- CNN's Wolf Blitzer Report just (shortly before 2 p.m.
Calif. time) fear-mongered and lied on air in a segment by Kelli Arena
on the expiration of the Protect America Act (the FISA revision
railroaded through Congress) tonight at midnight, in which she said
in a question clearly set up by Blitzer to elicit the response,
that if something were to come down -- a reference to terrorism
or a terrorist threat -- after the Act expires at midnight tonight,
that it would take longer to respond 'because the Admin.
would have to go to the Courts.'
-
- THIS IS A LIE.
-
- The SAME procedures are required before and
after midnight, with the SOLE exception being if the Admin.
receives information re a 'NEW' terrorist group after the law expires,
but even then, the Attorney General can issue emergency authorization
to proceed under the FISA Act, to which the law reverts at midnight,
WITHOUT first going to the Court (see below press release from
Speaker Pelosi's office). Also, it was built in to the Protect
America Act that the provisions of the old law continue
for a year after expiration.
-
- CNN IS FRONTING FOR THE BUSH ADMIN'S LIE TO TRY TO LEAD
VIEWERS TO 1) EXPECT A NEW ATTACK AFTER THE LAW EXPIRES; AND 2) BLAME
THE DEMOCRATS FOR THE AFTERMATH BECAUSE THEY LET THE LAW EXPIRE.
-
- PRESIDENT BUSH HAS JUST LEFT FOR AFRICA -- PARALLELING
HIS BEING IN OUT OF WASHINGTON ON 9/11 -- PROBABLY LEAVING
CHENEY IN CHARGE, LIKE ON 9/11.
-
- CALL AND E-MAIL CNN HQ AND THE WOLF BLITZER REPORT
TO DENOUNCE THIS RECKLESS LIE AND DEMAND THEY PUT OUT, AND REPEAT,
THAT THERE WOULD BE NO DELAY IN ADMIN. RESPONSE DUE TO REVERTING
BACK TO THE ORIGINAL FISA ACT.
-
-
-
- Press Release
- Office of the Speaker of the House
- Contact:
- Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
- 202-226-7616
- For Immediate Release
- 02/15/2008
-
- Pelosi: 'The President is Misrepresenting the Facts on
Our Nation's Electronic Surveillance Capabilities'
-
- WASHINGTON, DC - Speaker
Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today after President Bush
spoke at the White House this morning on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act:
- "The President is misrepresenting the facts on our
nation's electronic surveillance capabilities. Last August, he insisted
that Congress pass the Protect America Act; but this week, he refused to
support an extension, which can only mean he knows our intelligence agencies
will be able to do all the wiretapping they need to do to protect the nation.
That surveillance can be undertaken under broad orders authorized under
the PAA or under orders that can be obtained through the FISA court.
-
- "The President knows the facts; if he did not want
the PAA to expire this weekend, he should have supported an extension of
it, as the overwhelming majority of House Democrats did on Wednesday.
Having guaranteed the lapse of the August law, the President should now
work in a cooperative way with Congress to pass a strong FISA modernization
bill that protects our nation's security and the Constitution."
-
- * * *
- The Facts
-
- 1. In the remote chance that a previously unknown
terrorist group must be surveilled (now that the Protect America Act has
expired and we're back to being under the original FISA Act) we can use
FISA. Under FISA, the Attorney General can approve surveillance in minutes.
Surveillance can begin immediately and approval of the FISA Court can be
obtained within three days:
-
- "It can happen extremely quickly. We have done it
in a very short time, minutes sometimes."
- - James Baker, former Counsel to the Justice Department's
Office of Intelligence Policy and Review under President George W. Bush,
9/18/07, referring to how fast DOJ can approve an emergency
FISA application
-
- 2. Unlike last summer, there is no backlog of cases
to slow down getting surveillance approvals from the FISA Court:
-
- "We're caught up to all of it now."
- - Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence,
2/7/08
-
- ----------
-
-
- House Leaves Surveillance Law To Expire
- By Carl Hulse
- The New York Times
- Friday 15 February 2008
-
- WASHINGTON -- The House broke for a week's
recess Thursday without renewing terrorist surveillance authority demanded
by President Bush, leading him to warn of risky intelligence gaps while
Democrats accused him of reckless fear mongering.
- The refusal of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of
California, to schedule a vote on a surveillance measure approved Tuesday
by the Senate touched off an intense partisan conflict over the national
security questions that have colored federal elections since 2002 and are
likely to play a significant role again in November.
-
- Trying to put pressure on Democrats, Mr. Bush offered
to delay a trip to Africa to resolve the dispute and warned that failure
to extend the expanded power under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act, which expires Saturday, could hamper efforts to track terrorists.
-
- "Our intelligence professionals are working
day and night to keep us safe," Mr. Bush said, "and they're waiting
to see whether Congress will give them the tools they need to succeed or
tie their hands by failing to act."
-
- But Ms. Pelosi and other House Democrats said Mr.
Bush and Congressional Republicans were at fault because they had resisted
temporarily extending the bill to allow disagreements to be worked out.
Democrats would not be bullied into approving a measure they considered
flawed, she said.
-
- "The president knows full well that he has all
the authority he needs to protect the American people," said Ms. Pelosi,
who then referred to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's admonition about
fearing only fear itself. "President Bush tells the American people
that he has nothing to offer but fear, and I'm afraid that his fear-mongering
of this bill is not constructive."
-
- The decision by the House Democratic leadership to
let the law lapse is the greatest challenge to Mr. Bush on a major national
security issue since the Democrats took control of Congress last year.
-
- Last summer, Democrats allowed the surveillance law
to be put in place for six months although many of them opposed it. They
have also relented in fights over spending on the Iraq war under White
House pressure. But with Mr. Bush rated low in public opinion polls as
he enters the last months of his presidency, Democrats are showing more
willingness to challenge him.
- Republicans say House Democrats are taking a risk,
especially in light of the strong bipartisan Senate vote for the bill.
- "They can't pass a Mother's Day resolution and
got 68 votes for this bill," said Representative Adam H. Putnam of
Florida, chairman of the House Republican Conference.
-
- The battle over the surveillance bill was also tangled
up in the rancor over a House vote to hold in contempt Joshua B. Bolten,
the White House chief of staff, and Harriet E. Miers, the former White
House counsel, for refusing to testify about the firing of United States
attorneys. Republicans said the House was devoting time to that issue when
it could be considering the surveillance program, and they staged a walkout
in protest.
-
- The main sticking point is a provision in the Senate
bill that provides legal immunity for telecommunications companies that,
at the Bush administration's request, cooperated in providing private data
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Many House Democrats oppose that immunity.
-
- Surveillance efforts will not cease when the law
lapses. Administration intelligence officials said agencies would be able
to continue eavesdropping on targets that have already been approved for
a year after the initial authorization. But they said any new targets would
have to go through the more burdensome standards in place before last August,
which would require that they establish probable cause that an international
target is connected to a terrorist group.
-
- Intelligence officials also told reporters Thursday
that they were worried that telecommunications companies would be less
willing to cooperate in future wiretapping unless they were given immunity.
-
- Ben Powell, general counsel for the director of national
intelligence's office, said some carriers had already asked whether they
could be compelled to cooperate even without legal protection, although
he indicated that none had actually threatened to halt operations.
-
- Ms. Pelosi said that she believed that the differences
could be resolved within three weeks and that she had told the chairmen
of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees to work with their counterparts
in the Senate to seek a compromise.
- Congressional Republicans sharply criticized Democrats
for not moving on the final measure.
-
- "I think there is probably joy throughout the
terrorist cells throughout the world that the United States Congress did
not do its duty today," said Representative Ted Poe, Republican of
Texas.
-
- Democrats said Republicans, struggling politically,
were trying to create an air of crisis.
-
- "This is a manufactured political crisis,"
said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat. "They
want something to put in front of the American people to take their minds
off the state of the economy."
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