Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Unbelievable: Bush's Illegal Spying Could Free the Very Terror Suspects It's Jailed and Hopes to Convict


As reported in the NY Times Wednesday, several captured terror suspects with ties to Al Qaeda are planning to challenge their cases and sue the government claiming the Bush administration used illegal wiretapping in criminal prosecutions that resulted in conviction. The challenges are being mounted in Ohio, Virginia, Florida and Oregon, and including cases involving Iyman Faris, who plotted to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

At issue is the Busheviks' skirting of the courts and Congress in its post-911 power-grab under the guise of protecting America from the terrorist threat. Since 911, Bush, through the National Security Agency, has authorized some three dozen instances of illegal surveillance of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of U.S. and foreign citizens, both abroad and here at home. In order to have pursued his extreme terrorism and espionage spying, Bush was and is required by law to obtain warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was established by Congress in 1978 to uphold and protect civil liberties. But Bush has defiantly thumbed his nose at FISC, declaring that his aggressive spying tactics are "fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities."

"The activities I have authorized make it more likely that killers like these 9/11 hijackers will be identified and located in time," Bush said. "And the activities conducted under this authorization have helped detect and prevent possible terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad."

But here's the rub: the very terrorists that sit in U.S. jails right now could be freed if their legal challenges are successful in claiming they've been denied due process and have been victims of illegal wiretapping. Incredulously, the Bushies' flagrant circumvention of the law could result in people like Faris back on the street to plot another NYC catastrophe. All because Bush refused to seek the warrants every legal scholar in America agrees he could've easily, and quickly, obtained.

So what we have is an administration run amok. There have been more requests for FISC warrants under Bush than in the last four presidential administrations before him. And most of them have been either amended or denied. So what do the Bushies do as a result? They say, 'screw you, courts, we'll just do whatever we want without you.'

One has to seriously question the ultimate motivations and intent of Bush, who willfully circumvented the legal process which he knew would not support his imperialistic pursuits. This is a very serious matter if the president intentionally broke the laws designed to protect U.S. citizens from undue search and seizure, invasion of privacy, and illegal government intrusion. We live in a society based on the rule of law; of checks and balances. In their quest to achieve supreme, unlimited power and create the first totalitarian regime in American history, the Busheviks blatantly disregard these sacred governing principles, and in the process, have actually made our nation less safe and secure, not more.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

My first reaction after reading this, is the feeling that this issue ( the discovery and admission of the President's unlawful spying ) at this point and time will be the defining moment for the Bush administration, Congress, the courts, the media and the future of the U.S.

If Bush / Cheney are not impeached for this crime and it gets swept under the rug, like all of their other crimes over the last five years, beginning with the theft of the 2000 election, it's curtains for America, as we knew it.

If he gets to do this, there isn't anything he cannot do.
He will be King.
No need for congress, courts, elections.
Only the lowest of the low will survive, the fourth estate, AKA the corporate media whores.
The media will be allowed to exist only because King Bush needs a mouth piece and plenty of fluffers.

Joe Smoe: American Citizen said...

YES....what Greydog said.

Even with the little we know now BUSH BROKE THE LAW.

What if anything will happen as a result is anyones geuss?? But with a REpublican led congress full of soon to be indicted CROOKS, because of the Abramoff Scandal, and one half of the Populous is to stupid to connect the dots don't expect much.

Joe

Anonymous said...

This really isn't the worst of it. It's a minor side-issue, especially given that a substantial percentage of those terror suspects are innocent (so freeing them is not a problem). The worst of it is when you start to wonder why FISA turned down or amended 169 requests (then Bush started going behind their backs).

What happens if Bush starts eavesdropping on Democrats in Congress? Most people have secrets they don't want revealed (infidelity, sexual foibles, whatever). That sort of information would allow Bush to blackmail them and force them to vote his way. Or to smear them with truth rather than Rovian invention come the next election.

But even that's not the worst of it. The worst of it is that he can eavesdrop on Republicans in Congress. They seem to be more prone to infidelity, have more sexual foibles, and a greater tendency to corruption. The GOP may be good at presenting a united front but they are not monolithic and some have already stopped toeing the Bush line. With eavesdropping Bush can put them all under his thumb.

No longer will Bush have to give John Yoo an overdose of LSD to come up with bizarre legal constructs that let Bush do what he wants despite the legislation. From this point on Bush will be able to get any legislation he wants passed.

Even worse, if he can blackmail enough people in Congress and enough people in various state legislatures, he can amend the Constitution any way he wants. Goodbye, XXIInd Amendment, hello President-for-life Dubya the 1st.

He must be impeached. Now. Because if he isn't impeached soon, impeachment will no longer be possible (it may still be in the Constitution but blackmail will mean it never happens).

If the Republicans in Congress realize what is going to happen to them, they will impeach. They might need alerting to the threat first, though, because a lot of them are dumb enough to think Dubya is a wonderful pResident.

Diogo said...

Who are the 9/11 terrorists?

Video Evidence of the Twin Towers and Building 7 Collapses and Pentagon strike

Anonymous said...

Relax, there's nothing to worry about. You can trust in Bush and Chaney. You better, because they are in power and they ain't gonna give it up. Not now, not in 2006, not in 2008, not ever! Welcome to 1984.

PridePress said...

We will soon see why they guaranteed the right to bear arms in America.

We all hope it doesn't come to that, but that is the direction it looks to be headed in.

America is an idea that the world understands. Not just a place, but an idea. Too bad most Americans are have been so left-behind that they don't even know the value of the idea they had the good fortune to be born too.

Sad.

King George will reign supreme. And America will cease to be an idea, and will grow into a cancerous rot on the Earth.

We are on the way to being an "Axis of Evil."