Why Was Tom Delay Briefed ALONE On NSA Program-For The 1st & Only Time-Day After Ashcroft Visit?

[kpete]

Tom DeLay and Warrantless Wiretapping
by drational
Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 05:06:38 AM PDT

Why was House Majority Leader Tom Delay briefed alone on the NSA-driven surveillance program for the first and only time on March 11, 2004, the day after the Comey-Gonzales Hospital Showdown?



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The day after this crisis, March 11, 2004, Tom Delay was briefed on the NSA-driven Surveillance Program. According to records released by the NSA, Tom DeLay had never been briefed on the program in it's 2 1/2 year history, nor was he briefed again thereafter. Interestingly, unlike any prior congressional briefing on the program, he was briefed alone.

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What was Tom DeLay's "need to know" on this program, on March 11, 2004?

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DeLay's role in the House was that of the enforcer of party discipline; he was an expert at using parliamentary tactics to control the House. He was "The Hammer". Literally, the speaker's hammer in hallowed chambers of Congress is used to command attention, and often to silence the chamber. There is no indication of who else attended the DeLay Briefing (Cheney, Addington, Gonzales, Card?), nor where it was held (VP office, WHO?).

Was this briefing aimed at suppressing discussion of the program on the House Floor in the event that Comey or others disclosed the Hospital Visit? Was it to get The Hammer on board to "muster the troops" for any fallout from the episode?

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more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/15/8638/81745

[Perky]

1. Maybe he was golfing at St. Andrew's???

He may simply have been out of town. :shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. He was advising them on putting listening devices

in hot tubs? :)

[jgraz]

3. Perhaps they wanted to share surveillance videos of Democrats

or reluctant Rethugs...

[tbyg52]

4. Of COURSE it was political!

K&R!

[BornagainDUer]

5. Delay silenced the Marianas sweat shop scandal. Maybe he

did the same here. :tinfoil:

[cascadiance]

6. I think it's interesting now to look back at CPI's article on Patriot Act II in 2003...

This article that came on the heels of the first Patriot Act being passed, was a leaked "draft" of "Patriot Act II" reported by CPI, and gave the vision of what these guys wanted to do down the road, which now seems more like a realistic assessment of what was really on their list of things they were doing then, rather than a pie in the sky scarey wish list.

And it is interesting to note that the two other people besides Ashcroft privy to this report here were Dennis Hastert and Dick Cheney. And Hastert just announced his resignation the other day... Of course as Speaker of the House, perhaps he was the "proper" person rather than Delay, but HMMM!!!...

http://www.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=94

Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
Center Publishes Secret Draft of 'Patriot II' Legislation

By Charles Lewis and Adam Mayle

WASHINGTON, February 7, 2003 — The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed in the wake of September 11, 2001, which will give the government broad, sweeping new powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial review and public access to information.

The Center for Public Integrity has obtained a draft, dated January 9, 2003, of this previously undisclosed legislation and is making it available in full text (12 MB). The bill, drafted by the staff of Attorney General John Ashcroft and entitled the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, has not been officially released by the Department of Justice, although rumors of its development have circulated around the Capitol for the last few months under the name of "the Patriot Act II" in legislative parlance.

...

An Office of Legislative Affairs "control sheet" Adobe Acrobat PDF that was obtained by the PBS program "Now With Bill Moyers" seems to indicate that a copy of the bill was sent to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Vice President Richard Cheney on Jan. 10, 2003. "Attached for your review and comment is a draft legislative proposal entitled the 'Domestice Security Enhancement Act of 2003,'" the memo, sent from "OLP" or Office of Legal Policy, says.

[OnyxCollie]

7. DeLay was a big part of the fascist coup.

Helping with HAVA, buddy-buddy with Abramoff, disenfranchising voters, laundering money.

And he's still free...

[AnnieBW]

8. The runaway legislature?

Wasn't that around the time that the Dems in the Texas legislature left the state to protest Delay's ham-handed redistricting? Maybe he wanted to find out if he could use NSA assets to locate them?