| Monday, February 06, 2006 |
| The spy hearings, take two |
11:15 a.m.: After the break, Chuck Grassley repeated Orrin Hatch's spontaneous testimony in AG Gonzales stead. (Why is Gonzales even here? He should have just let the Republican members of the committee, with the exception of Specter, give his testimony for him...)
Biden came up to bat at around 11:25 a.m. and made the good point that whatever their constitutional claims, the administration has a track record that should cause the Congress to ask questions about what it has done. Including these (paraphrasing):
BIDEN: how will we know when this "war" is over?
AG: It's hard to say ... when al-Qaida is destroyed...
BIDEN: so you have this plenary authority until them?
AG: If Congress were to act to take away this authority, that would present a much harder question as to whether the president has the authority. (So it would still be an open question, then? How convenient for the president...)
BIDEN: As I understand your reasoning, I don't know why you would limit your eavesdropping to foreign communications?
AG: Of course that's a presidential decision, but I belive it's because we're trying to balance concerns that might arise that the NSA was engaged in electronic surveillance as relates to domestic calls. There may be some in America that say that if you've got reason to believe that two memebers of al-Qaida are in America talking to each other, why don't you listen to those calls? This was a decision made to balance security and civil liberties.
BIDEN: Is it PR reasons or because he doesn't believe he has the constitutional authority?
AG: I don't think it's because of PR or constitutionality.
BIDEN: Who determines what calls are to be monitored?
AG: Intelligence experts at NSA.
(logical question: than why so many dry leads?)
Then he mentions the many "minimization programs" in place to guard against American citizens being sucked into the program...
BIDEN: If you're not bound by FISA, then how can you say you are bound by the minimization requrements?
Can you assure that the program is adhering to the minimization requriements?
AG: No sir I can not.
BIDEN: Can you assure us that no American citizen has been eavesdropped upon that is not known to be associated with al-Qaida.
AG: I cannot. (High degree of confidence and lots of assurances that they're trying.)
Tags: politics, News, Bush, national security, NSA, government, spying, president, hearings, impeachment |
posted by JReid @ 11:38 AM   |
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