alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

August 14, 2006

Pravda on the Potomac Strikes Again

by AltHippo @ 10:22 am. Filed under Bush, NSA Spying

Sometimes I wonder if the reporters for Pravda on the Potomac have any critical faculties whatsoever. Consider this bit for instance, concerning the terrorist plot in the UK:

Much of the televised discussion yesterday concerned the investigative tools available in Britain that U.S. officials credit with allowing authorities to get ahead of the plot before it proved catastrophic. Chertoff said the ability to monitor monetary transactions and communications and to arrest suspects for a period of 28 days on an emergency basis made a significant difference in the case.

Although Chertoff did not suggest any specific changes in U.S. law to allow such flexibility, he alluded to the controversial Bush administration programs of secretly wiretapping suspects and of monitoring financial records.

He said on ABC’s “This Week” that “we cannot afford to leave those weapons on the table.” On “Fox News Sunday,” he said, “The ability to be as nimble as possible with our surveillance is very important.”

While it’s true that this is followed by a statement of the form but Democrats disagree… the original statement is pure spin, and doesn’t deserve the he said/she said treatment.

As Glenn Greenwald discusses here, surveillance in the UK requires a warrant. The fundamental issue with the NSA surveillance was that no warrants were obtained, violating the FISA law.

This isn’t some technical violation. Without some check on the president’s authority, the motivation for surveillance will revert to what it was in the Nixon administration: a means to spy on political enemies.

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