http://www.mdjonline.com/articles/2005/12/21/94/10204882.txt Dems smear attempt on wiretaps shameful Wednesday, December 21, 2005 3:05 AM EST
President Bush used the term "shameful" to describe the leaking of classified information about the National Security Agency's electronic interception of international telephone calls and e-mails of people with known ties to terrorist organizations. What's even more shameful is the political hay that Democrats are trying to make out of a national security program aimed at tracking down terrorists and preventing another attack on our homeland or our vital interests overseas. It's especially revealing to see the Democrats - who have spent the past year or so bewailing the supposed damage to national security wrought by the so-called "leaking" of the status of CIA employee Valerie Plame - gleefully piling onto an attempted smear of the president based on a genuine leak about a vital component of our national security, the NSA's electronic monitoring program. To hear the Democrats and the liberal media tell it, there's a "domestic spying program" operating in violation of the civil rights of Americans. Not so, the president emphatically declared at a news conference Monday. Bush took exception to one newsman's use of the term "unchecked power" in a question about the electronic monitoring program. "To say 'unchecked power' basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the president, which I strongly reject," was Bush's clear and unequivocal answer. "I am doing what you expect me to do, and at the same time, safeguarding the civil liberties of the country." The authority is based in both the Constitution duties of the president and the vote by Congress in favor of military force if necessary after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The electronic eavesdropping by the NSA enables the federal government to act quickly instead of losing valuable time seeking a warrant from a court, as the president explained. Unlike a case in which the government is merely surveilling a spy operating under diplomatic cover from a former Eastern Bloc country, time spent dotting every legal "t" can very well mean lives lost when monitoring Islamic terrorists. "We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent," Bush said. To be anything else is to be in the position of too little, too late - as was demonstrated time and again in previous administrations. At the same time, the president said he understood the concerns expressed by members of Congress over civil liberties. He gave assurance that he is carrying out his obligation to protect the American people and protect their civil liberties. We believe that he is doing just that. In fact, what Bush is doing is far less intrusive than the buggings of U.S. citizens routinely approved during the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. The issue after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the president said, was how to "effectively detect enemies hiding in our midst and prevent them from striking us again?" He explained what should be obvious: a two-minute telephone conversation between an al-Qaida contact in the United States and an overseas operative could result in thousands of Americans being killed. It's extremely important to know precisely what the president said, for he made it clear the program is not a "domestic spying program," the deliberate mischaracterization used by the media and leftists. Here in the president's own words are the facts: "So, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, I authorized the interception of international communications of people with known links to al-Qaida and related terrorist organizations. This program is carefully reviewed approximately every 45 days to ensure it is being used properly. Leaders in the United States Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this program. And it has been effective in disrupting the enemy, while safeguarding our civil liberties. "This program has targeted those with known links to al-Qaida. I've reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September 11th attacks, and I intend to do so - for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill American citizens." To his credit, Mr. Bush gave a strong, constitutional defense of a program to root out and prevent new terrorist plots against our country. The president is right on all counts and deserves the full support of the Congress and the American people in waging the war on terror - with the best tools available. The predictable reaction from Democrats in Congress was a call for investigations, of course, business as usual when a liberal media feeding frenzy breaks out. The point was made in an Associated Press item that referred to the "spying uproar" as the "latest controversy about Bush's handling of the war on terror, after questions about secret prisons in Eastern Europe, secrecy-cloaked government directives, torture allegations and a death toll of more than 2,150 Americans in Iraq." That's the storyline: controversy about the war and "questions" about various suspicions and/or accusations aimed at the president. It's all about bloodying Bush on the war and, the Democrats' - and their many media allies' - hope, crippling Republicans in the forthcoming elections. Never mind the fact that if the monitoring program in question were in fact illegal, that congressional Democrats would be complicit up to their eyeballs, having been briefed on the program at least 12 different times by the president. He also again called on the Senate to extend the Patriot Act, which he rightly termed a vital tool allowing federal investigators to "pursue terrorists with tools already used against other types of criminals." "I hope the American people understand - there is still an enemy that would like to strike the United States of America, and they're very dangerous," Bush said.What Bush is doing is far less intrusive than the buggings of U.S. citizens routinely approved during the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/g0CDCD/tzNLAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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