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VIDEO- George Will on the "Terrorists Now Know About Bush's Spy Prog"

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liveoaktx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:14 PM
Original message
VIDEO- George Will on the "Terrorists Now Know About Bush's Spy Prog"
Shoots down the argument

Compare with Hoekstra earlier today who said the program isn't valuabe anymore now that people know about it.
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electron_blue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:16 PM
Response to Original message
1. hey, good point georgie. LOL, who woulda thought.
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Cocoa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:17 PM
Response to Original message
2. but they might forget, says Gonzales
http://www.dccc.org/stakeholder/archives/004310.html

BIDEN: Thank you very much.

General, how has this revelation damaged the program?

I'm almost confused by it but, I mean, it seems to presuppose that these very sophisticated Al Qaida folks didn't think we were intercepting their phone calls.

I mean, I'm a little confused. How did it damage this?

GONZALES: Well, Senator, I would first refer to the experts in the Intel Committee who are making that statement, first of all. I'm just the lawyer.

And so, when the director of the CIA says this should really damage our intel capabilities, I would defer to that statement. I think, based on my experience, it is true -- you would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance.

But if they're not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget.

(LAUGHTER)
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liveoaktx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:24 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. Video clip of that
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xultar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:22 PM
Response to Original message
3. Just think. They wouldn't know if they'd followed the law. Which makes me
Edited on Sun Feb-12-06 02:25 PM by xultar
think the terraists weren't the only intended targets.
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Marr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:47 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. Also, they were doing it before 9-11. Back when they couldn't even
Edited on Sun Feb-12-06 02:48 PM by Marr
be bothered to have a meeting with Richard Clark. Back before "9-11 showed us who the enemy was". Back when terrorism was not on their radar, in other words.

So they clearly weren't spying on "terrorists". One can only assume that they were spying on political and perhaps business rivals.
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napi21 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:22 PM
Response to Original message
4. Will is RIGHT! I rarely agree with him, but he's right on this one!
Even Gergen agreed with him!

I watched this show this AM and both Will & Gergen did a lot better than Donna ever hopes to!
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The Velveteen Ocelot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:24 PM
Response to Original message
6. I'm sure they never would have suspected their phones were bugged.
Edited on Sun Feb-12-06 02:24 PM by ocelot
"Osama, I was just watching CNN, and they said the infidels have been monitoring our phone calls!"

"Oh, no, not that! The infidels are far too clever for us! I never imagined they would have done such a thing! Whatever are we to do now?"

"They are reading our e-mail messages and opening our letters, too."

"Curses!"
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thefloyd Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:36 PM
Response to Original message
7. Program was not valuable anyways
Domestic Spying has done zero to protect our country. Actually, Spying has done more to hurt our democracy than penetrate any terrorist networks. Terrorists are evil and radical but not stupid enough to believe our government would continue with business as usual in wake of 9/11.
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acmejack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 02:58 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. This was business as usual before 9/11
echelon
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Oilwellian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 03:16 PM
Response to Original message
10. Only because Bush told them personally
Edited on Sun Feb-12-06 03:25 PM by George Oilwellian
George Bush, in 2004, telling terrorists that we are engaging in notice-less "sneak and peak" searches of their apartments - Hershey, Pennsylvania, April 19, 2004:


The Patriot Act authorizes what are called delayed notification search warrants. I'm not a lawyer, either. (Laughter.) These allow law enforcement personnel, with court approval, to carry out a lawful search without tipping off suspects and giving them a chance to flee or destroy evidence. It is an important part of conducting operations against organized groups.


George Bush, alerting terrorists to changes in our techniques for eavesdropping on their cell phone calls - Baltimore, Maryland, July 20, 2005:


Before the Patriot Act agents could use wire taps to investigate a person committing mail fraud, but not specifically to investigate a foreign terrorist carrying deadly weapons. Before the Patriot Act, investigators could follow the calls of mobsters who switched cell phones, but not terrorists who switched cell phones. That didn't make any sense. The Patriot Act ended all these double standards.


