The President was unapologetic in his radio address today while defending himself on the misleading article in yesterday’s NYTimes where Times reporters Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (who, incidentally, has a book coming out next month on Bush and the CIA’s history) reported on a so-called authorization of ‘domestic spying’ without a court order - with the clear implication that it was domestic communications being monitored when in actuality it is international communications coming from domestic sources that are being closely monitored. Via AP:
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday he personally has authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. more than 30 times since the Sept. 11 attacks and he lashed out at those involved in publicly revealing the program. “This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security,” he said in a radio address delivered live from the White House’s Roosevelt Room.
“This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do as long as I am president of the United States,” Bush said.
[…]
Without identifying specific lawmakers, Bush said congressional leaders have been briefed more than a dozen times on the program’s activities.
The president also said the intelligence officials involved in the monitoring receive extensive training to make sure civil liberties are not violated.
Appearing angry at times during his eight-minute address, Bush left no doubt that he will continue authorizing the program.
“I intend to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al-Qaida and related groups,” he said.
Listen to the audio here. Read the text of radio address here.
Does anyone else get the idea that the President is just about fed up with the hand wringers in the Congress and the media who try to undercut by way of chicken little ’sky is falling’ accusations every move he makes with regards to the war on terror?
Read more via Ace, Clifford May at National Review, Captain Ed, Jeff Goldstein (he has a must-read post on this), Blogs For Bush, Mark in Mexico, Stop the ACLU, Iowa Voice, Newsbusters here and here, Confederate Yankee
Related Toldjah So posts:
Tojo and Hitler would have loved having NYT support in WWII, no eavesdropping on their planning. No Midway surprise! No D-Day! Maybe no 9-11 if this had been authorised by do-nothing Clinton?
Comment by stackja @ 12/17/2005 - 4:42 pm
The Presidents job is what we the people tell him it is. That is how a Republic(?) works. If bush wants to be a dictator there is plenty of work overseas. Peace
Comment by steve @ 12/17/2005 - 8:16 pm
Bush is finally starting to stick up for himself! Glad to see it. Did you read his latest speech? (transcript) He even explains why we went to war in the first place, in no uncertain terms.
Really, the whole speech was superb. There were other great points, but I didn’t want to copy the whole thing. Read it if you have time.
Comment by Kevin @ 12/17/2005 - 9:42 pm
Actually, steve, the Presidents job is what the Constitution says it is. If the people want to redefine it, all they have to do is push a constitutional ammendment through Congress.Maybe you and a few of your friends should get right to work on that.
Comment by Bill Faith @ 12/17/2005 - 9:54 pm
C’mon steve, don’t you want your very own dictator? You seem to be so enamored of the foreign ones, I’d have thought you’d be chomping at the bit to get one of our own!
Not that this even remotely qualifies Bush as a dictator. Once again, the MSM, and the NYT in particular, deviously slant an article to obscure the facts and make things look bad and worse. And just in time to market a book! House and Senate representatives have been briefed, for years now about this, not that they’ll admit to it.
A narrowly focused application of the NSA’s resources on targeted people and external communications nodes (particular e-mail and phones) is not the beginning of the end of privacy in this country.
It’s not like, say, using the IRS to get even with your political enemies. Oops, that was Clinton who did that, so we’ve got to supress the report and stick our fingers in our ears and go nanananana.
Something needs to be done about these leaks, which are killing our national security. I want to see someone stood up against a wall and shot for these kinds of leaks.
Comment by Severian @ 12/17/2005 - 9:59 pm
If we play by some twisted “Steve” rules that control one side and not the other then there will be little wonder why the game is lost.
Comment by stackja @ 12/18/2005 - 5:17 am
The end of our current excercise is “self-control”. I want no one controlling me, which is anarchy. I also want the Golden Rule and the 10 Commadments to be the only “laws”, which is religion. Therefore, my utopia is Religious Anarchy. As a stopping point along that road, communism is acceptable. Remember I believe Christ was a communism. Peace
Comment by steve @ 12/18/2005 - 11:28 am
Comment by Lorica @ 12/18/2005 - 5:16 pm
Where do you come up with these statements? What current exercise? And you say you want anarchy… but with laws? The don’t go together. Do you also want a dog… thats a cat?
I’m not sure where I stand on these wiretaps. It’s probably going to turn out to be completely legal. And if it involves terrorists, I say tap away, whoever, whenever. But if they do it for other crimes like drug smuggling or something, I’m totally against it. Clarity needs to be added to that FISA document to reflect the importance of terrorism, and the importance of not violating our liberties for any lesser crime.
It is my firm belief that any power given to the government that has a possibility of being misused, will be misused eventually.
Comment by Kevin @ 12/18/2005 - 6:11 pm
That is a very correct assumption Kevin. I keep thinking of the 900 FBI files that Clinton misused. That if this power were to get into the hands of a Dem President like Clinton, then we might have serious misuse. Not that I believe that the Dems will have the POTUS anytime soon. But I never imagined that Billy Bob would ever win either. - Lorica
Comment by Lorica @ 12/19/2005 - 10:07 am