort of abuse.

Mr. Roberts had promised to hold a committee vote yesterday on whether to investigate. But he canceled the vote, and then made two astonishing announcements. He said he was working with the White House on amending the 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to permit warrantless spying. And then he suggested that such a change would eliminate the need for an inquiry.

More...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/opinion/17fri1.htm