George Bush, alerting terrorists to the fact that we are eavesdropping on their telephone calls - Baltimore, Maryland, July 20, 2005:


The judicial branch has a strong oversight role in the application of the Patriot Act. Law enforcement officers need a federal judge's permission to wiretap a foreign terrorist's phone, or to track his calls, or to search his property.



George Bush, in 2004, telling terrorists that we monitor them by tracing their "money trails" - Hershey, Pennsylvania, April 19, 2004:


Before September the 11th, law enforcement could more easily obtain business and financial records of white-collar criminals than of suspected terrorists. See, part of the way to make sure that we catch terrorists is we chase money trails. And yet it was easier to chase a money trail with a white-collar criminal than it was a terrorist. The Patriot Act ended this double standard and it made it easier for investigators to catch suspected terrorists by following paper trails here in America.


George Bush, telling terrorists how the Government monitors their computer communications and obtains their e-mails - Columbus, Ohio, June 9, 2005:


Third, we need to renew the critical provisions of the Patriot Act that updated the law to meet high-tech threats like computer espionage and cyberterrorism. Before the Patriot Act, Internet providers who notified federal authorities about threatening e-mails ran the risk of getting sued. The Patriot Act modernized the law to protect Internet companies who voluntarily disclose information to save lives.

It's common sense reform, and it's delivered results. In April 2004, a man sent an e-mail to an Islamic center in El Paso, and threatened to burn the mosque to the ground in three days. Before the Patriot Act, the FBI could have spent a week or more waiting for the information they needed. Thanks to the Patriot Act, an Internet provider was able to provide the information quickly and without fear of a lawsuit -- and the FBI arrested the man before he could fulfill his -- fulfill his threat.


George Bush, detailing the threat priorities of the Homeland Security Department - Columbus, Ohio, July 20, 2005:


That's what Mike Chertoff recommended to me after the London bombings. In other words, he took a look at the situation and said, let's enhance our security and infrastructure points, and he raised the threat level.

We're widening the use of explosive detection teams and nearly doubling the number of rail security inspectors. We're targeting assets and resources to our infrastructure. We're accelerating the development and deployment of new technologies to rapidly detect biological, radiological and chemical attacks. That's what Mike announced last week. We're going to continue to make sure that we assess our weaknesses and strengthen our transportation systems.


George Bush, detailing security measures taken against threats to American seaports - Columbus, Ohio, July 20, 2005:


This is a gateway for foreign markets, which provides an opportunity and an important challenge for us. And we recognized that early. We've made dramatic advancements in port security since September the 11th. We've established strict new safety rules for both domestic and international shipping, and we have taken new steps to identify and inspect high-risk cargo. And that's important for our citizens to understand.

We launched what we call the Container Security Initiative, to screen American-bound containers at more than 35 foreign ports so we can identify dangerous cargo before it reaches our shore. Doesn't that make sense? It seems like it does to me. In other words, we're stationing Custom folks overseas and we're working with places that ship goods to us, to inspect cargo there so we don't burden our ports.

And, for good measure, here are the Editors of National Review -- before the Times ever breathed a word about the President's eavesdropping "program" -- damaging national security and helping Al Qaeda by telling terrorists that we monitor their phone calls, use roving wiretaps, examine their library records, use "sneak-and-peak" searches of their apartments, and read their e-mails. Doesn't President Bush and National Review realize that "discussing th(ese) program(s) is helping the enemy" because "the discussion about how we try to find them will enable them to adjust"?

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2005/12/why-is-bush-helping-terrorists-by.html
(Sublinks provided at Mr. Greenwald's blog for all Bush quotes.)

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spanone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 03:25 PM
Response to Original message
11. If Bush* had legally used the courts, no one would have ever known
This is a Mr Bush* problem.
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AX10 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-12-06 03:35 PM
Response to Original message
12. Thanks.
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